Greetings from Australia!

G’Day from Austrailia (OZ) How ya goin’?
Talk about an amazing change in the weather. From the deep freeze of NZ winter to the balmy temps of northeast Queensland and the Atherton tablelands and rain forest.
We landed in Cairns Australia on Monday June 22nd after beginning our journey from the Kiwanis camp in Auckland NZ at 3am!!! We were pretty tired when we arrived but really happy to be in a place where we did not need to sleep in multiple layers to be comfortable.
The Center for Field Studies is at the top of what is called the Gillies Highway which goes up and over a mountain range and the center is at the top of this mountain in the middle of the rain forest, down an access road that would put any American vehicle to the test. Living in VT and NH I thought I knew what bad dirt roads were, but this road takes the cake! There are pot holes that I thought were going to swallow us vehicle and all and the interns driving the vans do not slow down! Oh and the Gillies highway from the base to where the center is located has roughly 147 turns as you wind up the mountain side! Yes, I counted one night on our trip home! The Center consists of a one story main building with offices, a kitchen and classroom. Then a short walk away from the main building are the cabins for the students and their “bath houses” and our accommodations are in a building called the Dongas. It is a metal one story building with 6 bedrooms in a row with a living room/kitchen in between. We even had our own bathroom in the building-this was a step up from New Zealand. My morning commute consisted of a about a 10 minute walk through the dense rain forest where I saw on any given morning, pademelons (small kangroos, very cute!) whip birds that have an amazing song, bandicoots (small grey animals that scurry through the underbrush) and brush turkeys that have tails that look like they should be on a fish!
The rain forest is an amazing place but is filled with many things that can kill you. We saw many of them pretty close up and personal! I saw the Golden Orb spider, who if you accidentally get caught in her web, she can kill you, one student saw an amethyst python on the path that leads to our dongas! (glad I did not meet up with it!) We had to learn what “stinging trees” look like, and for a couple of field lectures we had to lather up in tea tree oil to ward off Scrub Itch! We saw a slide of someone who had gotten scrub itch, which are basically these microscopic bugs that can get under your skin and they cause a wicked rash every time your body temp. changes for months afterwards! Then there are the land leeches and a plant called the Wait-A-While that I become acquainted with up close and personal! The Wait-Awhile plant is this long sometimes very thin vine looking thing with very sharp barbs all along its vine. It usually hangs down over the paths we are walking on and sometimes is very hard to see. I was walking along and all of a sudden it was wrapped in my hair and my headband. Luckily one of the instructors was behind me and was able to untangle me by getting me to walk backwards. Wheh! We also did a lot of field lectures where in upon your return to the center we all would do a thorough check to be sure we did not have an leeches along for the ride! They come off leaves, grass and onto you! Yuck! The second night at the dongas, I had the biggest spider behind my pillow. Luckily, Kate came to the rescue and sorry to say, he was sacrificed because we did not know if he was poisonous or not. Then, I went to use the bathroom at the center and came face to face with the biggest roach I have ever seen in my life! He was at least as long as my thumb and that wide as well! I told him we would have no trouble if he stayed where he was (just behind the toilet) and would just have a seat and be gone soon enough! Thankfully he behaved himself.
One night we spent on Aboriginal land and camped in tents. As many of you well know, my definition of camping is not having a mint on my pillow in a hotel room….so this was going to be interesting for me. It actually was an amazing night. I went to bed staring at the stars and moon! It was such a clear night-it is one of my most wonderful memories. Now waking up with the heaving dew on the tent and of course my suitcase, now that was not too much fun! It was a wonderful trip. We also got to hear some of the locals play the diggeridoo, looks like a long wooden pipe and makes a very ominous sound! Once we left the Aboriginal land we were off to another more northern rainforest, and even more warm climate. We spent three days there exploring the flora and fauna and more things that can kill you!
I am also really challenging my fear of heights on this trip. From having to ride up the Gillies highway to get to the center, which by the way there are no guardrails on any of the roads, to having to walk over a suspension bridge at one of the sights where the students went to help with re-vegetation and when John comes I believe we are going to ride a Sky Rail from Kurranda back to Cairns! Unbelievable!
I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing program this has been and I feel very lucky to have been part of it. Without the program I would not have been able to see as much of Australia as I did.
Now, I am writing from my comfy hotel, The Fig Tree Lodge in Cairns and I am awaiting John’s arrival tomorrow! To say I am excited is an understatement!
Stay tuned I will try to get more photos up if I can of our adventures in Cairns and then finally in Sydney before our long journey home! Thanks for sharing this experience with me!
Love to you all, send an email if you can!

PS, if you are interested, I have listed below some new lingo I have learned on my trip!
Aussie/Ozzie – Australian
Banana Bender – A person from Queensland
Barbie – BBQ
Billabong – An ox-bow river or watering hole
Brekkie – Breakfast
Brumby – A wild horse
Bush – anywhere that is not in town
Bushie – someone who lives in the bush
Down Under – Australia and New Zealand
Fair Dinkum – True Genuine
G’Day – Hello
Good onya – good for you, well done
Greenie – Environmentalists
Grog – Liquor, beer
Heaps – a lot
Hottie – Hot water bottle
Joey - Baby kangaroo
Lollies – candy
Loo – Toilet
Mate – Friend
Mozzie – Mosquito
No worries – Expression of forgiveness
Outback – interior of Australia
Pokies – Poker machines
Postie – Mail carrier
Reckon – You bet, absolutely
Rip Snorter – Great, fantastic
Road Train – Big truck with many trailors up to 10
Roo – Kangaroo
She’ll be right – It will turn out okay
Sheila – Woman
Smoko – Coffee break
Thongs – Flip flops
Tinny – Can of beer
Togs – Swim suit
Uni – University
Ute – Pick up truck
Walkabout – A walk in the outback by the Aborigines that lasts an indefinite amt of time
XXXX – Four X Brand of beer made in Queensland