Simple Stuff: Photos from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Taking the advice of mom, something I wouldn't dare admit doing under normal circumstances of course, I've decided to keep this post simple so I can share in a more timely manner. I recently had the chance to visit Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Bond University's dime, having won two free passes in a photo competition. The sanctuary is really an amazing place and was a pleasant surprise. I had been under the impression that there would be little more than kangaroos and koalas to see, which there were plenty of, but the diversity of animals to be found could easily have been classified as 'zooworthy'.

Beyond all of the animals, Currumbin is home to an extensive ropes course. With three increasingly difficult stages lasting about 1.5 hours in total, Melissa and I were exhausted by days end. But, we left with a feeling of accomplishment and to my pleasant surprise, standing on a platform at least 50 feet in the air at times secured by nothing more than two ropes and a harness (which needed to be removed and transferred in between obstacles, one rope at a time) barely even caused me any worry. Just months ago I insist that these heights would have had me on the verge of tears, my lifelong fear of heights getting the best of me. I credit my reckless canopy walk in Ghana and the abundance of roller coasters I've ridden in recent years for giving me the confidence boost. This said, I still get the chills when I consider the inevitable bungee jump and/or skydive of the coming months.

And that's all I have to say, really. Enjoy the photos. Many of them are up there with my favorites to date (I have a bias towards animals).

A quite clearly upset Geico mascot.

How is this not fake?

Ambushed by a vicious python.

Stars of the show.

This is the expected behavior at all times unfortunately.

Thanks Melissa for the encouragement. She insisted I change to my macro lens to get an extreme close up of the bird and having been convinced, I have to say I'm thrilled with the outcome.

Same same.

Meditation.

I would have more koala photos but this one become quite aggressive and attacked! As seen in the photo above of course.

Aussie's raise their kids right. Teaching the little one how to hunt for Thanksgiving early on (so what if that's an American holiday...)

Echidna.

Roo is inspecting our food bag.

Hard to capture but I managed once, luckily - Joey popping his head out.

That big fellow in the foreground is about my height when standing on his hind legs.

In rehab for a drug problem.

These guys live the life. They get handfed all day long.

Trying to pick a fight with me perhaps?

I got on his good side soon enough.

Poses by both parties, rare.

Friends.

Someone should really tell this Joey it's time to get out of his mom's pouch...no?

Reminds me of a certain dog back home.

Classic animal move.

One of my favorites, I'm far better at animal portraits than human ones.

The feeding trough, as if handfeeding wasn't enough.

The babies were far easier to startle, so getting them to come close wasn't all that easy.

But I'm a real charmer you know.

The other drug buddy in rehab.

Another favorite, I like the greens in the background.

In for the kiss

Saying hello to the little guy.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed them and if you already saw all of these on Facebook, I apologize for the repetition. Back to studying.

Forceful Application

My time in Australia is nearly half over. I can't offer much of an explanation as to why the time is going by so fast, but I guess that means I'm enjoying myself. The same type of attitude that I employed at Bentley and even moreso this summer in Ghana, that is, living largely for the weekend, isn't helping. Considering that I'm aware of how much time I lose by concentrating on what I want to do next, I really ought to try and change my attitude, but that's easier said than done...especially considering how incredible weekends can be.

Enjoying the local cuisine. Pat, Max, and Sean.

Loving the color of the water.

I titled this post "Forceful Application" because right now, it feels a little bit like I'm forcing myself to write this. What's strange is that already I'm beginning to enjoy it, but I've battled with myself every day since I returned from the Whitsunday Islands nearly two weeks ago, one side of me saying I should write and the other saying I shouldn't. I'll put that behind me now though, there are many photos to share.

Our Catamaran, Wings. There's beds for 26+4 crew, a kitchen, hot tub, and 3 bathrooms...wondering how it all fits? Me too.

Looking up from the base of the sail. A random shot, but I really like how it turned out.

The Whitsunday Islands, or the Whitsundays? I have to admit I still don't know the name. This little slice of heaven is about an hour and a half by plane north of Brisbane, and is home to perhaps the world's tiniest airport. I've done many exits onto the runway in the past year, but I have to say that this airport, significantly smaller than my own house, puts them all to shame in terms of wowing me with how little it is.

Taken from the boat. Setting sun and the sky.

Pat. The golden light from the sunset lasted long enough to get plenty of great portraits of everyone.

More of the golden light. Melissa, Bianca, and Rachel.

To be completely honest, I wasn't quite sure what I was in for with the trip. What I knew is that I had spent a lot of money to fly (an absurd amount considering it was about equivalent to Boston to Washington D.C. or something), and that I was going on a boat. More specifically as I found out, this boat, affectionately titled Wings, is a catamaran with beds for 26 people. The company offers a variety of trips and ours was oriented towards the social university student, so the sleeping quarters were far from luxurious, but hey, I slept through the night and that's all I can ask for.

Sean in the best seat on the boat.

Abby, a friend and student at Northeastern University who joined us on the trip.

Our trip also included a night before and after at Airlie Beach, the only real sign of civilization to be found for miles (the surrounding area looked like a hybrid between Kansas and Vermont, only uglier), and a home for backpackers from all over the world. It also happened that the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) seasons had just come to an end, so we crossed paths with many athletes varying from moderate fame to benchwarmers using their jersey to impress people.

A rather dramatic shot of Pat.

Melissa and her camera. I'll be sharing some of her photos that feature me in order to make the family happy.

This marked my first experience in a hostel and I must say that for $28/night, it wasn't too bad. A hotel, in my opinion, is nowhere near the far higher price one would have to pay. It's hard to describe Airlie as anything more than a "backpacker's town". Even the workforce seems as though they come and go with the seasons and there are very few people who could call the place home, considering that the idea of backpacking is to avoid spending if at all possible.

Nicole and Clara. In this photo we're anchored to watch the sunset. More photos of that coming up.

If I continue writing about Airlie there's going to be a serious imbalance in what I write as compared to what I can show, considering that I took nearly no photos of the town, and hundreds of photos on the boat. So cue Friday morning at the boat dock, where we all are introduced to "Richie Rich", our host for the trip. If ever there was a man earning his paycheck, Richie Rich is the guy. Other than his role as entertainer and host for the weekend, he was also our scuba instructor and an excellent one at that. I'm not so comfortable in the water I'll admit (not actually sure I ever finished swim lessons), so the first time spent breathing underwater was nearly overwhelming. Richie Rich helped keep the nerves down as best as possible.

Preparing for the big first dive! From Facebook, which is why it's bad quality.

On our first dive I sucked through almost all of my air because I was so nervous - I actually could barely keep myself deep in the water at first because I was inflating my lungs so much. The concept of scuba diving never really scared me, not at all like the thought of bungee jumping does, yet the experience itself was one of the toughest to overcome. Unfortunate considering I dedicated a bit too much time on my first dive to worrying about my life, and not enough time enjoying the incredible marine life that the Great Barrier Reef has to offer.

Thankfully, by the time I made my second dive I had put those nerves to rest and I had an incredible experience underwater. No shark or sea turtle sightings on the dive unfortunately, but we did find ourselves surrounded by hundreds of fish, including one Maury Rass fish which was nearly the size of Melissa despite only being only a teenager. They can grow to about 6 feet in length and weigh as much as 400 pounds. I desperately tried to pose with the fish, but sadly he or she wasn't feeling the photo op like I was. If it weren't for the cost per dive I would have happily gone underwater many more times. Here's to hoping for more opportunities in the future. Overall, being able to knock "scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef" off of my bucket list is as good as I could ask for.

Whenever there was a dive opportunity, there was always an option to snorkel for free instead. The water is so clear at the reef that snorkeling is incredible in itself, and seeing a sea turtle or two allowed me to check another item off the bucket list. Yes, I also "found Nemo", although I must say seeing little clownfish doesn't excite me quite as much as it does more avid fans of the movie.

So that was one aspect, snorkeling and diving, but there was much more about the trip that made it so special. The sunsets, for example. I won't write so much about them and will let the pictures speak for themselves. I hope they can do it justice.

Some strange halos in the photo are from seawater on the lens...it almost works to make the photo nicer at least.

One thing that was entirely impossible to capture and share, however, was the night sky. I've told a number of people about the absolutely beautiful starscapes that I saw in Nicaragua, but the night sky in the Whitsundays surpassed it. The rocking of the boat ruled out any chance of photos even with the use of tripod, so just imagine being able to see quite literally every single star that there is to see in the southern hemisphere all at once.

Melissa and Rachel by sunset.

You can see the moon despite it being broad daylight, talk about clear skies.

There were other aspects that made the trip special like the incredible food (not quite sure how they pulled that off) and the nightly slideshow hosted by Richie Rich himself, but I'll just make mention of one more stop we made that was particularly special. Whitehaven Beach is one of only two beaches in the world that, in reality, doesn't have any sand. What feels like sand is to the best of my rather unscientific interpretation, 98% silica, or microscopic pieces of glass. This means a few things:

• The beach is never hot. No matter how hot the Australian sun gets, the "sand" always feels cool on the feet.
• The "sand" makes a funny noise when you walk through it. No idea how to describe it, so go visit Whitehaven to experience it for yourself.
• The bits of "sand" or "glass" are absolute menaces towards electronics. If you drop your camera, it will be an almost certain death. The upside is that old jewelry is easily cleaned by it.
• Exfoliates are made from the "sands" of Whitehaven Beach.

Tongue Bay. A walk through the woods away from Whitehaven Beach. I promise it looks nicer on the other side.

Told you it would be nicer...

A very cool place and one entirely untouched by humans except for a few guiding signs and a lookout post. Thank you humankind for not messing this place up.

This is a 4 photo panorama, so I recommend the usual. Click to open it on Flickr, then click it again for full screen viewing.

What better way to welcome myself to the beach than with my traditional blog pose.

While it would be easy to ramble on about exactly what I did and where I went, I'll just provide a few more of my observations about Australian culture instead. It's easy to use the word relaxed to describe the people, but I never thought it would carry so far as to also hold true in domestic airports. There are no liquid laws to be heard of, no long and tedious security lines, and most of all, no mean security employees. I may have even smiled going through security, and it's nice to see that such luxuries still exist.

This beach is HUGE.

Action shot of an action shot.

On the same note, attending sporting events and amusement parks is that much more enjoyable because simply put, you can bring what you want into the park. No more stuffing an entire sandwich in your mouth at the Six Flags gate because they insist that you buy their overpriced food instead. Even once you're inside you'll find that food and drink prices, at least in Gold Coast, aren't much higher than you'd find outside the park. This isn't to say their cheap, but the disparity between prices is almost nonexistent, which is really refreshing.

Thank you French friends for pointing out this framing.

At this point we've all been lead by Richie Rich to "Secret Beach", just a short walk and 1 giant iguana passing away.

There you have it, I could definitely say more but I'll save it for another day. Hopefully I can find my groove again to maintain the level of motivation needed to keep writing, but I won't make any promises. An upcoming Sydney trip will mean many more photos to share but it's the accompanying words that really take time. I hope you enjoy this one anyway.

I took this photo for my photography class as one of my assignments is to create a product advertisement. It didn't really work, but still, this image defines Australia, no?

Everyone was extraordinarily sunburned by the end of the trip, so we resorted to drastic measures.

The guys with the man, the myth, the legend himself, Richie Rich. The W is for Team Wings.

Heading back to the harbor after an incredible trip. This is another panorama so click away.

The next four photos are all from Facebook so the quality isn't great. If you want an original I can get it for you (reason being they're not from my camera).

Bright sun = squinting. Also, don't worry. I've since gotten a haircut.

The guys and I in Paradise.

Richie Rich came out and partied with us after the trip! What a guy.

This is by no means a good photo. In fact, I look distorted. But there's no more appropriate way to end this entry than with this pose.