Spring Break at The Great Barrier Reef Part 2

After the hike through the Daintree rainforest, we boarded a boat to go saltwater crocodile hunting out on the Daintree River. We saw quite a few crocodiles, but it all felt a little rehearsed as the boat driver knew exactly where to find the world's smallest crocodile that was hidden perfectly behind some ferns. It was relaxing though so I just sat back and admired the scenery. I got a little carried away with the foggy rainforest mountain shots and ended up needing to delete about 10 of my 15...


On the Daintree River in our Croc Hunting Boat


Found one! I believe this was Nelson.

After the croc hunt, we headed deeper into the rainforest where we would be staying that night. The area was called Cape Tribulation, and we had hopes of climbing up Mount Sorrow the next morning. The hostel was gorgeous and super remote. There was literally nothing around us except for a general store and a dinky little bar. Two guesses as to what we did that night. We ended up hanging out with some really entertaining Dutch guys that night and learned a couple games that I will be bringing back to the States with me.


Cassowary crossing sign with a little graffiti...


Our hostel in the rainforest

Being that we woke up too late the next morning to go on the 8 hour hike to Mount Sorrow, we decided to hike down to a swimming hole for a quick dip. This day was really relaxing, and everywhere I looked I could see nothing but bright greens, reds, oranges, and yellows. It was incredibly beautiful. The swimming hole was tucked away and again looked like something out of a movie. I gave the rope swing there a couple gos before we had to head back to the hostel for our exotic fruit tasting at a local farm.


Walkway through the rainforest on the way to Mason's


Swimming hole complete with rope swing.


Exotic fruit tasting

The fruit tasting was fantastic! There were fruits there from all over the world. Some were sweet, others tangy, some juicy or creamy, and one even tasted like bleu cheese (the Durian, I don't recommend it). My favorite, however was the golden sapote which was creamy and slightly sweet. All I needed was some vanilla yogurt and I would have been good to go. The bus came and got us after the tasting, and we made the trek back "home" to Gilligan's. Entertaining side note, we were followed around by the Red Hot Chili Peppers everywhere we went in Cairns. There wasn't a single day that went by that didn't involve at least two of their songs being blared at us whether it was on a tour or at a bar. Who knew the Aussies loved the Peppers so much...

The next task on the spring break agenda was skydiving. I would be lying if I said that I hadn't been looking forward to it all week. I was nervously excited and feeling slightly insane. The first wave of panic started as we climbed on the bus that would take us to the airport. I met my tandem master Coops and realized, oh right, I'm jumping out of a plane in about 30 minutes. Normal? The next wave of panic hit when I realized there wasn't a door on our plane. Makes sense now that I'm safely deposited on the ground, but at the time very terrifying, thinking I was going to be sucked out of the airplane. Third wave of panic came as soon as I realized that by stepping onto the plane first, I was going to be the last out. As in I watched as all my friends disappeared very quickly off the edge of the plane. Fourth stage of panic, I was calm and just looking out the window after take-off, thinking Wow what great views! I was then informed that we were only at 2,000ft when I was planning to jump from 14,000ft. Taking slow deep breaths as we continued to climb, I again made the mistake of checking the altimeter. We were well above the clouds, yet only halfway there. At that point, I vowed not check anymore and just focus instead on my friends' equally terrified expressions. All of a sudden, the light in the back of the plane turned red, then yellow, and the photographer literally climbs out the side of plane and hangs on to the side as we're still moving at however fast planes move in the air! GAH! The light went green, and my friends went POOF! Finally, I shimmy my way up to the door, and dangle my feet over the edge for a good 15 seconds, looking down at the Earth whooshing past me. Gulp.


Not realizing what I'm getting myself into...


Falling out at 14,000ft above the Earth's surface. Loving it.


Landing safe and sound

I'm dangling on the edge, tuck my head back, and roll off the edge of a perfectly good airplane. The sensation was unbelievable. Ever stand in front of those giant room fans when you were a kid or stick your head out the window of a moving car? Multiply by a million and you're free falling. You reach terminal velocity in no time, and the feeling of weightless is extraordinary. Like you're swimming through a pool, but there's no pressure pushing in on you. Anyway, I've looked out an airplane's window many times and wondered how soft and fluffy a cloud actually was. Not so soft. Mostly just wet. After the free fall, we pulled the parachute at 4,000ft inside the middle of a cloud. We then proceeded to do extremely sharp turns trying to get out of said cloud so we could find the drop site. The moment we emerged from the cloud was epic. At that exact moment, the sun was glimmering over the distant mountains and I could see for miles. I ignored the incredible discomfort that the harness causes in the groin and shoulder region, and proceeded to just soak up everything I could. It was mostly farm land (sugarcane), but you could see the city and the coast not far away. Mountains looming in the distance and a flock of birds flying about 40ft in front of me. I got to steer the parachute and after a couple nauseating moves, we landed safely at the drop zone. Wow. I had just fallen 14,000ft. Willingly. In fact, I paid to do it. Insanity. Therefore, to celebrate our crazed, adrenaline hyped states, we went to a "Tex-Mex" restaurant called Cactus Jack's. We decided that as a group, we would order every drink on the menu, and then some. $477.40 later and we walked away feeling like champs.


Cactus Jack's Menu


Our bill at the end of the night

After conquering the ocean, the river, the rainforest, and the sky, we headed towards the beach for a much needed break. The last day was spent sleeping, sunning, and frolicking in the ocean. At lunch I had to splurge for a Corona because you just can't go to the beach and not have one.. We were all lying on the beach at this point not wanting to return to cold, overcast Melbourne. After briefly looking into whether or not we could transfer, we made our way to the terminal. Our flight that was supposed to leave at 1am was delayed two hours so we all ended up passing out in our seats. However, the weirdest part of this whole experience is that with web check-in, you never have to show your ID a single time. That and you can bring full bottles of shampoo, aerosol cans with lids, and razors in your carry-on luggage. You could easily tell who was American because we were all looking around confused that we weren't being strip searched or interrogated on why we have skintimate shave cream in our luggage. All in all, an epic first week of spring break in Australia. The second week in Tasmania to come soon!


Last day in Cairns


My sweet sand turtle


Delayed flight at 1am = Passed out Tierney

Spring Break at The Great Barrier Reef Part 1

Think of the MTV spring break specials and you’ve got the right picture of Cairns, Australia in your head. Our flight got in at 1am, so we were checking into our hostel, Gilligan’s, at prime intoxication hours. It was highly entertaining watching people stagger past us trying to get to their rooms, but inevitably being turned down by the security guard because they had forgotten their key. Some people wanted to stay awake all night and jump right into the party scene, but thankfully the overwhelming opinion was to crash in our super sweet bunkbeds since we had to be at the marina the next morning by 8am.


Our lovely hostel


Downtown Cairns


Cairns Marina

First on the agenda was scuba diving at the reef. We had to travel about an hour and half to get to the reef, and many of my friends struggled to fight off sea sickness. Thankfully, I was safe and contented myself by gazing out at the amazing views on the way out to the open ocean. Since we weren’t certified scuba divers, we had to have a training session before we were let loose into the water. My instructor was Villi, a crazy crazy man from Fiji. I was all ready to start taking notes, fearing that scuba diving would be super complicated and I would need to remember everything or I would risk death. Not so much. Basically, they taught us how to equalize the pressure in our ears and the hand signals for communicating under water. Done in 30 minutes after signing some forms saying that we could potentially die and get eaten by a shark. Kidding. Sort of.


Left to right: Erik, Jordyn, Me, and Brian 12m(40ft) under the Pacific Ocean!


Nemo!



The reef

Scuba diving was amazing. It is by far my favorite thing that I’ve done here. The first dive was a little scary because at first you’re on the surface breathing through a mouthpiece when you could breathe much easier if you just took the thing out. Second, as you start going down deeper, you feel the pressure building and it almost feels like your head is in-between two boards and someone keeps tightening them. You hold your nose and blow like you would in an airplane, but you often have to do that several times before the pressure alleviates. Third, you realize that you’re about 6m under water and breathing like it’s no big thing. However, once you get past that, scuba diving is phenomenal. I was in bio nerd heaven. I swam past so much beautiful coral, looked at all the fish living in the little crevices, took a picture with Nemo, stuck my hand inside a giant clam, saw a shark and pet a 3ft long parrotfish! The funniest part was that the instructor basically had a wrestling match with the fish before the fish lunged at the instructor’s fanny pack that had the fish food in it. On the second dive, we got to stay down longer because we didn’t have to go through all the training procedures and after it was over, I was planning on giving up med school so that I could scuba for the rest of my life. The third dive brought me back to reality because I had trouble equalizing the pressure in my ears and was in a lot of pain for most of the dive. I ended up pulling a muscle in my ear which was not so fun.

The next day we went white water rafting on the Tully River. I’ve been rafting several times before, but never in the middle of the rainforest. It was so beautiful, and we were out on the water for what seemed like ages. Our guide was Leon, a self proclaimed hippie, who was extra knowledgeable about the surrounding flora and fauna. He was a newer guide, and told us which rapids he had recently flipped on. And then we proceeded to flip on those same rapids… There was also this beautiful blue butterfly that decided to follow us down the river. It’s called the Ulysses Butterfly, and if you see one, you’re allowed to make a wish. I’m hoping extra hard that my wish comes true.


Wetsuit tan. Still rocking the after effect of this...


Tully River in Northern Queensland


The rafting crew


Leon the Healthy Hippie and the Emu raft


Ulysses Butterfly

On the third day, we joined a rainforest tour group and did an assortment of random activities. First we stopped at a wildlife sanctuary which was in situ, meaning you were in the animals’ cages and were walking around next to the kookaburras and kangaroos. One of our friends is terrified of birds so we had to lead her in with her eyes closed so that she could see the koala. The koala was hilarious. He let out the strangest roar I have ever heard. Also, in Australia, the only state that allows you pet and hold a koala is Queensland so this was my only chance to snuggle the adorable creature. After the koala, we pet a saltwater crocodile, more kangaroos and wallabies, and saw a cassowary up close and personal.


Koala Roar


Me and my new koala friend


Kangaroos and wallabies at the Sanctuary

After the wildlife sanctuary, we hiked through the rainforest learning a little bit about the flora and fauna there. It was gorgeous and felt very authentic as it was raining the entire time! Watching the rain fall through the little holes in the canopy was like something out of a movie. We also kept making Jurassic Park jokes because it often felt like at any moment a velociraptor was going to jump out and eat us.


Daintree Rainforest




Me conquering the suspension bridge at the top of the hike.


Left to right: Lily, Me, Annie, Phoebe

Ways to Die in Australia

So I've now been in Australia for two months, and have managed to survive despite the plethora of dangerous creatures waiting to eat me around every corner...



HOWEVER, I have found that Oz is a very dangerous place indeed and have compiled this list to inform you of the REAL dangers of Australia:


1). Now I have even more reason to hate pigeons. These blasted birds are a menace to society and actually do lurk around every corner, just waiting for you to walk by so they can poop on you. I've had to dodge several attempts on my life on the way to university. Pigeons are not a laughing matter folks. Danger.



2). Who would have thought that the lovable, huggable kangaroo would lose it and go around punching people in the face? Don't let their adorableness fool you. This photographer will now think twice before approaching these vicious Australian icons.



3). Many are familiar with personable kiwi that is New Zealand's icon, however, many tend to forget it's more formidable cousin the cassowary. Same family as ostriches, emus, and kiwis, the cassowary is typically not a common creature you might interact with here in Australia. They live in the rainforests away from humans and generally keep to themselves. Yet, Cairns, or the town where the Great Barrier Reef is located, is right smack in the middle of the rainforest zone. I'm going there for our mid semester break and going on a hike to Mt. Sorrow right through the natural habitat of the cassowary. The name of the mountain should have tipped me off.



4). Alright, now you're probably thinking, Tierney, get serious. The likelihood of these things happening is slim to none. You're being melodramatic. To this I point out magpies. Magpies belong to the crow family, and at first glance, look like very cool birds. They can generally be found around the various city parks or just hanging outside my window squawking at 6am on a Saturday morning. Nice right? WRONG. At the end of winter and early spring in Melbourne (looks at calendar...), these birds begin mating. And as your parents have informed you, mating brings the babies. The babies bring crazed mothers. Crazed mothers will chase you down and peck your eyes out. No joke. About this time of year, Australians can be found cautiously looking around, waiting for these aerial demons to swoop down from their nests and attack you. Cyclists can also be found wearing helmets with eyes painted on top so as to assure the safety of the real things. This poor girl never knew what was coming:







5). Boxed wine or fondly known as "Goon". Here in Australia, there is a good possibility that international students could experience death by goon. The best part is that I googled "Coolabah" to find our typical drink of choice, and found that this gem of a picture was on an American student's blog! Typical. Even stranger is that he was in the same program as another Wofford student in a completely different part of Australia. Small world.




6). And finally (mostly because I'm lazy), the tram. Melbourne's primary public transportation service. These don't move particularly fast or even have a pleasant little bell to warn you that it's headed straight for you. Most Melbournians don't experience trouble with trams. However, I have the circle of death to contend with in order to make it to my classes at the University. The circle is a large roundabout where cars, buses, insane cyclists and trams converge and spit out in several directions leading to various destinations in the city. Crossing at peak hour I take my life into my own hands and brave the circle, all in the name of learning. A valued education right there.

Studying in the City

I sometimes forget that the reason I'm in Melbourne is to study. There's so many fun things to see and do that it's easy to get caught up in it. Such as the Mexican restaurant below...



Thankfully though, I have a friend here that is willing to kick my butt into studying. We decided to leave our cramped rooms behind and head into the city to study at a local cafe. Our apartments are in a great location. We're about a ten minute walk from the heart of the city (known as Melbourne CBD), a five minute walk from campus (though often takes longer during peak hour traffic as I have to dodge trams and cars), and about a ten minute walk to Lygon Street (a Little Italy of sorts though some great Indian and Thai restaurants are there too).

We chose to head to Lygon street, thinking that the cafes would be a little calmer than the hustle and bustle of the city. Wrong. The cafes were all pretty lively, but it was an enjoyable atmosphere so we plunked down at one of the many places offering great coffee and hot food. I actually accomplished quite a bit of work, much to my surprise, and even found some time to squeeze in a little people watching. A table of men next to us boldly flirted with the waitress, and even they had success, scoring a phone number from her friend whilst one of the men flexed his biceps on request. It was incredibly difficult not to fall out of my chair laughing at this point.



I included below some pictures of the city and some of the parks that we walked through to get to Lygon street so you can get a better feel for Melbourne and it's hot mess of architecture styles. Keep in mind these were all taken on the 8 minute walk to the cafe..


Uni Melb


Strange random building..


Melbourne skyline


Houses on the way to Lygon


Environmental building materials company

The Gene Technology Access Centre

Money, it’s a gas.



I now have a job down under! I work at the Gene Technology Access Centre, or GTAC (all you science nerds should catch the reference…), and I teach local high school students about genetics and molecular biology. It has been both interesting and hilarious so far to work with Australian students. This is my fourth week of working there, and I love it so far.



The first labs that I worked on with them are a DNA restriction digest with gel electrophoresis, and then a DNA transformation with E. coli bacteria. I get a new group of students every week from around the state, and it’s been interesting to see how much each group knows. Some pipet like they’ve been doing it for years while others are trying it out for the first time. I just had a group from an all-boys high school, and they had a fantastic time ignoring my pleas to stop shooting the pipet tips at each other… I also am getting better at using the metric system even though in my first week I inadvertently called a student heavy (I said that 90kg was big when the student was 105kg… I blamed American ignorance on that one). The most common question I get in the lab is, “Can I eat that?” This can refer to many things from the food dye I use to demonstrate pipet technique to the agarose gel on which we run our DNA samples. One kid actually sucked on some of the food dye that was on his hands and subsequently turned his front teeth green. His friends didn’t let him live that down very quickly.

The people that I work with at GTAC are fantastic. The education officers are extra helpful and it’s extremely interesting listening to the other demonstrators’ research. This job is typically offered only to post-graduate students, but I was lucky enough to get a spot here. Most everyone is working on their PhD or Masters, so it’s been cool to listen about the diversity of topics that everyone is pursuing. One girl is working with a live strain of Malaria so I’m making sure to always wash my hands after working with her! I’ll post more funny stories later as they occur!


My lab bench!


Double helix staircase.