Sand boarding, Snorkeling, Surfing and Seakyaking at Straddie

This past weekend was, to say the least, heaps of fun! We went to North Stradbrook Island (Straddie, as Aussies call it) as our “free excursion” with Arcadia. Not only did they organize everything, including busing us there and back, arranging endlessly awesome activities, accommodation, food, ect. but I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING!!! As I’m starting to book all my trips, this was really exciting. Also, once again, Arcadia outdid themselves and I continue to be impressed with them. 

We arrived via ferry on Friday afternoon (the bus too) just in time to catch a beautiful sunset. Straddie is absolutely gorgeous, which I say about a lot of places in this country, I realize, but somehow things keep getting even better. The weather also, thankfully, was wonderful. Straddie is the second largest sand island in the world and despite it becoming more inhabited in recent years, there are still only one or two main roads. The water is all shades of blue-green colors, the beaches are soft and hug the islands edge for miles on end, and the starts are innumerable.

That being said, we were promptly warned at dinner about some of the dangers of the island, including, but not limited to, eight out of ten of the most poisonous snakes in the world, the plentiful “sharky” waters, killer boxed “jellies” and a few other things that if you touched, “that’s it” for you. So naturally, that made us a wee bit nervous for the water related activities we were supposed to be doing that weekend, like surfing during sunrise (feeding time for sharkies) and snorkeling.

That night, we were also fortunate enough to have an aborigine guest speaker, Shane, who told us his story and gave me a lot of insight on indigenous culture. He spoke of his childhood, during which the aboriginal people were shunned and mistreated by the government, to say the least. His parents’ generation wasn’t allowed to attend school past 4^th grade to purposefully prevent further education, and he had to struggle to stay in high school. He spoke of how kids beat him up, how teachers tried to fail him, how they would do anything and everything to get him kicked out. He talked about the stolen generation, when aborigine children were separated from their parents and forced to grow up in foster homes, subject to domestic abuse and from that sprang alcohol and other drug related problems. He explained how his people gone from structured, ordered, and prosperous to violent, poor, and subject to a variety of social problems. He then went on to talk about parts of aborigine culture, including their spiritual beliefs, which I found really interesting. They have spiritual connections with their ancestors, animals, and various rituals and ceremonies. Overall, it was an incredibly moving story, and I feel very fortunate that he was so open to us and that I was able to listen and learn from him.

As stated in the title, we spent the weekend engaging in all sorts of fun activities. On Saturday, we went snorkeling (my first time!) and sea kayaking in the morning. Snorkeling was awesome!!! I saw all sorts of multicolored fish and swam besides schools of fish, and even saw a reef shark! (They were pretty small and apparently harmless…unless provoked, that is). I also held a sea cucumber, which was black and squishy all over, and something that people on the island consider a food category. During sea kayaking, we paddled through beautiful light blue waters.

Then we had lunch and had a lesson on boomerang throwing! I was not very successful but we learned that they really do come back to you…one of my friends almost got implanted in the face with his, only to catch it at the last second. We also got to paint our own, which ended up in me struggling to paint within the lines, typical of my kindergarten status artistic ability.  But everyone else had some beautiful boomerangs, decorated with aborigine symbols that held various meanings. Something interesting about indigenous artwork is that everything tells a story, which made me more appreciative of it and realize the hard work and time that went into it.

Later in the afternoon, we went on a stunning walk along the coast, again saw an amazing sunset, and passed out pretty early after watching an aborigine movie and making ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) biscuits, which tasted like oatmeal cookies.

Sunday morning at the crack of dawn we went for our surfing lesson! AWESOME way to start the day, despite it being so early. I had a blast, and I’m going to attempt to surf as least a few more times while I’m here. I got up every time, which was pretty exciting, but had trouble staying up. I asked one of the surf instructors why I was having issues with this, and he responded that I needed to stop trying so hard and just relax. Once I eased up, I was a lot more successful and one of the only people who stayed out until the end. I’m addicted. IT WAS SO COOL! Granted, we were surfing baby waves, but once again it made me contemplate why I was in school when I could just be doing this everyday and getting paid for it, as our instructors seemed pretty content with their lives. It’s all about what makes you happy. At a previous surf shop, I saw the infamous slogan “do what you love, love what you do”. It seemed to fit pretty well. Then we went sand boarding, which was like snowboarding…except on a sand dune. It was pretty fun but simultaneously exhausting as you had to climb back up the dune each time, and that took a lot of energy out of me after surfing. We complained that they needed chairlifts. But it was fun to pick up speed as you went down, and as a very unsuccessful snowboarder (I spent most of the time on the ground) I found this to be much more enjoyable.

Finally, we stopped at Brown Lake before heading home, which is believed by aborigines to have healing powers. The water was red, from tree oil, and got redder as you got deeper. The water’s substance was also different – it felt more soft, like lotion almost, when you rubbed it in between your fingers. It was very refreshing and relaxing. Then we were transported back on the ferry and bused back to Bond, where I unpacked and passed out after an action packed weekend.

This weekend more adventures to come! We are going to Byron Bay, a hippie surf beach town about an hour away, and we are in the process of booking SKYDIVING! Look for updates. I will also update about classes and school, but I’ll save that for another time. Hope this was somewhat enjoyable and not too boring to read.

Cheers,

Emily