Another field trip!

Tis the season to be busy!  We're coming up on mid-semester so everything seems to be catching up and stockpiling.  This weekend was yet another weekend field trip.  Third weekend away from Townsville....geez.

This field trip was not quite as exciting as a weekend on Orpheus Island.  For starters, it didn't involve a boat ride.  :(  Secondly, I didn't have my professor chef telling it up every meal....I had to go out and by my own lunch.  Lame.  haha

Naw, it wasn't that bad.  It was for my foundations of natural resource management subject, so we went around and had a look at all the different management practices occurring in the Mission Beach area.  This subject is a video lecture, occurring on both the Townsville and Cairns campuses, so both campuses met up for one big NRM party.  We met up at the Mamu Canopy walk and had a walk around there, admiring the region.  Ironically this walk was literally within miles of where I had been camping the weekend before.  We took the same beautiful highway up, but this time with sunshine!  (Crazy, huh??!)  I also found out that all the hills in this region were all formed from volcanic eruptions.  Pretty sweet.  Anyway, we walked around and had a look at the rain forest heritage area, from the canopy's perspective.  It was cool, don't get me wrong, but it was nothing compared to the hike from last weekend! Not to mention there were heaps of insanely large spiders!

After that we headed to a banana farm to talk about fertilizer control and erosion prevention.  That was followed by a trip to a sugar cane farm, where the farmers told us all about the benefits from putting GPS systems on tractors.  All new information to me!  We stopped by two more sites on the way  home, successful and unsuccessful rain forest re-vegetation sites, and then it was off to Mission Beach for our accommodation.

We stayed just outside of the main area, so it was quite a small area.  We had a pricey buffet dinner (because nothing else was open) and hit the bottle-o for an after dinner cocktail to wind down with.  I tried a can of premixed pineapple soda and vodka and it was muyyyy delicious!  For this field trip we had to keep a field notebook and write down all of our notes and thoughts from the different stops.  It was due upon our return to uni so we took our cocktail back the the room, had a drink, re-wrote our notes and hit the hay.  After 2 weekends of being in the rain a day in the blazing sun really took a tole on me!

We were off to a cassowary habitat first thing the next morning!  In Mission Beach they're currently facing big issues with cassowary mortality, mainly due to cars.  We talked about land management in regards to this issue, specifically related to new housing development.  We also took a hike into the bush where they live just to get an idea of their habitat.  It was a beautiful walk....swarmed with mozzies though!  We saw some cassowary droppings, but no cassowaries.  :(

After that we were off to a fan palm forest, the largest remaining fan palm forest in Australia to be exact.  There was no real purpose to this stop....just a cool walk for us to do.  It was really cool!  It was shady because the leaves were so big, but still bright since the leaves were somewhat translucent.  It was like being in an umbrella forest, if you can step into the brain of Jamie and imagine that.  hahaha

That pretty much ended the trip.  We loaded on the bus and headed to Tully (the wettest city in AU) for some lunch, a group photo, and of course some admiring of the giant Tully gumboot!

Easter Camping

So the great thing about Easter in Australia is that they consider Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays....which meant a 4 day weekend for Jamie!  hoorah!

I jumped on the opportunity to go camping with some of the tubing crew...even though the weather predictions were less than ideal.  The wet season just will not leave!

We packed up and headed out Friday morning.  We stopped at a beautiful swimming hole in Cardwell and then continued on our way to Murray Falls, where we stayed for the night.  It was a pretty hopping campsite actually.  Easter weekend is a huge camping weekend so it was filled with families and extravagant camp sites.  We had the basic "tarp over a picnic table" set up, which suited us just fine!   We got there pretty late so we just set up camp, cooked some dinner, and played a few games. 

The next day we walked around the area (for the few minutes of sunshine we had!) and saw the beautiful falls and forests surrounding our site.

In the mid afternoon we packed up and headed north again.  We weren't sure exactly where we were going to stop and camp, but since we were going into the Atherton Tablelands we figured we'd find something. The drive was absolutely beautiful...despite the rain.  It was bright green with rolling hills.  It reminded me a lot of New Zealand, actually.   We kept winding up the Palmerston Highway into the heritage listed, wet tropics rain forest!  Amazing.  We had planned to drive a bit more but everyone was getting tired so we settled in at the Henrietta Creek campsite.  This site had very little people so we decided to commandeer the covered area and make it our own living area. :)  We set up camp, cooked dinner, and played some more games.  The next morning we woke up, had some chocolate for brekky (it was Easter after all!) and wen't off on a rain forest hike. It was, of course, still raining...surprise surprise.  At this point we were so used to all of our belongings being wet we just decided to stuff it and enjoy it.  It was THE coolest hike I have been on.  It wasnt hard by anymeans but it would between forests and waterfalls.  Absolutely amazing.  It was almost nice to have it raining because it added some mist in the distance...and made you feel legit.  What would a rain forest be without rain?  The only bugger was the mother effing leeches!  I picked 6 of them off me!  Two of which sucked a significant amount of blood before I noticed.  But, like I said, it was SO worth it!  Here are some pictures from Emily's camera.

After the hike we stopped by the watering hole for a little "bath", since this campsite didn't have showers.  That night we had a massive vegetarian BBQ with some wine and a game of fishbowl.  Considering I couldn't be home with my family this was the next best Easter Sunday I could have asked for.

We packed up the next morning and started our journey home.  Not without a stop at the Murdering Point Winery for a taste of some tropical fruit wines!  mmm mmm mmm! 

We arrived home a few hours later, where I had a fabulous warm shower, scrubbed my feet for what felt like an eternity (after 4 days of flip flops and mud my feet were NASTY!), and put everything I owned into the dryer.  It was a nice feeling!

Overall, another fantastic weekend!

Pictures

I can't figure out how to insert pictures in without totally stuffing up the layout of the blog....so, sorry for all the chaos!

Field trip to Orpheus Island Research Station (OIRS)

The last week was cut short by my Coral Reef Geomorphology field trip.  I was super excited for this field trip, except for the fact that the bus was leaving uni at 4:30am Friday morning.  Yeeks.  We had to leave so early so we could catch the tides at the right time to get the boats over the reef and on to the island.

I managed to roll myself out of bed and rock up to uni in time to hop on the coach.  I tried to catch some sleep on the 2 hour bus ride up but kept waking up to a surge of adrenaline because I would "half wake up" and think I was on an airplane.  It was so bizarre! haha.  Either that or I would wake up near hypothermia since the bus driver had the aircon cranked to the max!  brrrrr.

We got to Taylor's Beach, the place where the boat to OIRS was going to pick us up, and it was raining.  Not cool.  We all unloaded off the tundra bus into the rain and waited for the boat to show up.  I forgot to mention that it wasn't just the fact that we needed to catch the tide in time, but we needed to get 3 rounds of boats across within that tide range.  It was rainy and windy and the water looked quite unfriendly.

The boat showed up and we packed as much gear and people on as we could....and I didn't make the cut. :(  So, waiting in the park for at least another hour and a half was in my future.  Luckily it stopped raining for a bit and a group of us decided to walk to the little servo down the road to scrounge up some food, since it was only 6:30am.  I ate some time away, quite literally, and then around 8:20 the boat showed up again.  I fought for a position in the front of the line because I did not want to be stuck in the park for another hour or so.  By this time it had gotten more windy and the waters were a bit rougher.  It took the skipper 4 tries, some help from students, and a wet professor to get the boat into the shore enough for us to load on.  We stumbled aboard and got out as soon as we could so the boat would be able to return for the third group in time for the tides.  We took off and it was quite a rocky ride...only to get worse once we got out into the open channel.  We were literally flying in the air.  It was the craziest (yet most fun) boat ride I have been on.  There were a few times I was convinced that we were going tip over and a few times I was convinced the people in the back were going to fly out...but 40 minutes later when we pulled into Orpheus Islands I was (luckily) proved wrong.  Phew.

We unloaded and headed to the accommodation area to pick out our rooms.  The set up was a lot like hostels, with 6 beds in each room and a communal dining and bathroom area.  We dropped our stuff off in our new home away from home and headed down to have some caffeine!!  We fueled up and went off exploring a bit of the island before the last boat came in. 

The last boat came and it was off to lecture for us.  It was quite weird to have to go to class on a remote island in the Great Barrier Reef....but kind of cool to do at the same time.  After that it was off to take a walk around the island while my professor pointed out some interesting geological features.  It was quite fascinating, actually.  Especially since I am so trained to look at the biological indicators, not the geological indicators.  We walked around Pioneer Bay (the reef flat we arrived on), behind the research station, and then out to the rocky point.  A nice little guided tour by my professor.

                       

                          Old, broken coral forming a "shingle" beach

After that we went for a nice snorkel!  Since it is stinger season we had to suit up in the full gear.  We had stinger suits, socks, hoods, and dish washing gloves hahaha.  It was a winning look!  The visibility wasn't that great, which bummed me out at first...but then, within the first minute, I saw a MASSIVE sting ray!  It was huge!  At least 4 ft in diameter.  SO cool to see!  That evening was a relaxing social night filled with BBQ, ice cream, and card games.  I haven't been on a field trip in years...and it was really good getting to know my fellow classmates.  It was an early night though, since we had been up since the wee hours of the morning.  

The next morning we woke up, had some brekky, had another lecture, and then broke off into our group.  I was in a group with Ashley (US), Shane (US), and Kristina (Denmark).  They were such fun people, we had a blast mucking around all day.  We measured the topography of the beach on 4 different sections, looking for sea level indicators.

     Our view from the dump level.

Group 1 represent!

We actually saw a blue ringed octopus in the same area we had been snorkeling in yesterday.  And, seeing as they are extremely venomous that made for a bit of a thrill!

blue ringed octopus!

hard at work!

That evening my professor cooked up a delicious green curry for 50 students and we chowedddd down!  A day in the sun really wears you out...and makes you hungry.  We spent the rest of the night working on the project, calculating numbers and mapping out the beach profiles.  It was another early night after a long day in the field.

The next day was greeted with brekky and a lecture, just like yesterday.  Today's duties were similar to yesterdays, jut on a different part of the island.  We loaded in to some tinnies and it was off to Irish Point.  On the way to Iris Point we stopped off at Cattle bay to observe the rocky beach as well as take a little bush walk into the forest to see some more interesting geological features.  It was a tad rough that day so loading back in to the boats in a rocky shore was a bit of a challenge....

 In the tinny.

     Trying to load on the boats in the rocky shore.            

After we successfully loaded the boats (and overcame a stinger scare from some girl) we were off to Iris Point.  Iris Point is a windward fringing reef so it gets a lot more wave energy than the other one, therefore allowing for more coral diversity.  It was also an older reef than Pioneer Bay, so it had a lot more developed areas.  It was really cool.  Long reef flats with pool containing heaps of crabs, giant clams, sea cucumbers, and live coral.  Then once we got out to the edge of the reef flat the live coral portion started and we were walking in a garden of coral!  I felt really bad actually because as careful as I was walking around I still heard some crunches and cracks....whoops.  My professor assured us that they're resilient things and would recover from our class tromping through.  :)  This part of the island was so beautiful.  There were long boulder beaches (no sand at all) and then greenery surrounding it.  Definitely a sight to see!

        

It rained pretty much the entire time we were at Iris Point, which made it hard to collect and record data...but we managed.  By then end of our surveys I was hungry,cold, and just wanted to shower.  I passed on the optional snorkel and managed to sneak on to the barge boat taking the first load back to the research station.  We got home so much faster than the tinnies and managed to hog the showers (and the leftover curry!) before anyone else got home.  Perfection.

That evening was filled with some delicious lasagna (kudos to the chef, my professor) and heaps more report writing.  The undergrad students had to turn theirs in by the time we got back to uni so I helped my group crank it out. Even with four people working on it we were still up until 2:30am finishing it all up.  Ugh.  At a cheery 6am my professor was banging pots to wake us all up haha.  I was on the first boat out and it left the island at 7am.   Being the first boat out meant that I had to spend 3 hours in the park...again.  I had a nice nap on the park bench though.  The bus came and it was back to reality.  No more island time. :(  

Overall it was SUCH a fun field trip.  I was really worried about it being too long  but I would do it again in a heart beat!  I met so many new people and saw so many amazing things!  I love coral reef geomorphology! 

week 5!

This week was highlighted by Tuesday...when I got a car!  Remember that one I really liked?  Well it's mine now! :)  It is a blue '02, Daewoo Lanos. 

As most of you know, I name all of my cars.  This one doesn't have a name yet so check back for an update on that.  Any suggestions?  My mom suggested Rita, short for margarita.  You might be asking why  my mom would suggest naming my car after a drink?...well I'm here to tell you.  It's because not only was this Tuesday amazing because of my car, it was amazing because we threw a "Taco Tuesday" night! Arrrrrrriba!

Actually, to be 100% correct, we threw a "Taco Tuesday with Tequila Then Town" night. :)  I was in heaven. I love Mexican food more than just about anything in life and seeing as it's not big here in AU it was fun to make an event out of it....especially since I had some tequila from our duty free shopping spree. :)   It was an easy event, everyone brought a plate of Mexican food or a drink and we were on our merry way.  My friend Kate went to the bottle shop and asked for the cheapest bottle of tequila and was sold oyzo....which is nothing like tequila.  She didnt realize it until too late so we had a little russian influence in our Mexican fiesta as well.  We had fajitas, tacos, chips, dessert nachos, Mexican beer, tequila, guacamole, etc... and my contribution of taco bell quesadillas. 

 Now, a little side story about these quesedillas.  Most of you know that when I have had a drink or two (okay, maybe more) I would give anything for taco bell, and from that moment on it is all I talk about.  Seeing as they don't have taco bell here my life is lacking.  I still talk about it just as much, I just never actually get it.  Boo.  Emily's boyfriend likes to harass me ALL THE TIME about taco bell.  He always jokes that there is one down the street and then for a nano-second I get excited...and then my brain catches up and I realize he is just trying to make my salivary glands go into overdrive.  I'm a little embarrassed at my obsession with it.  One night Emily was trying to get my attention amongst a bunch of people and she shouted my name 4 times but got no response.  She shouted "taco bell" and I instantly turned around.  hahahaha.  I am pathetic.  So, I found this copy cat recipe and was determined to make all the Aussies fall in love so they know the void I'm trying to fill in my life!

They turned out great!  They were such a hit.  I have converted all the Aussies to Taco Bell loving freaks now!  It was too easy as well.  Check out the recipe here to wow your friends.  


In the end there were 16 people that showed up to gorge on Mexican food and drinks.  We ate ourselves silly and then got ready for a night in town!  We took the maxi taxi straight to our new favorite, The Shed.  We had a small group on the dancefloor at first...and then it was just my friend Anne and I left.  We dominated the dance floor all night long.  It's not a busy club so it was pretty much just us for the majority of the night.  We moved on to another club, the Cri, but it was the same story.  So, the boys sat down and chatted while Anne and I (and occasionally Lindsay and Vitto) danced the night away.  I may (and am pretty confident I do) look like a fool, but I sure do have fun!  We especially loved the Cri because we found a fan box on stage that acted like "wind machine". haha.  Another fun night in town!

Anne and I on the floor...alone.  Sums up our night.

Trying to capture the moment when other joined! 

(except my camera screen is broken so I can't see what I'm taking a picture of....)

Having way too much fun with the "wind machine"

week 4!

Already week 4 if you can believe it!  

This week started off pretty uneventful.  I started looking at cars since my roommates are getting jobs all over town, making it a lot harder to get around.  I looked at one car Monday evening, but was not overly impressed.  For starters, the guy was the owner of a store in Stocklands (like a shopping mall) called "No Diggity".  I try not to be judgmental, but when your shop it called that I can't help myself.  I disregarded that little factor momentarily and went out to have a look at the car.  My first observation was the giant naked lady sticker plastered across the back windshield.  Oh-so-classy.  In addition to that the inside was extremely messy; looked nothing like a car that you would show people if you actually wanted to sell it.  He basically just opened the door and let me look inside.  Didn't offer me to take it for a spin around the car park, didn't try and tell me about it's features, and didn't bother to show me any important documents.  Nooo thank you.  I politely asked a few questions and snuck out as soon as I could.  Next car please....

Pause.  Before I go any further in the week I want to take a minute to describe the "malls" here.  They are similar to malls in the US, with clothing stores and such, but they have grocery stores, target-like stores, and bottle shops (liquor stores) inside too.  Most of them have butchers, chemists (drug store), and posts offices as well.  It's more of a "one stop shop" as opposed to a "shop til you drop".  Just a little tid bit for you.  Okay, resume......

Later this week was the day to celebrate of my freckles....St.  Patrick's day!  I had uni all day, which left me no time to cook corned beef and cabbage. ;-)  I did, however, have time to look at another car after school.  I loved this car.  It was a small, clean car being sold by a nice couple.  They presented me with all the safety checks, registration, and papers that were needed.  They seemed like they were a trustworthy couple, unlike Mr. No Diggity.  I took the car for a little spin (which I was a tad nervous about, seeing as it was a manual and I hadn't driven a manual on this side of the road yet) and really bonded with the little blue beast.  It was a bit weird at first to shift with my left hand, but I adjusted quite quickly.  The weirdest thing about this car was that the blinker was on the left side and the wipers were on the right side, just like in th US.  It's amazing how easily your brain switches over when you hop into a drivers seat on the right side of the car.  You feels as if you've been driving that way for years, until you go to turn your blinker on.  When I first started driveing here I turn the wipers on instead of the blinkers, and now that I have adjusted I had the same problem with this car.  Nothing that can't be adapted to though.

After my test drive I was flying high with love for that car.  So it was back to Wulguru to celebrate St. Patrick's day with my roomies.  No green beer for me this year, I opted for goon (boxed wine) and midori!  It was mmm mmm good!  Lindsay had to work that night at a pub down the road so the rest of the house decided to head down to where she works and chill with her for the night.  Not without putting our festive attire on though!  We thought about going to town for a Guiness (even though I'm not a fan) but we figured people would have been drinking since the morning, and that we probably wouldn't have that much fun.  We had a  lot of fun visiting Lindsay.  We shared a jug of (non-green...boo) beer and waited for her to get off.  Once she was off it was back to the house for a quick swim before bed.  It's too cold to swim at night here now, which is such a bummer!

The next day, thurday, I looked at another car.  It was the same price as the one I looked at yesterday, but it was 3 years older, in worse condition, and had no power steering.  The girl selling it was great, really nice and friendly, it just didn't compare to the other one.

Later that night we decided to check uni club out since Lindsay actually had the night off.  We got there around 10pm and it was dead.  Literally the slowest I have ever seen it.  I don't know if people were too tired after St. Patty's day or what, but it was pretty ridiculous.  The Jagermeister people were there, which was kind of fun.  Chris and I had a shot of jag and got to have a go at a guitar pick toss.  I won a guitar shaped bottle opener keychain.  It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. :)  Uni club picked up a little bit but it wasnt it's normal atmosphere, so we headed home.  

I had planned to keep Friday as a low key night since I had no plans, but when I got home Emily invited me to join her and her boyfriend, Graeme, to tag along with his college (dorm) pubcrawl.  One of the clubs in town was hosting a heaven and hell night and Graeme's college was allowed free access in, 2 hours earlier than anyone else.  They get really into their themed pub crawls here but since I hadn't been planning on going, I had no outfit to wear!  In a last minute effort I decided to wear my lab coat....because if you have ever been stuck in a 3 hour lab/prac you know it is pure hell.  It turned out to be a really fun night.  We started at the Consortium, where the heaven/hell event was going on, and then Emily and I hopped around on our own.  I'm sure we looked strange apart of the rest of the group since I was in a lab coat and she was dressed as a devil, haha.  That didn't stop us from dancing the night away at the Shed, Molly's, Bully's, and Mad Cow though!  It was a blast!

The next day was spent cyclone proofing our house!  The path of Ului was unclear, but it was potentially going to hit Townsville.  So, in preparation, we moved everything loose from outside and flipped all tables. We live about 8kms from the shore and are up on a hill, so there was really nothing to worry about...but just in case!  That night we spent inside awaiting the hyped up cyclone.  Emily's sister was temporarily living with us so her, Em, and I played a game called fishbowl (it's like catch phrase, pictionary, and charades all in one) for awhile.  Chris' brother, Anthony, and his friend, Rogan, joined us later for a big group game of fishbowl.

The next day was spend enduring the "vicious" cyclone....pshh.  There wasn't a drop of rain in sight nor a hint of a breeze.  All that hype for nothing.  I guess it's better that way, but I was hoping to experience a cyclone!  Maybe next time...

Week 3!

This week was a bit chaotic because I switched my courses around and had to adjust to a new schedule.  I was taking an Environmental Planning class, but it just wasn't a fit for me.  So my official roster is in!  I am taking: Conservation Biology, Coral Reef Geomorphology, Foundations of Natural Resource Management, and Conserving Marine Wildlife.  I really like my classes!

That Tuesday we met some people in town for some two dollar drinks.  Lindsay met us after she got off work and we danced away at the Mad Cow again, all 5 of the Wulguru crew!  We had walked to the casino so the boys could attempt to win some money, but on the way home it started pouring on us.  Not fun.  We dried off by shaking it!  

Jordan, me, Lindsay, Chris, and Emily

The next couple of days I locked myself in my room and worked on my marine conservation assignment.  I had to take the viewpoint a gas company wanting to drill in an area detrimental to ecosystems and animals.  Not the easiest argument to make in a conservation class!  Plus it is worth 15% of my entire semester grade.  yeeks!  

I also helped Emily with her honours project this week; she is doing research on fish otolith growth.  I tried taking some otoliths out myself but just mutilated the fish's head.  They are so small!  Soooo I just stuck to measuring and recording the fish lengths. lol.  I felt pretty cool helping out with marine biology research though.  :)

On Friday there were 2 reasons to celebrate:  I was done with my assignment AND it was my half birthday!  Wooo!  I headed on campus to hang out with a friend from class, Lindsey (not to be confused with LindsAy haha).  We went to bludgers, which is the Friday night event at uni club, and met up with Emily and some of her friends.  Bludgers has live bands and is a more relaxed, chill environment.  Not so much a dance club like it is on Thursdays....though there was one guy who danced, alone, to rock music for pretty much the entire night!  It's was a really fun night.  We shared a jug of beer and enjoyed the band, which was actually pretty good.  I only went to blunders once when I studied here last time and now I wish I had gone more, it's a nice way to wind down after the week.

The next day was Chris' birthday and I spent most of the day making pumpkin pies.  Since they don't have proper pumpkins they don't have pumpkin pie here.  They have squash, which they call pumpkin, but not your typical jack-o-lantern kind.  Secondly they can't imagine taking something of that nature and putting it into a dessert.  Well, I proved some Aussies wrong last time I was here and was ready to prove some wrong again!


My friend Lindsey and her friend Suz, Emily's boyfried Graeme, Anne, and my house-mates friends from rotary Connor and Richard came over to join the party.  Jordan had to go home unexpectedly so he missed out on the pie and festivities. :(  We played some apples to apples, swam in the pool, joked about chocolate rain, played shot roulette (my b-day gift to Chris), ate some pumpkin pie (which turned out quite delicious!), and then headed to town!  Chris had been sick all week so by the time we were ready to head off to town he wasn't feeling too well, and opted to stay home.  Bummer.  We still went out and had an absolute blast.  We got to town pretty late and didn't want to pay any covers, so we headed to Flynns Irish Pub.  We listened to a live band there for awhile and decided to move on and do some dancing.  We decided to give this new place, called The Shed, a go.  It used to be a sports bar that just recently remodeled as a dance club.  We were pretty much the only ones in there, but that made it even more fun!  This place had crazy laser lights and some pretty good music, actually.  There were a few other people, including a guy dancing all by himself (kind of like the girl from Seinfeld) and another guy (who turned out to be a girl) totally raving out to glow sticks.  We eventually convinced the glow stick girl/guy's friend to give us some glowsticks (which is awkward that he carries spares around....?) and danced the night away....like complete idiots! hahaha.  It was too too much fun!