Makenzie's Australian Adventures!: An amazing spring break!

Wow spring break was freaking wonderful! By far the highlight of my trip was going scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef but overall each day was great and full of exciting experiences.

Day 1: Took a flight to Mackay early in the morning and then had to take a 2 hour shuttle to Airlie beach. We finally got to the beach and laid out for a while then had dinner at bar like place thing and went to bed early because we had an early wake up call the next day

Day 2: Great Barrier Reef day! We sailed on a very large boat for about two hours out to the reef. The boat gave us a good breakfast and it felt great to be cruising on the sun. On the way I was asked if I wanted to scuba dive so naturally my adventurous self couldn't say no. I had to go to a meeting that talked about the correct ways to scuba dive and learned some important hand signals. Then when we got to the reef we went snorkeling first which was amazing. I have never seen such blue water in my life and the reef was full of fish and animals so it was beautiful to capture. It was then my turn to scuba dive so I got on all my equipment (that stuff weighs a freakin ton!) and did a little practice in a small pool like area but I didn't have much time to be nervous because before i knew it they were pushing me into the ocean! You have to continue to equalize your ears and at first my ears were not happy about what I was doing but eventually they accepted we were going down unda and stopped giving me a pounding headache! It is truly a different world under the sea. I got to pet a hugeeeeee fish (and I had an underwater camera so when I get the pictures I will post it on here) and my dive master showed me some awesome stuff. I would love to be certified some day and do other dives. After my dive I met back up with my friends, we enjoyed a great buffet lunch and then snorkeled some more and enjoyed a waterslide that went into the ocean. That night we went to a mexican restauraunt for dinner (rare find in Australia) but per usual no queso dip found. Why dont Australians eat queso dip dammit! We then went to this club like place called Africa, which was decked in animal print and was awesome, where we received 5 free drinks a piece which in Aussie land equals at least 55-60 dollars so you didn't see me complaining.

Day 3: Sailing trip!! This day was magical. I saw even bluer water in an area called the Whitsunday straight. First we snorkled and then were given a yummy bbq lunch and free alcohol the rest of the trip so needless to say we had some fun. We then got to go to one of the most treasured beaches in Australia called Whitehaven beach. Whitest sand you could ever picture (photo below) Overall it was a fun day of beaching and sailing. We then had the worst dinner of the trip at some shit restaurant but good thing I was too drunk to care right?

Day 4: Long Island Resort. We sailed to Long Island in the Whitsundays for a day of relaxation. The resort we were dropped at gave us free leis so that made me feel like I was in Hawaii or something haha. We did some hiking on some hiking trails and found a dead turtle. Sad day and he stunk....but yes we still took a picture with him and yes I did wash my hands you nasties. That night we had dinner at a nice restaurant but got shafted and waited for over an hour and the inner manager Kelly came out in me and I had to give them a piece of my mind because people literally sat down ate and left before we even were served.

Day 5: Off to Brisbane! After a long day of travel we made it to a fellow American friends apartment and found ourselves exhausted without much energy so it was an early night.
Day 6: We kayaked the Brisbane river. Pretty awesome minus the river is full of bullsharks. I also learned i SUCK at kayaking. Imagine my two friends in front of me at least half a mile....then theres me paddling as fast and hard as I could and going no where. My athletic abilities clearly do not carry into a kayak...or my method is flawed. Either way don't expect me to save your life in a kayak. We then went to this pool that is surrounded in sand to look like a beach. pretty cool! Overall, Brisbane was a lot like Melbourne.

Day 7: Off to the Gold Coast--SURFERS PARADISE. We took a two hour train...gotta a little lost...but eventually found our way. This was more or less the Panama City of Australia with less alcohol on the beach (because its a dry beach unlike PCB), but a heck of a lot more surfers. The water was still so blue and clear! Crazy! And the waves were literally huge. That night we went to dinner and met up with a friend from Uni for icecream yummmm.

Day 8: Laid at the beach all damn day like a champion followed by a three hour nap followed by dinner and a night at the top ranked club in Australia called Vanity and it was wild!

Day 9: Off to Byron Bay! Went to surfers paradise beach one more time then took a bus to Byron Bay. I love love loved Byron Bay...it was a small yet happy beach town. We were told it was very hippy and to not be surprised if we were offered drugs but luckily that did not happen because that would have been terrifying. But the place definitely had plenty of scooby-doo hippy vans and some narley surfers.

Day 10: Woke up for the sunrise because it is suppose to be on of the best places in the world to see it! But we couldn't find the light house...sad realization at 5 am ugh. Spent the whole day at the beach again at Byron! We also went rock climbing on some rocks that stand as the most eastern point in Australia. Pretty freakin cool minus the poisonous baby jello fish we saw floating in some puddles and god knows what other deadly australian animals. Either way we survived. Then two Aussie guys asked us if we wanted to swim in the water there and I was like uh Im going to do these waves are way to big..this was no gulf coast of mexico waves we are talking like swells but fear not they taught me how to dive under a wave and it was a lot of fun and yes I was careful Mom and no I didn't really think I was going to die and fear not the guys were actually lifeguards so I was safe and sound and I probably won't swim in waves that big again so I just had to do it. YOLO.

Day 11: Attempt 2 of finding the lighthouse for sunrise was a success! And wow it really was beautiful! Spent the morning at the beach then had to ride back to Brisbane for our flight home....or so we thought. Our flight was cancelled......real cool tiger airlines real cool. So we then had to buy a new flight that is suppose to be refunded within the next fews weeks...and it better be considering I don't have 300 dollars to throw around. Or only other option was to stay in the airport until Wednesday night...no thank you!

All in All it was a great trip and I am so lucky to have experienced the whole east coast of Australia!!