I was going to write a blog before the weekend but I ran out of time since I didn’t actually plan the logistics of the weekend until Thursday night. But since not too much actually happened last week, I decided I would just add a paragraph or two to my weekend blog.
The only thing of consequence that did happen last week was pretty cool actually. As the first part of the title of this blog suggests, it has to do with a swim meet. Now, let me remind you, I haven’t actually swam competitively in roughly 4 years. Keeping that in mind, if all goes well, I will be swimming in a meet on July 4th. What?!
So Wednesday night I decided to go swimming since the pool is open until 7:30 during the week and I didn’t think I was going to be around during the weekend to head in. It ended up being awesome just in the fact that it was a really warm night, again I was swimming outside in a 50 m pool except that this time it was at night under the stars. SO COOL. Anyways, so there I was minding my own business when all these people start coming in to the lanes around me and then a random guy in my lane (when there were still 4 lanes completely open). I realized that it was some sort of group and my first thought was masters but I didn’t know if they had that here. Apparently they do. I asked the woman that was one of the ‘coaches’ if I should move but she assured me just to stay. A couple of laps later we randomly ended up getting into a conversation. Long story short, she gave me references to some cool marine bio places, the email of a science education person and invited me to swim in a carnival (meet) on July 4th with them as a guest. I don’t really know how all that happened, but I’m excited! I think I need to register by Tuesday so I hope she emails me back soon.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. The daily lunch ping pong games came to a screeching halt. Probably because Mark isn’t here and he usually initiates and because apparently it’s the end of the financial year and everyone has to reorganize their projects for the coming year, aka its hell week. Unfortunate for me, however, is that the ping pong was one of two things I had to look forward to in a day, haha, the other being going home to eat dinner. Especially now that I started daily counts on the otoliths, I really need something to break up the day. I think I am slowly going insane, or maybe not so slowly. Just to say, the next couple weeks at work are going to be interesting. I am now counting hundreds of tiny little rings in each otolith, oh dear.
Now for the weekend, the fun part. :) As I said, I did basically all the planning the night before I left. It took me like 4 straight hours after work to get all the bus and train schedules sorted out as well as directions and where I was actually going. But it all worked out well! I ended up cutting out a couple things that I was going to do but it was probably all for the best.
So all in all I ended up taking 8 buses/trains in a day and a half, which was actually 5 less than I had originally planned on, which is basically at least 25-30 bucks. Transportation is pretty expensive here, along with everything else. I guess I don’t really know how much public transportation is in the states, but it just seems to be pretty expensive here. Anyways, I left work early on Friday (although apparently leaving at 3 is normal on Fridays here) to catch a train to Nambour then a bus to Noosa Heads. Once I got there I decided to walk around the town a bit to see what was there and to try and locate the general direction of the National Park. The town was hoppin and there were people everywhere. The hostel I stayed in wasn’t like any other hostel I’ve been to. It was all lit up and colorful when I was walking up the hill towards it and it sounded like there were a hundred people there, haha. It was nice though, too bad I was only there for a grand total of 8 hours only 2 of which I was actually asleep. For some reason I was tossing and turning all night. It could have been due to the fact that one of the guys in the room was a mumbling sleeptalker, but still, I usually sleep like a rock. None-the-less, I was getting up at 5 am anyways to try and make it to the Eastern Coast of the National Park to watch the sunrise. Talk about early. It was an awesome walk through at that time though. I thought that walking there in the dark would suck because I couldn’t really see anything, but it actually made it better. 1.) I saw a koala and actually got a picture of it (below) and 2.) I got to see everything on the way back anyways so it was all new. The view walking along at twilight was amazing too. I somehow made it to Hells Gate in 45 minutes when they said it would take 2 hours. Good thing because it was just in time for the sunrise. Let me tell you, if Hells Gate actually looks like that, I’d have no problem going. I went down to Alexandria Cove and stayed there for awhile and took 239401923 pictures. Its amazing how intensely active some people are. At 5:30 in the morning I had 10 people pass me running, by 6:30 there were large groups of runners and by 7 there were runners, walkers, kayakers, swimmers, surfers, etc. Holy crap.
After the National Park, I got on a bus to the Eumundi for the ‘world famous markets’. That was the biggest market I have ever been to, HUGE. Apparently they are the largest in Australia. They were basically the size of the entire town, maybe not quite that large but you catch my drift. It was really awesome, I love markets. Got a few cool things, but probably spent more money on food. I had what was called a potato springy, which was described as chips (fries) on a stick, but was basically a potato cut in a spiral on a stick and fried. So good! I also had a lime macadamia cupcake. Sounds kind of weird but was really good, the lime was in the butter frosting. I met some cool people and heard some didgeridoo music and ended up buying a CD from a guy that played that as well as the saxophone, piano, drums and flute. He also had some of the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, it was crazy. Oh I also saw a guy wearing a koala costume with a shirt on that said ‘butt hunter’ and he was dragging a little red wagon picking up cigarette butts, so funny. I wish I got a picture.
My next adventure was to Nambour which I was going to go to the Big Pineapple, apparently a giant pineapple building with orchards and an animal farm. I didn’t end up going since I only had an hour and a half and according to the bus driver I should spend more like 3 hours there. Also the 5 minute bus ride would have been 7 bucks return and if the bus were late getting back I would have missed the only train to where I was staying Saturday night. So instead I took a bus to Caloundra (instead of the train to Landsborough and bus to Caloundra) which ended up being cheaper, shorter and easier. Since I made it to the hostel in Caloundra earlier than I thought I would, I had time to wander around the town a little bit. Compared to Noosa it was dead, not many people out and about. The hostel itself wasn’t as nice as the one in Noosa but I ended up liking it better. It was quieter and I got a free BBQ dinner and it wasn’t like the ‘dinner’ we had in the hostel in Auckland either. It was literally hot dogs, burgers, chicken and potatoes, pretty much enough food for 3 times the people there. Everyone there was really nice and I had some good conversations with people. There were a couple guys from NZ! Sweet as. I played some pool on the worst pool table that ever existed with a ‘cue ball’ that was more like an oversized golf ball. I eventually got all of them in though. I decided to wake up early again for the sunrise on Golden Beach, I can’t believe I actually got up two mornings in a row, shocking. For future reference, the broadway version of the Circle of Life is an epic song to watch the sunrise too, haha. I had my ipod on shuffle and it came on right when the sun was coming up. Side note, I am still dying to see Lion King on Broadway, it would be SO awesome. Maybe one of these days.
There were also markets in Caloundra this morning. This country really likes markets. What was funny was that some of the stalls that were in Eumundi were in Caloundra, like the same people (the potato springy people for example). I was going to go to the Glasshouse Mountains mid-day, but I ended up not going even though I really wanted to go hiking. But I decided (1) I shouldn’t push my knee, esp since I had been walking so much, (2) I was alone and its generally not a good idea to hike by yourself even though I would have anyways, (3) it would be ~45 minute walk to trail head down a dodgy, in-the-middle-of-nowhere road, again, alone and (4) I was already exhausted from lack of sleep and a steep hike wasn’t really in my cards, haha. Maybe I’ll make it up there at some point, but if not, it’s not too big of deal.
I got home 7 hours earlier than I thought I would so I had time to chill before this week of work which will no doubt be an interesting one. Sorry for the length of this blog! Unless something cool happens this week I probably won’t blog till after my weekend at the reef (hopefully this next weekend)!!!
Fun Fact:
The parking spots along streets here are designed for backing into, some members of my family would epically fail, including myself.
Koala!!
Walk in the Noosa National Park at dawn
Hells Gate
Alexandria Cove
Caloundra
