This is the first time in my life that I haven’t spent Easter with my family. Actually, this is the longest I’ve been away from my family in general. To take my mind off of missing out on the annual Beerster Egg Hunt, I had a very fun filled weekend.
Best hunt ever.
Bear’s friend from home, Justin, came to visit for his spring break. Must be nice to have a friend think you’re worth a $2,000 flight. I wonder what that’s like….
Yeah, I’m talking to you, Greg.
Anyway, Bear and Justin left for Sydney from Sunday-Thursday. I suffered separation anxiety. Who said Bear’s allowed to leave me? I didn’t agree to this. Rude. When they returned from 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney the fun began.
Friday we were invited to join some friends at Crystal Creek. Words can’t express how excited I was. Everyone says going to Crystal Creek is a must. Could not agree more.
When we pulled into the car park (parking lot) I was giddy. I clearly don’t get excited often, so this was a big deal. Instead of taking the normal path up to the water, our friends decided to walk through the rocks and water. Did I mention most of the kids we were with are in the rock-climbing club? Well, Bear, Justin and myself are clearly not a part of this club. We were the last to arrive after a horrendous struggle through the slippery rocks. We were not happy with that walk.
Slipping and sliding left and right
When we finally made it to the spot that our crew had settled on, my jaw dropped. It was so pretty! They weren’t joking when they named it Crystal Creek. The water was so clear and beautiful! There were spots to jump off of and slippery rock seats to sit on in the water. This is also the first time in Australia that the water was actually refreshing. Normally the water is like bath water, but this water actually gave you relief from the excessive heat. I was at peace with the world.
Loving me some Morgan!
The ladies!
Most epic photobomb EVER
This trip has been about facing my biggest fears. I’m afraid of being alone, so I flew out here without knowing a soul. I’m afraid of weird food, so I ate ox tongue, crocodile, and kangaroo. I’m afraid of snakes, so I’ve taken every opportunity to hold one. I’m afraid of heights, so I decided to jump off one of the high rocks at Crystal Creek. It was such an adrenaline rush! I had to have jumped about 5 or 6 times. So awesome!
I lost my entire bathing suit on this one. Classy.
Video clip of the Vas Happenin’ jump I made for Leslie
Boo-yah!
After we were done jumping, we headed farther up to go to the natural rockslides. I watched as the rock-climbing club kids scaled a rock wall to get over. Even Justin made it over. Bear and I were having none of that so we took the long path around.
Casual stroll
This spot was even more beautiful than the last! It was also a lot less crowded. The water rushed down through the rocks to create a smooth slide. Most fun I’ve ever had!! I couldn’t go down the slides enough. I freakin’ love nature.
Again, everyone was teasing me about the excessive use of my phrases, “I’m so excited!” and “This is the best day ever!” I can’t help it. I really was excited and it really was the best day ever. I just love life and Australia.
So much excitement
Determined not to lose my top this time
Is there more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking?
After we were done with the rockslides, we moved on yet again to another part of Crystal Creek, which was more of a swimming hole. It was perfect, just like the rest of Crystal Creek. We swam around for a while and then relaxed on some rocks over-looking the water. We decided to throw chips into the water after spotting a fish. You know I love fishes so I was obviously thrilled. One of the kids took my underwater camera and started chasing fish. There was also an eel. Eels freak me out. I didn’t get back in the water. At least my friend got a few good shots of it!
Playing in the water!
Such a lovely group of people
Hi Justin!
Such an awesome swimming spot
FISH
MORE FISH
Eeeeek, eel.
I don’t like it. Don’t like it at all.
We then went to a picnic area and watched everyone walk a tight rope type thing. I attempted and failed epically. I can’t even keep my balance on solid ground. I have no idea why I ever bothered. It’s all okay though because I saw a kookaburra! Oh my gosh, they are just the absolute cutest. It’s probably my new favorite bird ever. I just want to hold it and tell it it’s pretty.
You’re pretty
And I love you
Be my friend
On the way home, we stopped at the Frosty Mango to get some ice cream. I don’t even want to talk about how good it tastes and how they grow all their own fruit that they use to make the ice cream because it’ll just make me sad that I don’t have some right now. Damn, now I want some. Ugh. What a perfect ending to a perfect day! Best day ever!!
The next day Bear, Justin and I woke up bright and early to visit Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island to the locals. I’ve read about Maggie Island before I even got accepted to JCU. I’m not joking when I said I was all about this for years. This was my first visit to the island. So exciting! Sorry, but it was exciting.
Bear and I have this issue where we never plan things and we just kind of do what we want when we want. Unfortunately, this means we didn’t check the bus schedule. We woke up at 8:30 to get to the bus stop by 9:30. There was no bus. There was no bus for over an hour. Being determined, we called a cab. Why would we let a little thing like no transportation stop us? The cab cost us a pretty penny, but we made it just in time for the next ferry. Sometimes not planning things out works out pretty perfectly.
G’day Maggie
We arrived at Jurassic Park, I mean, Maggie Island and hopped on a bus with no idea what we were doing or where we were going. Typical. We got off at Horseshoe Bay and found out we had to walk back to a bus stop we passed to get snorkel gear. Exercise!
So much nature
Work it
We walked back to Bungalow Bay Koala Sanctuary to rent our gear. I also bought a shirt as my first souvenir for myself. Okay, my mom bought it for me since I used my emergency credit card. Thanks mom! You’re the best! But this was totally an emergency; I needed a shirt that said Koala Sanctuary on it. Duh.
We set off with our goggles, flippers, and stinger suit! We looked quite silly walking to nowhere in particular with our gear. Well, we kind of knew where we were going. A 20 minute walk they said, 20 minutes my butt. We were walking 20 minutes before we even reached the road we were supposed to turn down. We started our trek down the winding road when we came across a group of young men who looked at us desperately and asked, “How far to the road?” in exhausted voices. Great, so that’s going to be us. Not a good sign.
Suddenly, a miracle happened. As we were walking past what were clearly T-Rex footprints, a Jurassic Park jeep drove past us and stopped to let out 2 women. We must’ve looked desperate because the owner of Jurassic Park, I mean, some guy who looked like the guy who owned Jurassic Park asked us if we wanted a ride. Halleluiah!
So Jurassic Park, I can’t even handle it
I know you’re not supposed to get into cars with strangers, but you would do the same thing in our situation. The drive was a bumpy one and I kept turning around to see when the T-Rex would come out and chase us. I’m not even kidding, it looked like Jurassic Park. He told us he’s lived on the island for 15 years and was telling us the best spots to visit. He was coincidently going to Florence Bay, where we were headed. He showed us the best spot to snorkel and told us about a short cut to get back.
A T-Rex should’ve popped out
Don’t invest in his park.
We put on our stinger suits and headed out into the water. Sad to say, the visibility was awful. We couldn’t see anything until it was right in front of our faces. That made me nervous since my face wasn’t covered by a stinger suit. It would be my luck for me to swim right into a box jellyfish or a shark’s mouth. We gave up the snorkeling after about 15-20 minutes. Instead we laid on the beach and relaxed. It was beautiful!
Me and the lovely Bear
Justin and his little bear
Getting our snorkel on
Sup
Saw SOME fish, but not much else
Spot the fish
I was bashed into these rocks a couple times
How I entertain myself
When it was time for us to head back, we decided to follow the old man’s short cut. This led us through the rain forest. The mostly hidden wooden trail ended. We had no idea where we were. This is when I decided to make up a horror movie staring the 3 of us where the old man set us on this path on purpose to lead us to our doom. A half an hour into this jungle hike made my horror movie seem pretty believable. Oops.
Goodbye beach!
Too pretty
Is this place even real?
I didn’t take many pictures during this hike because I was dying and we were in a rush to get the heck out of there. At some point we came across a butterfly forest. There were hundreds of butterflies all around us. It was magical! This one section made the whole adventure worth it. I could not think of a more mystical place to walk through. It was absolutely incredible. I didn’t snap any pictures because the butterflies were too fast and my camera was too slow, but just trust me on this.
Clearly a trap set up for us
When we finally emerged from the jungle, we caught a bus back to the koala sanctuary. We returned our gear and set off back to Horseshoe Bay for dinner. Once we were happily fed we strolled to the beach to gaze at the stars.
There were so many stars! I was freaking out, as usual. It was just the prettiest sight ever and it made me so happy! We sat on a bench and just stared. After a few minutes of chatting, we had a little visitor. This random dog just came over and sat next to me in the sand. What! The owner was nowhere to be found and this dog was just straight chilling. He got up to check out other people, but he came back to sit with us. When we got up to catch the bus, the dog came up with us and tried to get on the bus! Guess we’re better than his real owners. We couldn’t get him to leave! He just wanted to go for a ride with us. It was the cutest thing ever. Apparently he belongs to someone on the island and they just let him do his thing. Interesting. When we got on the bus, people were asking us where our dog was. I wish he was my dog! I wish I had a dog. Hint, hint, mom.
We named him “Joey Baha” Don’t ask.
The next day was Easter for us in Australia and it was also Justin’s last day. Sad face! Bear and I convinced Justin to try vegemite and his reaction was hilarious. Vegemite is just awful. We then went out to hunt wallabies. We searched for about an hour out in the bush behind the colleges, but could not find one. When we gave up, we took a short cut back to George Roberts through another college. Disappointed, I looked to my left and spotted 3 wallabies hanging out by someone’s back door! Oh my gosh, they were the cutest things ever. I got pretty close to them to snap pictures. I can’t…I just can’t even. I want one to keep and love forever. They’re so much better than the vicious Temple University squirrels I have to deal with at home. Wallabies > squirrels.
HI
Please let me pet you
And take you home
And love you forever
Later that day we dropped Justin off at the airport and I almost cried. I’ve only known him for a few days, but my eyes teared up! This makes me nervous about how I’m going to react when I have to be forcibly removed from this country. I’m just going to lose it. I’m also going to cry my eyes out when I’m reunited with my best friend, Leslie. I’m just so full of emotions and I don’t know what to do with them!!
No way I’m not crying when we reunite
The next day was Easter for those of you in the states. That means that my family started calling me at 7am and wouldn’t stop until I answered. I could have killed them. It was nice to see my whole family via FaceTime, but I would’ve much preferred to see them after I slept a solid 8 hours for once. Oh well.
Some kids from George Roberts decided to have a college family trip to Crystal Creek again. I totally did not object and hopped right on that. Bear and I were off yet again to Crystal Creek. This time we went to Little Crystal Creek as opposed to Big Crystal. Follow me? Good.
Little Crystal was not much of anything besides a frighteningly high jump known as “Devil’s Leap.” Since I’m all brave now and whatnot, I was prepared to jump. That is, until I looked down. Not having it. Not having one bit of it! You had to avoid a smaller rock jump below it and then hurdle to your inevitable death. Have fun with that one boys, but I value my life. Bear, Meredith, Emily, and myself opted to sit by a little pool of water while everyone else risked their lives. It was quite relaxing.
Yeah, no way I’m jumping
At least it’s pretty
Much more relaxing
Hiiiiii butterfly!
Once everyone was bored with their antics, we headed off to Big Crystal yet again. It’s definitely my new favorite spot in the world. We did the rockslides again and chilled out on the rocks. Just another perfect day in paradise.
Oh, and you know how I mentioned Jeremy Wade in my one blog and referred to him as my boyfriend? Well, if you didn’t read it, you should (Reaping the Benefits). Well, I happened to have emailed him after a long night of drinking (water of course…) and I told him to read my blog because I mentioned him. Awkward moment when he emails me and tells me he read it.
“Hi Arielle
Good to hear from you again. It sounds like you’re having a great time in Oz — your blog conveys a level of enthusiasm for everything around you that puts me to shame!
Great to hear that you’ve somehow managed to fit in some fishing along with everything else. I’m not even sure if I’ve caught one of those before. And I wouldn’t worry too much about not watching much TV….
With best wishes
Jeremy”
Really? I should stop saying ridiculous things to show hosts, 90’s pop singers, and food places. I think these people won’t read what I say, but then they do. And I feel awkward. I need to watch my ridiculous mouth. Oh well.
I tweet this to Aaron Carter
So he follows me.
Less awkward, but still. Damn, I miss Jimmy John’s so much.
You’d think Britney would answer me by now, but no 😦
A Broad Abroad 