After the first two school terms, I had summer holidays (during the Christmas time) and was able to welcome my parents and my sister in my temporary home. We had planned a holiday on the way from Cairns to Brisbane.
It all started in Cairns, where I of course showed my family the area, but especially I went snorkeling at the Outer Reef from a sailing catamaran and went with them to the mountain village in the rainforest called Kuranda. There we went to different wildlife parks to cover a wide range of Australia’s fauna.
Afterwards, our way led us to the Atherton Tablelands, which is especially known for the high number of beautiful, although not very big, waterfalls. After that we drove to Mission Beach. The beach was different to the ones in Cairns and even more beautiful. From there it was not far to Townsville where we could see underwater animals in an aquarium called Reef HQ which we couldn’t see while snorkeling.
We made a longer stop for Christmas in Airlie Beach at the Whitsunday Islands. This is a very well known place for tourists, among other things for the snorkeling experience. Therefore, we sailed with an old sailboat to the Whitsunday Islands and went snorkeling there. We were especially fascinated by the many sea turtles we saw. Eungella was our next stop where we could watch platypus in a river.
Australia is the land of surfers, but this is not possible in the north because of the wave shielding Great Barrier Reef. Agnes Water is therefore one of the most northern surf beaches, which we used to do a short surf lesson there. Therewith, another dream came true for me and my sister.
Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, has many famous places to offer, including Lake McKenzie, the SS Maheno, the Champagne Pools and Indean Head. We spent one night on the island and were lucky to have two days to explore the large island. Then we went on to Noosa, where we spent the New Year’s Eve in a national park. So we reached our last stage, the last stop was of course Brisbane.
In Brisbane we drove to Southbank, went on the Ferris wheel there, walked through the shopping miles of the city and took a ferry on the Brisbane River during the night. For me the vacation was not over yet, but my family had to fly back to Germany. After a hard goodbye I stayed for a few days with a friend from sailing in Germany. Together we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and again to Southbank. Then I also had to fly back to Cairns, where school started again after a few more days.