Orientation at Noosa

After the incredibly long flight to Australia, and a bus ride (with mechanical problems), we finally made it to our "resort" on the Sunshine Coast for orientation. The resort was more like an upscale summer camp, but was fine for the couple of days that we were there. Wild kangaroos and peacocks roamed around outside our cabins. You could get closer to them than I had ever imagined!

One day we took a trip up to Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world. We had to take a ferry to get to the island and got around in 4WD buses that could drive on the beach. I found out that there are lots of beaches around Australia that are used as highways. So if you are a swimmer, that means you need to look both ways when you come out of the water! Fraser Island was really pretty, but unfortunately we spent most of our time there driving in the bus. We did get to stop for an hour at Lake Mackenzie, one of the freshwater lakes in the middle of the island. The water was a beautiful, clear bright blue and the sand was the whitest I've ever seen. We also got to stop in the small rainforest on the island. I drank straight from the stream in the rainforest (the one in the picture)!

Before leaving orientation for Brisbane, we did get to try one more thing - surfing!!!! I loved it! I' definitely have to go again before I leave Australia. We had to watch out for jellyfish the whole time. Half a dozen people in my orientation group got stung pretty badly. Luckily, I didn't. We played cricket on the beach for a while, too. I should really learn the rules to the game - it's pretty big here. Finally, it was time to head south to Brisbane, our home base for the next couple of months.