Easter Break


This past week I had off of school for Easter Break (similar to Spring Break back home). On Sunday morning I flew into Townsville, Australia. We only spent a couple hours there before catching a bus south to Airlie Beach, but still had time to explore the town a bit. Townsville is a mining town that sits just about in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef along the east Coast of Australia. It isn't as touristy for the Great Barrier Reef since it is about a 2.5 hour boat ride to the reef, but is good for traveling to Magnetic Island, a beautiful National Park.


Snorkeling Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach

We arrived in Airlie Beach that night. Airlie Beach is a touristy town which is known as the link to Whitsunday Islands. There are over 70 of the islands which are close to the coast and have coral of the Great Barrier Reef near to the islands. The biggest attraction is the beautiful White Haven Beach (3rd most photographed thing in Australia, 1 is Opera House/Harbor Bridge and 2 is Ayers Rock) which is a long beach made of 98.1% pure silica. We learned that NASA used silica from that beach for there aircrafts because it is on of the most plentiful and purest deposits of silica in the world. Our first 2 days in Airlie we spent relaxing at the free lagoon and at the markets. Although there were beaches, swimming in them is not recommended due to the jellyfish populatoin that tend to hang around. There are deadly jellyfish that paralyze you with one sting. Our third day we went on a boat raft where we snorkeled in two different locations by Whitsunday Islands, took a bushwalk on an island and when to Whitehaven Beach. We unfortunately didn't get the weather we expected. It rained and the wind was at 30 knots, but the water was a warm 30 degrees C (86 F!). The coral was beautiful, vibrant and close to the surface which was good to snorkel and there were hundreds of different fish! On the bushwalk we saw some of the biggest spiders known to Australia and ants that Aboriginals eat for their unique flavor. They had green butts and tasted like a sour warhead candy! We went to a look out of the islands and also walked along Whitehaven Beach. Although we didn't have perfect weather, it was still a beautiful location!


ants eaten by the Aboriginals on Whitsunday Island



Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday

That night we took an overnight bus to Cairns, which is the most popular destination to snorkel and dive the Great Barrier reef. We met up with friends from Wollongong and about 20 of us rented cars and drove around the rainforests. We stopped at many waterfalls, a figtree and a dairy farm. We spent three days in Cairns and it unfortunately rained all of them. Our last 2 days we weren't able to spend by the lagoon so we did some shopping instead. It was so fun to see a different part of Australia. All three towns were big tourist population and summer homes to Australians. Not many people live year round in those towns.
I am now back to Wollongong and back to classes. Although "Spring Break" is over, I still feel like I am on a 5 month Spring Break!


Waterfall in Cairns rainforest