Saturday morning was when the fun started. The only downside was that though the weather forecast had looked gorgeous a few days ago, the day actually considered of a continuous downpour, high winds and low temperatures.
Our first stop that morning was the shark & ray center, where I was in for the scare of my life. In theory, getting into a tank filled with sharks and sting rays so I could feed them while they repeatedly touched me sounded fun...and it was, but it was also absolutely terrifying. Other than one large shark, most of them were only about a foot long, but they were feisty and repeatedly rammed their noses into legs [I was in water up to my waist with no where to run!] but I always felt like they were following me and spent 90% of my time in the water shrieking. The sting rays were actually really cool - for some reason they weren't nearly as scary? Just slimy and friendly. Feeding sharks was definitely not an activity that was ever on my bucket list, but facing my fears ended up being an absolute blast.
The already soaked shoes we wore in the tank, probably the worst part!
Tell me this is not the most giant sting ray you've ever seen - it touched me!
Tim and Bekah feeding some sharks!
Having a freak out about the lizard on my head - Parent Trap, anyone?
My roommate Julie, feeding a sting ray
Tim, Julie, me, Bekah - in the tank
We're official shark wranglers!
When we left the center, it was definitely down pouring. Normally, I love rain and thunderstorms, but our next activity was a hike to a lookout point on top of a mountain. About half the group opted out and got dropped off back at the hotel, but I figured that I paid quite a bit of money to take this trip, and I was going to do it all. I regretted that every now and then over the next hour that I spent drenched and shivering, but the view from the top was gorgeous - even in the less than wonderful weather.
How the view on our hike would look on a sunny day
The view we had during our hike - still gorgeous
The group at the top, absolutely soaked but still having a good time!
After a little bit of time back at the hotel to change into dry clothes, we headed out on a dolphin spotting cruise. As you can imagine, this was also a largely outdoor activity, which again resulted in being drenched. But I've always wanted to see dolphins, and we did indeed! We were really lucky, because 2 groups had been out in the morning and didn't see any dolphins, and we got to see a ton. At one point, there was a pod of about 6 swimming in front of our boat, and it was awesome to watch. Unfortunately, I didn't get any great pictures - they were very hard to capture!
My only dolphin photo
Our final stop of the day was Murray's Brewery, which makes a variety of wines and beers. After a brief tour, we had a wine and beer tasting [Moscato, anyone?] before sitting down and eating a ton of pizza and then heading back to the hotel.
Today (Sunday) was also filled with crazy adventures. My first activity of the morning was camel riding. Even though I have heard about the traumatic camel riding experience my mom and I had when I was a baby, I was excited to try it out for myself. It didn't disappoint - Julie and I were on a camel together and spent the ride taking pictures of the scenery, and a few "Sydney selfies". The ride got a little bumpy at times, and I was terrified of falling off when they stood up and sat down, but it was a blast.
Where our adventure took place
Julie and I on our camel
Sam and Bekah on their camel, Pauly
After that, we took a crazy bus ride over to the sand dunes to go dune boarding. Dune boarding is very similar to sledding - you sit on something that is about the size of a snowboard and go sliding down a massive hill. It was insane. Also insane was the trek up the side of the sand dune, definitely was not in the appropriate athletic condition to do it more than twice. Luckily for me, I never wiped out too bad at the bottom of the hill, but that didn't stop me from finding sand everywhere - including my hair, even after a shower. I don't have any pictures to post of me actually sliding down the hill but our guide, Dingo Pete, has a bunch and I will hopefully be posting those later.
The massive dune we went down
Just to show you the climb - my roommates are the tiny people at the top!
We stopped for a delicious lunch on the way home, and got back to Sydney around 4:00. Since then, we've been uploading pictures, blogging, and watching "How I Met Your Mother" [and getting locked out of our apartment...oops].
And that was my weekend; internship bright and early tomorrow! I'm going to be putting together their communications plan for their 2013 Lexus Cup - can't wait. Cheers!
'Ello Bailey - Wow! It sounds like you had an awesome time! I can't believe all of the cool things you got to do. The pictures look great! I love how adventorous you are. You are correct, that is one big sting ray. I am so glad that you got to experience all of this. This certainly looks like it was worth it to me despite the cruddy weather you had on Saturday. Maybe you, mom, grandma and Paxton will have to ride a camel when you are there or go sledding down a sand dune. I would love to see pictures of that. Also, I am excited to hear more about work and the Lexus Cup. When do they want to fly me over to golf?? Hope you have "golden" day and week! I need you to hug a Spectacled Flying Fox in your spare moments. Love you, Dad.
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