After 26 grueling hours of travel, myself and the rest of my tour group arrived in Cairns, Northern Queensland, Australia. During our short time here we attended a few sessions with some information crucial to our time in Australia. They talked a lot about culture shock, homesickness, and adjusting to our life in Australia. The more exciting aspect of this was the hands-on introduction we got to Australia. Our time in Cairns was spent in a hostel called Gilligan's.
For our first adventure we went to a place called Rainforestation. This is something similar to a hands on museum and a zoo combined. We were introduced to heaps of local wildlife. We saw corocodiles, lizards, wallabies, got to feed a kangaroo, and hold a Koala.
We also got a bit of Aboriginal history. We were guided by a local aboriginal who educated us on the weaponry and method of throwing a boomerang, we even got to try!!
He also shared with us the different ways a spear is used in hunting, played the didgeridoo for us and told us how they were made and educated us on the ceremonial and sacred aspects of the instrument, and we got to see some traditional aboriginal dances.
Following this we rode on an army duck through the rain forest and learned about the various plants native to the Australian rain forest.
On day 2 of our adventure in Cairns we hopped a boat early in the morning to the Great Barrier Reef. Once there we were given the opportunity to snorkel, scuba dive, and relax on a tropical uninhabited island. We also saw whales, and various fish come near the boat.
After our adventure in Cairns we flew to Brisbane and bussed to Bond Uni, our home for the semester.
No comments:
Post a Comment