Bipolar weather!

So right now I am sitting in my room with the fan off, in my warmest pajama bottoms and a zip up hoodie on! It is extremely rainy and my thoughts about Australia's weather being bipolar still stand! Past couple of days we have had so much rainfall that a natural disaster has been declared and there is flooding all over Queensland. Luckily the flooding isn't really to close to me but it is all over the news at night. A few days ago it was just a downpour all day long, today it was blue skies and tonight we ran to the car to get out of the rain. Needless to say I am not use to any sort of weather and so I am not very fond of all of this rain. I much prefer when the weather behaves itself and doesn't close down beaches, and flood places.

Anyhow, it has been a while since I have updated you and there are plenty of things for me to tell you about so prepare yourself for a long post!

This weekend we stayed in Gold Coast and are learning we get a bit bored when we aren't traveling and do not have set places to go. So tonight we decided to go bowling. Man, do I need to practice that! We played two games and I came in second place both times. However, I never even made it past 100. :(

Last weekend Beth and I flew to Cairnes! We met up with Kirstine and Emily who are the two British girls we met when we were traveling in New Zealand last month. I was really excited that we were able to meet up with those girls one more time before they flew home to England.

We left on Thursday out of Brisbane. However to get to that airport we had to first take a train for an hour and half and we arrived in the airport pretty early. We waited around for our flight and were extremely surprised when we got on the flight that not one single time did we have to show proof of who we were. Not one single time did we have to show a photo ID or anything. That would never happen at home with security as tight as ours!

We arrived in Cairnes at around midnight and took a shuttle to our hostel. We stayed at the Cairnes all girls hostel and absolutely loved it. Dawn left our key in a keylock on the gate since we were getting in after the reception had closed. We just paid for our hostel the morning after and it worked out really nicely for us. We ended up getting a room with just Beth and I for only $24 a night which is an AMAZING deal because usually we will pay that much for a dorm style room. It was nice to not have to worry about anyone else being in our room except for the two of us.

The next morning we slept in until 11 because we were just so darn tired (we didn't go to bed until 3 after arriving to our hostel and settling in). We wanted to go to the rain forest that day and so we went up to Dawn and asked her if there were any tours for that day. Turns out there were but they had left at 6:45 AM. Even if we had known about that we probably would not have woken up early enough to make it. So we did not get to see the rain forest after all. :(

Instead we went down to the lagoon and hung out at the park for a couple hours. It was relaxing and it felt great to just have a relaxing day. The night before we left for Cairnes I pulled an all nighter to get two assignments turned in and doing nothing is exactly what I wanted to do then.

Saturday we woke up early and went on our tour to the Great Barrier Reef. We went on a really nice boat and it was an all day event. I thought the boat ride out to the reed was going to be a couple hours but it didn't seem long at all!

Once we got there we got separated into groups to go diving. It was Kirstine, Emily, Beth and I in our own group with a dive instructor. They went over everything with us and I got really excited for going diving. However, when it came time to do it I became a real wuss. They had us doing all of these under water tests where you had to show that you knew how to get water out of your goggles under water, and what to do if you breathing piece came out. Well I kept panicking because it just felt way to unnatural. I kept shooting up to the surface and when you have a negative buoyancy it is really hard to stay on the surface which freaked me out even more.

Beth was freaking out just as much as I was, which I was happy for because I felt like I was being ridiculous. I seriously thought they were not going to let me actually go diving. However after several times of me shooting up to the surface (which I later found out is really really bad for you) they got me to calm down enough to where we could go diving.

I had not mastered how to breathe through just my mouth and so I had to hold my nose the entire time I was swimming. Since I didn't know how to get the water out of my goggle there was water where the nose piece was and every time I would attempt to breathe through my nose I would get water up my nose. I am sure the instructor was laughing at me and I felt really weird holding my breathe underwater knowing I could breathe and also because I never normally hold my nose.

The dive lasted for about twenty minutes and I was more scared during it then I was when I went sky diving.

After we went diving we all went snorkeling. We didn't go snorkeling for to long until we got on the boat for lunch. Once we got on the boat we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming off of the side of our boat. It was really cool to see, and best of all we didn't have to pay for a tour to see it. We were lucky to see that!

After lunch there was a second dive that we decided to go on. This time we did not have to do the testing that they had us do the first time. Not doing this testing made me feel so much better and I was a little more brave this time around. I finally figured out how to get the water out of my goggles (4/7 times I was successful, the other 3 ended up with more water in my mask) and I was also able to swim without having to hold my breathe.

This made the second dive WAY more enjoyable for me! When we were down there we saw a sea turtle, a shark, and a clown fish (AKA Nemo!). Sadly even though we had an underwater camera the girl who had it at the time didn't capture any of these items! :( I really wish I had gotten a picture of it but all well, at least I saw it in real life! The second dive lasted for about 40 minutes and I was extremely happy I decided to do a second dive.

That took up most of our day and after it ended we got back to Cairnes around 4:00 PM. We all decided to go to the grocery store and pick up some biscuits (which are what they call cookies) and some other lollies (which is what they call sweets). We hung out at our hostel eating biscuits and lollies and then went out for dinner and drinks after that.

We had a really fun night and parted ways at the end of the night! I was really sad to say goodbye to Emily and Kirstine but know that if I ever travel to London I have a place to stay with either of them and also my own personal tour guide. :)

The next morning we headed back to Gold Coast! We left our hostel at 7:30 AM and didn't get back to our Apartments until about 3:00 PM. We had to take a Bus, Plane, Train and another Bus in order to get home.

So that was my last weekend! I really enjoyed going to Cairnes and seeing it since that is where I originally had planned to study abroad. In some ways I think I would have really enjoyed if I had studied there, but Cairnes also had its down sides. It was just nice to put that curiosity away.

This week I also booked a flight to the Whitsundays in June which is probably the last flight I have to purchase while I am here! My time is almost up and I can't believe I have already been here several months and only really have ONE month left! My how time flies!

I am flying to Melbourne next week and booked my tours for that yesterday! We are going to Phillips Island and The Great Ocean Road. I am pretty sure that will be the next place I right about in my blog.

For now I am headed to bed, wishing for better weather for tomorrow.

I love you & miss you all! I will see you all very shortly. :)

BTW my picassa has been uploaded with my pictures from Cairnes! Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/ChelseaTaylor77

xoxo

Chels