I interrupt the chronology of the blog to the here and now... April 8th, 2011. A great friend of mine challenged me with a verse from the Bible the other day and it really got me thinking. I was so overwhelmed with amazement that I wanted to share some of the things I was reminded of. As I began to think there were two other parts of scripture that came to my mind. Although I dislike sharing just bits and pieces of the Bible while mentioning nothing about the context of the words around them... these verses speak concisely of the themes of God's grace repeated over and over throughout scripture. They are both instances of the apostle Paul describing it. The first comes from Galatians 2:19-21
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
The second comes from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Wow, how much punch are in those words. Where we are weak, He is strong. Where we fail, He can succeed. Where we are unfaithful, He is faithful. What is absolutely not possible for us is entirely possible for Him. Grace is an undeserved gift that costs the giver everything and the receiver nothing. What have we done that God should extend such mercy and abundant provision to us? I'd like to think that God's grace is all around us every day. That it includes everything from the our salvation in Christ to the ability to get out of bed on two feet and live another miraculous day. One of the biggest illustrations that I have come across was when I took a cell biology class where we took a detailed look at the cell, how it functions, and how it works together with literally trillions of other cells to enable us to experience life as we know it. We depend on hundreds of microscopic events and meticulous chemical reactions in each of these cells every moment to sustain life... and an extremely high percentage of time it all works perfectly. His grace something I will never really grasp... it's so unlike anything else that I've ever known. It doesn't make logical sense. In our world, there is no free lunch and you have to earn what you get. How grateful I am that the focus is not on what we do, it is on what He has done. When His work on the cross was through, He said "It is finished!" And there is nothing that can or needs to be added or taken away from that. Because this is true we are not stuck in a place where we have to impress God, where it is a constant score board in a game that is impossible to win. Instead we can fall before Him, admit where we come up short and have confidence that He will come through where we really need it. Somehow, if we extend ourselves in faith, even if it seems the most awkward and in-effective thing ever... He can still work with that!!! If we stumble over words when we try and tell others about Him... He can use that! He can make something beautiful from some of the smallest acts of our obedience. And He ALLOWS us to be a part of the process. He could have chosen to do it all Himself, or chosen to avoid working in the lives of a human beings altogether. After all, it is a huge mess most of the time because if we are honest, all of us have our share of ugly, nasty, tough stuff. Even the best person in the world has fallen short of perfection. But instead of standing back He has gotten intimately involved... in such a way that He allows us to be a part of His work in each other's lives. How cool is it to see this happening. To have these relationships, to encourage and sharpen each other? To experience Him in ways that we would not otherwise know if He wouldn't have chosen to use us as vessels of His work. To become clearly aware that on our own we are completely lacking. But with Him working in our hearts, and in other ways we are not even aware of... great things can happen. To realize by experience that HE is the way, the truth, and the life and ALL other roads lead to some form of destruction... something less than a life changing and saving connection to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. To see that He really is worthy of all the praise we can ever give Him, that He is the only one who is unshakable, the only one who will never leave our side, the only one who has claimed victory over sin and death, who we can ALWAYS depend on even when others let us down, who rules over all, who never changes, is always faithful, and who no one can stop. And He has made a way for us to be WITH HIM. Not because we did anything to deserve Him, but just because He is that good. WOw. Incredible. And it's funny... this whole train of thought... which is nothing new, but such an encouragment to me... started from what God placed on a friend's heart to share. That is pretty cool too.
Friday, April 8, 2011
New Zealand Finale with Mt. Cook + Australia Zoo, North Keppel Island, & Fraser Island
wow, the traveling schedule is intense and so much time has gone by! my, the blog has fallen behind! craziness! so lets get to it... after the unique encounter with the brazil guy on the last night in queenstown....
Wednesday, 2/23, day 34: travel day from Queenstown to Mt. Cook. 4 hours of driving that felt like 8. i was very tired this day, feeling the lack of sleep! the drive between these two cities is beautiful as Mt. Cook is a small backpacker village surrounded by mountains on all sides basically... every morning it was like wow, what a view to wake up to! in a way it kinda reminds me of estes park in colorado for anyone that has been there. less touristy than most places, lots of stuff to do outside which is nice. lots of single or multiple day hikes, things to do on the surrounding glaciers, and the hostile was very nice... cabin-like feel to it, all wood. had some of the best nights of sleep here!
Thursday, 2/24, day 35:
today steph, trick, alli and i took a 7 hour round hike up to a place Mueller Hut and back. started early, beautiful morning, crisp, cool air, comfortable temp. this consisted of a bit of a walk to the base of the mountain, a steep section of dirt/rock with wooden beams stuck in the ground forming 'steps' then a section that was completely rocks... big boulder types and smaller types... lots of rock hopping in this section. this lead into a flattened part where the hut was. all up this climb was fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, the valley where the village was settled into, a mountain lake and other smaller pond like bodies of water and Mt. Cook of course, standing head and shoulders taller than everything else around. good story about Mt. Cook... it was the practice ground used to help a man climb Mt. Everest. this is the mountain that Sir Edmund Hillary, a new zealander, trained to be the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. pretty cool. beautiful hike, simply amazing. i thought several times how convenient having 4 eyes would be... two eyes to look at where my feet where going and two to look around to see all the incredible creation around me. however it was a blessing to have two to see with! it is amazing to think about the eye... whenever i take a picture i am reminded how masterfully it is made. the eye can see great distances as well as things close up... small objects and big ones... together with the brain it can calculate distances, space, depth... it can pick up the most wonderful colors, light and dark, contrast, shading... on and on. no other camera or lens that man makes can do the things that they eye can. every picture never compares to seeing it through my two eyes. i get so used to them... looking through them every day that i forget what incredible masterpieces from God's hand that they are. another neat thing about this stuff is finding out what is over the next corner or hill... when we finally arrived where the rock flattened out, suddenly we were among glaciers and peaks that we had no idea existed on the way up. the nice thing about a day hike is you can take a light backpack instead of the full on heavy duty one. makes the hike much easier! once at Mueller Hut we met a guy from Germany and ate lunch with him there. good guy. crazy how everyone is a unique life and each person's life story is different. the return trip was just as beautiful as the way up was. once we got back to our hostile we had some nice down time before making pizza from scratch for supper. we watched the new zealand made movie 'whale rider' to round out the night.
Friday, 2/25, day 36
Travel day from Mt. Cook to Christchurch International airport. got to sleep in today which was very nice. took it very slow driving the 5 hours because we were going to stay the night in the airport and wanted to spend the least amount of time there as possible. i had my first NZ 'pie' today. pies are very popular here, almost like a cheeseburgers back home... a fast, take on the run meal, lots of street shops... and like the fish and chips places, and you can get them almost everywhere. they are like a hot pocket, except in miniature pie shape that can fit in your hand, usually with some sort of combination of meat and veggies filling in the middle. the pie i had was sort of a beef stew pie. pretty good. the airport was better than we expected after the earthquake, and it even had water and toilets working again. we had a small picnic for supper, where we made a communal pile of different snacks that everyone nibbled on. we all rolled our sleeping bags out and made a nice 'camp out' area with all our stuff. first time ive slept in an airport, kind of odd but it worked! nighty night!
Saturday, 2/26, day 37
woke up in the airport at 3:45 am today to prepare for 6 am flight. i was so concerned about making sure the weight in my bags met the standards that i made a small error in forgetting to put toiletries and suncreen in my bag that was checked... and therefore i lost that stuff because of the no liquids and gels rule in carry-ons. nuts! it was "a bit of a tragedy" (a phrase often used here) because sunscreen is so expensive... you pretty much dont go outside for any extended period of time with out it. they have this saying it goes something like 'slip, slop, slap'. slip on your sunnies (sunglasses) slop on the sunscreen and slap on a hat... something like that at least. anyways, the plane was very nice. each seat had a digital screen on the back of it so each passenger could enjoy movies, games, and music during the flight. the routine briefing of the safety features on the plane was quite comical because instead of the standard airline employee describing the policies and procedures we had the privilege of watching about 10 members from the "All Blacks" rugby team (new zealand's national team) take us through the drill. it was great. hearing things like "if you need to stretch your hammies, feel free to leave your seat if the seat belt sign is off" (this doesnt do it justice because the accent makes it all the better) or watching a player try the ironic demonstration on how the seat cushion can be used as a flotation device when it seems that in no way could this object keep such a hulk of a man afloat. these guys are highly revered in by new zealanders. to be on the All Blacks squad is quite the honor... the country is quite patriotic over their rugby. for those in nebraska, it would be similar to having husker players and coaches teach you about the safety features... can you imagine Mr. Bo Pelini giving you an airplane talk?? good fun. I watched two movies: 'unstoppable' with denzel washington and '127 hours' with james franco. provided good entertainment and kept me from becoming a complete zombie because i was quite tired. we arrived safely in Brisbane, taking our first steps in Australia. we loaded our gear into our new van and trailor and headed to the Australia Zoo, home of the famous steve irwin, the crocodile hunter. this was quite the place and it does not do it justice to simply say that we saw many cool animals there. i experienced another 'first' in this zoo... i fed a living breathing hopping kangaroo. they had a big open area for them where a guy could go, walk around and feed them, hang out with them. they were very accustomed to this so they were quite comfortable around us. very interesting. we also saw one of their shows which was very neat... including a croc in action! after the zoo we drove about 45 minutes to Noosa, where we stayed at a hostile called the Noosa Flashpacker. It had free internet... a huge bonus if you are writing a blog! we were about a 10 minute jog away from the beach so i took full advantage of that. it was perfectly clear, hot day. the day was beautiful so it made for a great run especially after being cooped up in a plane earlier. there were lots of people on the beach, many with their dogs playing catch with frisbees or sticks. many different activities going on... picnics, sand castles, walkers, joggers, sun bathers, swimmers, hang gliders... lots of people having good old fashioned fun. a good place to be for sure. i apologize again for this being so poorly written... time is of the essence! the heat is intense here... that kind of heavy, humid, sticky, inescapable, punishing heat that occurs in Nebraska on the hottest days. The type of heat and humidity that happens on a sunny day after it has rained a bunch. makes it a good challenge to run in for sure. today i ran right next to the edge of the gentle rhythmic flow of the water as the waves came onto the beach, always right next to it. if i looked straight out, my peripheral vision did not quite pick up the edge of the water right next to my feet so it felt as though i was running on the water. ended up getting some good dory fish for supper from a small street shop, it was real good. holly shared some of her salad with me which was great as well.
Sunday, 2/27, day 38
as in many of our hostiles there is no air conditioning so it made for a rather sweaty night of sleep. you have to expect that though when the stay is this cheap. this trip has definitely helped me gain a new appreciation of a lot of simple things. it has also helped me to experience how a person can adapt far beyond their perceived limits, while even keeping a good attitude about it... if they simply set their mind to do so. we hit the road early today driving 7 hours from Noosa to Emu Park. unlike new zealand driving in australia is extremely monotonous in most places. it hardly feels like you go anywhere because the surroundings look exactly the same. some people think driving in nebraska is boring... this might rival it. most of it is scrubby jungly trees, bushes, and long grasses. not near as thick, lush and green as new zealand. it is so monotonous that they have creative signs posted with things like trivia questions to keep the driver's mind occupied. one sign will say a question, and the signs a few kilometers later will have the answer. there are some funny signs as well. some have clever sayings like: 'stop. revive. stay alive.' also some funny one liners. we stopped in rockhampton to do some grocery shopping in preparation for the next volunteer project in the Keppel Bay Islands National Park where we would be camping and cooking our own food. this time my cooking group consisted of the four hombres. no ladies here. our supper for the next four nights is an interesting set of meals: 1.macaroni and cheese 2. chilli soup (minus the meat) 3. pasta with alfredo sauce 4. campbell's canned chunky soup. maybe not so nutritous for the island, however we did eat well tonight. the owner of the hostile campus made us an excellent grill out meal of grilled fish, sausage, steak... plus pasta salad, freshcheap. this trip has definitely helped me gain a new appreciation of a lot of simple things. it has also helped me to experience how a person can adapt far beyond their perceived limits, while even keeping a good attitude about it... if they simply set their mind to do so. we hit the road early today driving 7 hours from Noosa to Emu Park. unlike new zealand driving in australia is extremely monotonous in most places. it hardly feels like you go anywhere because the surroundings look exactly the same. some people think driving in nebraska is boring... this might rival it. most of it is scrubby jungly trees, bushes, and long grasses. not near as thick, lush and green as new zealand. it is so monotonous that they have creative signs posted with things like trivia questions to keep the driver's mind occupied. one sign will say a question, and the signs a few kilometers later will have the answer. there are some funny signs as well. some have clever sayings like: 'stop. revive. stay alive.' also some funny one liners. we stopped in rockhampton to do some grocery shopping in preparation for the next volunteer project in the Keppel Bay Islands National Park where we would be camping and cooking our own food. this time my cooking group consisted of the four hombres. no ladies here. our supper for the next four nights is an interesting set of meals: 1.macaroni and cheese 2. chilli soup (minus the meat) 3. pasta with alfredo sauce 4. campbell's canned chunky soup. maybe not so nutritous for the island, however we did eat well tonight. the owner of the hostile campus made us an excellent grill out meal of grilled fish, sausage, steak... plus pasta salad, fresh greens, fruit, and potato salad. the fish was great. there was music playing so kitty and i decided to do some swing dancing. she is very technically sound on the swing dancing and i have never received any formal training so i was definitely a student. she is used to dancing with guys that are good at leading so she was trying to give me small tricks on how the guy lets the girl know what he is going to do / wants her to do. very interesting, i had no idea it was so technical! it was fun. i can see now if you're good at dancing and can keep it up on a regular basis that it would be a really enjoyable hobby.
Monday, 2/28, day 39
today we begin our third volunteer project with the north keppel island education center. this is on north keppel island, the largest of the 15 islands in the national park. the great barrier reef surrounds the park so it also happens to be a great spot for snorkeling and diving. it is a part of the great barrier reef world heritage area, the world's largest reef and island system. we woke early to make our way to rosslyn bay where we unloaded all of our gear and transferred it over to Gundoo Spirit, the education center's vessel transports all guests to and fro. it was a short 10-15 minute ride to the island where we unloaded our gear and set right to work on putting up tents, setting up the kitchen area and preparing our camp spot. we had the luxury of a clearing right next to considine beach. this clearing had several picnic tables, a compost toilet station, and a giant tank of water which provided a cold shower and water for cleaning dishes. the the education center provided us with drinking water in plastic containers and a huge black box which we would use to store our food and from possums. if the possums get to your food it will be gone or torn to pieces. they were regular visitors at night, quite inquisitive, along with an odd looking bird with long legs. we considered the bird our mascot. he was there constantly, looking for any crumb that might stray. the heat seems even more intense here and shade is hard to come by. a few short trees which we put our tents and make-shift kitchen under provided a little bit of shade. the island is a bit of a rugged place. definitely still jungle like but vegetation is shorter and thinner than in new zealand. there are several hiking tracks around the island as well as the education center itself which consisted of multiple cabin like accommodation buildings, a large community kitchen and some large shelters with a roof and no walls for doing activities/lectures in. its so hard to explain something when you know what you are talking about and your audience has no idea! today was pretty chill after we got our camp set up. today i did some 800 meter sprints up and down the beach... it was real hot and everyone else thought i was insane but i had a ton of fun. we made supper and that was it. the tough part about this place is the heat/humidity and the sand flies. the sand flies are absolutely atrocious. unrelenting. if you are sitting still without a layer of clothing covering the skin you are in big trouble. they are the worst during the day. then the mosquitoes come out at night which are equally brutal. by the second day, holly looked like she had some desease... chicken pocks or something. her legs and arms were covered with literally hundreds of bites. it was astounding. Bill, one of the ed center's sponsors, referred to the level of holly's bites as a "flogging." i felt so bad for her. she itched for like two weeks after the island. there is also very little wind. so the sleeping conditions were far from ideal. option 1 was to sleep dripping with sweat in your tent with two other smelly kids and absolutely no air movement, the good side being you were safe from the mosquitoes for the most part. i tried one night of this and was it not successful so i chose option #2 for the last 3 nights. option #2 is sleeping out in the open on the beach where the mosquitoes congregate. that obnoxious high pitched hum as they fly into your ears made for an interesting lullaby. not to mention the invasion of sand everywhere... in the ears, eyes, nose, mouth. all unpleasant parts aside... the sound of the waves coming in was great and the stars were fantastic. i have never slept on a beach before and i have to say it was a cool experience.
Tuesday-Thursday, 3/1-3
The sun came up at about 6 am every morning so that is about the time i woke up everyday, being on the beach. The routine was first grab breakfast and then head out to the education center to receive our tasks for the day. Our camp was set on an isolated beach about 20 minutes walk via hiking trails to the education center which situated right next to another beach. The walk is pretty neat. There are all sorts of junctions so it was easy to get turned around. Lets just say that by the time we got back I had a pretty good feel for all of the tracks. There was one section of the track that we would pass each day on the way to the ed center that was filled with butterflies. I have never seen so many in one place. Most of them were sky blue and black in color, beautiful. And they would all start floating, the air completely filled with them around us when we would go through their space, pretty neat. On the first day I spent the morning doing some 'scrub-barring' or 'weed wacking' as I prefer to call it, around one of the maintenance buildings in the ed center. There was one ranger that we worked with on our volunteer stuff who was funded through the state of Queensland. He was about 6'8 really tall dude, in his 60's originally from the United States but has been in Aussie for the past 30 years. He went to college in Maine. Really nice guy. In the afternoon I had the privilege of going snorkeling with the Aussie campers that were at a week camp through the ed center. These were 7th graders or 'year 7' as they call it, so they were fun to be around. High energy for sure. These kids were all from the same school, and I guess it is fairly common for schools in Australia to dedicate a week of school time for the students to go to an educational camp like this one on North Keppel. I think that is a worthy idea. It was great being there with them because we being older students from the United States were like some kind of celebrities to them... they thought we were the coolest people ever. We could do anything or say anything and it would instantly be THE thing to say or do. I got a couple of them going with some fist pounds... we had some fun with that. As part of their educational experience, the camp took them out in small groups each morning and afternoon to some surrounding reefs to snorkel, see some wild life, and 3 of us 'young Americans' got to tag along each time they went out. The snorkeling was great, pretty amazing stuff. I got to stay near the back of the group and moved real slow so the fish that got scared away by everyone else started to come back out of the reef by the time I got to them... pretty cool. The camp supervisors are a hoot to be around. Really good with kids, fun loving, good natured people. There was a guy who everyone called 'Gillie' he was just a few years older than me and also an older guy in his 50's named Bill. Bill would make a great Santa Clause. He is a bigger guy, with a short beard who always has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. The kids all really respected him. He is the type that always has a simple way of explaining things, even a complex topic. After we returned on the Gundoo Spirit, the day was pretty much through so we joined everyone else back at camp. On Wednesday our task included picking up trash and debris on one of the beaches. Our ranger also showed us some of the wetlands in the area which were pretty interesting too. We also completed some weeding around the ed center. We were looking for a pest plant which produced prickly burrs for seeds. The ranger said at one time you could not walk without shoes on the island because the burrs covered the place, so they have made huge progress. Still fighting some off though. This evening was fun because the 'year sevens' had a camp fire and talent show around the fire for the evening festivity and we got to join them. It was sort of a creepy walk to the ed center tonight through the dark. We spotted and heard some bats over head as we walked. The darkness was also intense. It gets pitch black out here because the ed center is the only civilization on the island and it doesn't create that much light... so when the sun goes down, its real dark. The whole center is pretty neat because it is all powered by solar power. They have a big room full of batteries that are constantly storing the power absorbed by the solar panels. They have generators as back ups but rarely, if ever, use them. Very interesting. Another interesting fact... Aussies don't make s'mores, they make 'twisties.' to make a twisty you start with some basic dough, roll it in your hands, wrap it around a stick so it forms a bowl-like covering over the end of the stick, and cook it in the fire. When you got it cooked, you take it off the stick and put maple syrup in the indention where the stick was and you have yourself a nice little snack. Not near as good as a s'more, mind you, but still a pretty decent idea. It was intriguing listening to the camp leaders and the kids interact. Reminded me a lot of an educational environments that are found in the States but with its own different twist. To get the kids thinking, the leaders were telling jokes, riddles, and logic problems and seeing who could figure them out. The rules were you could blurt out the answer until everyone had a chance to ponder it. After he would ask the question or state the problem Gillie would say 'Have a think!' it was so funny. After the campfire/cooking twisties time it was the talent show. The year sevens were divided into small groups and each group had to come up with a routine or an act to perform for the rest. We as the Americans performed our own act for the kids as well. There were some very creative and quite wacky acts, very entertaining to watch. Good fun. After the talent show we played a game of spoons. Now this is not the same game that I first thought of when they said spoons. This game is played in a large outdoor area where there is two teams. Each team is given a giant spoon to hide and a flashlight. Only one person from each team can wield the flashlight and they must be blind folded. This person's mission is to 'tag' other opponents with the beam of the flashlight. The object of the game is to get the opposing team's spoon without losing your own. The rules are: absolutely no running. It also must be completely silent so only non-verbal communication can be used. Therefore collaborating with teammates on how to get the spoon as well as telling the person where to shine the flashlight is difficult. You can not touch the person with the flashlight to direct them. You also must get to the spoon and return it to your own spoon without being caught in a flashlight beam of the other opponent. If you are tagged, you must stop, drop the spoon if you have it, and return to your own spoon before continuing on. It is very much a strategy game. Pretty intense game, no doubt, and the kids got really into. It was fun. The highlight of Thursday was seeing the sunrise. Holly, Steph, Karen and I woke up at 4:45 and made the walk to the east side of the island to see it. It was captivating. When it first began we could still see some stars faintly overhead. It was a mystical feeling to watch the first light skim across the miles of ocean between us and the horizon. There was a wall of puffy clouds that stretched across our panoramic view and some of the light was bouncing off the clouds making some fantastic rays of light and colors. Golds, pinks, yellows, oranges, even a little violet... they were all there. The color change between the edge of the sunrise and the night sky was very cool too. We must have watched it for at least half an hour... amazing. It was crazy to think that these types of things go on all over the world each day... proclaiming God's glory. And we are not aware of 99% of them. We were just lucky enough to catch this particular miracle at this specific place and time... I am pretty sure we were the only ones on the island watching that sunrise. It probably looks that cool every morning, we just happened to be here this morning to witness it. The neat part about it was it kept changing. The clouds kept moving, colors kept changing, different rays would shine through different places, lighting changes... it was like watching a film. It was so quiet and peaceful sitting there. Nothing was really moving. The type of quiet that doesn't exist in a residential area or city. Once we set to work for the today, we began a project with the goal of limiting erosion of one of the beaches. Here there is a problem of the beaches just washing away because there is nothing there to stop the water from taking it out to see. One of the rangers dug trenches in the beach with a tractor and we filled the trenches with grasses, ferns, branches, trees, etc.which protruded out the top of the trenches after we filled them in with sand. This was to put some sort of anchor to keep things from slipping away. It was hard work. And we roasted being on the beach with no wind. Jumping in the ocean when we were done was a huge relief. The kids left camp today so that was a bit sad. We got lots of hugs! Amazing at the connection that can be made in a short time! Friday was cool because we had the whole place to ourselves. We helped the leaders clean up the camp and then they took us out for a 2 hour snorkel. We went to a huge rock, almost like a miniature island, sticking out in the sea a little further out that had reefs around it. Sweet place. The coral was definitely more alive here and the fish more numerous. Thousands of fish. There were these small blue shiny fish about the size of my index finger that would swim in schools. In some areas, if I was very still they would completely surround me.... underneath, around my arms, legs, and face... all just hovering in the water together, moving together, so much that I felt like one of them. I saw a small jellyfish swim by at one point... it was enchanting to watch its transparent body pulse through the water. There were also waterfalls coming down the sides of this huge rock and it was really cool to watch a waterfall from under the water. tons of white foam and waters exploding under the surface. When we got back to the boat they let us do some jumps off the boat. Gundoo Spirit is a fairly sizable boat... the place in the deck that we were jumping off was probably 8-9 ft above the water. Got some good back flips in. Before I knew it we were unloading all our stuff onto the mainland again and off to Emu Park, where we stayed before we came to North Keppel. Tonight was fun because the hostile was hosting a benefit BBQ for a girl that was raising money for cancer. In return for the pledges she received, she shaved her head. Interesting experience being a part of an Australian BBQ with a whole bunch of people we didn't know. Cool.
Saturday, 3/5
Travel day. About 6 hour drive from Emu Park to Hervey Bay. Everyone, including yours truly, is exhausted today from the demanding week and lack of sleep on North Keppel. This is never fun because tired travelers are often also grouchy travelers. Being packed in a van together, six hours in duration, also aggravates this already fragile condition. It is rarely boring :) Hervey Bay is an older smaller coastal community with an aged population. It is sort of a dumpy place to be honest... probably the least favorite of mine so far, the hostile was needing some attention as well. After a grocery run, I enjoyed some basketball with Trick on some random court where the hoops where about to fall apart. Basketball hoops are somewhat rare here so this was a treat. On the usual court, the best sound ever is the swishing sound of a ball passing through a net lacking any ring of iron. On this particular court the best sound is the same minus the swishing part. The sound is much like an air-ball in fact, except with added satisfaction of knowing the ball went perfectly through the net-less rim. This hoop was only about a 9 footer so we had a hoot with some dunks and alley oops. Trick is a bigger guy and has some hops so I was having fun feeding him the bread... we had one oop that was worthy of the top 10 plays on Sportscenter... if they could only have been there to see it! Impeccably timed and deliciously jammed. A thing of beauty I tell you. Like pancakes that have that perfect golden brown to them... hot out off the griddle... yeah. Laundry tonight was not an option. The stench was enough to bring a strong man to his knees. I have encountered a whole new level of odors on this trip. Exhibit A: compost toilets... need not go into any further detail there. Exhibit B: clothes... especially work clothes that have been soiled multiple times in insect repellent, mud, dirt, sand, drenched in sweat, that never really dried over the course of 5 wretchedly hot and steamy days. Blaaaah. Man and clothing smushed together that haven't seen a proper cleaning for days on end = unpleasant fragrance. So to the relief of all... the laundry was conquered. In the waning hours of the evening I was itching for a little run, to see the town a bit so I dialed up a route with the ol' map and sent myself a runnin to the edge of the beach and down the shore line. When I run I use certain landmarks to remind myself so I can find the way back. One such landmark was was little shack with a giant plastic model of a great white shark in the front yard demolishing a boat with jaws open wide. A landmark that is hard to forget indeed. It was a great run. What a gift the Lord has given me. Any time, any place... lace up the shoes and go.
Sunday, 3/6
Here is some fun Aussie vocabulary for you... they say 'mum,' we say mom. tomato sauce = ketchup, chemist = pharmacy, muck around = hang out, chill, mess around. They rarely use "good" or "great" but usually words like "excellent, ace, sweet as, lovely, brilliant" much more creative word choices than Uni Staters use... I like it. My other favorites include: straight away (immediately), oh sugar (disappointment or surprise), fancy a _____? Instead of "watch your head" its "mind your head." right-tee-oh (ok). The phrase "a bit" is used frequently. For example... "a bit of a drive isn't it?" Oh man I could go on forever with these little phrases, it's great entertainment.
Today we headed to Frasier Island. The mode of transport on Frasier is a large 4x4 vehicle which seemed to resemble some sort of combination of half jeep, half bus. It sat 14 of us. The guide, Simon, came and picked us up in this vehicle at our hostile. We caught a vehicle ferry across and were off cruising along the beaches. its crazy. There are no highways here... its all off roading stuff. The beaches are the closest thing to a highway... it even has speed limit signs posted. mostly tour vehicles like ours were driving the beaches but I saw a couple personal vehicles. There is a small village/town on the island where you can eat, purchase supplies, stay in some hotels, etc. It was here that Trick recounted with large amounts of laughter to me the story of how when he was little he didn't go to pre-school. One year he said he had a routine of watching all three of the original Star Wars movies every single day. All three movies. Every day. For an entire year. WOW. What a story. And I thought I was a fan. THAT is dedication. There are so many wild and crazy facts about Frasier I could write all day about them. One fact is the island is inhabited by dingoes... a dog-like animal who have been known to be aggressive around people. For this reason it was strongly encouraged to never be alone on the island and risky to go out at all in the night. Frasier is the largest sand island in the world... its completely composed of sand. It is the only sand island with rain forest growing on it. The eastern side is composed of mostly one long beach... they call it the 75 mile beach. Sharks are known to be in the waters around Frasier but the most dangerous part of the waters are the rips and currents. Simon told us of how one American decided to go swimming at night and was found face down in the sand the next morning, having drowned. I've noticed that is fairly safe to travel in these parts if you are smart and paying attention. I have also noticed there are a lot of ways to seriously or fatally hurt yourself if you are not paying attention. we visited two lakes on the first day. These were both tea-tree lakes. Tea-tree lakes are a unique brown color... it really looks like a big glass of iced tea. You can see a good 8 feet down if the sun is shining. Tea tree lakes have special trees growing around them that give the lake its special color. These lakes are said to have healing properties. Simon said... ha I feel like this is a game (Simon says)... he said that he had heard of a guy that had skin cancer and the guy made a point to swim in the lake every day for a year and by the end of the year the skin cancer was gone. Interesting. The particles of sand here are perfectly round so if you rub the sand on your skin and hair it makes them feel really really soft. You can also clean jewelry with the sand. Really nifty. Frasier is a crazy place because it is so diverse. It has lakes, rain forest, sand-blows (which are pretty much sections of desert with big sand dunes) long beaches, ocean... crazy. After Lake Wabby, we took a 45 minute walk through a section of rain forest. Amazing. After the walk, Simon prepared some sandwich fixings and fruit for lunch. It's clever how it works because he stores a lot of the food in a specially made compartment in the back so he can bust out utensils, food, a table to set it on, etc. and we can have lunch anywhere on the island. He made all of our breakfast and evening meals as well. We ate extremely well. Simon used to be a cook before he started giving tours on Frasier. I wish you could hear Simon say the word "Frasier" it never failed to bring a smile to my face every time he said it. I can't even describe it. Almost like "Fraziah." And he was passionate about it. Very knowledgeable. Tonight we stayed in the Dilli Village, it is a fenced in area with a kitchen & dining facility and dorm-like units to stay in. They host lots of groups here, and university students commonly do research here.
3/7, Day 2 Fraser Island
We left Dilli Village early for more 4x4 beach driving. First we visited a place called the Kirrar Sandblow which is a desert looking portion of the island with huge sand dunes which were fun to climb and run back down. We also had fun drawing things in the sand. In some parts the sand would be one color on the surface and another color below the surface which made for some groovy sand drawing. At one point I stared towards the coast and admired in this order, all within my field of vision: 1. the ocean... obviously a huge body of water. 2. a fairly wide portion of thick lush green trees... which formed a line in front of the ocean. 3. a desert of sand. Three things that should not logically be this close together but they were all right here. Very cool. After the sand exploration, we went to the waters edge and visited a ship wreck that was half submerged in the beach. All that remains is the large rusty frame protruding from the sand. It has been here since 1935. The S.S. Maheno once served as a luxury ocean liner as well as a hospital ship in World War I. The story of how it ended up on the beach of Fraser Island is pretty interesting but unfortunately time is short. After taking some marvelous photos with the Maheno, we stopped to admire the Indian Head rock formations. After that we went to a place called Eli Creek. This place dumps fresh water into the ocean at some crazy rate of like 4.4 million liters of water per hour. It is a popular place to go because it isn't very deep, pretty wide and one can simply float along and let the current take you down the creek... a natural lazy river. Returned to Dilli Village for supper and sleep. Buttered Fish with white gravy for supper... real good. Simon makes excellent gravy, you can tell he was a cook. Very interesting to talk with Simon after supper, he had a very unique story to tell about where he has been and what he has done in his life. A great day.
3/8, day 3 Fraser Island
This was my favorite of all days on Fraser. First of all we had a breakfast fit for royalty. Eggs, bacon, toast, and the best watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe (or rock melon as they call it) and honeydew that I have ever had. I don't know what it was but every single one of these was fantastic! Today we visited Lake Boomanjin and Lake Mackenzie. If you ever go to Fraser Island you MUST go to Lake Mackenzie. It is the most beautiful body of water I have ever set my eyes on. This place was magical. The sand was completely white, very fine and powdery. The water was crystal clear. As you looked out on the lake there was a beautiful color change. Out in the middle it was a dazzling royal blue color, as the water got closer and the lake shallower it gradually changed from a blue to a pretty aqua green color and the water closest to the beach was completely transparent so all you could see was the white sand below. Just beautiful. There was a smaller beach away from the larger main beach that we hung out at and it was fantastic. We played some volleyball in the water which was fun. I also went for a 20 minute swim out to the middle where it was so quiet, calm, and peaceful. Pristine. It was definitely a "wow, God" moment. This lake is surrounded by beautiful green trees. The day was perfect, sun shining with white puffy clouds and a baby blue sky. I did multiple 360 degree turns while treading water trying to soak it all in. I could see my feet clear as day under the water. So cool. The water was so unbelievably clean. I felt refreshed just by being in it. There was no sound except the occasionaly light breeze and the water gently moving around me. It was like a dream. I could see rocks on the bottom, probably at least 20 feet below me. Just nuts. After Lake Mackenzie, our visit on Fraser Island came to an end and drove back to the ferry which took us back to the mainland. We returned to Hervey Bay and I experienced a run on the beach the I will remember for a very long time. More on that in the next entry... coming to a blog near you soon!!!
Wednesday, 2/23, day 34: travel day from Queenstown to Mt. Cook. 4 hours of driving that felt like 8. i was very tired this day, feeling the lack of sleep! the drive between these two cities is beautiful as Mt. Cook is a small backpacker village surrounded by mountains on all sides basically... every morning it was like wow, what a view to wake up to! in a way it kinda reminds me of estes park in colorado for anyone that has been there. less touristy than most places, lots of stuff to do outside which is nice. lots of single or multiple day hikes, things to do on the surrounding glaciers, and the hostile was very nice... cabin-like feel to it, all wood. had some of the best nights of sleep here!
Thursday, 2/24, day 35:
today steph, trick, alli and i took a 7 hour round hike up to a place Mueller Hut and back. started early, beautiful morning, crisp, cool air, comfortable temp. this consisted of a bit of a walk to the base of the mountain, a steep section of dirt/rock with wooden beams stuck in the ground forming 'steps' then a section that was completely rocks... big boulder types and smaller types... lots of rock hopping in this section. this lead into a flattened part where the hut was. all up this climb was fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, the valley where the village was settled into, a mountain lake and other smaller pond like bodies of water and Mt. Cook of course, standing head and shoulders taller than everything else around. good story about Mt. Cook... it was the practice ground used to help a man climb Mt. Everest. this is the mountain that Sir Edmund Hillary, a new zealander, trained to be the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. pretty cool. beautiful hike, simply amazing. i thought several times how convenient having 4 eyes would be... two eyes to look at where my feet where going and two to look around to see all the incredible creation around me. however it was a blessing to have two to see with! it is amazing to think about the eye... whenever i take a picture i am reminded how masterfully it is made. the eye can see great distances as well as things close up... small objects and big ones... together with the brain it can calculate distances, space, depth... it can pick up the most wonderful colors, light and dark, contrast, shading... on and on. no other camera or lens that man makes can do the things that they eye can. every picture never compares to seeing it through my two eyes. i get so used to them... looking through them every day that i forget what incredible masterpieces from God's hand that they are. another neat thing about this stuff is finding out what is over the next corner or hill... when we finally arrived where the rock flattened out, suddenly we were among glaciers and peaks that we had no idea existed on the way up. the nice thing about a day hike is you can take a light backpack instead of the full on heavy duty one. makes the hike much easier! once at Mueller Hut we met a guy from Germany and ate lunch with him there. good guy. crazy how everyone is a unique life and each person's life story is different. the return trip was just as beautiful as the way up was. once we got back to our hostile we had some nice down time before making pizza from scratch for supper. we watched the new zealand made movie 'whale rider' to round out the night.
Friday, 2/25, day 36
Travel day from Mt. Cook to Christchurch International airport. got to sleep in today which was very nice. took it very slow driving the 5 hours because we were going to stay the night in the airport and wanted to spend the least amount of time there as possible. i had my first NZ 'pie' today. pies are very popular here, almost like a cheeseburgers back home... a fast, take on the run meal, lots of street shops... and like the fish and chips places, and you can get them almost everywhere. they are like a hot pocket, except in miniature pie shape that can fit in your hand, usually with some sort of combination of meat and veggies filling in the middle. the pie i had was sort of a beef stew pie. pretty good. the airport was better than we expected after the earthquake, and it even had water and toilets working again. we had a small picnic for supper, where we made a communal pile of different snacks that everyone nibbled on. we all rolled our sleeping bags out and made a nice 'camp out' area with all our stuff. first time ive slept in an airport, kind of odd but it worked! nighty night!
Saturday, 2/26, day 37
woke up in the airport at 3:45 am today to prepare for 6 am flight. i was so concerned about making sure the weight in my bags met the standards that i made a small error in forgetting to put toiletries and suncreen in my bag that was checked... and therefore i lost that stuff because of the no liquids and gels rule in carry-ons. nuts! it was "a bit of a tragedy" (a phrase often used here) because sunscreen is so expensive... you pretty much dont go outside for any extended period of time with out it. they have this saying it goes something like 'slip, slop, slap'. slip on your sunnies (sunglasses) slop on the sunscreen and slap on a hat... something like that at least. anyways, the plane was very nice. each seat had a digital screen on the back of it so each passenger could enjoy movies, games, and music during the flight. the routine briefing of the safety features on the plane was quite comical because instead of the standard airline employee describing the policies and procedures we had the privilege of watching about 10 members from the "All Blacks" rugby team (new zealand's national team) take us through the drill. it was great. hearing things like "if you need to stretch your hammies, feel free to leave your seat if the seat belt sign is off" (this doesnt do it justice because the accent makes it all the better) or watching a player try the ironic demonstration on how the seat cushion can be used as a flotation device when it seems that in no way could this object keep such a hulk of a man afloat. these guys are highly revered in by new zealanders. to be on the All Blacks squad is quite the honor... the country is quite patriotic over their rugby. for those in nebraska, it would be similar to having husker players and coaches teach you about the safety features... can you imagine Mr. Bo Pelini giving you an airplane talk?? good fun. I watched two movies: 'unstoppable' with denzel washington and '127 hours' with james franco. provided good entertainment and kept me from becoming a complete zombie because i was quite tired. we arrived safely in Brisbane, taking our first steps in Australia. we loaded our gear into our new van and trailor and headed to the Australia Zoo, home of the famous steve irwin, the crocodile hunter. this was quite the place and it does not do it justice to simply say that we saw many cool animals there. i experienced another 'first' in this zoo... i fed a living breathing hopping kangaroo. they had a big open area for them where a guy could go, walk around and feed them, hang out with them. they were very accustomed to this so they were quite comfortable around us. very interesting. we also saw one of their shows which was very neat... including a croc in action! after the zoo we drove about 45 minutes to Noosa, where we stayed at a hostile called the Noosa Flashpacker. It had free internet... a huge bonus if you are writing a blog! we were about a 10 minute jog away from the beach so i took full advantage of that. it was perfectly clear, hot day. the day was beautiful so it made for a great run especially after being cooped up in a plane earlier. there were lots of people on the beach, many with their dogs playing catch with frisbees or sticks. many different activities going on... picnics, sand castles, walkers, joggers, sun bathers, swimmers, hang gliders... lots of people having good old fashioned fun. a good place to be for sure. i apologize again for this being so poorly written... time is of the essence! the heat is intense here... that kind of heavy, humid, sticky, inescapable, punishing heat that occurs in Nebraska on the hottest days. The type of heat and humidity that happens on a sunny day after it has rained a bunch. makes it a good challenge to run in for sure. today i ran right next to the edge of the gentle rhythmic flow of the water as the waves came onto the beach, always right next to it. if i looked straight out, my peripheral vision did not quite pick up the edge of the water right next to my feet so it felt as though i was running on the water. ended up getting some good dory fish for supper from a small street shop, it was real good. holly shared some of her salad with me which was great as well.
Sunday, 2/27, day 38
as in many of our hostiles there is no air conditioning so it made for a rather sweaty night of sleep. you have to expect that though when the stay is this cheap. this trip has definitely helped me gain a new appreciation of a lot of simple things. it has also helped me to experience how a person can adapt far beyond their perceived limits, while even keeping a good attitude about it... if they simply set their mind to do so. we hit the road early today driving 7 hours from Noosa to Emu Park. unlike new zealand driving in australia is extremely monotonous in most places. it hardly feels like you go anywhere because the surroundings look exactly the same. some people think driving in nebraska is boring... this might rival it. most of it is scrubby jungly trees, bushes, and long grasses. not near as thick, lush and green as new zealand. it is so monotonous that they have creative signs posted with things like trivia questions to keep the driver's mind occupied. one sign will say a question, and the signs a few kilometers later will have the answer. there are some funny signs as well. some have clever sayings like: 'stop. revive. stay alive.' also some funny one liners. we stopped in rockhampton to do some grocery shopping in preparation for the next volunteer project in the Keppel Bay Islands National Park where we would be camping and cooking our own food. this time my cooking group consisted of the four hombres. no ladies here. our supper for the next four nights is an interesting set of meals: 1.macaroni and cheese 2. chilli soup (minus the meat) 3. pasta with alfredo sauce 4. campbell's canned chunky soup. maybe not so nutritous for the island, however we did eat well tonight. the owner of the hostile campus made us an excellent grill out meal of grilled fish, sausage, steak... plus pasta salad, freshcheap. this trip has definitely helped me gain a new appreciation of a lot of simple things. it has also helped me to experience how a person can adapt far beyond their perceived limits, while even keeping a good attitude about it... if they simply set their mind to do so. we hit the road early today driving 7 hours from Noosa to Emu Park. unlike new zealand driving in australia is extremely monotonous in most places. it hardly feels like you go anywhere because the surroundings look exactly the same. some people think driving in nebraska is boring... this might rival it. most of it is scrubby jungly trees, bushes, and long grasses. not near as thick, lush and green as new zealand. it is so monotonous that they have creative signs posted with things like trivia questions to keep the driver's mind occupied. one sign will say a question, and the signs a few kilometers later will have the answer. there are some funny signs as well. some have clever sayings like: 'stop. revive. stay alive.' also some funny one liners. we stopped in rockhampton to do some grocery shopping in preparation for the next volunteer project in the Keppel Bay Islands National Park where we would be camping and cooking our own food. this time my cooking group consisted of the four hombres. no ladies here. our supper for the next four nights is an interesting set of meals: 1.macaroni and cheese 2. chilli soup (minus the meat) 3. pasta with alfredo sauce 4. campbell's canned chunky soup. maybe not so nutritous for the island, however we did eat well tonight. the owner of the hostile campus made us an excellent grill out meal of grilled fish, sausage, steak... plus pasta salad, fresh greens, fruit, and potato salad. the fish was great. there was music playing so kitty and i decided to do some swing dancing. she is very technically sound on the swing dancing and i have never received any formal training so i was definitely a student. she is used to dancing with guys that are good at leading so she was trying to give me small tricks on how the guy lets the girl know what he is going to do / wants her to do. very interesting, i had no idea it was so technical! it was fun. i can see now if you're good at dancing and can keep it up on a regular basis that it would be a really enjoyable hobby.
Monday, 2/28, day 39
today we begin our third volunteer project with the north keppel island education center. this is on north keppel island, the largest of the 15 islands in the national park. the great barrier reef surrounds the park so it also happens to be a great spot for snorkeling and diving. it is a part of the great barrier reef world heritage area, the world's largest reef and island system. we woke early to make our way to rosslyn bay where we unloaded all of our gear and transferred it over to Gundoo Spirit, the education center's vessel transports all guests to and fro. it was a short 10-15 minute ride to the island where we unloaded our gear and set right to work on putting up tents, setting up the kitchen area and preparing our camp spot. we had the luxury of a clearing right next to considine beach. this clearing had several picnic tables, a compost toilet station, and a giant tank of water which provided a cold shower and water for cleaning dishes. the the education center provided us with drinking water in plastic containers and a huge black box which we would use to store our food and from possums. if the possums get to your food it will be gone or torn to pieces. they were regular visitors at night, quite inquisitive, along with an odd looking bird with long legs. we considered the bird our mascot. he was there constantly, looking for any crumb that might stray. the heat seems even more intense here and shade is hard to come by. a few short trees which we put our tents and make-shift kitchen under provided a little bit of shade. the island is a bit of a rugged place. definitely still jungle like but vegetation is shorter and thinner than in new zealand. there are several hiking tracks around the island as well as the education center itself which consisted of multiple cabin like accommodation buildings, a large community kitchen and some large shelters with a roof and no walls for doing activities/lectures in. its so hard to explain something when you know what you are talking about and your audience has no idea! today was pretty chill after we got our camp set up. today i did some 800 meter sprints up and down the beach... it was real hot and everyone else thought i was insane but i had a ton of fun. we made supper and that was it. the tough part about this place is the heat/humidity and the sand flies. the sand flies are absolutely atrocious. unrelenting. if you are sitting still without a layer of clothing covering the skin you are in big trouble. they are the worst during the day. then the mosquitoes come out at night which are equally brutal. by the second day, holly looked like she had some desease... chicken pocks or something. her legs and arms were covered with literally hundreds of bites. it was astounding. Bill, one of the ed center's sponsors, referred to the level of holly's bites as a "flogging." i felt so bad for her. she itched for like two weeks after the island. there is also very little wind. so the sleeping conditions were far from ideal. option 1 was to sleep dripping with sweat in your tent with two other smelly kids and absolutely no air movement, the good side being you were safe from the mosquitoes for the most part. i tried one night of this and was it not successful so i chose option #2 for the last 3 nights. option #2 is sleeping out in the open on the beach where the mosquitoes congregate. that obnoxious high pitched hum as they fly into your ears made for an interesting lullaby. not to mention the invasion of sand everywhere... in the ears, eyes, nose, mouth. all unpleasant parts aside... the sound of the waves coming in was great and the stars were fantastic. i have never slept on a beach before and i have to say it was a cool experience.
Tuesday-Thursday, 3/1-3
The sun came up at about 6 am every morning so that is about the time i woke up everyday, being on the beach. The routine was first grab breakfast and then head out to the education center to receive our tasks for the day. Our camp was set on an isolated beach about 20 minutes walk via hiking trails to the education center which situated right next to another beach. The walk is pretty neat. There are all sorts of junctions so it was easy to get turned around. Lets just say that by the time we got back I had a pretty good feel for all of the tracks. There was one section of the track that we would pass each day on the way to the ed center that was filled with butterflies. I have never seen so many in one place. Most of them were sky blue and black in color, beautiful. And they would all start floating, the air completely filled with them around us when we would go through their space, pretty neat. On the first day I spent the morning doing some 'scrub-barring' or 'weed wacking' as I prefer to call it, around one of the maintenance buildings in the ed center. There was one ranger that we worked with on our volunteer stuff who was funded through the state of Queensland. He was about 6'8 really tall dude, in his 60's originally from the United States but has been in Aussie for the past 30 years. He went to college in Maine. Really nice guy. In the afternoon I had the privilege of going snorkeling with the Aussie campers that were at a week camp through the ed center. These were 7th graders or 'year 7' as they call it, so they were fun to be around. High energy for sure. These kids were all from the same school, and I guess it is fairly common for schools in Australia to dedicate a week of school time for the students to go to an educational camp like this one on North Keppel. I think that is a worthy idea. It was great being there with them because we being older students from the United States were like some kind of celebrities to them... they thought we were the coolest people ever. We could do anything or say anything and it would instantly be THE thing to say or do. I got a couple of them going with some fist pounds... we had some fun with that. As part of their educational experience, the camp took them out in small groups each morning and afternoon to some surrounding reefs to snorkel, see some wild life, and 3 of us 'young Americans' got to tag along each time they went out. The snorkeling was great, pretty amazing stuff. I got to stay near the back of the group and moved real slow so the fish that got scared away by everyone else started to come back out of the reef by the time I got to them... pretty cool. The camp supervisors are a hoot to be around. Really good with kids, fun loving, good natured people. There was a guy who everyone called 'Gillie' he was just a few years older than me and also an older guy in his 50's named Bill. Bill would make a great Santa Clause. He is a bigger guy, with a short beard who always has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. The kids all really respected him. He is the type that always has a simple way of explaining things, even a complex topic. After we returned on the Gundoo Spirit, the day was pretty much through so we joined everyone else back at camp. On Wednesday our task included picking up trash and debris on one of the beaches. Our ranger also showed us some of the wetlands in the area which were pretty interesting too. We also completed some weeding around the ed center. We were looking for a pest plant which produced prickly burrs for seeds. The ranger said at one time you could not walk without shoes on the island because the burrs covered the place, so they have made huge progress. Still fighting some off though. This evening was fun because the 'year sevens' had a camp fire and talent show around the fire for the evening festivity and we got to join them. It was sort of a creepy walk to the ed center tonight through the dark. We spotted and heard some bats over head as we walked. The darkness was also intense. It gets pitch black out here because the ed center is the only civilization on the island and it doesn't create that much light... so when the sun goes down, its real dark. The whole center is pretty neat because it is all powered by solar power. They have a big room full of batteries that are constantly storing the power absorbed by the solar panels. They have generators as back ups but rarely, if ever, use them. Very interesting. Another interesting fact... Aussies don't make s'mores, they make 'twisties.' to make a twisty you start with some basic dough, roll it in your hands, wrap it around a stick so it forms a bowl-like covering over the end of the stick, and cook it in the fire. When you got it cooked, you take it off the stick and put maple syrup in the indention where the stick was and you have yourself a nice little snack. Not near as good as a s'more, mind you, but still a pretty decent idea. It was intriguing listening to the camp leaders and the kids interact. Reminded me a lot of an educational environments that are found in the States but with its own different twist. To get the kids thinking, the leaders were telling jokes, riddles, and logic problems and seeing who could figure them out. The rules were you could blurt out the answer until everyone had a chance to ponder it. After he would ask the question or state the problem Gillie would say 'Have a think!' it was so funny. After the campfire/cooking twisties time it was the talent show. The year sevens were divided into small groups and each group had to come up with a routine or an act to perform for the rest. We as the Americans performed our own act for the kids as well. There were some very creative and quite wacky acts, very entertaining to watch. Good fun. After the talent show we played a game of spoons. Now this is not the same game that I first thought of when they said spoons. This game is played in a large outdoor area where there is two teams. Each team is given a giant spoon to hide and a flashlight. Only one person from each team can wield the flashlight and they must be blind folded. This person's mission is to 'tag' other opponents with the beam of the flashlight. The object of the game is to get the opposing team's spoon without losing your own. The rules are: absolutely no running. It also must be completely silent so only non-verbal communication can be used. Therefore collaborating with teammates on how to get the spoon as well as telling the person where to shine the flashlight is difficult. You can not touch the person with the flashlight to direct them. You also must get to the spoon and return it to your own spoon without being caught in a flashlight beam of the other opponent. If you are tagged, you must stop, drop the spoon if you have it, and return to your own spoon before continuing on. It is very much a strategy game. Pretty intense game, no doubt, and the kids got really into. It was fun. The highlight of Thursday was seeing the sunrise. Holly, Steph, Karen and I woke up at 4:45 and made the walk to the east side of the island to see it. It was captivating. When it first began we could still see some stars faintly overhead. It was a mystical feeling to watch the first light skim across the miles of ocean between us and the horizon. There was a wall of puffy clouds that stretched across our panoramic view and some of the light was bouncing off the clouds making some fantastic rays of light and colors. Golds, pinks, yellows, oranges, even a little violet... they were all there. The color change between the edge of the sunrise and the night sky was very cool too. We must have watched it for at least half an hour... amazing. It was crazy to think that these types of things go on all over the world each day... proclaiming God's glory. And we are not aware of 99% of them. We were just lucky enough to catch this particular miracle at this specific place and time... I am pretty sure we were the only ones on the island watching that sunrise. It probably looks that cool every morning, we just happened to be here this morning to witness it. The neat part about it was it kept changing. The clouds kept moving, colors kept changing, different rays would shine through different places, lighting changes... it was like watching a film. It was so quiet and peaceful sitting there. Nothing was really moving. The type of quiet that doesn't exist in a residential area or city. Once we set to work for the today, we began a project with the goal of limiting erosion of one of the beaches. Here there is a problem of the beaches just washing away because there is nothing there to stop the water from taking it out to see. One of the rangers dug trenches in the beach with a tractor and we filled the trenches with grasses, ferns, branches, trees, etc.which protruded out the top of the trenches after we filled them in with sand. This was to put some sort of anchor to keep things from slipping away. It was hard work. And we roasted being on the beach with no wind. Jumping in the ocean when we were done was a huge relief. The kids left camp today so that was a bit sad. We got lots of hugs! Amazing at the connection that can be made in a short time! Friday was cool because we had the whole place to ourselves. We helped the leaders clean up the camp and then they took us out for a 2 hour snorkel. We went to a huge rock, almost like a miniature island, sticking out in the sea a little further out that had reefs around it. Sweet place. The coral was definitely more alive here and the fish more numerous. Thousands of fish. There were these small blue shiny fish about the size of my index finger that would swim in schools. In some areas, if I was very still they would completely surround me.... underneath, around my arms, legs, and face... all just hovering in the water together, moving together, so much that I felt like one of them. I saw a small jellyfish swim by at one point... it was enchanting to watch its transparent body pulse through the water. There were also waterfalls coming down the sides of this huge rock and it was really cool to watch a waterfall from under the water. tons of white foam and waters exploding under the surface. When we got back to the boat they let us do some jumps off the boat. Gundoo Spirit is a fairly sizable boat... the place in the deck that we were jumping off was probably 8-9 ft above the water. Got some good back flips in. Before I knew it we were unloading all our stuff onto the mainland again and off to Emu Park, where we stayed before we came to North Keppel. Tonight was fun because the hostile was hosting a benefit BBQ for a girl that was raising money for cancer. In return for the pledges she received, she shaved her head. Interesting experience being a part of an Australian BBQ with a whole bunch of people we didn't know. Cool.
Saturday, 3/5
Travel day. About 6 hour drive from Emu Park to Hervey Bay. Everyone, including yours truly, is exhausted today from the demanding week and lack of sleep on North Keppel. This is never fun because tired travelers are often also grouchy travelers. Being packed in a van together, six hours in duration, also aggravates this already fragile condition. It is rarely boring :) Hervey Bay is an older smaller coastal community with an aged population. It is sort of a dumpy place to be honest... probably the least favorite of mine so far, the hostile was needing some attention as well. After a grocery run, I enjoyed some basketball with Trick on some random court where the hoops where about to fall apart. Basketball hoops are somewhat rare here so this was a treat. On the usual court, the best sound ever is the swishing sound of a ball passing through a net lacking any ring of iron. On this particular court the best sound is the same minus the swishing part. The sound is much like an air-ball in fact, except with added satisfaction of knowing the ball went perfectly through the net-less rim. This hoop was only about a 9 footer so we had a hoot with some dunks and alley oops. Trick is a bigger guy and has some hops so I was having fun feeding him the bread... we had one oop that was worthy of the top 10 plays on Sportscenter... if they could only have been there to see it! Impeccably timed and deliciously jammed. A thing of beauty I tell you. Like pancakes that have that perfect golden brown to them... hot out off the griddle... yeah. Laundry tonight was not an option. The stench was enough to bring a strong man to his knees. I have encountered a whole new level of odors on this trip. Exhibit A: compost toilets... need not go into any further detail there. Exhibit B: clothes... especially work clothes that have been soiled multiple times in insect repellent, mud, dirt, sand, drenched in sweat, that never really dried over the course of 5 wretchedly hot and steamy days. Blaaaah. Man and clothing smushed together that haven't seen a proper cleaning for days on end = unpleasant fragrance. So to the relief of all... the laundry was conquered. In the waning hours of the evening I was itching for a little run, to see the town a bit so I dialed up a route with the ol' map and sent myself a runnin to the edge of the beach and down the shore line. When I run I use certain landmarks to remind myself so I can find the way back. One such landmark was was little shack with a giant plastic model of a great white shark in the front yard demolishing a boat with jaws open wide. A landmark that is hard to forget indeed. It was a great run. What a gift the Lord has given me. Any time, any place... lace up the shoes and go.
Sunday, 3/6
Here is some fun Aussie vocabulary for you... they say 'mum,' we say mom. tomato sauce = ketchup, chemist = pharmacy, muck around = hang out, chill, mess around. They rarely use "good" or "great" but usually words like "excellent, ace, sweet as, lovely, brilliant" much more creative word choices than Uni Staters use... I like it. My other favorites include: straight away (immediately), oh sugar (disappointment or surprise), fancy a _____? Instead of "watch your head" its "mind your head." right-tee-oh (ok). The phrase "a bit" is used frequently. For example... "a bit of a drive isn't it?" Oh man I could go on forever with these little phrases, it's great entertainment.
Today we headed to Frasier Island. The mode of transport on Frasier is a large 4x4 vehicle which seemed to resemble some sort of combination of half jeep, half bus. It sat 14 of us. The guide, Simon, came and picked us up in this vehicle at our hostile. We caught a vehicle ferry across and were off cruising along the beaches. its crazy. There are no highways here... its all off roading stuff. The beaches are the closest thing to a highway... it even has speed limit signs posted. mostly tour vehicles like ours were driving the beaches but I saw a couple personal vehicles. There is a small village/town on the island where you can eat, purchase supplies, stay in some hotels, etc. It was here that Trick recounted with large amounts of laughter to me the story of how when he was little he didn't go to pre-school. One year he said he had a routine of watching all three of the original Star Wars movies every single day. All three movies. Every day. For an entire year. WOW. What a story. And I thought I was a fan. THAT is dedication. There are so many wild and crazy facts about Frasier I could write all day about them. One fact is the island is inhabited by dingoes... a dog-like animal who have been known to be aggressive around people. For this reason it was strongly encouraged to never be alone on the island and risky to go out at all in the night. Frasier is the largest sand island in the world... its completely composed of sand. It is the only sand island with rain forest growing on it. The eastern side is composed of mostly one long beach... they call it the 75 mile beach. Sharks are known to be in the waters around Frasier but the most dangerous part of the waters are the rips and currents. Simon told us of how one American decided to go swimming at night and was found face down in the sand the next morning, having drowned. I've noticed that is fairly safe to travel in these parts if you are smart and paying attention. I have also noticed there are a lot of ways to seriously or fatally hurt yourself if you are not paying attention. we visited two lakes on the first day. These were both tea-tree lakes. Tea-tree lakes are a unique brown color... it really looks like a big glass of iced tea. You can see a good 8 feet down if the sun is shining. Tea tree lakes have special trees growing around them that give the lake its special color. These lakes are said to have healing properties. Simon said... ha I feel like this is a game (Simon says)... he said that he had heard of a guy that had skin cancer and the guy made a point to swim in the lake every day for a year and by the end of the year the skin cancer was gone. Interesting. The particles of sand here are perfectly round so if you rub the sand on your skin and hair it makes them feel really really soft. You can also clean jewelry with the sand. Really nifty. Frasier is a crazy place because it is so diverse. It has lakes, rain forest, sand-blows (which are pretty much sections of desert with big sand dunes) long beaches, ocean... crazy. After Lake Wabby, we took a 45 minute walk through a section of rain forest. Amazing. After the walk, Simon prepared some sandwich fixings and fruit for lunch. It's clever how it works because he stores a lot of the food in a specially made compartment in the back so he can bust out utensils, food, a table to set it on, etc. and we can have lunch anywhere on the island. He made all of our breakfast and evening meals as well. We ate extremely well. Simon used to be a cook before he started giving tours on Frasier. I wish you could hear Simon say the word "Frasier" it never failed to bring a smile to my face every time he said it. I can't even describe it. Almost like "Fraziah." And he was passionate about it. Very knowledgeable. Tonight we stayed in the Dilli Village, it is a fenced in area with a kitchen & dining facility and dorm-like units to stay in. They host lots of groups here, and university students commonly do research here.
3/7, Day 2 Fraser Island
We left Dilli Village early for more 4x4 beach driving. First we visited a place called the Kirrar Sandblow which is a desert looking portion of the island with huge sand dunes which were fun to climb and run back down. We also had fun drawing things in the sand. In some parts the sand would be one color on the surface and another color below the surface which made for some groovy sand drawing. At one point I stared towards the coast and admired in this order, all within my field of vision: 1. the ocean... obviously a huge body of water. 2. a fairly wide portion of thick lush green trees... which formed a line in front of the ocean. 3. a desert of sand. Three things that should not logically be this close together but they were all right here. Very cool. After the sand exploration, we went to the waters edge and visited a ship wreck that was half submerged in the beach. All that remains is the large rusty frame protruding from the sand. It has been here since 1935. The S.S. Maheno once served as a luxury ocean liner as well as a hospital ship in World War I. The story of how it ended up on the beach of Fraser Island is pretty interesting but unfortunately time is short. After taking some marvelous photos with the Maheno, we stopped to admire the Indian Head rock formations. After that we went to a place called Eli Creek. This place dumps fresh water into the ocean at some crazy rate of like 4.4 million liters of water per hour. It is a popular place to go because it isn't very deep, pretty wide and one can simply float along and let the current take you down the creek... a natural lazy river. Returned to Dilli Village for supper and sleep. Buttered Fish with white gravy for supper... real good. Simon makes excellent gravy, you can tell he was a cook. Very interesting to talk with Simon after supper, he had a very unique story to tell about where he has been and what he has done in his life. A great day.
3/8, day 3 Fraser Island
This was my favorite of all days on Fraser. First of all we had a breakfast fit for royalty. Eggs, bacon, toast, and the best watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe (or rock melon as they call it) and honeydew that I have ever had. I don't know what it was but every single one of these was fantastic! Today we visited Lake Boomanjin and Lake Mackenzie. If you ever go to Fraser Island you MUST go to Lake Mackenzie. It is the most beautiful body of water I have ever set my eyes on. This place was magical. The sand was completely white, very fine and powdery. The water was crystal clear. As you looked out on the lake there was a beautiful color change. Out in the middle it was a dazzling royal blue color, as the water got closer and the lake shallower it gradually changed from a blue to a pretty aqua green color and the water closest to the beach was completely transparent so all you could see was the white sand below. Just beautiful. There was a smaller beach away from the larger main beach that we hung out at and it was fantastic. We played some volleyball in the water which was fun. I also went for a 20 minute swim out to the middle where it was so quiet, calm, and peaceful. Pristine. It was definitely a "wow, God" moment. This lake is surrounded by beautiful green trees. The day was perfect, sun shining with white puffy clouds and a baby blue sky. I did multiple 360 degree turns while treading water trying to soak it all in. I could see my feet clear as day under the water. So cool. The water was so unbelievably clean. I felt refreshed just by being in it. There was no sound except the occasionaly light breeze and the water gently moving around me. It was like a dream. I could see rocks on the bottom, probably at least 20 feet below me. Just nuts. After Lake Mackenzie, our visit on Fraser Island came to an end and drove back to the ferry which took us back to the mainland. We returned to Hervey Bay and I experienced a run on the beach the I will remember for a very long time. More on that in the next entry... coming to a blog near you soon!!!
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