Going Home

Well final exams are over, and hopefully I passed all my courses. Wow, did it go by quick. It feels like it was just yesterday that I arrived in Fiji with six strangers from UW and it's already time to leave my good friends. I now have a day to pack up, then fly home, have another day to pack, and head to Michigan for a summer internship. I had an amazing time in Fiji and Australia- it was definitely one of the best decisions in my life to study abroad. I'm really glad to have met so many awesome people and have seen so many incredible sights. Let's keep in touch and hopefully I can get back here sooner than later.

 Good Times

A visit from my mom and sister

For the past few days before my final exams, my mom and sister came to visit. On the first day of their visit, I showed them around Brisbane and the University of Queensland campus. The next day, we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We saw a bunch of native Australian animals like wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, and tazmanian devils. The sanctuary was especially neat because we got to feed and pet the kangaroos, and the koalas were the most active I've ever seen. We also watched a birds of prey show and a sheep herding/shearing show.

A Koala at the Lone Pine Sanctuary

The next day we took a day trip to Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast Hinterlands. We did a few hikes through the rainforest, including one along a canopy skywalk. We also went through a glow worm cave, had a cheese and wine tasting, visited a brewery, and went on a gallery walk in the Tamborine Village.

On their last day here, we went to North Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay just outside Brisbane. We did a lot of hiking along the beach and headlands. It is the start of whale season, and we spotted a couple groups of whales breaching and also a few pods of dolphins swimming and jumping through the water.

 Frenchman's Beach on North Stradbroke Island

'The Gong' and Jervis Bay

This week we have a break between the end of classes and the start of final exams, so a group of UW students and myself decided to go visit my roommates hometown, Wollongong, and his family's beach house in Jervis Bay.

To start off the trip, my roommate and I relocated a 4WD campervan from Brisbane to Sydney at the cost of $1 per day, with $150 of free petrol. We decided to get the drive done in one go, and it ended up as a 15 hour car ride. The next day, we the rest of the UW students in Sydney and drove three hours down to Jervis Bay, where my roommate's beach house is. We spent the next few days down there, exploring the small town and visiting several national parks.

Some cliffs on Jervis Bay

From there, we traveled north to Wollongong, where my roommate grew up. He gave us a tour of the city, which is on the beach and is pretty nice place. We got to meet some of his family and hung out with his brothers. I spent two nights there, one of which we we spent playing a trivia game at the local lawn bowling club. It was pretty interesting since we were the only team with members under the age of 40, but we didn't end up doing too poorly.

A view of Wollongong

I fly out of Sydney early tomorrow morning, and will meet up with my mom and sister in Brisbane as they arrive for their visit. This trip made for a nice end to the semester, and thankfully I don't have to start studying for finals for another four or five days while I get to show my mom and sister around Brisbane.

Noosa Everglades

This past weekend, I was up in the Noosa Everglades with two friends from UW on a camping/canoeing trip. It is one of two freshwater everglades in the world, the other being in Florida. On our first day, we canoed north from our campsite up the Noosa River. We saw a couple eagles, one of which swooped down to the water and caught a fish. We made our way up to Lake Cootharaba, which was huge and was less than a meter deep across the whole lake, except where it was dredged so that boats could pass through. We then visited Boreen Point, which is home to the second oldest pub in Queensland. After a short nap on the beach, we paddled back to the campsite. The trip back across the lake was arduous and seemed to take forever, since we had to fight against adverse winds and rain.

Along the Noosa River

The next day, we traveled south down the Noosa River to Lake Cooroiba. There was a creek we explored that was stained a blackish brown from tannin and tea tree leaves. The water was super reflective and made for some good pictures. After a picnic lunch, we paddled to the edge of the lake and hiked half an hour to the ocean. On the way, we came across a group of people on a camel safari in the everglades. Finally we ended up on a giant beach that is part of the Great Sandy National Park. There were a lot of SUVs driving along the beach, full of campers and fishers.

Great Sandy National Park

On our last day, we spent a little time fishing in the river with a hand reel. We caught a few small fish, about the size of bluegills. On the way home, we had a slight mishap on the train and accidentally ended up at the wrong stop. Faced with the options of waiting two hours for the next train, or walking to the next stop and catching a train that runs every half hour, I decided to walk. The next stop seemed like it was only a five minute train ride, but the trek ended up taking an hour and forty five minutes! It was pretty fun though- we had to wade across two creeks, cut through a macadamia nut orchard, jump a barbed wire fence, and we ended up seeing two wild kangaroos- the first of my trip! It it was a long day, but a fun end to a good trip.

Lamb Island

What started out today as a day trip to North Stradbroke Island turned into a long adventure to Lamb Island thanks to a small public transportation misinterpretation. Both are located in the Moreton Bay just outside of Brisbane, but having taken the wrong bus 45 minutes to the wrong ferry, I decided to check out Lamb Island instead. It's a small place that is probably only 2 km long and has a population of about 300 people. It was a pretty interesting visit, with excitement provided by two small lap dogs I almost got mauled by. Other than that, there were some nice "beaches" and mangrove swamps that I enjoyed hiking around.

An old boat with North Stradbroke Island in the background

Glasshouse Mountains

Yesterday I took a train an hour and a half north, to the Glasshouse Mountains. There are several national parks up there centered around these small mountains, which are actually volcanic plugs that are about 26 million years old. I spent much of the day walking, first from the train station to the national park, then hiking to the top of Mt. Ngungun.

The Summit of Mt. Dgungun

Sydney Trip: The City

My last two days in Sydney I spent exploring the city. The downtown area was very easy to get around, and a lot of the city was accessible on foot from my hostel. I saw the obligatory Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge, checked out Chinatown, a historic area called The Rocks, and Darling Harbor. In a park area near the Opera House, I watched an interesting street performance. There was a contortionist twisting her body into weird shapes, and the grand finale of her show was fitting herself into a 16 inch square box on top of a 4 foot post. I also walked across the Harbor Bridge, which provided a nice vantage point to see the harbor and city. Sydney is a pretty fun city and seems like a good place to live.

Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge

View of Sydney from the Harbor Bridge

Sydney Trip: Blue Mountains

After going to Bondi Beach, I spent the next two days in the Blue Mountains about an hour and a half north of Sydney. My first day in the Blue Mountains, I went on a tour with the "Happy Coach." We did a lot of bushwalking through the mountains to some great views over the various valleys in the range.

The next day, I went on an rappelling / canyoning trip to Empress Falls. We spent the morning learning how to rappel, climbing down gradually taller cliff faces from 5 to 30 meters. After a lunch in the mountains, we went to a national park to trek through a canyon, culminating with a 30 meter rappel down a waterfall. It was so much fun! We hiked through the creek running through the canyon, slid down small waterfalls, and jumped into deep pools of water. At the end of the hike, we ended at the top of Empress Falls and rappelled down its 30 meter waterfalls. It was such a difference experience than anything I've done before, and I definitely want to do it again.

Learning to rappel

Hiking through the canyon

Empress Falls

Sydney Trip: Bondi Beach

This past weekend we got an extra day off from school for Anzac Day, so I decided to take a couple additional days off, make an extended weekend out of it, and go visit Sydney. I flew in Thursday night and since the weather was looking good for Friday, decided to go to Bondi Beach. It's a pretty beach, with lots of surfers and sunbathers. There was also a nice path along the cliffs to adjacent beaches which was quite scenic. I stopped for a fish and chips lunch, and the rest of the day on the beach was a nice relaxing start to my trip.

Daintree Rainforest

After my trip to the Great Barrier Reef, I went up to the Daintree Rainforest. It is the world's oldest rainforest and is a World Heritage site. I took a two day overnight tour of the area and learned a lot while seeing some great sights of the rainforest. One of my tour guides was an aboriginal man, so I got to learn a bit about their culture and he told us some interesting aboriginal stories about how various things in the rainforest came to be. On the tour, went to Mossman Gorge, did a short hike through the area, visited a small zoo of native animals, viewed the mouth of the Daintree River from a lookout in the Alexandra Range, and then got dropped off at our accommodations in the middle of the rainforest. I spent the evening exploring the beaches (which we couldn't swim in because of jellyfish.) The next morning, I explored around a bit more, then got picked up for the remainder of the tour. We went on a cruise of the Daintree River and spotted some saltwater crocodiles, visited the tourist town of Port Douglas, and saw the sunset from the Rex Range on the way back to Cairns.

Mossman Gorge

View from the Alexandra Range

Mangrove tree on the beach

Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

For the past week, I was on the northeast coast of Australia along the Great Barrier Reef, in the city of Cairns. Most of this time was dedicated to getting my PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Certification. I spent the first two days of my mid-semester break in class, not to learn about engineering, but scuba diving. Leading up to those two days were probably the most excited I have ever been to go to class. There were about 10 people in the class and we went over the basic theory and skills of scuba diving. It was surprisingly fun... at least the time we spent in the pool.  It was strange to breathe underwater for the first time, but I got used to it after a little while.

After the two days of class, two other UW students and I went on a three day liveaboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Our first four dives were training dives to practice some skills and gain confidence in the open water of the ocean. After that, we had six more dives, including a night dive and a deep dive. They were absolutely amazing. It is such a unique experience to feel weightless underwater and to be able to explore the reef freely. The reef itself is gorgeous, with tons of aquatic wildlife. I saw a shark (it was small and harmless), turtles, a stingray, big clams, and hundreds of different fish.

The night dive was a lot of fun, it kind of felt like being a Navy Seal at times. We started the dive when it was pitch black out, and all we had to see with was a flashlight. After jumping in the water, we swam up along the side of the boat and it felt like something out of a James Bond movie. When we dove down, we would be followed by these big fish that have learned to hunt off of diver's flashlights. If you focused your light on a small fish, the hunter would swim out from underneath you and devour it. Or you could have fun tricking the fish by moving your light away at the last second.

Another special dive we did was the "deep dive". We went down to 75 feet underwater, and having done the dive, I am now certified to go down as far as 98 feet. Our instructor brought down some eggs to show us the effects of all the pressure at that depth. When you crack an egg, the yolk stays intact due to the pressure and you can bat it around underwater like a ball. Unfortunately, some fish have either caught on to this or can smell the eggs. One big fish followed us down during the whole dive and swept in to eat the eggs before we could even see the yolk.

So after ten dives on the Great Barrier Reef and over four hours underwater in the ocean, I am certified to scuba dive on my own up to 30 meters. I already can't wait to go again, and perhaps dive a shipwreck somewhere.

 The two reefs we dove. My favorite site was "Caves" on Norman Reef.

First Wildlife Sighting

Last night, I spotted my first true Australian wildlife outside of a zoo: the possum.

Sports Weekend

It was a pretty busy weekend of sports activities for me. Saturday there was a volleyball tournament put on by the UQ Beach Volleyball Club, and my team made it to the semi-finals. Later that night, a group of us went to an Australian Football League game. Australian rules football is a pretty entertaining sport- it's sort of like a combination between soccer and a little bit of American football played on an oval shaped field. The Brisbane Lions played the West Coast Eagles, and won 114 - 82. Sunday, my roommate and I went to a National Rugby League game with an international student group from school, QUEST. The Brisbane Broncos played the New Zealand Warriors and lost 16 - 48. It was cool to see Australian sports in person, since Australia is known to be a very sport-centered country.

At the AFL Game

At the NRL Game

CityCat

I went downtown today to get some dim sum in Chinatown. To get there, I took the CityCat ferry down the Brisbane River, which I have traveled on several times. It's super convenient and a student fare is only about $1 each way. Here are a couple pictures of Brisbane from the river:

Field Trip

For my first university field trip, I went with my heat transfer class to a BP oil refinery outside of Brisbane. We learned about the heat transfer that takes place at an oil refinery, primarily through different heat exchangers. After a short classroom session, we got to tour the refinery and see where various the processes actually take place.

The Hinterlands

Today I went with an international student group, QUEST, to Springbrook National Park in the Gold Coast Hinterlands. It was an hour and a half bus ride from Brisbane and we walked through a cave of glow worms, fed some tropical birds, and did a couple hikes to some waterfalls.

Australia Zoo

Today I went to the Australia Zoo with an international student group from school called QUEST. The zoo is pretty famous in Australia because it is owned by Steve Irwin's family and is where he worked. It featured mostly native Australian animals and was pretty cool. Highlights of the day included: playing with kangaroos, petting a koala, feeding an elephant, and watching tiger playtime.

Mt. Coot-Tha

My roommate and I went for a short hike today up Mt. Coot-Tha on the outskirts of Brisbane. It was a little rainy, but still fun and the views were great.

Waterfall at Mt. Coot-Tha

 

 

View of Brisbane from the summit

Going to the Great Barrier Reef

I booked my tickets to go to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef over spring break. Now I need to start doing some research... but I plan on getting my PADI open water certification, and going up to the rainforest. 

First Day of Class

So far it has been a hectic day. Late last night, I realized I had signed up for the wrong course and it wouldn't help me when transferred back to UW. Therefore, on my first day of class here, I have been working frantically to rearrange my schedule and get into courses that will transfer back home and not set me back. On the bright side, they have a better system than UW over here for signing up for classes. First you enroll in a lecture, then the professor sets a date and time when everyone then signs up for tutorials (discussions,) practicals (labs,) etc.

I've attended two lectures today: Fluid Mechanics and Introductory Philosophy. I will definitely be taking Fluids, but might end up dropping Philosophy. They were both really big lectures, probably 125 and 200 people, respectively. Fluids seems like a typical engineering course and may be difficult, whereas Philosophy had a lot of reading and discussions, which will be somewhat new to me. At least I only have to pass...

As of right now, my schedule is somewhat worked out, and I think I will be taking Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Environmental Issues Monitoring & Assessment, and World Religions.

View of campus from above

Water Warrior

So droughts are a pretty big deal here and water conservation is a large effort. All around my house are a bunch of "water warrior" stickers teaching you how to conserve water. They are pretty funny but for a good cause.

We also don't have a dryer, so doing laundry here is weather dependent, which is pretty tough since it's their rainy season right now. At least I can say I'm being environmentally friendly.

Brisbane

Ahhh… it feels good to finally be settled in. After four nights in a couple hostels in downtown Brisbane, it’s nice to not be living out of suitcases. I guess I could get used to it, but it’s hard to imagine how all the people I’ve met who are traveling around the world can live out of a backpack for months on end.

Brisbane is a really sweet city- it’s not too big but there are still tons of things to do. It was cool to stay downtown for a while and get a glimpse of the nightlife. Last night I moved into a room I’m sharing with another UW student in a house with two Aussie guys and a girl from South Africa. So far everyone is super friendly and easy going. I’m excited for classes to start and to meet new people.

Yesterday was the annual Market Day, which was like a giant student organization fair with sponsors and tons of free stuff. I signed up for an international student social club, some Australian engineering association, and a beach volleyball club. There is so much to do on campus, I don’t see myself having any trouble keeping busy.

 

Downtown Brisbane, near our hostel

Halfway There

I am now officially halfway finished with my goal of visiting every continent (minus Antarctica- I'm not sure how much there is really to do there)

Bula!

Fiji was amazing. It was absolutely beautiful there and the Fijians were so friendly. We stayed on four islands in the Yasawas: Kuata, Korovou, Long Beach, and Beachcomber. Each island had a different feel to it and different things to offer. During the trip, we met a ton of interesting people from around the world including people from England, Norway, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Brazil, France, Italy, Holland, and other places I’m sure I have forgotten about.

Kuata is a smaller island where we stayed for our first two nights. The staff / locals there treated us like family and spent a lot of time with us. One of my favorite experiences while there was playing rugby with some of the local guys. At night, we took part in the local tradition and drank Kava. It didn’t really do much; it just gave me a slightly numb tongue and mouth. On our second day at Kuata, we climbed to the top of a small mountain that had incredible views of Kuata and the neighboring islands. 

The next two nights, we stayed at Korovou. It is one of three “resorts” on a stretch of beach on the island of Naviti. It had nicer accommodations and food than Kuata, but the staff and locals were a little more formal and the main beach wasn’t as picturesque. During our second day at Korovou, we hiked to a nicer and more secluded beach. It had some sweet coral reefs that we swam around with goggles.

From there, we went to Long Beach. The scenery there was amazing, but it was also very hot. We spent a good amount of time there avoiding the sun, trying not to worsen our sunburns. We only had one night there, and the day we had to leave I took a trip to the local village. It was a great experience to see how some people live in Fiji. The highlight of the village trip was visiting the school and that was a lot of fun. The kids were a combination of excited and shy, but enjoyed spending some time with us.

We spent our last night in the Yasawas at the Beachcomber Island. It is probably one of the more well known resort islands and has a party atmosphere, in contrast to the laid back styles of the other islands. The island was very small, and I could walk the entire perimeter of it in just about five minutes.

Leaving Tomorrow!

I'm leaving tomorrow for my long trip to Fiji with a group of fellow UW-Madison engineers. We land in Nadi on the 13th, after having been non-existent for a day (thanks to the international date line.) From there, we will take a ferry to the Yasawa Islands. I might not have internet access in Fiji, so my next update may take a while.

 

Kuata, one of the islands I'll be staying on.