#42 Wenn einer eine Reise macht, dann kann er was erzählen - The Far north Queensland Tour - 4 incredible days!!!

Great Barrier Reef!!!

Das ist wahr und genau das werde ich jetzt machen!

Wie ihr vielleicht wisst, war ich von letzten Freitag bis Montag (17.-20.10)für 4 Tage und 3 Nächte in Cairns, einer wunderschönen Stadt im Norden von Australien.

Warum? Es war einer von den Trips die SCCE (die australische Partnerorga von Stepin) organisiert hat und ich meine Eltent haben mir erlaubt da mit zufahren und es einfach so super toll! Es ist schwer das was ich alles erlebt habe zu beschreiben, aber ich werde es versuchen – aber Wahrnung – es wird lang!

 Also sucht euch einen bequemen Ort um lesen und holt euch was zum naschen :)

Es war einfach SUPERTOLLAMAZINGGREATFANTASTICWONDERFUL!!

The next part is going to be in english, because i wrote it on the plane and I did it in english :)

FOTO WRITING POST

Fr:

I got up in the morning at 2:30 am (well Greg woke me up) and got changed and finished packing my small suitcase. I am able to take 10 kilos carry-on baggage.

Emily and Robyn also got up to say “bye” what was really nice!

Greg drove me to the airport and we left at about 3am, which was pretty good! It was quite cold outside but I after a while it got warmer in the car.

It took us about 1 ½ hours to drive to airport and we saw quite a lot cars on the way. On the way I saw the southern cross (the stars) for the first time since I am here and we also drove over the harbor bridge what was also new for me :) so cool!

We parked at the parking area for terminal 2 and went inside the airport... I am excited!

We went straight to right place – the jetstar check in line. We had to wait about 15 minutes and so I could eat my banana and bread I brought as my breakfast. At 4:45 – a bit early, isn't it?

The lady at the check in was really nice and even gave me a Window seat .. yay! Number 3A.

The next step step was the security area where they check the carry-on baggage. Everything was okay and I could even take my banana and water with me, it really surprised me!

They allow pretty much at domestic flights, you can even take as mamy liquids as you want to and food and yeah.. :)

And Greg came with me as well!

We went to fout area next to get some breakfast and couldnt really find something good so we went to Maccas and I had a wrap and Greg a cheese and bacon burger. And something special happened ther too!

I ate all my wrap even though it was covered with tomato souce or ketcup in german... Yeah.. I am getting better! :)

After having some breakfast and taking a selfie we ent to gate 52, where my plane was going to depart

There we had to wait around 10 minutes until 5:30 am and I also met 2 german boys Philipp and Lennard, who are also doing the tour and I already knew them from the flight in July.

At this stage I had to say “bye” to greg because I was ready to enter the plane.

Thank you so much for taking me to the airport and waiting with me!! :)

And once again I realised how lucky I am to have such a good host family! I didnt even see the host families of the other guys.

My seat in the plane was 3A – Window seat as I already said – and at the very beginning. So I dindt have to walk much :) yeah!

Syndey

Cairns - plane and view!!! :)

Now I am sitting in the plane, writing this part of the post on paper to type on my laptop when I come home. It was getting brighter after we arrived at the airport and now the sunrise has just started.

Sunrise!!

After flying about 3 hours we arrived in cairns at 8 am, yeas, I know that is only 2 hours from 6 to 8 but QLD doesnt have Daylight saving, so they dont their time. Yes, that is very confusing, because every state is different!

landing!!

We 3 german student didnt exactly know what to do after arriving at the aiport and so we decided to go and find the luggage of the two boys. Waiting there the other 3 italian girls from our plane arrived and we decided to sit down and wait for our chapperonne Annette – the lady from SCCE.

The italian girls were really nice but they were mostly talking in italian which wanst that fair, but I could understand it so it was okay :)

After 10 or 20 minutes other guys arrived from melbourne and then from Adelaide and Brisbane.

We were totally 17 student, 5 boys and 12 girls and Annette.

Out of the 12 girls 7 were Italian and they all started to speak italian the whole time, which was really unfair and they were like their own group. But there was an other german girl sophie and Sarah from sweden, saya from Japan.

Flight!!

But then we had another problem. One of the italian girls coming from adelide was lost at the airport ad it took us one hour to find her! And then our hotel bus who should fetch us didnt come, okay well, we didnt find it!

So at about 10 am after calling the office in melbourne and finding out the number we found it could go to the hotel.

our hotel

The hotel was really nice and there were a lot of plants, like in a botanic garden. Here is the link if you wan tto have a look (http://www.cairnscolonialclub.com.au)

We had about 30min to get changed into shorts because it was getting really hot and then our tour started. We got some lunch from the hotel which was really good – an apple, water, chips, muesli stick and sandwiches. A bus drove us to kuranda a little village in the rainforest further noth.

plants :)

We arrived there at about 11:30. Annette said we could do what we want to and the only thing she said was to be at the train station at 3 oclock, because we were taking a train at 3:30.

It was really nice to have the freetime and nobody did expect this!

Sophie, Saya and I decided to go together and it was great! We are the best team ever! We had a great time adn took a lot of photos.

We found a great pink tree and also a little bench with a nice background to take photos :)

i <3 this tree!!

ahhhh!

Selfieee!

There was a cute little market aswell, were we bought 3 bracelettes each, they are very nice! And we also bought the same t-shirt “i love cairns” and we are going to let everybody sign it, as a memory :)

markets!!

FOTO BRACELETT

One for Robyn, my mum and Makayla :)

I also bought some carrots and a small cucumber because i was feeling like eating something healthy, ahaha, so funny!

carrotsss :)

We had a great time, but were really tired when we arrived at the trainstation at 3 pm.

station :)

Then we took the train, which was a really old and slow train but nice! The whole train ride was the way back to cainrs and about 2 hours long! So when we arrived we were all exhausted!

train!

We passed some very nice waterfalls and after a while we could also go off the train to take some photos.

view out of the train!

water falls!! :)

just wow!

We were picked up again and driven to the hotel again and then we got our room numbers, baggage and the nems of the other people in our room, but every body changed. All the italian girls were together in 2 rooms and sophie, saya and i had a room together :)

We had dinner at 7 pm in the restaurant of the hotel which was delicious!

We had to choose our mainmeal – we were offered 4 different – and salat buffet as entree and dessert bar! Yumm!

At the salat buffet there was also a soup -pumkin soup – which was really good.

As hte mainmeal i took ravioli in tomato sauce which was very good!

And the dessert bar was huge! You could choose between different fruits, brownies, pavlova and more cakes!

After having this big dinner we were really ful and the boys said the were going to the pool, which was open until 10pm and we decided to join them :)

we stayed there until queater ast 10 and had a great and fun time!

I also tried my underwater action camera and i worked good! It ws a bit dark for the photos but you can still see a little bit. :)

But i am happy it worked and didnt get wet :)

Happy!! 

underwater :)

After going bakc to our room and preparing our bags for tomorrow we went staright to bed. We had one room with tow single beds where saya and I slept and there was another bed in the living room where sophie slept.

so true!!

SA:

We got um at 6:45 this moring, a bit late but still okay, got changed very quickly, because breakfast was at 7am.

The breakfast buffet was great as well and it was very hard not to eat to much!

Today our trip was about aborigines and their culture, it ws ver interesting!

We were picked up by a bus at 8am and the driver was also our guide for the whole day. 

on the way!

the view is just amazing!

We drove about 1 ½ hours to mossman were we met two aborigines who showed and taught us about the way they hunt and find their food at the sea, especially the mangroves.

We went crab hunting, that means we god spears with a metal end to pick the crabs.

He got 4 crabs i think and i got one, i was the only one who got one, yeah!! :) it was very weird to try adn get them with the stick in the water, which was about 50 cm high, but a great experience!

FOTOS ME CRAB

it was so cool! Then we continued our walk trough the water and wen tinto a mangrove forest where we searched shells and little animals. After about 2 hours we were back at his house and he cooked everything we found while his brother was explaning and showing us his huntig devices, whic was really interessting!

He also shoed us the back of a turtle they foud, which washuge!! more than one meter and could take photos with it!

FOTO TURTLE

WE also got some chocolate and banana muffins and bread to our crabs, which was better than i excpected!

After this great morning we continued our tour to the daintree rainforest where we had our lunhc in a restaurant, i had a rainforet salat- very good!

Then we took a bus to the forest, about 5 minutes and had a little walk trough the forest, but it was all done for tourist, s the paths and everything But the better part was swimming in the river!

FOTO RIVER

flower :)

river!

And i took my new camera with me - of course!

And we took some photos of course, on the rocks in the sun :)

we <3 Australia!

Yeah!!!

After this nice swim, we went back and drove to our last event – painting in the aboriginal way.

We went to an artgalery of an Aboriginal man whió was death but speak really clearly, which was impressive! He taught us hwo to use the colour and the stick and we had 30 minutes to paint. I painted a little koala and some other random dots .. haha but i really like it and he also took a photo of it:)

Because our painting had to dry he gave us little guide trough his galery and explained his work. His paintings are really expensice but nice!

At about 5:20 we wen tback into bus and back to the hotel. We stopped once more at one point ot take some photos, but everybody was tired so only for 5 minutes.

It was a great day and I learned a lot and saw a lot, but really exhausting! :)

We had about 45 minutes to get changed and pack our bags, because we decided ot go the night markets in cairns, and the bus left at 7:30, so we had about 30 minutes for our dinner, which was good, but a bit in hurry!!

The night market were really cute and i found some little presents for my host family. :)

night markets :)

Our bus came at 9:45 to pick us up and bring back to hotel.

We were tired and went to back as soon as possible after packing our bags for the tour tomorrow – the great barrier reef!

Su:

We got up at 6:30 am to finish packing our bags and out suncreen on and so on. We had breakfast at 7am again and were picked up at 8am again :)

Unfortunatly it was raining in the morning and we were a bit sad, but it stopped as soon as we got on the boat.

Cairns :)

Green Island

We took a cruise to green island at 9 am and arrived at 10:30am.

Then we had time to swimm and do snorcheling by oour own small groups until 3:15, but had ot come back to cruise between 11:30 to 1pm to have lunch.

The insland looked so amazing when we were on the boat and was even better when we arrived!

the view!!! <3

We also took a photo of us in our snorcheling gear :)

When we arrived at the Green Island we went straight to beach on the right sight of our boat and started snorcheling. It was so amazing! The water was so warm and blue and clear and the sand so white!

And of course I took my new underwater camera with me, straight the first time we went swimming!

We had to swimm maybe 30 m until we were at the reef and then we saw all the amazing different fish and coralls!

WOW!! :)

WOW!!

It was just so wonderful and so much better than I expected it to be. I thought we would maybe only even see one r two fish and that is all but not that many nice fish! We also saw a starfish and stingray and lots of shells!

Sting Ray

Star fish

And we saw this bis shell which I think is dangerous:

After a while weswam back to get y numberplate I bough at the night markets in cairns yesterday to take some Photos with it :)

It has always been my dream to go to the barrier reef and take some photos with a sign or numberplate saying Australia or Cains and now I got it!! YEAH!! Special moment.. :))

Then we went out and had a look what time it is and it was soo late!! it was 12:40 and lunch was only until 1pm. So we packed all our stuff and run to the cruise. Our plates were sooo full, because we thaught we juast take as much as possilbe :)

FOTO LUNCH

After lunch we went snorkeling again and saw heaps of great fishs again!

It is just so amazing when you are snorkeling and seeing all the fishs swimming there like in movies or on pictures and it just looks unreal!

fish!!

We had to be a the cruise at 3:15pm again and we were ready to go, when Sophie cut her hand at the numberplate and it was bleeding so strong! So we went to information center and the ut a bandage on it.

So at the cruise everybody was tired but also very happy about this great day!The boys told us that they sas tow big turtles.. and we didnt.. jealous!!! but even though we had a great day!

We all bought some icecream and were lying in the sun to get dry and relax .. hahah :))

It was just so unbelievable and a such great day at the reef!

We arrived at about 6 pm at the hotel again ad had about one hour until dinner, our last dinner!

It was great again and we decided to go to the spa after dinner. So we met at the spa at about 8:30 and stayed there until 10pm when a security men came and said we had to go. But we still stayed in there and left when he came again and was abit angry, hahah :))

We were playing “i have never ever done..” which a really good game!

We decided to continue our game on our rooms and wo we just got chaged quickley and tehn went to saras and Shirins Room. Nils, one of the german boys, was a bit mean to Shirin (like funny mean) and so when it was his turn she decided that she is going to put make up on his face.. hahha, sofunny!!! it was just hilarious how weird he looked !! haha

hahhaa :)

We stayed there playing until about midnight and then went to our room to pack all our things for the next day.

So went to bed at about 1:30 am , what was really late. I decided to have a shower in the morning to go to bed and so I had toget up at 6 am om Monday!

Mo:

As I said I got up at 6 am to have a shower and finish packing my suitcase and handbag. The timing was perfect and ew were ready to go at 10 to 7, perfect!!

We decided to take some photos of the hotel and the plants, and of me .. haha :)

me :)

pool!

We were the first ones at breakfast and so we could have a nice and long breakfast!

Saophie and me also brouht our “I love Cairns” T-shirt we bougt on Friday to breakfast, so everybody could sign them :)

After breakfast we took our luggage to the store room and jumped into bus which brought us to the Cairns dome Zoo. But before we jumped into the bus, we took a group photo:

Group photo :)

And we also had to say “Bye” to Marvin who booked the wrong flight and couldn't come to the zoo with us. It was very nice to meet new exchange students and hear how they are going and he is in Australia since february so about 8 months!

We - Sophie, Marvin and me - also took a photo together yesterday at the barrier reef.

Me, Marvin and Sophie

So yeah.. after saying goodbye we went to the Zoo until 12 oclock. The Zoo is located over the casino in Cairns, that means on top of the building and it built like a dome. It isnt a big zoo, just small area, but the birds are all flying around free and they just have koalas, krokodiles and lizzards. And heaps of birds! But it was very ncie and very very handsome! The people who work there were walking around and bringing the lizzards to us, so we could touch them and he also gave us the opportunity ot hold a cocaktoo and take a photo!

We also went to the reptile show, where a man showed us a Snake, a small crocodile and blue tongue lizzard and we could touch them all! Very nice!

I alos decided to take a photo holding a koala, which I have always wanted to do and there I could it – even though it was very expensive.. but it is once in your life.. YOLO and yeah..! :)

And the good thing was, I could get the photo on my email aswell.. here it is:

FOTO KOALA

At 10 o clock th ebus came and drove us to the airport where we checked in and had some lunch – pizza, which was very good.

my first Salami pizza in Australia :)

And then I had to say good bye to all the nice other exchange students I met, which was a bit sad.. but about 6 also had to fly to sydney so it wasnt that bad!

plane food...wanrt that bad, it was actually pretty good!

I arrived at the airport at about 6pm, ½ hour later that it should have been, and Greg, Robyn and Emily were wating for me. That was soo nice!! They are just the best!! IT was sonice to see them there waiting for me, part of the family! <3

We were all tired but I was very happy to see them again after the busy week (first duke of ed, then cairns).

At home, I just unpackend the most importand thinngs, like the presents for them and went ot bed as early as possilbe.

I bought the bracelette for Robyn, a magenet and boomerand for Em, a stabby holder for Greg (for his beer) and some drink mats for all together. They were so happy and really liked the presents, which made me really happy, because I wasn't sure if they would like it, but it was perfect!! :)

I just wanted to say thank you to the best hostfamily ever!

It was also the X-Fakor final on on tv and Marlisa won in the end, she ist only 15, wow!!

I had 4 great days there in Cairns, experiencing and seeing so many new and incredible and amazing things which I'll never forget !

This time there was one of the best times I have had in my life !!

Thank you so much Mami und Papi, that you gave me this big opportunity to go to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and see everything! IT was incredible, I am going to tell you on Sunday!

Thank you so much!

Please be a traveler not a tourist.

Try new things, meet new people and loom beyond what's right in front of you.

Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in.

- Andrew Zimmern