Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Cairns, Queensland is where we now are (pronounced "Cans".) We arrived this afternoon by plane and this is the area we'll be in and around for the remainder of our trip. Today we just explored the area. Over the next few days we'll scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. More on all that later though...

Since we last updated, we visited Fraser Island (thank you for your fine recommendation, Mr. Daniel Shean!) It is an area of land, designated a World Heritage site in 1992, approximately 75 miles long and the home to approximately 150 people. The name Fraser Island comes from Eliza Fraser and her story of survival from a shipwreck on the island... Captain James Fraser and his wife, Eliza Fraser, were shipwrecked on the island in 1836. The name of the ship was the Stirling Castle. Captain Fraser died but Eliza was rescued off the island. Archaeological research and evidence shows that Aboriginal Australians occupied Fraser Island at least 5000 years ago. There was a permanent population of 400-600 that grew to 2000-3000 in the winter months due to abundant seafood resources. The arrival of European settlers in the area (because of the shipwreck) was an overwhelming disaster for the Aboriginese, and eventually they were driven away. (Yes, I just copied a lot of that from Wikipedia.) The island (which is the largest sand island in the world) can only be accessed by plane or ferry, and the latter was our mode of transportation. We met up with 3 other tourists, as well as a guide and loaded our 4-wheel drive on a ferry and headed over on Wednesday morning (there are no roads on the island - only sand - so 4-wheel drives are the only option for getting around.) The ocean there is full of sharks, however there are other options for swimming, as there are many fresh water lakes which have been naturally formed on the island. We visited various areas and sites on the island including many lakes, creeks, a sand desert, and rain forests, and hung out with many wild dingos, and iguana, and kookaburras. Our touring package included an overnight stay in a cabin which was very cute and relaxing. Except for the huge spider part - neither cute nor relaxing.

We traveled back to Hervey Bay on Thursday evening for one more night's stay before heading to Cairns. We met up with 2 of the friends we made on the Fraser trek, Alex and Joce (her full name is Jocelyne :)) from Paris, for dinner. We shared the best meal we've had in Australia with them at a local and authentic Italian restaurant! They happen to be coming to Cairns around the time we will be finished diving, so we are hoping to meet back up with them.

On personal notes, I found out I passed the PE (for those of you who know what that means,) and Jess read the 3rd book in the Twilight series in 48 hours and is now working on the 4th which she is over half-way finished with. In other words, I lost my friend to a story about vampires and werewolves. In other important news, an injured Kelly Slater (most famous American surfer) beat Mick Fanning (the popular Australian surfer) in the Rip Curl competition we were at during the beginning of our trip. Go USA!

Tomorrow we are planning to go to a local farmers market in the morning, before heading to a Aboriginal park. Tomorrow night we are hoping to do a dinner cruise, weather permitting. I have been trying for the past hour to upload pictures on here, but the connection is so slow it's not working well. I'll keep trying for a bit, but if it doesn't happen tonight it will soon!