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.

Cairns Part 2: Remember that time I drove on the left side of the road and nobody died?

Innisfail!

On Wednesday, 8 of us embarked on the road trip of champions.  Our van was basically a sports car, and smelled delicious by the end.  The first day we drove south from Cairns down the coast to a town called Innisfail (tee hee, sound it out…. So much maturity).  After lunch/exploring Innisfail, we drove south towards Millaa Millaa where we spent the night.  Along the way, we stopped at a bunch of different waterfalls, and went on a hike where Sheila, Laura, and Katie almost got eaten by a super poisonous snake.  Oops.  We saw a platypus at one of the waterfalls!  They’re nocturnal and usually not spotted in nature like that, so we felt like winners.  We also made an impromptu stop at a cheese farm with happy cows.  Obviously necessary.  Millaa Millaa was an incredibly small town, and the campsite we stayed at had rooms with no doors.  It was nice bonding time though.  We epic feast for dinner and accidentally turned the TV on just as Glee was starting which was kind of wonderful. 

Claire, Noah, Laura, Me, Mark, Katie

The next day we woke up explored a giant fig tree and crater lake in the morning.  Then we drove towards VOLCANO LAND, or the Undara Lava Tubes.  On the way, we stopped at this strawberry picking place where the lady let lots of annoying small children pick strawberries, but not us.  It was confusing.  But then we had time to go check out another dairy farm with chocolate so it was okay.  Back to volcano land, the Undara Lava Tubes are the longest lava tubes in the world!  The Undara park was also our first experience in the outback, which is kind of like the part in Lion King when Scar is the leader except fun.  The lava tubes were unreal.  And don’t worry; I didn’t act nerdy at all.  Because I don’t do things like that.  After our 

Volcano Land

tour of the lava tubes, we starting driving up to Port Douglas, where we spent the night.  On the way, we stopped at hot springs that were kind of sketch and in the middle of a trailer park.  Another oops.  After dinner we stopped on the side of the road to look at the stars.  This may or may not have turned into an epic dance party. 

coolest road sign ever

In the morning, we explored Port Douglas and had a feast of champions, then headed up to Cape Tribulation where we explored for awhile.  We were fortunate enough to experience a monsoon (after giving a presentation on monsoons I declare myself an expert in the subject).  We hiked around in the rain for a while and took pictures of some sassy road signs.  Later in the afternoon, we went kayaking.  Although during peak monsoon time, this was one of the road trip highlights for sure.  Noah had a particularly fun experience, being the only member of our group who capsized into shark-infested waters.  I think this was the last oops of the trip. Unfortunately, once kayaking was over we had to drive back to Cairns, get to sleep early, and wake up for an equally disgustingly early flight back to Sydney.   

Cape Tribulation.

FUN FACT:  There aren’t really any large mammalian predators in Australia.  This again reflects the low energy, nutrient poor environment.  Cold blooded reptiles have much lower energy requirements, and therefore can be sustained more easily in environments with lower energy.  

Dance Party.

Cairns Part 1: SPRING BREAKKKKK!

6am ish at the airport.  Happiest camper award.

Sorry for the delay, I was busy being studious and intellectual, of course.

Daintree Crocodile Tour

For our midsession break, the Colgate group went up to Cairns (pronounced cans) in Queensland.  We were fortunate enough to have flights so early that we needed to catch a 4:15 am bus to Sydney on Saturday, September 26.  Due to such high levels of stimulation and excitement in the morning, we decided to take it easy in the afternoon and explore different parts of Cairns, including the harbour and a local market.  Luckily, our hostel was shared with all Colgate people, so there were no questionable shenanigans taking place. 

too bad the crocodile ate us.

The next day, we took a group tour in the Daintree Rainforest.  Throughout the day, the goal was to learn more about not only the rainforest, but also the Aboriginal lifestyle.  We started the morning with a crocodile tour.  It was cool, but we only saw two crocodiles and one of them was kind of wimpy.  However, afterwards we hiked to a waterfall and hung out there for a while, which was fantastic.  After this we had lunch in the middle of nowhere.  I got to try ice cream made out of random fruits whose names I don’t remember, but it sounded something like jackalackalalkaja.  It was delicious.  In the afternoon, we learned about how Aboriginals hunted for food.  This included learning to spear fish and trekking through muddy mangroves to find other sea creatures.

Colgate Group at the Waterfall

  Where it was a bit too killing things intensive for me, I certainly enjoyed spear fishing salad from the bottom of the ocean with some of the other vegetarians.  Wandering through the mud was exactly what I wanted to be doing with my time.  Our guide told us that if we got all muddy the bugs would stay away.  Where I’m pretty sure this was a lie, seeing as my bug bites were still going strong up until a few days ago, scampering about in the mud was definitely a highlight of the day.

Champion.

On Tuesday, we finally made it to the Great Barrier Reef!  I went on two dives with Karen and Claire.  For some reason we were trusted to frolic about on the bottom of the ocean by ourselves.  It was so much fun.  We saw tons of massive clams and sea cucumbers, as well as a wide array of fratty neon fish.  I found Nemo!  I made sure he made it safely back home.  At night, we all had a group dinner and then had fun Colgate karaoke time.  Burnett told us we were better than his 1996 Australia Study Group, but we’re not supposed to tell anyone this because they would be upset. 

FUN FACT: Turtles can breathe through their butts.  They suck in water then extract oxygen.

Learning to Spear Fish.

Wine Tour and Scuba Diving:

nommed by a giant face in Luna Park

On Friday September 10 Sheila, Noah, Katie and I went up to Sydney for the afternoon in preparation for a wine tour in Hunter Valley early Saturday morning.  We wandered around for a while, hitting the Luna Park, an epic amusement park similar to Kiddieland.  We made friends with some really nice clowns.  Then we went to dinner at an awesome vegetarian restaurant that we discovered during our last Sydney visit, and headed back to our hostel to go to bed early.  Unfortunately, our luck with hostels continued to amaze us.  At 2am, Scottish winners came back to our hostel room and decided it was time to have a conversation about hot girls for an hour.  Comfortable.  Then, they were convinced that I was farting in my sleep (unclear where this came from, I had been awake since they got back to the room).  One of the guys kept saying to his friend “she’s fucking farting…. Listen to the air!  The carbon dioxide!  You can’t hear it now dude, but listen, the airrr!”  It took so much effort to pretend I was still sleeping (and apparently farting) at this point.  I am actually proud at how well I held back my laughter.  After awhile, the action died down a bit and we dozed off temporarily.  Only to wake up again to the sound of top bunk Scottish boy peeing the bed in his sleep, which proceeded to seep through the mattress and start dripping on Scottish boy number two.  Of course.  So for the next hour the boy who got peed on screamed at the boy who peed/got him up and out of the room, obviously leaving his communal blanket soaking in pee (comforting).  At this point, it was about 4:30 am and we had to wake up at 6:30 for the wine tour.  Finally time for bed.

Darling Harbour - NO DIVING!

In the morning, I woke up to find that the boy who got peed on was sleeping under me.  It was really a shame that it took so much squeaking and shaking of my bed to get all of my sheets off, I was so sad to have “accidentally” woken him up.  I also found that my nose was rather stuffy, and obviously the only place to use a tissue was right next to his face.  We then said the nicest of goodbyes, and were on our way. 

We started our wine tour at a random national park in Hunter Valley.  I was kind of confused why we were there, we looked at one Aboriginal rock carving and some mangroves, but that was kind of it.  I think they weren’t really sure what to do with us, but sleeping a bit later would have been nice.  Then we went to three different wineries.  One was small and family run, and the other two were bigger. We all liked the family run one best.  We also stopped at an awesome cheese store. 

simulating a dinner party?  I have
cool friends.

On Sunday, I went scuba diving again at Shell Harbor with Karen and some other friends.  The first dive of the morning was similar to our refresher dive.  I got to hold a cuttlefish this time (well technically I cuddled the cuttlefish…).  In the afternoon, we got to ride around on a bunch of underwater scooters.  On this dive, we saw a massive cuttlefish and a weedy sea dragon with a bunch of baby eggs. 

FUN FACT:  Go watch Finding Nemo.  You’ll learn some valuable information.  Not all scuba divers are mean and scary like that dentist though. 

Aboriginal ghost carving.  You can't really see all if it, I'll look for a better photo.

Scuba Diving, Wodi Wodi Bushwalk, Tomerong

On September 3 Karen and I went to do a refresher scuba diving course in Shell Harbour.  Our dive instructor Mick had clearly been diving in the area forever, and all of the creatures knew him and want to play with us.  We got to feed a massive blue grouper, and see a bunch of eels, a ray, and even a cuttlefish ink! 

HOT BOD ALERT:  Karen and I definitely looked like Ralphie from A Christmas Story

On Saturday, we had another fieldtrip centered to the Wodi Wodi park, where we went on a bushwalk.  Wodi Wodi is a sacred indigenous site.  Along the way, we saw the affects of fire on local landscapes, and made friends with a bunch of leeches.  I was lucky enough to get the first leech of the trip, probably because I’m the best.  It rained for most of the day, which wasn’t ideal, but otherwise it was a cool trail.

Noah and I at the top of the Wodi Wodi trail.  Note my awesome geologizing outfit.

Sheila and I spent the rest of the weekend in Tomerong at my roommate Jake’s house.  Tomerong is near Jervis Bay, which is a big whale-watching place with lots of nice beaches.  Although Sunday’s weather was even worse (an epic low pressure system created an even more epic windstorm, the power was out between Tomerong and Wollongong, which is about an hour and a half by train) we still got to see all of the beaches, and explore the town a bit. 

FUN FACT:  Australian soils are super infertile because there hasn’t been any sweet geology in awhile.  The soils are as old as Squidney, formed from even older rocks, and have had a long time to become leached and degraded.

Squydney:

Noah and I at the top of the Harbor Bridge

I went to Sydney from August 27-29.  Laura, Noah, and I headed up Friday so that Noah and I could do the Harbor Bridge climb.  If I were to do one thing over again in Sydney, it would be the bridge climb.  We took the night hike because we missed our train earlier (and then almost our second train. fail.).  However, that turned out being wonderful because we got to see the sun set over the city. 

That night was yet another interesting hostel experience (we’re getting good at these).  Little did we know when we booked our hostel that it was located in strip club central.  Oops.  Don’t worry mom, I didn’t go into any, just pointed and laughed from the outside.  And got some business cards for Michelle….

Laura, Mark and I on the Harbor Cruise

On Saturday morning Laura and I went to an art museum, where we wandered around for a bit.  It was no Art Institute, but it was cool to see some aboriginal art.  Later, we got all fancy and went on the Harbor Cruise, which my dorm had rented out for the night.  Basically, everyone dressed up and got to ride the boat around the harbor.  After seeing the city from the top of the Harbor Bridge, it was cool floating around and seeing it all at eye level.  Furthermore, its always an experience seeing people dress up who typically look like bums (aka me). 

On Sunday morning, we went to a Jewish/Holocaust museum, where we learned about the Holocaust refugees that moved to Australia.  From there, we all went to the semifinal rugby league game (Sydney Roosters vs. Manly Sea Eagles).  Although I didn’t totally get what was happening the whole time, I followed most of it, which was exciting. Many years of soccer coaching must have helped team Sydney, because the Rooster’s won 30-14. 

Let's pretend this is a good picture.

FUN FACT:  There are many animals in Australia that can kill you, ranging from box jellyfish and blue ringed octapi to Hunstman spiders.  There’s also the cassowary, which is known for its ability and desire to disembowel its victims.  However, the most deadly of all is the drop bear, which will sit up in trees and jump down on you unexpectedly.