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

Sea World

Mmmmh this Saturday morning Ida and I woke up to freshly made breakfast - scrambled eggs with ham and mushroom made by the greatest host dad.

The plans for the day was Sea World - the third and last themed park including in our VIP pass. Luckily our host mom, Peggy, was so kind to drive us, otherwise it would have taken us over an hour to get to Sea World with public transport because the buses are always really late...

Sea World is a park where we were close to all the favourable marine animals like dolphins, sea lions, sharks, polar bears and penguins - It also had few water rides, which were perfect for cooling down when the sun got too hot. 

The dolphin show and sea lion show were the most incredible parts of Sea World! The dolphins' performance were simply amazing thus it was the first time I saw dolphins in real life.

The sea lions performed a funny theatre show with humans - and the sea lions' acting were so much better than the human actors ;-).

Also there was a Jet-ski stunt show, which really surprised us what these stuntmen could do on jet-ski. The stuntmen performed everything from aerial flips to gravity defying stunt - you could definitely call it extreme! Afterwards the girls and I really wanted a photo with the good looking stuntmen, of course :-)

The day ended with a great BBQ at home and a sudden firework coming from a wedding held at the golf course nearby. 

O-week at Griffith Uni

Today the O-week has started at Griffith university. O-week is an orientation week with activities and workshops to help/welcome new students get started at the University and also the domestic students coming back from holiday. 

The past weeks our Danish student group almost had the uni for ourselves, because all domestic students were on holiday. Only the international students - of which 80% were Asian - were studying in the past weeks. And yes - there is really many Asian students taking their education in Australia. 

Anyway, for some reason we also had entry to all the cool activities and best of all looots of free stuff from the workshops - though we are not new students ;-)

Among many things we got a water bottle, school materials, magazines, cap, bag, fruit & candy, calendar and a photo with silly accessories. In addition the school provided free BBQ, energy drinks and candy floss - I guess you can imagine how crowded there were at the workshops...

Right next to the BBQ outside there was a bouncing castle competition, which we of course also needed to give a try or two! The whole atmosphere at school was amazing - people were happy and the school hired a DJ playing music.    

Elizabeth (to the right) and I (to the left

                             

                                      Helena and I looking sexy in our "Silly photo"

Sydney Weekend Trip

Thursday/Friday

Thursday after school we were heading towards the airport for a weekend trip organised by the school. So we had our bags packed at school and ready to fly to Sydney, which took us not much more than 1,5 hour.

At the evening we arrived to the place we were staying - at a cheap and shabby backpacker hostel with no aircon, broken toilet door and insects all over the walls - On the bright side we saved money to use on exploring the city. We were living six persons in a room - Stella, Sandra, Ida, Kirstine, Helena and I shared room.

Friday morning we went out having breakfast at a cafe and used the whole day on an on-and-off sightseeing bus - and it was definitely worth the money! As we were driving through the city we saw many famous buildings and plenty of memorials on the street honouring the great Australian soldiers from wars.

                     Sightseeing bus


                       Anzac War Memorial                                 St Mary's Catholic Cathedral     
                      
A big group of us stood off at the Opera House and right next to it was the Harbour bridge. As all the other tourists we went absolutely crazy with the cameras at these world-famous landmarks. additionally we felt very proud being Danish in that moment - The architecture of the Opera House is made by a danish designer, Jørn Utzon. We also had lunch at the Opera House Restaurant. We ate the most delicious sushi and seafood with the ocean the background.  

Afterwards we jumped on the next sightseeing bus and headed for the Bondi Beach placed at the eastern end of Sydney. It was very crowded but still a very nice Beach! The ocean was really clear plus a film team was filming a new season of the TV show Modern Family - so people flocked round the filming area - including us!

Bondi Beach

We were home at 5.30, as the 6 girls at our room were invited out by an Australian friend of Helena and her Danish family. His name was Luke, 26 years old, very kind and open-minded. We talked a lot about the differences and similarities between Denmark and Australia. After dinner there was party at the hostel.

The girls going out for dinner with an Australian friend of Helena's family

Saturday

Saturday was our big shopping day at the huge malls places near our hostel. I found so many dresses and other nice clothing that I had to own :-). At the evening we walked down to the Opera House Restaurant again to have dinner.

As a funny fact we could not help but notice all the "gay" styled stores, live street shows and we even saw some cash dispensers at banks covered in colourful "gaytime" style. 

Men dressed like women at live street music show

Gay inspired cash dispensers at a bank

Sunday

Last night we really wanted to eat dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant, however it was fully booked all night. So we ate a light breakfast and went down 9 people to Jamie Oliver's Restaurant - 5 minutes before opening time to be sure to get a table. The food was just as spectacular as you hear people say about his restaurants. At 2 pm we met at the hostel again to departing for the airport back home to gold coast.

 Great Lunch at Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant                             Antipasti Meat Plank