We woke up slowly and fairly sickly. The leaders announced that we had
about an hour before we had to go, so we walked down to the beach. It
was a really pretty morning and the beach felt wonderful in our toes.
We played for a while until one of the leaders came and yelled that we
were leaving in two minutes. So we all ran to the bus. Well, almost all
of us. Sam and Teche were off in different directions somewhere, and mist
have been in deep thought or something, because it took about twenty minutes
to find them.
We were on our way. The trip was about half over, but it wasn't going too
fast for us and it was all still fun. Except for the bus rides. Thankfully,
this one wasn't too long. On our way to Fraser Island, we stopped at
"The Big Pineapple", some strange tourist trap. There as a big pineapple
there (possibly the kind a big sheep
would eat, I suppose) and there was also a tour of the grounds, which
included a mini-zoo and a big ol' field of pineapples. The coolest part
about the whole experience was that the train car we rode in for the tour
was called "The Nutmobile."
We arrived at the docks in the early afternoon and boarded the boat
that was to take us to Fraser Island, the largest sandbank in the world.
A Kookaburra On Fraser Island
It didn't sound all that fun. And some people were still a little scared
of boats from the experience yesterday. But either way, we got to Fraser
A Dingo On Fraser Island
Island and were separated onto these 4WD tour buses, which drove us around
for a while. The driver of the one I was a bit eccentric...but he drove
fast and that was cool. You see, Fraser Island was a giant sandbank which
had somehow managed to sprout up with a rainforest and a lake. We stopped
in the middle of one of the forests at a ranger station so we could find
some wildlife and hopefully get a picture of them. I got pictures of both
a kookaburra (right), a bird native to the South Pacific that's
immortalized in a stupid-yet-catchy song, and a dingo, an Australian wild
dog (left). I also got a picture of the rare North American Sam,
who stood in front of my camera as I was taking a picture of the Fraser
Island map (below).
A Map Of Fraser Island With Sam Standing By
The tour went on, but then something bad happened...when the other bus hit
a bump, Bridget's head got knocked against something so she had to go to
the mainland to a hospital. We all felt sorry for her. Soon we stopped at
Lake Mackenzie for lunch. First we went down to hill to the lake to wade in.
It was beautiful. The water was so fresh, the tour guide told us that if
you put tarnished jewelry or something like that in the water, it would
come out clean. So you can imagine all the girls bending down to wash their
jewelry. We soon started splashing and throwing mud and sand. We hadn't
been able to be immature for a while, and it was refreshing. Then we got
hungry and headed up the hill. We ate our pre-packaged sandwiches and
drank all the free soda we could. Steffan ate a package of dried coffee.
After that, the tour was over. We went to our rooms at the resort. They
were pretty decent. Each was a little apartment type thing (a little like
the ones in Bundaberg except no TV) with a kitchen, bathrooms, and two
bunk rooms. This was the first time we had coed quarters, but of course the
boys slept in a separate bunk room than the girls. We then walked down to
the resort restaurant where we had a good buffet. We played pool after
dinner until it was time to go to the slide show. The slide show was okay,
I guess. It was just the history of Fraser Island, and there were a lot of
neat wildlife pictures. After the show, we returned to our cabins for bed,
but our cabin (and possibly others) didn't go to sleep right away...we
stayed out in the kitchen and played cards until pretty late.
We left Fraser Island soon after waking up, and once we reached the
mainland we stopped at the hospital where Bridget had been taken for
treatment o her concussion. We drove for the better part of the day,
but stopping a few times. The first stop was "The Ginger Factory", where
they processed ginger, which must be quite a big resource in Australia
because there was a lot of it, and there had to be a lot of it to necessitate
a whole factory, I suppose. That was kind of neat, but more like the leader's
equivalent of the busywork we do in school that serves no purpose other than
to keep us occupied.
After the Ginger Factory, we got to stop at the Bunya Wildlife Park, another
zoo. This one wasn't quite as neat as the other zoo we went to except for
the fact that we got to hold koalas! It was really neat. Since koala are
endangered species and their blood pressure skyrockets when held, the
Australians are trying to eliminate this opportunity, and have already taken
a step towards that because it cost five dollars to hold them. But it was
worth it because we got our pictures taken with them (I'll put at least
mine on here when I get it scanned, and I'll also put any I receive on here.)
The rest of the time we wandered around the park, which was run-of-the-mill.
Lots of birds.
Later we arrived in Brisbane, a city very much like Sydney yet very different.
We walked to Ned Kelly's Bushtucker restaurant for supper and got to eat
an appetizer dish featuring emu, crocodile, and kangaroo. Emu tastes like
chicken only a bit tougher, crocodile tastes like really good beef, and
kangaroo tastes like a cross between the two, only not all that good.
But we had to have normal steak for dinner. We got to take turns playing the
piano at the restaurant. Then we went back to the hotel and relaxed.
This page was created by Nick Huinker with lots of help from Lacey Tauber. Main People To People graphic courtesy (much thanks!) to the People To People Student Ambassadors Website.
I would also like to thank Mr. Sam Montgomery, Mrs. Jo Beth Oestreich, and Ms. Debra Davis, our fearless leaders, as well as everyone else whom I shared this experience with.
