Moreton Bay/North Stradebroke Island ('Straddie)

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G'day from another awesome week in Australia!

This past week has been a busy one, but definately fun, especially towards the end! As we all know St. Patricks Day was this past Tuesday the 17th and of course we want to go out and celebrate. The day is not big here in Aussieland, but is still celebrated somewhat. So we got into our green gear and went out to a bar called 'Down Under Bar', clever name right? It was absolutely packed and literally couldn't move! It was definitely a fun night, but will not compare to St. Patricks Day celebrations back in Dublin, Ireland two years ago.

This past Thursday the 19th, I went on a field trip for the day to Brisbane Forest Park. This trip was with my BIOL2001 class or Australia's Terrestrial Environment. I got a chance to see some more kangaroos, wombats, reptiles, birds and a bunch of unique Australian plant life. It was a bit of a long day considering I went to a Rainforest park about a month ago up in Cairns.

I just got back yesterday evening from an awesome trip up in North Stradebroke Island/ Moreteon Bay. For my MARS2005 class, or Australia's Marine Environment, we had the opportunity to participate in a a 2 night, 3 day trip to Moreton Bay Research Station. Some students went last weekend (13th-15th) and some students went this past weekend (21st-23rd). I went this past weekend and overall had a GREAT time. Before I went on the trip I was asking other students in the class how the trip was and the majority of them were like "Oh it sucked, you do work and research the first two days while it's gorgeous outside". After hearing things like that I wasn't really looking forward to it, honestly. But decided to put those thoughts behind me and just make the best of it. Saturday morning started off by getting up at 6am, leaving my apartment by 7am and meeting up at Uni by 7:30am to get on the bus that would take us to the ferry. I wasn't really haven't it that morning, I was tired and had to sit all the way in the back of the bus looking forward to what some friends told me a 'not so fun' trip. So the bus gets on to the ferry that would take us to North Stradebroke Island. Once on the ferry, we were able to get off the bus and just walk around a little bit since it was about an hour long ferry ride to the island. I got off and was just talking with some people I just met and chilling on the ferry looking out into the water. I heard this one girl talking about college basketball and that's all that's been on my mind lately! I was like "Are you talking about march madness?!" She was like "Yeah!" And I basically told her how deprived I've been not being able to watch the games and what not. I thought I was the only one who filled out a bracket, but she did too! So we introduced ourselves; her name is Theresa. The reason why she's so into college bball is because she goes to Syracuse and is rooting on her Orange. She has them going all the way in the tournament and I said I have them losing to UNC haha. But I also have Michigan State going to the Championship and then losing to UNC, but we'll see what happpens. So we just kept talking about everything and we eventually get off the ferry and head to Moreton Bay Research Station where we'll be staying the next 3 days. By this time it's about 10am and we get to the station, get off the bus, grab all our belongings and head to the lecture room for an introductory session on what's expected of us and our research project and what not. We got to pick who we wanted to room with and I roomed with Theresa and 2 other cool girls I had met on the bus: Theresa (Syracuse), Myriam (Moracco) and Kirthika (Washington University in St. Louis). We all got along so well and ended up pretty much spending the whole trip together, including our research project. So the rest of the day we pretty much explored some of Moreton Bay and were introduced to about 6 graduate students who will be our tutors for our research projects. While walking in the water and on the shore we saw tons of different crabs, barnacles, fish, and we even ran into a blue ringed octopus!! These guys are real small but are deadly; they are a whitish color, but when angered they produce blue spots all over their body. And if they bite someone, it paralyzes the respiratory system and can die quite quicky. But we wore shoes in the water as well as gloves. We did something called Seine netting in which we took a big net across the water and gathered a bunch of different marine life in that area. This was where we saw a variety of different crabs, fish, squid, and other various creatures; it was so cool!! We were told that while we were out exploring the rocky shore to think about questions and interests of things out there while we were looking, things to help us on a topic for our research presentations. Basically, were split up in to groups of about 4-5 people and had to think on our own on an experiement we would like to test out. At the end of the day, we chose to research on Sponges and their abundance in the water. Our hypothesis stated that the further out into the water you go, the more abundant sponges will be. Sponges, I have learned, are very important to the marine enviroment. They serve as filter feeders and feed on organic compounds as well as cyanobacteria etc. and actually make the water cleaner. We had all of Sunday to conduct our experiement, counting sponges we see in different depths of water, and then making a powerpoint from our data collected. After dinner that night, all 13 groups had to present their powerpoints on their research project; it took over 2 hours for everybody to present! And despite what everyone had previously told me before the trip, I actually had fun doing the research. Not only did I meet a ton of new people (mostly study abroad students) but I was actually interested in all the research and had an awesome group to work with, and it was fun! But the best part of the trip was still to come..

The next day, our last day (Monday), we went to the other side of the island where the ocean was and took a Gorge walk. Our bus to the other side of the island left around 9am and I was stressed out because Michigan State was playing and we left on the bus with about 9 minutes left in the game and they were tied at 57. I couldn't stand not knowing who would win the game, so I waited about a half an hour and right before I got off the bus I called my dad on my cell phone and I asked him if State won and there was a pause. I was like uh-oh..then he goes "We're going the Sweet 16!" I could not have been more relieved; I pretty much shouted "Yes!" in front of everyone. Anyway, so back to the Gorge walk. This was yet the most gorgous beaches and views I have yet to have seen. We were literally walking on cliffs looking down into the bright blue ocean; just incredible. The walk took a couple hours, then we stopped to get some Gelati at this really good ice cream place. After that we walked some more down to the beach which no one was on! We couldn't swim there or anything, just kept walking to the beach where there was a life guard and two flags up indicating the area in which we could swim in. So when we got to Cylindar Beach, we had lunch first, then went straight back out onto the beach. The three girls I went out with layed their towel down and stayed there. I was like ummm I've going in! I went into the ocean and rode the waves for about a half hour; it was so fun! They waves are so much bigger there, and at some points I felt as if I was being dragged in, but it was fine. After having fun in the ocean, I played some cricket on the beach as well. This game is quite fun to play, I got a hit everytime I was up to hit and even caught a fly ball out in the field. Pretty good considering I was like one of three girls out there playing and not even ever playing the sport. After that we boarded the bus to head back to Brisbane because our amazing trip had to come to an end. I was pretty exhuasted by the time I got back. I ate dinner and went to bed early as I had a long day of classes today, including a lab. All in all, I really am dying to go back to North Stradebroke Island again, it was just so gorgeous-we even saw dolphins jumping in the waves!

This coming up weekend I'm actually not going cage diving because it's just way to expensive at the moment for one dive and you're not even guaranteed to see a Great White shark. I'm definately going to go cage diving at some point, I just don't know when yet. So instead of cage diving this weekend, I'm going to Sydney!! I'm going with 3 other people, one being Theresa, and my flight leaves at 5am Friday morning and I get back to Brisbane on Monday night. I'm really looking forward to Sydney this weekend!! So my next blog will probably be sometime after I'm back from Sydney!! Theresa and I have decided we need to find a place to watch the big bball games while we're in Sydney; they've got to be on tv somewhere. So we're rooting on Michigan State and Syracuse this weekend. And I really want Arizona to beat Louisville!!

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Photos

St. Patty's Day in Brisbane
Me and a guy we met from Papa New Guinea...with our cool hats!

Sea Turtle!
She was brought in by the research team becuase she was injured from a shark line. Dr. Townsend (Kathy) was getting her size. She's a big girl but so cute. I couldn't get away from her!!

Puffer Fish!!
Isn't he sooo cute?!!!

North Stradebroke Island
One of many amazing views of the ocean and the cliffs from the Gorge walk we went on

North Stradebroke Island
Another one of many amazing views of the ocean

Straddie
Me sitting on one of the cliffs that looks down to the ocean :)

Roomies!
Me and my awesome roomies while at the research station!!

Sraddie!
I feel on top of the world at this place! So amazing!

Cricket!
Playing a game of Cricket on the beach!