I have so much catching up to do. We'll start from where we left off.......Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach was bitter sweet for Jenni and I. We went with intentions to live there and work for 2 months. Things didn't quite go as planned but I believe worked out for the best in the end.
The positives of Airlie Beach:
1. Meeting Anthony and Michelle, our roommates for 2 weeks, who were both so kind and became great friends of ours.....I already miss them both!
2. Renting from John, who I met through the couchsurfing website, who was so generous to Jenni and I and took me sailing and snorkeling in the Whitsunday Islands my last full day in Airlie.
3. Meeting people who were couchsurfers at John's house from all over the world. I met 3 of the only 300,000 people from Iceland.
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| Couchsurfers from Spain cooked us a delicious Spanish tortilla! |
4. Spending time at Cedar Creek Falls floating around on our $3.00 kiddie floaties while Anthony sprayed us with his $4.00 water shooter.....(we stopped at a Dollar Sense on our way to the waterfall and spent our money wisely, as you can tell)
5. Having a 2 week vacation in a beautiful town and having the opportunity to snorkel and sail twice!
My bad luck in Airlie included:
1. After arrival in Airlie Beach I immediately felt sick. It felt like the common cold and must have been caused by the severe weather change from Melbourne. My nose was so runny I slept with two wads of tissue shoved up my nose. It grossed Jenni out, but it just wouldn't stop running!
2. We were unable to find jobs because it was off season for the small town and there were not enough tourists to keep many of the small businesses fully staffed. Therefore I started to run low on funds.
3. A couple of days into living in Airlie the most ironic and frustrating thing happened... Both Jenni and I experienced very similar computer problems. Within only hours from one another both mine and Jenni's new Macbook Pros would power on and the computer screen would stay black. We concluded that it had to have been caused by moisture in the air. It poured rain off and on our first 3 days in Airlie and was very humid. During that time, we continued to leave our bedroom windows open. Moisture must have gotten into the computers and caused the vision boards to act up. Jenni's computer fixed itself after several hours with the IT guy and a couple of days. Mine on the other hand did not. Hints why I am so behind on my blogging. It made me realize that my computer is a very important part of life while traveling.
4. I slipped and fell on the street.
Regardless of my "Airlie bad luck streak"; we did one of the most amazing things I will ever do! SNORKELED in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. We got very lucky and happened to come across a 2 for 1 deal on a snorkel trip that included all our gear and stinger suits, breakfast, lunch, and a full day at the reef. Lucky us!
Jenni and I had never snorkeled before and both were a bit nervous. I had to "practice" breathing into the mask and snorkel outside of the water before jumping in. Jenni fully understood because she knows it makes me anxious being asthmatic and feeling like I am constricted. The lady waiting for us to jump in looked at me like I was a crazy person practicing snorkeling! haha. It paid off in the end though because once I got the art of breathing through my mouth only you couldn't get me to lift my head out of the water. It was so surreal. The beauty of the reef and the exotic fish full of vibrant colors.
From October/November until May is known as "stinger season". This is because two potentially life threatening animals, the Box Jelly fish and the Irukandji, are present at many of the beaches of coastal Australia. Hints the awesome 80's stinger suits Jenni and I wore while snorkeling! We gave the fish a run for their money.......
My second sailing/snorkeling experience was with John on his 40 foot catamaran. He took me, 2 Germans, and 1 Italian. They were all 3 couchsurfers.
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| Whitsunday Islands |
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| We came across a cruise ship |
We sailed a couple of hours out to the Whitsunday Islands. We anchored down in between a couple of the islands after sailing up to a waterfall and finding a good area of the reef to snorkel. My stinger suit wasn't quite as bright, but I still looked pretty fancy in my snorkel get-up!
On the way back in from the islands I sat on the top of the boat and watched the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. We came across some big waves and it was pitch black outside surrounded by nothing but water for miles. It was such an interesting feeling of pure bliss while I enjoyed the boat rocking in the waves and a bit of wonder of what is in the water right below you deep in the Pacific Ocean.
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| Sunset. Whitsunday Islands. March, 22, 2011. |
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