Wanderlust Wallace

My first day in the Perth area, I hung out on Cottlesloe Beach, a beautiful beach with lots of fun water activities....oh, and yeah, I forgot to mention--a person was eaten at that beach last month. Hence, my time in the water was VERY limited.

Apparently that WA (aka Western Australia) doesn't have shark nets like the east coast, so the Great White Sharks can just come and go as they please. This new knowledge is one of the reasons I decided to not scuba dive at Rocknest Island, where a scuba diver was eaten by a great white a few months ago. Granted he was spearfishing in a seal colony--not exactly the brightest idea--but nonetheless, I was just as happy taking another kitesurfing lesson from a very attractive french-speaking Belgian.

I stayed in Fremantle for the entire rest of the week after the initial two days. Fremantle is a bit smaller than Perth with a lot of character. It has a much more historical feel than anywhere else I had been on this trip, with some buildings having balconies and reminding me of the architecture in New Orleans. It worked out great, because the World Championships of Sailing were occurring in Fremantle at the same time. For three-fourths of the competitors, this competition determines if they can get into the 2012 Olympics in London. I made the acquaintance of the South African sailing team, and they took me out on their boat for a sail. It was so great! You know those times when you are so happy or having such a good time that all you can do is laugh--it was one of those times. What fun we had! And as you can tell, I didn't expect to be getting completely soaked!

Later on that day, I took a motorized boat and checked out some of the races from the spectator boat.

Then I checked out my last sunset on the West Coast before heading to Sydney to meet my parents for Christmas.

After I arrived in Cairns on the overnight bus from Airlie Beach, I dropped my stuff and quickly jetted to the port, where I hopped on a dive boat headed to 2 dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef. I thought the diving in the Whitsundays aka the lower Great Barrier Reef was great, but the 2 dive sites we went to were even better! The visibility was just amazing, which is what makes or breaks a dive in my opinion. The visibility was great and I finally was getting really comfortable with the Scuba equipment, having taken the course 6 years ago and taking my first dives since only on this trip. We saw a shark, my first sting ray under water, a giant fish named Walle, NEMO, who played in the anemene (which by the way, is really sticky to the touch), etc.

We also saw coral where if you touched it, it changed colors. The trigger fish we saw also changed color as they passed different backgrounds. It was truly like being in an aquarium. I decided that for me, the really cool thing about scuba (and why it’s better than snorkeling) is the simple ability to be amongst the fish and to be able to look up and see coral cliffs above you (instead of always looking down). It was truly a great experience and I’m ready for my next dive: Rocknest Island here I come!

I arrived in Airlie Beach, the jumping off point for exploring the Whitsunday islands, and immediately booked my trip. I booked a 2-day, 1 night trip aboard Siska. The first day, we sailed to Whitehaven Beach, famous for its silica white sand and clear waters (check out the pictures below). Then we sailed to our "parking" spot for the night. I made quick friends with a family from Wisconsin among others. That evening, while we were chatting above deck, we heard a big thud, as a squid jumped from the water onto the boat. The skipper said that he had to have been chased by something big to want to jump on the boat. Later on, we heard the splashes of large tuna. The next day, I went scuba-diving on the Blue Pearl Reef, right behind Hayman Island. The coral was really pretty, and we finished up the day sailing back to Airlie Beach.

Randomly, while I was in Airlie Beach, I ran into two of my good mates from the Kiwi Experience: Megan and Jake! We had an awesome reunion for 2 days where we hung out at the lagoon all day, and then I headed up to Cairns.

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I arrived in Brisbane and headed straight away to Surfer’s Paradise in the Gold Coast. I took a few surfing lessons for the first few days. While I was there, however, the entire Gold Coast was infested (yes infested) with 17-year-olds aka "Schoolies." They were like little ants everywhere. Apparently, all of the kids had just finished high school and were headed to the Gold Coast to celebrate. And. they. were. so. hyper. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember being like that when I was that age. In any case, it was quite a cultural experience to see groups of 17-18-year-olds walking around in packs. I hadn’t seen that since I was a first year at UVA Take a look at some of the decorations for the Schoolies around town:

Then, I headed down to Byron Bay, a really cool town on the coast that is full of backpackers. I took a walk to the lighthouse there--the easternmost point of Australia--and checked out some surfers, met some cool Aussies from Melbourne, and saw dolphins surfing the waves along the way.