When a couple of the same friends I went to Costa Rica with said they were going to take a trip to Australia, I was in! I had such a fun time with Gennie Kyle and Katie MacCabe on our prior trip that I knew this one would be even better. Along with Gennie, Katie, and myself, we went with Jade Christensen and Sydney Clark. Both were fantastic travel buddies.
Due to finding different flights than the rest of the group, I spent one day in Sydney by myself before the others arrived. I was excited to explore the city. For my first meal I saw a food stand on a corner selling what appeared to be food unique to Australia, or at least food the United States didn't have. I asked the worker what I should try for my very first Australian meal. She suggested the Tiger pie, which is a crust similar to chicken pot pie but only meat in the middle. On top was mashed potatoes, mashed peas, and gravy. It was....interesting. Glad I tried it for the experience, but will most likely never eat it again.
I purchased a ticket to the Hop On Hop Off bus so I could see as many sites as possible. Darling Harbor was one of the stops that had beautiful surroundings.
The Sydney Harbor bridge was a must see!
I even did the Sydney Harbor bridge climb. Thankfully the tour guide and everyone else were very friendly and talked to me since I was by myself. I was a little hesitant and scared to do the climb because I recently realized I'm kind of afraid of heights, but I am so glad I did it! It was such an amazing view and fantastic experience!
Holding the Sydney Opera House in my palm while sporting my fantastically cheesy Sydney Harbor bridge climb hat!
The bridge was flying its own country's flag but was also flying the French flag in honor of the recent Isis attacks.
My first day in Sydney was amazing. Being by myself wasn't so bad, but I must admit that I got lonely. Whenever I saw a dad or mom taking a picture of the rest of their family, I would stop and ask if I could take the picture so they could all be in it. They were usually happy at the request. It may seem thoughtful, but really I was just looking for excuses to have human interactions. I did this for an Asian family and the lady was so happy she asked to take a selfie with me, so there's a random picture of me and an Asian lady floating around social media somewhere, I'm sure.
I was so happy to meet my friends at the airport the next day and we would all fly to Cairns together. Cairns is such a beautiful place. We had a beach house right on the ocean, but if you go a couple miles inland, it was beautiful, luscious rain forest. Amazing.
Here is the view from our living room couch.
Our first full day in Cairns, Gennie and I did a waterfall tour excursion. It pretty much felt like we were on a party bus! The bus driver was so crazy and funny and the bus was full of mid twenty party singles. Gennie and I were the only ones who didn't drink and who were wearing one piece bathing suits. We had a great time though.
Our first stop was a place called Josephine Falls. It had cascading waterfalls that had ponds you could swim in. There were also natural water slides on the rocks.
We of course had to do the train down them. I'm surprised I didn't lose my suit with Gennie's death grip.
Our next stop was a waterfall called Millaa Millaa Falls. We swam to the rocks behind the waterfall and stood under the mist. That's the second time I have been able to do that. First time was in Kauai Hawaii and it is such a surreal experience!
The water looks questionable but it was so hot and humid that day we didn't care. Our tour guide had us all practice the hair flip. Let's just say that I am NOT a natural. It took so many takes to get one that looked normal.
But once we got it, we got it! Practically swimsuit models!
Our 3rd stop was Lake Eacham crater lake. It is an old volcano that is now a beautiful lake surrounded by beautiful trees and greenery. I would compare it to Lake Tahoe in appearance and vibe. We do not have any pictures here, which is probably best. Gennie and I decided to swim far away from the group and skinny dip. Gennie's first time; my 3rd. Nothing bonds you quite like that.
Our second day in Cairns consisted of scuba diving and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. I tell ya what, those wet suits are not easy to get on! Good thing we had each other to help. We practically had to dress each other.
Katie was already scuba certified but the rest of us took a crash course one-time certification on the boat. I was really nervous but wanted to give it a try. The oxygen mask was a trip. The oxygen was so pure that it almost felt cooling to my lungs. It was weird to try to remain calm and methodical in my breathing as I was under water. I would say I made it about 10 feet before I had to go back to the surface and resort to snorkeling. My left ear wouldn't equalize and the pressure was painful. I kept going back up a little, equalizing, and then going back down to try and equalize again. After 3 or 4 times of being a yo yo trying to equalize the pressure, I finally decided to give up and quit holding up the rest of the group. Technically, I have now scuba dived. Not well albeit, but did it nonetheless.
Our 3rd day in Cairns we went to Tjapukai. It's basically the aboriginal equivalent of the Polynesian cultural center in Hawaii. They of course had to throw in some eye candy to keep our attention. We never caught his name so we called him the brother of Jake. Strangely, we did catch his brother's name for some reason.
They taught us some home remedies with plants, some aboriginal dances, and even taught us that you can eat a green ant butt! I had to try it. Even though the thought of it grossed me out, how many other times would I be in Australia and have the chance?
Don't worry, I asked the Brother of Jake if I could touch him. He said yes.
They also taught us how to throw a spear and a boomerang.
And we couldn't leave without some face paint tattoos.
Next, we took a tram ride up to a remote village called Karunda. We had a great time on that ride taking pictures and laughing. It was a pretty lengthy ride so we had to entertain ourselves.
While at Kaunda we got to interact with a lot of wildlife. The koala was so furry and soft, although it looked like it was drugged. When I asked if it was on drugs, they made sure to answer that no it was not and that Koala's are just very sleepy and lazy animals.
We also go pictures with kangaroos and Wallabies. It's amazing that they seemed to know what pictures were. They would be looking straight ahead abut as soon as the camera was in front of them, they would turn their heads away. They weren't scared. They just avoided the cameras.
Selfie Stick to the rescue!
On our way down the mountain, we decided to take the train. We stopped at some waterfalls called Barron Falls. Also beautiful! Again, selfie stick to the rescue!
As evidenced by the Tiger Pie incident, if I am visiting somewhere new, I always try to eat food unique to that culture. While there, I tried a kangaroo burger. Probably will never get it again. The meat was very tough and stringy, similar to roast beef. I will stick with my beef hamburgers from now on.
Our last day in Cairns was spent at a beach where we kayaked the ocean and went to another spot to snorkel. Because it was jelly fish season, we had to wear body suits from head to toe, hoods and footies included.
This was a great experience and probably my favorite snorkeling experience to date. I will admit that kayaking in the ocean was a scary experience for me. I was petrified of sharks. The only other time I have been that far away from the shore was in a sizable boat. This time I was very far away from shore but in a kayak that could easily be chomped in half by Jaws. Thankfully I did not see any sharks or have any Jaws encounters.
My last destination in Australia was Hobart Tasmania, which is the island directly South of Australia.
Our fist day there we went up to Mt Wellington to look over the city. It was so beautiful but extremely cold. We were pretty far south at this point and also pretty high in elevation on Mt Wellington.
We also went whale watching. Due to the cold and wetness, we had to wear thee red poncho coats. We looked good!
We went to the far south end of the island where the Tasman Cliffs were. This particular cliff is called Cape Pillar, which is the highest vertical sea cliff in the southern hemisphere. My attempt to do a vertical panorama shot does not do it justice.
The cliffs and sea were very breathtaking. Scenes from a movie.
I also saw my very first jelly fish!
We saw seals...or sea lions...I can't remember which is which.
We saw a lot of dolphins. I am always amazed at their speed and athleticism. Beautiful animals.
We did see one whale but I did not get a picture of it. Sadly, we did not have many whale encounters.
While walking around a historical site in Hobart, I saw an Echidna. What an adorable creature. It's like a miniature porcupine.
One evening we decided to drive around and find a small town to walk around. While walking, we came across the oldest bridge in Tasmania: Richmond bridge. It was such a picturesque view. On the other side of the bridge, there were photographers and painters taking advantage of the scenic view.
While walking and enjoying the beauty, we noticed some ducks having a quarrel. We stopped to assess the situation from a distance, as one of our friends informed us the ducks participate in gang rapes and it appeared that was happening. Jade was very upset at the thought of that and went running toward the ducks yelling for them to stop. They stopped alright. They scattered and proceeded to make a B-line right toward our heads. Sydney let out a blood curdling scream and nearly hit the ground. She quickly told us how afraid of birds she was. We all had a good laugh. Jade's heroism nearly made Sydney's worst nightmare come true.
Australia was populated historically by all the criminals the England would send as a punishment. The women would go to a place called the Female Factory. WE took a tour of that but unfortunately didn't get any pictures. It was such a brutal environment where the women were treated very unjustly.
The men went to a colony called Port Arther. Here, there were many prisons and also many small business establishments to supply the colony. It actually became a pretty thriving community through the efforts of the prisoners and soldiers.
We of course had to take some "prisoner" photos.
At one point we took a small ferry ride from one spot of the port to another. All of us were so tired that we took a quick 5 minute nap. This photo was not staged. Gennie decided to take advantage of the picture perfect moment with all of our heads down resting our eyes.
That night we decided to do a ghost tour of Port Arthur. This has turned into a traveling tradition for me. I don't know why I torture myself. I am terrified at the thought of ghosts, but I get such a rush off of the tours and stories. This was hands down the best ghost tour I have been on! Holy crap. There was a group of maybe 20 of us. It was of course dark. The tour guide asked for 4 volunteers. 2 of my friends volunteered, 1 random lady, and then crickets. I decided I would volunteer, not knowing what it entailed. We walk up to the front and the tour guides asks us loud enough for all to hear, "who of you consider yourselves brave?" They all nodded there heads in half agreement. I shook my head with certainty, "no. I'm not brave. at all. Do I need to be?" Tour guide smiles and continues, "who of you believes in ghosts?" The other 3 kind of shrug their shoulders, look at each other back and forth while indicating, "meh, kinda not really." My eyes get wide and I quickly nod my head, "Yep. I do. I believe in ghosts." I begin to doubt my decision to be a volunteer, as I was obviously not a brave candidate for the job. The tour guide maximizes on my fear and explains that she needs us to be lantern bearers. One of my friends was chosen to be in the very front of the pack. The other 2 were told to stay in the middle of the group. I was banished to the back to bring up the rear. The guide played it off as if it was a safety precaution but I wasn't fooled. I was in for it.
Spoiler alert. If you plan to go to Port Arthur on the island of Tasmania and do their ghost tour, DO NOT read on.
We go to our first stop. It was a bell tower. A story about how the tower has had sightings and hearings of someone up there when no one is. Followed by a story of some rowdy guys who tested the ghost and learned a hard lesson.
The next stop was a house that belonged to one of the clergy man of the town. He later became disgruntled. I want to say he was relieved of his duties on bad terms and his wife and kids were taken away from him somehow. I don't remember details, but I do remember the scary story that accompanied the house. Our group was standing on the road in front of the house. It had a long driveway, followed by a long porch walk way that spanned the length of the house which led to the door. On the walkway leading to the door passed a living room window. The tour guide told us of a mom and her daughter that were walking on the porch to the door. When they approached the door to enter, the little girl immediately started to resist, using her body weight to hold the mom back. The mom tried to pull the daughter forward thinking it was just a little kid tantrum. When she looked at her face, she knew it wasn't just a tantrum. The little girls face was white with fear. When the mom asked what was wrong, the little girl replied, "I don't like the way the man in the window is looking at me." The mom looked over to the living room window. No one was there. The mom said, "What man, there is no on there?" The little girl then described a man wearing a black coat, a black top hat, with a bushy mustache. Later they found out this was an accurate description of the disgruntled clergy man who has been sighted to haunt the place. As if the story wasn't creepy enough, the tour guide then says to the group, "my lantern bearers, please come forward." My heart sank. What was I going to have to do. She told me to go to the end of the driveway and stand there. Even though I was literally 10 feet away from the group, I was terrified to be that far from people. The 2nd lantern bearer had to walk to the top of the drive way and stand there. 3rd to the porch by the door. 4th inside the front door and to the room on the right. Once all the lantern bearers were in place, the rest of the group would follow into the room on the right. I took my spot. The 2nd took her spot. The 3rd took her spot. The 4th went to walk inside the door, got a couple feet in, and then screamed and came running back out. She claims she heard something and got scared. Probably the creak of her own footfall. We each left our lanterns at the designated spots to provide light for the walk. We went into the room and stood in a circle around the lantern on the floor. Shadows were being cast and everyone continued to look over their shoulders for lurking ghosts. The tour guide was standing in the doorway with her back to the hallway we had just walked through. She told us a couple stories and then ended with what she claimed was a personal experience. She said that she doesn't get scared doing tours anymore. She's done enough and is used to it. But she said that this house does scare her. She then shared an experience where she was standing in the same spot she was standing now. The group was scared and looking over her shoulder at the darkness of the hallway behind. This was normal. She was used to this. Every group gets scared at the shadows and the darkness of the hallway looming in. Only this time it felt different. She felt eery. She felt like there was someone behind her. It was cold outside so she was wearing her peacoat. All of the sudden she felt something grab onto her coattails and yank her so hard she fell back onto the ground. There was no one there. Then she said, "and that is why I don't like this house so now we are going to leave." And with that she led the way to leave the house, which meant the rest of us had to walk through the darkness of the hallway without her. We are were shuffling through as close to each as possible; like a bunch of cattle being herded. When I was in the hallway, one of the people by me pushed a little too closely, touched my shoulder, and I immediately screamed louder than I would like to admit, which set off a chain reaction of screaming and further herding out the door. Scream number 1.
Stop number 3. We were walking along a pathway outside. The guide shared a story about a previous tour group whose lantern bearers bringing up the rear were a couple. This couple kept falling really behind the group. The tour guide would stop the group, wait for the couple, and then start again, only to have to stop and wait shortly after. After a couple times of this, the tour guide grew impatient. She assessed the couple trying to determine what could possibly be causing their slowness. They didn't have any physical limitations. They were young and looked healthy. Nothing on the surface that would cause such slowness, so the tour guide left the group and went to where the couple was lagging behind. She told them that she needed them to try to stay with the group. They had to keep stopping and waiting and it was prolonging the tour. The couple was able to keep up the rest of the trip. The couple was coming back the next day to tour the sites in daylight hours. In between the previous nights tour and their trip back to the sites the next day, they had time to stew over their experience. They were mad. They went to the front desk to complain about the treatment they had received the night before. They couldn't believe how rude and inconsiderate their tour guide was. She wasn't at all sympathetic toward the older gentlemen, hunched over, and walking with a cane whom they were helping along the whole tour. After the tour guide talked to them, the gentleman just wandered away by himself. They assumed he was offended and had gone back home. As the couple toured the sites that day, they came across a picture of one of the deceased prisoners hanging on the walls. It was the old gentleman that they had helped the previous night. Only this man had been dead for hundreds of years. As the lantern bearer in charge of bringing up the rear, you can imagine that this hit close to home for me. There had been a nice lady with a baby who had hung back the whole tour and was very sweet to chat with me occasionally. I immediately started to look at her suspiciously, "was she real?"
Stop number 4. We walked over to the house that belonged to the town doctor of the day. During this time period, houses did not have basements. Some went two stories high but never below the ground, except for doctors. Doctors commonly had cellar-type basement where they would work on cadavers. We were standing at the top of a stairway leading down along the side of the house into the cellar. The tour guide says the dreaded words, "Will my lantern bearers please come forward?" We all walk forward, knowing from experience that those words were never good for our positions. Thankfully she only tortured one of us this time; my friend who was chosen to lead the pack and who claimed to not believe in ghosts. Tour guide says, "At the end of this stairway there will be a door on your left followed by a long hallway. I need you to go down the stairs and walk down the hallways and let us know when you are there." My jaw dropped. My friend was going to have to walk into a creepy cellar and go down a long unlit hallway by herself. She slowly started to go down the stairs as we all stood in silence grateful it wasn't one of us. The rest of us lantern bearers were instructed to leave our lanterns on top of the stairs to provide light. My friend makes it to the end of the hallway and we hear a very subtle, "ok..." We all travel down the stairs, take a left to enter the doorway and proceed down the long unlit hallway. We passed by 3 open doors where all you could see were depths of darkness in the rooms. The need to travel herded together like cattle was stronger than ever. Each time we passed a room, there was an extra urgency in each person's step to get past it as quickly as possible. We all got to the end of the hallway where my friend was standing with her lantern. With a group of 20 of us, we made an oval-like circle as we stood in the hallway and listened to the tour guide. I don't remember exactly what story she was telling us; I just remember standing there being more creeped out than ever before. Our tour guide was standing in front of a close door, and apparently had her hands behind her back as she was talking because as she finished her story, she turned the door handle to take us into the room. The combination of standing in a creepy cellar hallways with shadows being cast and the subtle click of the door handle was more than I could handle in that moment. I screamed. Everyone else screamed. The tour guide looked at me with slight confusion. I laugh..not knowing how else to react to how uncomfortable I felt. Scream number 2. She guides us into the room and makes a comment about how scared we got. I say to her, "come on, that scares people right? I'm not the only one..." She laughs, "no, people don't usually scream when I open the door." We are led into a room with a stone table in the middle and a skeleton head at the top. We form a circle around it. She stands at the top. If you were lying down on the table, I was standing where your right should/bicep would be. She begins to explain the table. The stone slab that acts as a table top is portioned into 4 different slabs. The doctors of the day would dissect the body, starting with the head. When they were done with the head, they would cut it off at the neck, slide the top stone slab diagonally to create an opening where the head could fall into the hollow space below the table top. As she was explaining it, she slid the top stone diagonally to demonstrate how it worked. I immediately had to turn my head away and cover my noise. As I did this, I said to my friend, "That stinks so bad." My friends didn't seem to have the same reaction. Once the tour guide was finished explaining how the table worked, she said, "Now people usually have a couple different experiences in this room. First, they smell something..." I immediately panic. Did I just have an "experience?" She said, "first," does that mean there will be a second or third "experience?" My mind was hyper active. In the split second I had to think before she finished her sentence, I started to negotiate with God. "please don't let anything beyond the smell happen to me. I can't handle it. You know I can't handle it. I don't want to see or feel anything. Please don't let anything happen." I focused back in on what she was saying, "First, they smell something. Did anyone here smell anything?" I raise my hand, along with about 3 other people. How is that possible? How did only 3 of us smell that awful smell? The tour guide asks me, "What did you smell?" I answer, "formaldehyde." She asks, "What do you do for work? Most people who smell formaldehyde work in a medical field." I answer, "No, I don't work in a medical field, but I took a class in college where we dissected cadavers and it is a smell you never forget." She continues, "The second experience people get is they feel heavy. Like someone is standing close in front of them or even on their feet." I start to panic again. I have felt weird ever since we entered this room. I refuse to accept I am going to have the "second experience." The negotiating with God continues. The tour guide then tells us of a story where a woman standing near where I was standing felt heavy like someone was standing on her feet and really close to her. She then felt someone breathing into her face. The tour guide then shared a story of a group who was standing around the table and guy who was standing near the foot of the table saw a gentleman in doctor's clothes come from behind the shadows in the corner opposite him (behind where I was standing) and slowly walk around the room, stopping in front of each person and eyeing them up and down as if examining his next subject. The doctor slowly made his way all the way around the room, went back into his corner, turned to face the guy who could see him, and then locked eyes with him. The guy in the tour group dropped to the ground. He had fainted. As you can imagine, this story completely freaked me out. Not only had I smelled something, but I felt weird, and now I had the added stress of needing to look over my shoulder constantly to make sure no dead doctor was going to come lurking out of the shadows. After that story, the tour guide grabbed the skeleton at the top of the table top and said that most people want to know who the skeleton head belongs to and if it was from a real patient. She said that it wasn't. A couple years back a TV show did a story on the haunted stories of the site added the skull for effects. As she said this, she quickly scraped the skull against the stone slab, making a horrible screeching sound. We all screamed. Grateful it wasn't just me that time but realizing that was scream number 3. Nothing to be proud of.
As we wrapped up the tour and were saying our goodbyes, the tour guide told us that we made her job easier. We created a scarier atmosphere than she ever could. Glad we could help. Now I'm going to go change my underpants.
The next night we went to a local town square to eat and walk around when I heard my name from a distance, "Holly." I briefly ignore it thinking that it must be another Holly since I don't know anyone in Australia. I look over and see the nice woman with the baby walking toward me with her husband. She came and chatted for a moment and I introduced her and her husband to my friends. Tender mercies from God. She was real. She was not a ghost. And now I knew.
Our last day in Tasmania we went on the Tahune Airwalk which are bridge walkways hundreds of feet in the air. Very unsettling for someone who is afraid of heights. It was very beautiful though!
Oddly enough the pictures make it look like we are only 10 feet off the ground, which was definitely not the case
We also went to the Cadbury factory and got discount chocolate. Oh my goodness it was so good!
Our trip came to an end. I was sad to go home. It was a great time.
While there, I decided to keep a list of words that they use differently than us. It's fun to learn differences in vocabulary and semantics. They say:
Queue instead of line
Footpath in stead of sidewalk
Grid Iron instead of Football
Tele instead of TV
Mobile instead of Cell phone
Rubbish instead of Trash
Hired Car in stead of Rental Car
Port instead of Suitcase
Cordial instead of Soft Drink
Holiday instead of Vacation
Brekky instead of Breakfast
Tassy instead of Tasmania
Pudding instead of Dessert
Tea instead of Dinner
Trolley instead of Shopping Cart
Bush instead of Nature/Wilderness
Snag instead of Hot Dog
Petrol Station instead of Gas Station
Muesli instead of Granola
Bloat instead of Man
Sheila instead of Woman
Uni instead of University/College
Overtake instead of Pass
Crisps instead of Chips
Sultanas instead of Raisins
Happy List:
-Spray toilet seats
-Skinny dipping. Gennie full frontal
-Party bus and X Factor 2011, dance party, hair flip
-Jade's cup shooing like a bullet on the boat
-Gennie clearing the front deck (throwing up)
-Sydney swaying to music half awake
-Tjapukai guide saying to follow the crow cuz we are all going to the same but don't follow the Chinese or Japanese. We saw later that Asians had a separate tour and the guid wasn't just being racist.
-What's the magic word? SASSA
-Aboriginal girl throws the hand thing at the crowd to look at
-Men didgeridoo and women didgeridon't
-Holly asking the Tjapukai guide if she can eat the ant out of his hand. "stop letting the tourists eta off your body." Eating the butt of a green ant
-I have dry patches around my mouth. Silence for a second. It's not herpes. It's called perioral dermatitis and it's a real thing. -Gennie
-Sea kayak and snorkeling at Fitzroy island
-Sydney and Katie needing to be towed in while kayaking
-Australia's coat of arms is a kangaroo and an emu because neither one can walk backwards so they are always moving forward. Australia is the only country that eats its coat of arms
-Mt Wellington at Tasmania and the wallabies fighting
-Katie trying to send Jade off in the fun bus
-Jade breaking up the duck gang rape and the ducks flying straight at Sydney
-Sydney dancing seductively to "Marvin Gaye" because she thought only Holly was behind her on the Tehune Airwalk trail but when she turned around all she saw was an older gentleman walking behind her
