Sky Diving and White Water Rafting

It's ok moms - we made it through in one piece so you can relax now!

Words can hardly explain the sky diving. It was an amazing experience, which we both really enjoyed. We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we're hoping to do another one in New Zealand! It really was crazy though. It was a cloudy day, but it was neat how once we got to 14,000 where we were to jump from, we were through the clouds, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining. We both agree that the free fall was the best. You jump out of the plane, and it's at that instant that it hits you that you just jumped out of a prefectly good plane to fall through the air! It was fantastic though, and once we broke through the clouds our view was spectacular: ocean, tropical islands, beach, the town of Mission, and all of the surrouding area. Seriously breathtaking. By this point our parachutes have been opened, and we're just gliding around in the air. After taking it all in, we had a soft landing on the beach, and just like that it was all over! It went by so quickly, but luckily we can re-live it time and time again by watching the dvd we both purchased. Hopefully we can get that online so you can all see our dives! Also keep you eye on our picture sight, as we got photos done as well.

Our next day in Mission we went White Water Rafting on the Tully River, and that was amazing as well! It was the first time for both of us for rafting, and we really enjoyed it. We had a fantastic guide named Rod. He was hilarious, and we both felt really safe in his raft. We didn't tip once, except for when Rod tiped us out intentionally! There were many different rapids, and the highest ones we did were a grade 4, which is quite high. All in all we did about 4 and a half hours of rafting, which was broken up by a BBQ lunch on the side of the river. It was all great fun, and hopefully we'll get the pictures and dvd posted for that as well so you can have a look yourself!

Tonight it's off to Cairns on the 5:20pm bus, and we'll be doing a trip out onto the Great Barrier Reef for some diving. The sun came out today for the first time in weeks, so we're quite excited about that and we hope it sticks around for the rest of our trip up the coast!

Magnetic Island

So on the 23rd we headed up to Townsville where we caught a ferry over to Magnetic Island. After settling in, Brin and I headed to the hostel's eatery where Brin bought me a birthday supper and some carrot cake for dessert! The next morning we awoke to sunshine, which was thrilling, as we haden't seen any in days! While we were making ourselves some lunch we ran into Kerry from Scotland, and Freddie from Italy, who we'd met on our Whitsundays trip and who came out to celebrate my b-day. We got along with them swell and invited them to join us on a walk to a look-out on the island. The afternoon/evening turned out to be gorgous, and our walk was splendid. It took us up to a lookout where we could see all over the island, as well as Townsville. After our walk we invited the girls to join us for some chilli and rice, and then the four of us headed to the bar where we persuaded the bartender to let us watch Grey's Anatomy. Unfotunately, Brin and I got hooked to this program while we were in Byron, so every Sunday is spent sweet talking someone to let us watch it! That concluded our time on Magnetic, as the next morning we caught the ferry back to Townsville and then spent 4 hours on the bus up to Mission Beach. We're scheduled to do our 14,000 foot skydive tomorrow afternoon, but it has continued to rain so we'll have to wait and see if we get to go tomorrow. We'll keep you posted!

Birthday Bash in Airlie

Upon returning to Airlie from the Whitsundays on the 22nd, the majority of our crew met for drinks at one of the hostels. Brin and I decided it would be a good night to celebrate my 21st, as we'd just met so many amazing people that were heaps of fun. So the night began at the hostel bar, and after a sing-song "Happy Birthday" at the stroke of midnight, a crew of about 10 of us headed to a club called "Mama Africa." It was a dance bar, and our crew had a wicked time laughing and dancing until 5am when the club closed. It turned out that 5 of us had the same bus the next morning at 9:30, so we got to have a good laugh and share stories from the night before. Was a great birthday, and I couldn't have asked for a much better way to celebrate!

Whitsundays

Brin and I embarked on our tour of the Whitsundays on the 19th of June on a boat called "Habibi". The weather was cold and drab the whole time, but it didn't keep us from having a good time! Like our Fraser trip, we ended up having a pretty stellar crew, and we met people from Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, England, and Germany. We left the harbour at Airle Beach around 2pm, and by the time we got to the bay we were headed to, it was already dark. So we just sat around, tried to keep warm, and got to know one another. We also had a stellar BBQ supper. The next morning we were dropped off on Whitehaven island, and unfortunately it started to rain just as we got off. However, that did not deter us! The ocean water was warm, so a bunch of us stripped down to our swimmers and went for a swim in the ocean. All the while it's raining cats and dogs! It was great fun, and we ended up swimming back to the boat! Later that afternoon we sailed to another bay where we got suited up in wetsuits and snorkel gear, and we hopped in the water to check out the reef. The different corals and fish were amazing, and Brin and I ended up being the last to get out of the water, as we were so enthralled with everything we were seeing! We bought an underwater camera in Airlie, so hopefully our pics of the reef will turn out. After the snorkel it was back on the boat, but about 2 hours later we were back in the water to check out another reef. Again, it was amazing, and we really enjoyed it! By this time in the day everyone had gotten to know each other quite well, so after another fantastic supper we all gathered around to play some drinking games. It turned out to be a hilarious night, and many laughs were had. The next morning we set sail back to Airlie, and although the weather had been nothing but cold and rainy, the memories we have will last a lifetime, and we met heaps of wonderful people. Well worth the trip!

Fraser Island

We just got back to our hostel in Hervey Bay after a 3 day, 2 night 4x4 adventure on Fraser Island, which is the world's largest sand island. Besides the weather being a bit crappy the first two days, the trip was a blast! We were in a group of 11 people all up: 3 from England, 3 from France, 1 from Ireland, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from Germany. It was a super group, and we all got along splendidly. We actually just ordered in pizza, and we're going to hang out here at the hostel tonight and have a few drinks.

So for the 3 days, we traveled by cruiser to all the famous spots on Fraser Island:Lake McKenzie, Indian Head, Eli Creek, and Lake Wabby.

Lake McKenzie was definately the highlight. It's a freshwater lake on the middle of Fraser, and it had the whitest sand and bluest water that we've ever seen. When we visited it first it was a cold and rainy day, but we got to go back for our final day on Fraser and it was surreal. We played in the lake, had chicken fights, and played ball with our poop scoop shovel against another tour group.

Lake Wabby was pretty cool too: tons and tons of sand surrounding another freshwater lake.

And it was at Indian head that we saw our first dingos (wild dogs), manta rays, whales, and other wildlife.

Our nights were spent camping out, and although it was a bit cool at night to sleep, we had a great time sitting around and getting to know on another. An all around superb time, and some great friends were made. We spend tomorrow in Hervey, and then it's a 13 hour, overnight bus ride to Airlie Beach where we'll do our sailing trip out on the Whitsundays!

Hope all is well back home and we'll update you again soon!

Oh- and pics are up from Fraser, so check 'em out!