Adventures in the Outback

So after the couple of days in Port Lincoln I went back to Adelaide with Esther’s family. After Mr. & Mrs. Finn picked me up from the airport we drove through the Adelaide hills countryside. It was very pretty. We went to two wineries and tasted some wine. Adelaide is known for their wine so the Finns wanted me to try some. I’m finally starting to enjoy wine, and the wines at these places were very good. After the wine tasting we went to this little strip that was made to look like Germany. It had small cafes and shops and was very cute. We had hot chocolates and some cake. It was a very pleasant afternoon, I really enjoyed myself with Esther’s parents.

When we got back to their house Esther’s sister and her boyfriend came over for dinner. We had homemade pizzas and a apple crumble pie for dessert. They were really spoiling me. Then I went out with Liam, (Esther’s brother) and his friends. It was surprisingly busy for a Sunday night and we had a good time. The next day I got packed up and headed back to Sydney!

Now I have lots of school work to do and it is Kelley’s birthday tomorrow! So I have some catching up to do! I cannot believe it’s practically June!

Alright soOoOo.. the shark dive was amazing! It was in Port Lincoln Australia which is in South Australia, if you are an avid fan of shark week the place “Neptune Islands” sounds familiar, it’s one of the top feeding grounds in the world for great whites, and that was our destination. I got up at 5:30am and arrived at the marina at 6:30, we left for the islands and it was about a 2 1/2 hour boat ride. They provided us with ham and cheese croissants and fruit for breakfast.

Once we got there the skipper gave us a safety talk, basically don’t stick your hands out of the cage. We waited for the first great white to make an appearance (only took about 20 minutes) and then they put the cage in the water. I went in the second group. Six people went in at a time, we wore a wet suit and the goggle mask. The breathing thingie majigs were attached to the cage so we didn’t have to wear a tank on our back but they did give us weight belts to keep us from floating up. After watching how close the sharks got to the cage with the first group I was just so excited to go in, not nervous just excited.

So I went in third and hung out on the left hand side of the cage. There weren’t any great whites right away and then within 3 minutes they started coming. It’s funny because you know you are safe in there but when the sharks look right at you and swim that close to you you can’t help but back up. So the first few times they came close I would back off and fall over, I took down the people next to me two or three times hahaha. Kyle gave me his go pro and I got some good video of it. There were two incidents were they had the bait right in my corner of the cage and the shark opened wide and chomped right on the cage which was awesome. They are soo massive. The biggest shark was probably close to 6 meters and the smallest one was about 4.5. Most all of them had tags on them and they all had a lot of scars.

Okay this is where I start to sound crazy. But there was this one particular shark at the end that circled us about 7 times and I loved him! He would come up from behind in my corner and swim just right up to the opening, really slowly and peacefully just saying hello. They didn’t seem that scary, like even when they did eat the bait they were just eating, it’s not like they were crazy and vicious. I really wouldn’t feel that scared if I was next to them in the open ocean. I don’t think they would try to eat me. That being said-I won’t do it, but idk they just seemed so peaceful and graceful. 

So I was in the cage for 45 minutes and we were at the islands for 3 hours. The worst part was the water temperature, i don’t know what it was but it was FREEZING. I was literally shivering in the water and that was the only reason I thought about leaving early. Luckily they had hot showers on board and a hair dryer. They served us lunch and a few snacks as well. On the way back some of the guys went fishing for salmon. 

There were a few other exchange students on the trip, from Mexico and Denmark. I mainly talked to the crew though, in fact one of the guys knew that I couldn’t afford to buy the photos so at the end he snuck me both the dvd footage and photos! I was so happy it was so nice of him. So basically, it was a success! I saw tons of sharks and I still absolutely love them :)

The plane ride to Port Lincoln was a short 35 minutes, very easy. It was a 33 seater baby plane. I don’t think I have ever been to a small airport before so this was a bit of a shocker for me. I landed and walked outside and into this building, it was a little lobby and had one door for departures, one door for arrivals, a bathroom, a desk and a vending machine. So tiny, then I went outside to the cart to pick up my bag and met Pete and Katie outside. Pete is the father, Esther’s uncle and Katie is one of the 18 year old twins. So they took me to their house which was very pretty, it had recently been renovated and the entire front of the house was a glass window which I enjoy. That night we talked a lot about the trip. Pete is one of those guys that just knows everything and everything and everyone. So he brought out a map, showed me where I would be diving, told me how the current would be tomorrow and where I would experience bumpy parts on the boat ride. Apparently their neighbor is a skipper of the boat some days so Pete has been on the boat before and told me all about it. He also mentioned that they have been very successful the past few days and the sharks are biting! When he talked about the safety part he said there’s nothing to worry about except maybe seasickness. So I was not scared at all after talking to him.  I slept in the basement and had my own bathroom, big bed and living room down there. I went to bed early because I had to be up at 5:30 for the dive.

Now the actual dive will have it’s own blog because this post would be ridiculously long if I included that. When I got home that night I had a shower and then I had dinner with Pete & Jo, one of the girls was going out and the other was working. We had a delicious dinner. First we had pumpkin soup and bread, and I had a glass of sauvignon blanc from new Zealand. They had insisted I have something to drink, so I did. For the main course we had  fresh southern Australia blue fin tuna (that Pete had recently caught himself) and it was marinated wonderfully. We also had Whiting, a fish unique to south Australia. She prepared brocolinni and asparagus and a potato bake as well. So I think it’s safe to say I was well fed! After dinner we watched a footy/AFL game. AFL is more kicking and more commercial then traditional rugby. I will devote one entry to the difference between the different kinds of rugby. They explained AFL to me and I understand it now. It was a good game but Adelaide lost, so they were bummed. Then I went to bed because I was dead tired from the long day.

The next morning we had a 10am scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast. I had a flight to catch at 12:45 (obviously I got dropped off at 12:20 because there is no security or anything to worry about). So after breakfast they took me all around Port Lincoln. They drove me to the highest point and showed me the whole bay and he explained where things come in and who owns what and such and such. They showed me this statue of a horse and the story behind it, it won 3 Melbourne cups in a row and is like a town hero. They also showed me the girls school, (they only have 63 girls in their class) and all the steel manufacturers and this and that. Basically I know about Port Lincoln then I know about my hometown. It’s pretty but it’s one of the places that is very secluded and I could see people just never leaving. It’s definitely too small town for my taste but it was a billion times better than small towns you get in the states.

I said I wasn’t nervous. Finally, after wanting to do this for years and planning it months ahead I feel a twinge of nerves… the night before. Mostly I’ve just been nervous about getting to all the destinations and catching every flight. But now every once in awhile my heart races a little bit thinking of possible bad scenarios. Me and my friend Mea used to joke around (but it wasn’t a joke it really happened to us) about these visions we had, our mind starts to wander and then we suddenly imagine a terrible scenario happening, usually involving lots of blood. I’m kinda having one of those… pretty much just me being in the cage but the people on the boat see all the blood in the water from my limb being bitten off yada yada yada. I hope I don’t panic when I see them shredding apart the bait before I hop in the cage, but if I could bungee jump and sky dive without second thoughts I don’t think it will be too difficult to convince myself. 

Today I woke up at the Finn household, while everyone was at work I went for a run in the river torrents park. It was quite pretty, like a mini metroparks. I enjoyed it, but it was just a short run because I didn’t want to spend the entire day running. After a quick shower and look at the maps I caught a bus to the city. I wandered around a bit then found my way to The Central markets. It was really neat, like they just put a roof on top of a busy street and then a bunch of shops were just thrown in there. Lots of fresh fruit and nuts and pastry shops along with butcher shops and seafood. Of course in a place full of food I could stay forever. I was in there for about 2 hours and picked a cafe for lunch, an omelette. Then I had time to kill so I went to one of the pastry shops and had a mars bar chocolate muffin (it had a divine ganache frosting) and a raspberry almond brownie (I had to eat that a few hours later because my stomach couldn’t handle all the sweets). I decided to treat myself because hey, could be my last few meals right??

After the central market I wandered around some more, into some pretty and old catholic churches. Then when I was looking at a map I made a friend Joyce and we figured out what bus to catch together. After arriving back at the Finn household I finished season 4 of mad men, (so confused with Don) and did some study. Now I’m at the airport and boarding for port lincoln in five minutes. It’s a 30 seater plan, so pretty small! I usually like these planes for some reason. Time to go.. could be my last blog! Love you guys, if something happens just make sure that I get an honorable mention on shark week (I’m serious though….)

So I’m writing from a home in Adelaide, Australia right now. If you are reading this you probably already know why I am here or at least have read my facebook status. Basically when coming to Australia my number one dream was to swim with great white sharks. However, I dismissed the idea when I looked at the costs before I came, then my Australian friend Mitch Shaw showed me some links of cheaper cage dives and it seemed feasible. Turns out one of the girls I live with has family in the city where the boat leaves from and she said that I could stay with them. SoOoO I forked up a couple months worth of work, booked a couple flights and made arrangements! 

The shark cage dive will take place 3 hours off shore of Port Lincoln Australia, (South west-ish Australia). Port Lincoln is considerably small so airlines only connect from a few cities, the closest to Sydney is Adelaide. So I booked a flight to Adelaide then a flight to Port Lincoln, then back to Adelaide and back to Sydney. My friend Esther grew up in Adelaide (where I am staying now) and has an Aunt and Uncle in Port Lincoln, How convenient! 

So I flew into Adelaide at about 7pm. There was a 30 minute time change from Sydney to here. I am now in the state of south australia, sydney is the state of new south wales and brisbane and the great barrier reef- those places I went earlier in the semester- are in queensland. So I’m at my 3rd state in Australia. Esther’s mum, dad and brother Liam picked me up from the airport and we went to a vietnamese restaurant. It was very yummy and nice. A place like that would have cost at least 15 more bucks in sydney so it was refreshing to see the lower prices, but of course Esther’s parents wouldn’t let me pay. Then we went back to their home and they drew me maps of the city and parks and told me about the bus route and that so that I can entertain myself while they are all at work. I’m excited for a nice day in Adelaide tomorrow! It’s called the “city of churches” so it has some pretty cathedrals and from what I heard the parks are very nice. 

I will stay here in Adelaide all day tomorrow and then head out to Port Lincoln tomorrow evening. Esther’s family is so nice! They gave me everything I could need to stay comfortably and when I get back on Sunday they have all sorts of things planned for the few extra days I’m staying in Adelaide. It’s such a great experience being with such hospitable Australian families!

Oh yeah- I’ve become like an absolute pro at all things transport. Within the last 6 months I have had every possible bad scenario related to air travel happen, I’ve taken two airport shuttles, a greyhound, flown domestic and international flights, taken countless public buses (to the beach and city and what not) taken the train/light rail system almost every weekend, taken a private train system, rode in an Aussie car on the opposite road and traveled in a rental van. Sheesh, I’ve learned a lot. Just to get here I had to take one train from Uni to the city and from the city to the airport, check in at that airport land at a complete foreign place. It’s been a good challenge.

The absolute worst was when I was leaving my American friends from Hervey Bay to meet my parents in Sydney. We drove 13 hours over night from Airlie to Hervey Bay (I slept maybe two hours), then I caught a 2 hour greyhound to a town in the boondocks called Gympie, the greyhound A/C broke so we switched greyhounds, I waited at a bus stop for another hour and a half for my airport shuttle which was 45 minutes to the sunshine coast airport. Then I had to wait 6 hours at the airport for my flight, which got delayed an hour. Then flew to sydney and took two trains to my parents hotel. Complete exhaustion. 

Anyways- Adelaide seems so cute and Esther’s family is just lovely! 

After getting about 3 1/2 hours of sleep taylor, kyle and I went to watch Benny race. She got done with her 1/2 marathon in a little over two hours! I was proud of her :) We just missed her finishing but we met up with her and had pancakes on the rocks later. I got scramble eggs and bacon and everyone else got yummy pancake concoctions. 

When we got back I took a short nap and Kyle, Taylor, Franc and I went to the Hills 5:00pm service. It was really good, I haven’t been in awhile because I didn’t realize they changed the service time but I was sure I wanted to go this week. We got pretty good seats and started off with the amazing worship as always. Since it’s such a big church there are a lot of sign language translators and it got me thinking, the deaf members at hillsong are fortunate because you can really feel the passion at that church. Literally and figuratively, everyone displays their love and the music is so loud that the whole place is vibrating. We sang Awakening which is one of my all time favorite songs. 

Rich Wilkerson Jr., was a guest speaker tonight from Miami Florida, I gave a nice loud Boo when he mentioned the heat, woops. He was a great preacher, really passionate and a cool guy. He preached out of Jonah talking about how first you are broken, then you are mending and then the Lord gives you a second wind. He uses those that are broken and weak. It was very uplifting, as per usual at Hillsong. 

Hillsong started this new thing last week called “Have a Go” where they showcase the talented members of their church. This week a girl sang Laserlight by Jessie J and she was phenomenal, every note was directly on and she sounded beautiful. We also held hands and prayed for the person to either side of us which was cool. 

It’s such a great church, I always walk out feeling so refreshed and blessed. I don’t know if I will ever be able to be in such a passionate house of the Lord again (until well heaven) so it will be hard to leave :/