Fiji: The International Date Line's Version of Red Pine Camp

Karen, Bianca, Me

I went to Fiji with Karen, Sheila, and Bianca from November 18-22.  It was an awesome way to distress post-finals.  We stayed at a family resort called Plantation Island Resort on a small, secluded island.  It was awesome.  The resort had a bunch of different activities offered daily, and events such as bingo and frog racing were featured once a week.  Some of our typical daily activities included snorkeling, scuba diving, dolphin safaris, kayaking, swimming, banana boating, hammock napping, etc.  There was a bunch of coral right off the coast of the island, and we could just swim out with our snorkel stuff and find cool fish to look at.  It was awesome.  On our dive we saw a green turtle!

Last 'No Diving' photo.  Perhaps the best one.

We had a few random adventures on this trip.  One day Sheila and Karen went sailing, only to come back with Karen’s camera at the bottom of the ocean.  At least it was waterproof.  We took kayaks out to go look for it, but failed (shocking I know).  We also played mini golf in this strange course that had two replicas, one of which was clearly older and covered in rubble.  It was confusing.  We made sure to play at both of them.  Another fun activity was the “how tangled can my hair get in one day” game.  This was aided by a combination of not braiding my hair before snorkeling/diving and needing a hair cut.  Luckily, Bianca brought a fro pick along with her so I was able to accessorize my struggling locks. 

Bianca made me do this.  I kind of like it though.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip.  A great majority of our time was spent lounging on hammocks, but we also did much more than we were anticipating.

Fun fact:  Fiji water is bottled and distributed in Fiji (duh).  So next time you’re buying a bottle of water (although obviously its better to use a reusable water bottle) think about how far that bottle has traveled, and how much energy it has used to get there.  Instead, try to choose water that was bottled locally.

Tassie and Mel-bin

Hobart

I flew into Hobart, Tasmania with Sheila and Richard on Thursday, before most of the group had finished classes (I didn’t even skip).  We explored the city for awhile.  We didn’t really have any set plans, but it was really fun deciding on the spot what we wanted to do.  We tried to make it to the botanical gardens, but we couldn’t really figure out how the trails worked, even though some lady told us we couldn’t miss it.  I think she was wrong.  I got an awesome fleece that I know the fam is going to despise.  Michelle – if I ever visit Berkshire I’m going to wear it the entire time.  Get exciteddd.  At one point when we were walking around we found this random ghetto public bathroom in the middle of nowhere with barbed wire around the outside.  Obviously it was photo-worthy.  As we were photo-documenting, these boys walked past us and one of them turned to Sheila and me and said, “That’s a toilet.  A male toilet.”  Duh?  Still not really sure how we should have responded to that one.  

The rest of the group arrived on Friday night.  We had an epic backwards somersault competition in some random park.  Obviously I win.

the male toilet.

so much fun.

On Saturday, Sheila, Katie, and I went to the market in the morning then bike riding to the botanical gardens since we hadn't gone the day before.  Well, kind of.  We did a really good job crossing the street.  Then Katie decided she wanted to play leap frog with her handlebars.  It all happened very quickly.  One second we were moving along, the all of the sudden we hear screams of “I see bone!”  Yummy.  It’s okay, my camp counselor skills kicked in fast and Sheila biked back to the rental shop which was luckily about ten seconds away.  We slowly got Katie back to the bike shop, then headed over to the hospital.  6 and a half hours later, we left with a bunch of new pathogens, and 3 knee stitches.  The highlight of the day: Katie was eating her peanut butter sandwich while the doctor was cleaning her wounds, definitely getting judged by the doctor.  I think I would have been vomiting, she was a champion.  It was also a lot of fun when we went back to our hostel tired and hungry and all of the other people told us about how fun their day was.  Thanks guys. 

Convict Trail

The next day (HALLOWEEN!) we went on a 2 day road trip to Port Arthur.  My license expired, (stupid Illinois) so Sheila drove.  We couldn’t really do a lot of hiking related stuff due to Katie the Cripple, but we went to a lot of fatty related places like a candy store and some fun lookouts and a blowhole.  We stayed overnight in a cabin managed by Denis, our new best friend.  The cabin was awesome, although Noah had to sleep in the living room because that’s where his bed was.  The cabin  had a selection of cassette tapes including Lion King, Billy Joel, something with YMCA, and Jesus music.  Therefore, many dance parties were involved.  Later we went on a ghost tour, which was especially exciting given that it was Halloween.  Our guide was the perfect ghost tour guide, with a great combo of long hair, slightly above average voice volume, and sketchiness. Although the slutty costume count was low, the day was still epic.

Blowhole

Botanical Gardens take 3

The day after that we pretended to drive along a designated convict trail in Port Arthur, but we only found one of the stops.  I got stung by a bee in the morning and had to benedryll up so I wouldn’t turn into a human tomato.  This led to a pretty special car nap during most of this.  We made one stop at the Federation Chocolate Factory and another at the Sorell Fruit Farm.  I bought some chocolate to bring home, but then I ate it.  Once we got back to Hobart, we explored the Cascade Brewery, which had a beautiful garden type thing outside and some awesome views.  Also a cat.  From here we drove back to Hobart and.  wait for it.  ACTUALLY MADE IT TO THE BOTANICAL GARDENS.  It was by accident though, which is probably why nothing bad happened.  They were actually really cool, so it’s a good thing it happened for realsies. 

The next day, Sheila, Katie, Noah, and I flew to Melbourne and explored around for the day.  Nothing too eventful happened, although I did spend awhile looking for bee sting stuff since my arm was kind of freaking out a bit.  We didn’t do much because the Melbourne Cup was happening, which is HUGE in Australia.  (pronouced UGE if you are Fill).  As much as I love watching horse races, we decided to pass on it.  However, the next day we walked around Melbourne in the morning and went to the Melbourne Museum with Bailey, Tricia, Nina, and Jenny in the afternoon.  SO MANY DINOSAURS.  They also had a cool mind/body exhibit with fun interactive games.  After dinner we went to get McFlurries and saw some fat ugly girl climb over the top of the McCafe window and steal a single baby cupcake thing.  It was funny because she dropped most of the cupcakes on the ground.  Also because she looked like a beached whale climbing over the counter.  And lastly, because Noah told the McDonald's workers what was going on and nobody cared.  So silly.

Colgate Cab

The last day, Noah and Katie had left so Sheila and I explored a bit in the morning, and then went to the Melbourne library to do some real work for a change.  I know, so studious.  Mad brownie points for us.  Then we explored some more, took some pictures of Barbie, and headed back to UOW.  

Fun fact:  too bad I already used the Tasmania one.  Damn.  Oh well, camels are fun too!  Australia has the largest population of wild camels in the world.  However, these animals weren’t native to Australia, and imported from somewhere that I don’t remember.

BETTER THAN ’96:

Greetings from finals.  I figured that since the toilets flush the other way that maybe finals would also be opposite and therefore fun.  Unfortunately this is not the case.  Damn.  Now my theory is that going to the beach will help me learn about the beach.  We’ll see how this one works out, although I’m thinking that it’ll be a keeper life strategy.

We did fun stuff towards the end of the semester that I didn’t really talk about.  There was just SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES.  They all happened after Uluru though so it’s okay.

Blue Steel at Blue Steel.

One weekend we went to Blue Steel, a Steel Factory in Port Kembla (south of Wollongong).  This tour was silly.  Our tour guide was also silly.  He was nice and all, but he tried to tell us that the steel works didn’t have emissions.  I don’t think I believe him.  I did learn though that a lot of the steel used by the factory was recycled, so that was exciting.  In fact, at least at Blue Steel, they said it was often easier to make new steel when scraps of old steel were included.  Also we got to wear fun outfits.  I think that was definitely the best part.

The next weekend we went to the Blue Mountains.  It was fun hiking around, but kind of rainy and foggy. That was a bummer.  We saw some of the views, but some were completely covered.  We did get to ride the steepest railway in the world though. 

Blue Mountains - insert awesome background here.

The day after our Blue Mountains trip, we had a final barbeque at Burnett’s house.  It was a rainy day (again), but was still a lot of fun.  We found one of the twilight books in Burnett’s house.  He claims it wasn’t his.  Also, Karen, Bianca, Sheila and I baked a cake.  The frosting was rainbow magical and the cake was a combo of seafoam green and pink (food coloring is misleading).  It was delicious, and themed “better than ‘96” because we are.  There is a picture of the cake floating around somewhere.  I will try to locate it.

Fun Fact:  Second to penguins, diprotodons may be my new favorite animal.  These large wombats were vegetarians just like me!  They went extinct in Australia at the end of the Pleistocene along with tons of other megafauna.  Early humans likely caused these extinctions, either through overhunting or habitat alteration.  Mean.   

For more information on DIPROTODONS, check out this scientifically reliable source:  Diprotodons!

I told you the outfits were awesome.

Blue Mountains #2.  Slightly more of a success.

80s Day: The best class of my life.

best presentation ever.

Can't decide who is sassier.

On October 12^th, Noah and I had presentations on monsoons for our Colgate class.  It was on this same day that Burnett told me I could plan an 80s themed class (so necessary, I had been going through some serious SHOCK withdrawal and this was a good way to alleviate the pain).  The class was quite the success, everyone dressed up and we had a dance party during our break.  Noah and I had some of the greatest presentations in geologic history (wow, I know).  Overall, it was quite the educational experience for everyone involved.

Want to learn more about monsoons?  This is how the magic happens:  Total Monsoon of Colgate

FUN FACT:  Yes, I do currently live in Fairy Meadow.  It is a real place.  And an awesome one.

break time dance party.  duh.

ULURU: Embracing my nerdiness

Karen and I at the Uluru sunset lookout

I went to Uluru and Kata Tjuta with Karen on the weekend of October 9th.  We realized when we arrived that we really hadn’t planned out what we wanted to do.  We had a car though, so it gave us the freedom to explore the Uluru National Park at our own will.  We stayed in a permanent tent, which was awesome.  The first day, after exploring the ‘downtown’ area a bit, we drove up to Uluru and hiked around the base.  It was fantastic.  It is hard to understand just how barren and expansive the outback really is without seeing it, and Uluru and Kata Tjuta were literally the only things there.  After the base hike, we drove to a lookout and watched the sun set on Uluru. 

Valley of the Winds Hike

The next day, we woke up early and rode Rodney the camel nbd.  We didn’t book early enough to do the epic Uluru camel ride, so it was more of a City Day fall fest ride around the ring deal, but it was still awesome.  Then we headed out to Kata Tjuta, where we did the Valley of the Winds hike.  This was definitely my favorite part of the trip.  Little did we know before the hike that Kata Tjuta was composed of CONGLOMERATES (aka a bunch of different rock bits smushed together, so scientific).  That was the best.  The hike wound in and out of the Olgas and had some awesome views.  We finished that hike pretty quickly, and had time to hike the Walpa Gorge afterwards, which was cool but pretty short.  After that, we headed to the Kata Tjuta look out to watch the sunset. 

Kata Tjuta at sunset

The next morning, we woke up and went on a ranger hike around part of Uluru.  This was cool because the ranger talked about some of the Aboriginal significance of Uluru, which tied in nicely to some of the things we had learned about in Burnett’s class (so much education!).   Once this was over, it was time to head back to the airport and get back to UOW.

Some basic statistics from the weekend:

Number of the same Uluru picture that Karen took:  around 39

Number of times we got lost walking in a loop:  2

Number of times sassy food counter man gave us extra food because we were American:  2

Number of 39 cent kiwis we ate: 14

Number of people who judged us for stopping to look at the geology on our hikes:  infinite
Number of assignments I had within 3 days of returning:  4

OMG IT'S ULURU

Fun fact:  The outback is red!  This is because the sediments contain iron, which reacts with oxygen to form a rusty red color.