Spring Break 2009 - Day 2 - Cairns - Connections Adventures

So, the next day I started with my Connections tour. The tour got off to a rough start for me... I was still exhausted from arriving late and diving the previous day, plus I needed to wake up at 5 AM to register for my classes back at UMich (4 PM Friday registration in MI became 6 AM Saturday registration in Australia). So consequently, I was dead to the world and in no mood to speak with anybody when people from the trip arrived. But it was all good, we just got on a bus and drove up to Kuranda National Park.

Kuranda a huge national park that has a gondola ride that helps take you along the 3 segments of the park. At the main section (named Kuranda…) there is a “Koala Zoo” of sorts. It wasn’t limited to just koalas, you could see some crocs and feed some wallabies which was pretty nice. The highlight though is that you could take a photo holding a koala (the province of Queensland is the only place in Australia where this is legal) so I took advantage of that! The koala basically was sleeping and only woke up when he changed hands but was extremely cute and soft. Definitely a fun experience.

On the gondola back down, we also go to see Barron Falls, which were quite impressive (not nearly as huge as Niagara but then again, nothing really is) and some other great sites.

After our day at Kuranda, we went back to the hotel to shower and relax before we went back up to Kuranda to spend some time with an Aboriginal tribe, the Tjapukai. They have a nice little building that they use to hold some shows and basically introduce people to Aboriginal heritage. It was really cool to go and learn about how the aboriginals lived and how their society works. I even got to go up on stage and do an aboriginal dance (which I will gladly do upon returning to the states) that introduced me to muscles that I didn’t know I had.

After our experience there we went back to the hotel were everyone chilled on the balcony of the hotel and had a nice relaxing time. Eventually, we had to go to sleep since we had an early morning the next day.



A crocagator


A cute little wallaby :)


I think I shall name him Horrace Aberforth III


Barron Falls

Me and my scary Tjapukai face paint (p.s. no comments about the hair length please :P)

Day 3 : Click!