Unsuccessful skydiving at Byron Bay

As we all met up at 6am at the school and took the bus 1 hour to Byron Bay Skydiving, paid and prepared for skydiving we were told the wind suddenly got too harsh to do it! So they cancelled our group's skydiving for today :-(

Because we had already paid all the money Griffith University allowed us to re-take the skydiving tour on Thursday. However the skydiving staff told us the chance for good skydiving weather was 50/50... So our fingers are crossed as we got no other possible day to do it

As an apologies the skydiving centre drove us to the main City and beach of Byron Bay and would Pick us up again at 3pm to drive us home. 

So today we had another day sunbathing and shopping. We all were pretty upset about not getting to skydive when looking so much forward to it since last Sunday in Cairns was not a success either!

Byron Bay Beach

                              

                                                Local demonstration for saving the environment

               

                    

                            Lunch at a nice beach cafe        Nadia getting chocolate pancakes and frappuccino 

Surfers Paradise Beach

Today we finished a big group assignment which we have to present when coming home to Niels Brock College in Denmark. But of course we did it outside in the sun at the pool with a class of sparkling water and fruit - so it was okay doing homework under these conditions :-)

At 13 am we were heading for the beach at Surfers Paradise. We ate at a nice Australian restaurant - probably the last dinner eaten out before returning home to Denmark on next Saturday

- Now we are all really missing our families and Danish "rugbrødsmadder"

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5 am, as a bus will pick us up at school and take us to Byron Bay where we are going SKYDIVING. Lets see if I survive until tomorrow night to write a post about it!!

Ida, Helena and I at a restaurant in Surfers Paradise

 

Surfers Paradise Beach Promenade in the afternoon and evening

School tour to Brisbane

We started the second last week with an all-day trip to Brisbane, Queensland, which is an hour away in car from Gold Coast. First the school bus drove us to the "Port of Brisbane" where the core export and import with Asia and the rest of the world tales place.



Hereafter we got a guided tour around the Australian Parliament House. Compared to the long history of Denmark, Australia cannot exactly brag about having old and well preserved parliament buildings or constitution. It was all established only 200 years ago when Australia became independent of the British colonisation, which ended in the early-mid 1900s.




These two cultural parts of Brisbane the school had planned for us to see finished at 12, so afterwards we had free time for 5 hours until meeting at the bus at 6pm to return home.

Surprisingly the time went faster than expected when doing shopping in the inner city! and the weather was perfect, however, my intense sunbathing last Sunday in Cairns has resulted in a bit sunburned skin, I must admit...

Cairns Weekend Trip

Thursday after school we were going on the second and last weekend trip organised by the school. This time we were heading for Cairns - the tropical north of Queensland. 

When arriving at the hostel in Cairns at 10 pm many of the young backpacker guests were standing at the reception dressed up like dragqueens and very drunk, and suddenly they started clapping and welcoming us with "cheers" as we were entering the hostel - every weird but fun though!

Friday morning the alarm woke us up at 5.30 as we had booked a boat tour for the whole crew at 8am. The weather was very cloudy and rain appeared now and then, but it did not stop us from going out on the Great Barrier Reef to do snorkeling and diving. It was a great 9 hours boat trip, on which many of us got very seasick because of the heavy waves making the boat swinging!

Afterwards we all showered and went out to a steak house near the hostel to eat a good beef on the top of all the swimming we had been doing all day.

   
     The Danish crew going on board         From left: Laura, Mathias, Sandra         
        Niclas shooting with his GoPro camera                      Hello from me under the sea!

                                    




      Getting ready to snorkeling                                  Sandra and I

Saturday the weather was all cloudy and rainy like Friday affecting the enjoyment of doing extreme sport as Cairns is all about. So the plan about going skydiving was cancelled, however the students doing bungee-jump wanted to do it despite the bad weather! So 25 of us have planned to go Skydiving in the following weekend in Gold Coast instead - I'm getting a adrenaline kick just thinking about jumping out of an air plane!!  

Victor doing his bungee jump!

So Saturday was pretty chill - Helena and I took the bus to Cairn's shopping mall to look for gifts to bring back home to out families. This evening we went out on an Mexican restaurant we got recommended from some of the guests at the Hostel - and they sure were right, the food was delicious! Sandra and I tried a dish called "Chocolate Chicken" which was a chicken greased with a chocolate sauce of chili, spices and cocoa - worked perfectly together!

                                                     Mexican food at Cactus Jack's                    

Of course the sun was coming Sunday, when we had to fly back home to Gold Coast, so we all got up early to get as such sun as possible before departing for the airport. When coming home to our home stay Peggy and Don served BBQ for Ida and I - not bad at all.

                                         
                                        A part of the Great Barrier Reef seen from the plane