Best Experience in the World
As the Best Experience in the World, aka the chance to be an Island Caretaker helper in Queensland ends, I wanted to take this opportunity to report back to all of the Islandreefjob.com followers and lend Tourism Queensland’s Island Caretaker a hand by posting an update about the fantastic experiences we had in Queensland.It’s hard to believe that the trip has already come to an end and when I reflect back about our visit to the Islands there are so many wonderful stand out experiences that I feel I need to mention. From Cape Tribulation in the North right down to the Brisbane in the south I wanted to share with you some of our trip…
One of our first activities after arriving in Queensland was a visit to the Cairns Tropical Zoo where we were met by our host Larry who took us for a tour and gave us the chance to feed the kangaroos, hold a koala bear and a black head python snake. A few days after our visit to the Zoo we went for a drive to Mareeba for some hot air ballooning. Our balloon was the largest in the southern hemisphere and takes 450,000 cubic feed of air to fill. It can rise at a rate of 500 feet a minute. The view from above was unbelievable and we could see the houses, farms, animals running through the wild bush! One of the nicest things about Queensland and I guess a perk about the Best Experience in the World is that we always felt that we had someone looking out for us and making sure everything went to plan.
After a few days in and around Cairns we headed out to Green Island for our first Island experience. This particular coral cay is incredible formed by the build up of broken down coral the first thing we did was go out on the glass bottom boat and explore the natural surroundings. In this first visit to the reef we saw turtles, fish and of course some beautiful coral reefs. Our day out on the boat was followed by some snorkelling, swimming, relaxing on the beach and a spectacular sunset. It is truly hard to capture the beauty of Green Island with a video camera and is something that needs to be explored first-hand.
Our next stop was Port Douglas the girls decided to go for a scuba dive and Paul and I opted for a snorkel. What an amazing place to have your first dive! The girls were taken through the safety procedures and confidently descended to about 6-7 meters and practices the hand signs and pressure equalisation. While the girls were off exploring this underwater wonderland, Paul and I were taken aback by how much there was to see in just 1-2 meters from the surface. There were a few times I had to be careful not to bump the coral or get in to shallow water. The fish and terrain were magnificent! So many different types, shapes and colours of coral – I didn’t want to get out!
In contrast one of the best off the water experiences we had was Jungle Surfing in the Daintree Rainforest. After harnessing up, we put on our helmets and hiked for about five minutes up a trail before getting to the first platform. In total there were four platforms available which offer visitors either a fast paced or scenic experience. Each of our helmets were set aside with our Jungle Surfing name, i.e mine was Barbie, very original, Kelsey was Dora, Shelby was Nemo and Paul was Tarzan. We had a great time flying above the tree tops and stopping to check out some of the deep gullies.
Another stand out experience was our Thanksgiving dinner on Magnetic Island. On our way to the dinner we saw several koala’s sitting in the trees and stopped by the fort which had spectacular views towards Alma Bay on one side and Horseshoe Bay in the other direction. The meal was prepared by a local chef and was absolutely mouth watering, a lovely touch to our trip.
Every new destination we visited brought on new and fantastic experiences such as our jet ski safari off Airlie Beach. We started the tour up the river to get our bearings on the smoother water before the girls took off with Paul and I close behind chasing them. It was a great way to see the wildlife and after an hour and half Paul and I switched driving and we cruised around for a while before heading to the bay.
The following day after our exciting jet ski adventure we started our trip across to Hamilton Island. The ride over was beautiful as we worked our way between several small islands it reminded us of the ferry ride from Seattle to Vancouver Island but much warmer!
After a quick trip around the island to check out the key spots we stopped for lunch during which we spotted our Island Caretaker passing through the Marina with his girlfriend Bre. Ben is such a lovely guy, so welcoming, we talked for a while and grabbed some photos before deciding to catch up for sunset drinks at one tree hill. After drinks Ben took us to see his fabulous ‘office’ and we decided to go and grab some dinner together at Romanos. It was like hanging out with a couple of locals, Ben is energetic, friendly and very likeable – you can see why Tourism Queensland picked him for the job. Our next encounter with Ben and Bre was at the Hamilton Island Koala Gallery for breakfast and a lot of group shots which was great fun.
The next island experience on our trip awaited us at Heron Island where we headed out to the beach to watch the sea turtles lay their eggs. This was a truly memorable moment as we watched several turtles including a loggerhead, digging and starting to lay their eggs. On the topic of turtles our next island stop was to Lady Elliot Island where we had the opportunity to swim with these magnificent creatures and then a scenic flight over to Bundaberg which took us to Mon Repos for another opportunity to watch the giant loggerheads lay their eggs on the beach. This time the nest was too close to the water so we had the opportunity to watch the rangers in action, digging up all 128 eggs and relocating them.
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