Wednesday, May 21, 2008

booked, boomerangs and bungy jumping

may 17. 2008
hides hotel
4:00 PM

it felt so strange to type in the words, "today is my last day in australia" in my e-mails to mommy and rob today. i don't like the thought of leaving, but i know it has to happen.

on the way to kuranda this morning, carl was acting his part as the tour guide, telling us how exciting and awesome the day was going to be. he was explaining that he was going to get us up the hill as fast as he could. i told him that staying within the speed limit might be a good idea; just as he was shaking his head at me, grinning, a copper came into view.
carl got booked for speeding today. he didn't seem too concerned about it though. since he was only 13 kph over, he was only docked 1 point and apparently queensland is cheaper for fines than new south wales anyway!

we made it to kuranda without any more excitement and it was time to shop. i enjoyed some frozen fruit and a sausage roll as we wandered through the different shops. i also had the privilege of being a wrist model (along with amy + jodi) as we helped jim figure out what size bracelet to buy his wife. in the process of helping, i ended up buying a few myself! =)

our next stop was the rainforestation. it was fun to watch the spear throwing, but even more entertaining was the didgeridoo playing! it isn't as easy as it looks, as few from our group found out. we also got to try our hand at throwing a boomerang-angle at 1:00, step with the opposite foot and throw! my attempt was far less impressive than others, particularly jon and jim's. i think the most fun to watch was the aboriginal dancing-especially when tyler was called up as a volunteer. he was reluctant to make his way on stage, but once up there, he was a good sport and enthusiastically participated.

we left from there to the site for bungy jumping, where those who wanted to try it would "meet their gloomy doom" as carl so kindly put it. he seemed convinced that people were going to die today. jodi, jennee, stephanie and mason were the brave four who chose to jump from such a height for the price of $130. the wait was long, so amy and i taught sean and bryan the dice game. great fun! soon it was time for our friends to jump-and despite all of carl's woeful warnings, they all survived. i enjoyed watching. =)

tonight is our farewell dinner. carl has been rather secretive about tonight's plans, but i'm confident it will be a fun, if not bittersweet evening.










No comments: