All aboard the Sunlander

Since my return to Canada, there have been several instances that reminded of my incredible experience down under. One particular moment occurred over Halloween weekend when I traveled to visit my best friend Katie in Kingston. 

I knew November would be filled with reports, presentations, and far too many exams for my liking, so I needed to be productive during this 6 hour mission from London, ON to Kingston, ON. I decided I would purchase a highly inflated Via Rail ticket to capitalize on their free wi-fi and comfortable seating. I knew the Greyhound bus would be considerably cheaper but I was insistent on taking the train. $200 later, I arrived to find out there was a problem with the train and we would all be downgraded to a Greyhound bus which meant no Internet and definitely no plugs to charge my laptop. It’s safe to say I was slightly annoyed.  

How does this remind me of my wonderful experience in Australia? Throughout the four weeks I took several flights to travel across different states of the country; however, there is no direct flight from Cairns to Airlie Beach. I had the opportunity to take the Queensland Rail which was a refreshing break from the security and waiting times associated with flying!

Check out their website !

The train was called The Sunlander and it was a quite beautiful view from my window of the countryside along the way - I was used to seeing nothing but clouds!

It was also great because there was plenty of food on the train - something you don’t get when you take the bus. The food wasn’t typical airplane food either, I purchased a gourmet veggie burger that took me a good hour to finish - it was huge! 

They had different rooms in the train that you could walk through - one room playing movies, one to serve food, one for sleeping, and even one that served alcohol! 

I ended up meeting an older gentleman, who of course recognized me by my ‘accent’. He informed me that he was also born in Canada and is actually friends with the father of ultra dreamy Canadian actor, Ryan Reynolds. 

Overall, the Queensland rail experience was more than I was expecting - I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.  

.. I’m thinking they need to bring Queensland Rail to Canada, Via Rail is so overrated !

My day as a zoo keeper!

Today I got to spend the day working as a zoo keeper... well not exactly, but I did shadow one! They had me doing everything from feeding sick koalas to cleaning up wombat poop!

My day in Brisbane started with an early taxi ride to The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where I was quickly introduced to the 'ins and outs' of zoo keeping.

I started off with the macropods (kangaroos and wallabies) where we had to interrupt a few roos for breakfast!

A very friendly emu came by to have a snack for herself - she was super cuddly and enjoyed her long neck being hugged... so cute.

There have been a number of different kangaroo species that I have had the opportunity to observe during my travels in Australia and today I met my first swamp kangaroo! Kind of reminds me of a raccoon.

Next I made my way to the zoo hospital where they employ a full time veterinarian to care for the many ill animals. I was lucky enough to visit on a day where two baby dingos had just arrived.

They had yet to be vaccinated and because I had recently been in contact with dogs, I wasn't able to cuddle them:( It was enough just to see them though!

 Next we got a feed some koalas a special paste filled with supplements. Considering they are such picky eaters and limit their diet to eucalyptus, they sure enjoyed the medicine!

My favorite part of the day had to be bringing Smiggins, the alpine dingo, for a walk! Naturally a dingo photo shoot took place.

Walking Smiggins looked and felt very similar to walking my own dog - it was great! Dingos have evolved from wolves and unlike dogs, do not bark - only howl!  

My next task as a true zoo keeper involved some manual labor. Each day the koalas home is cleared of old and used eucalyptus and they are supplied a fresh batch - they are quite spoiled really! It took about a half hour to tear down and set back up, but seeing how happy they were to see fresh food was so so worth it!

The Lone Pine Sancturary holds a Guinness record for having the world's oldest Koala, Sarah, who died in 2001 at 23 years old! Can you spot this koala's baby Joey?

When the Joey is old enough to leave the mother's pouch it will ride on her back, like this!

Later Nick introduced me to Eric the olive python! I'm still not a fan of snakes, but luckily I've improved from running away to cautiously observing from a distance.

I finished off my day as a zoo keeper with a Birds of Prey presentation which featured the snow owls you may recognize from the Harry Potter series.

I am now finishing off my trip in Sydney and was treated to a delicious dinner by one of my trip coordinators, Virginia. We dined at a very exclusive restaurant, Billy Kwong, and I tried Australian pumpkin - which isn't limited to the Thanksgiving holidays here! 

I can't believe this is all ending, back to Canada on Sunday! 

Whitsunday Island Cruising!

After a 12 hour train ride from Cairns, I arrived in Airlie Beach!

During my 3 night stay my accommodations were incredibly fabulous. I was upgraded from the hostel to the resort life - swim up bar pools and everything! The first place I stayed was Club Crocodile, which despite the youthful name was really quite impressive. Check out the pool!

After a great sleep in my private room I traveled to the marina where I boarded the Seaflight cruise to the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped at a point on The Great Barrier Reef and spent the day on their super innovative pontoon. It had sundecks for tanning, underwater viewing chambers of the reef, and a WATER SLIDE!

There were a number activities you could participate in during the day including scenic helicopter rides and private glass bottom boat rides.

In addition to snorkeling, the cruise offered diving - where I easily jumped at the chance to use my new certification. There was one other certified diver that I buddied up with. We did two dives at a location on the reef called The Knuckle Reef.

My favorite fish I discovered was The Humbug.

There was an underwater photographer that you could pose for - pretty cool! Really great idea for a cruise of this kind, he hung out all day taking pictures of snorkelers, guests on the slide or even couples looking for a photo opp. On the ferry back he displayed the images on each of the flat screens.

Unlike my dive boat cruise where we did a 'giant stride' into the water, this cruise had us swim off of a lower level platform.

At the end of the day I checked into Long Island Resort which was crazy awesome! They had pools and a jacuzzi of course but what really made it special were the kangaroos I woke up to just outside of my private room! I was steps away from the ocean and was treated to scrumptious buffet meals, just like a true vacationer.

The next day I embarked on my fully inclusive Camira Sailing adventure - aka free alcohol! The Camira is one of the world's fastest sailing catamarans.

It was windy while we were traveling to the snorkeling site but it was perfect tanning weather when we rested. I met a group of American College students traveling Australia that I hit it off with - the free alcohol  and buffet meals definitely helped get the introductions started! 

 

After some lunch and snorkeling we traveled to Whitehaven Beach where the movie 'Fool's Gold', starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, was filmed! We had about an hour there so we played a few games of soccer and beach volleyball.

I finished the day with a swim and jacuzzi at my new resort, Day Dream Island. I was sad to leave this fabulous place but the personal send off was a nice way to top off the weekend.

I spent the day exploring Airlie Beach and doing some shopping, followed by a short flight to Brisbane (pronounced Bris-bin).

Can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow! Every day gets better and better.. not sure how I'll say goodbye :(

Exploring the Great Barrier Reef... literally

When I initially won this incredible competition I was asked if there were any specific activities I was interested in getting involved with. In addition to asking to spend as much time with kangaroos as possible, I also expressed interest in scuba diving in the legendary Great Barrier Reef. Little did I know that this would be the best part of my trip so far.

I recently returned from my 3 day/2 night liveaboard adventure with Prodive Cairns, where I literally lived on a cruise boat with 32 other divers for 3 days.

The trip began with a bumpy ride to the reef - luckily we had great weather and motion sickness pills! I hit it off early with a few passengers my age, but by the end of the trip I had a chance to learn a bit  about everyone.

The trip involved a total of 9 dives throughout 3 days - one dive being a night dive! Learning how to come in and out of the gear was quite confusing at first, but after 9 dives we all seemed to figure it out without needing too much assistance from our instructors.

Our days consisted of waking up shortly after 6 am to start the first dive, followed by a huge buffet breakfast, another dive, huge lunch, another dive... you get the picture.

We pretty much spent the days diving and eating, but we of course made time to work on our tans!

Each dive began with Digby, one of the Prodive instructors, briefing us on how to navigate throughout that particular reef and informing us on what underwater species we should keep an eye out for. He was a big fan of visual aids!

After gearing up and completing our 'buddy checks', we entered the water one at a time - one hand on our weight belts and the other on our mask and mouth piece.

Our skipper Kent safely navigated us from reef to reef where I did multiple dives on both Milln and Flynn reef.

Some of my favorite under water discoveries were sea turtles, sting rays and even a few white tip reef sharks!! Prodive  had a bunch of underwater cameras you could rent out for a dive which quickly became the popular thing to do.

By the end of the tour most of us had become really close and decided to celebrate passing scuba school and getting our certifications with dinner and lots and lots of drinks! The group was a range of all ranges from kids as young as ten and seniors in their sixties. Most of the younger crew made it out to a bar later called The Woolshed, and the real troopers continued celebrating back at Gilligans Hostel.

Overall it was an incredible 3 days in Cairns (pronounced Cans), Australia. The trip could not have been as successful as it was if we didn't have our amazingly entertaining crew.

Thank you Tourism Australia for setting me up with Prodive and giving me an experience I will never forget!

Jungle Tour

It has been a few days since my last post, as I have been literally living on a boat for the past 3 days! More of that later, for now I'll share my one day Go Wild tour of Cape Tribulation.


It was another early morning as I was collected from my hostel at 7AM by Jungle Tours. We had a lot to see in a short amount of time, starting with a visit to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary.

Here I was able to interact with many of the Aussie animals I've seen during past tours. There were however a few reptiles that I was newly introduced to, including Charlie the crocodile and Jungle girl the Python!

I met a few French Canadians who got their first chance at feeding a roo!

Found another wallaby with a joey - this one has hair, much cuter !

After lunch and a quick swim in the Mossman Gorge, the 15 of us took a cruise on the Daintree River looking for some crocodiles! We ran into a couple of huge crocs and got to take a few pictures. They were harmless and kept to themselves; however, there was a note on the bus reminding everyone that crocs can jump - don't want to hang body parts off the railing!

We also spotted a baby bat taking a nap in the tree, along with a few tree snakes.

Our last stop was Cape Tribulation Beach where we played in the sand, collected sea shells and some of the boys took a swim in the ocean.

On the way home we spotted this neat sign - pretty much everyone took photographs beside it.

Tonight I'm headed out for dinner and drinks with the whole gang from our diving trip - cannot wait to post pictures!