Explore and find new things!!

Brian and Tiffany (fellow Americans) on their last day of work with us! Don't you just love the smashing uniforms :) haha. The girls were making an attempt to be serious....and succeeding, while Brian and Tiff are excited that it's their last day housekeeping!

Mr. Cockatoo on our porch railing! He was looking for food so we fed him a chunk of cookie! He loved it :)

Some evenings are used up chilling on the staff beach reading, slack lining, or just watching the sunset. The below pic was taken on the path there!

Mr. Cockatoo eating "normal" food!

On this particular night the tide was super far out and I went venturing out on the sands to see what I could find! This is looking back toward the staff beach and the residents' houses.

This is some water plants....not sure what exactly! I just know that they look cool!

Sponge?!

This sort of looks like a sand dollar except it's spongy feeling and had miniature shells in the middle of it.

Here's the sunset you've all been waiting for ;)

The next morning, Buff and I got up at 5 to hike to the coral garden. The tide was at one of its lowest points and the coral was to be above the water!

Good Morning Sun!

Happy morning everyone! :) Ahh, the sunrise was so beautiful and the mornings are such a peaceful time of day (even though it's so early ;))!

Coral piling

Buff is  capturing the sunrise perfectly!

Love it! :) It's so gorgeous and I am curious as to what's through the rocks.

Through the rocks and around the bend.....Buff and I climbed some of the rock to have more of a look....this was a small pool of water in between some rocks with these cool looking creatures/plants!

Ahh!! The first coral I spotted. The top of most of the coral was dead, hence the brown. Beneath the deadness was some cool colors though.....a person just had to look for them :) 

 I still am amazed that this is part of the Great Barrier Reef! So cool :) Is this reality?! It sure is and I can hardly figure out how to absorb it all :)

A dead clam shell

I am not sure what this is, other than it's another kind of coral! It kind of looks like a peanut.

These clam shells are huge! A person wants to keep their fingers far away from them because if you try to touch it, it will clamp shut and won't open again until it has digested whatever it caught!

This piece of coral is one of my personal favorites! It's so beautiful!

The opening of the clam shell up close! I was trying to capture the vibrant colors inside and this was the best I could do! You can see the streak of green in the middle a little bit though.

See all the coral sticking up just above the water level?

Another type of coral.... it's a bit like a blob, especially when you see it from a distance.

Another spongey one! I didn't actually touch any of these (poisonous or not....didn't want to find out the hard way ;)), so I don't know if they actually feel spongy or not.

These are what I call the brain of the sea! haha....doesn't it look like a brain! When I've been snorkeling, I've seen much better ones but didn't have a way to document them!

A huge coral of my favorite type, how neat! :)

Just before I saw this red crab, I had slipped off the rocks into the water. While I was walking through the water, I saw this red crab. He was cruising after me.....ack!  :) I was trying to walk faster, but didn't know where to step because of all the coral so I decided to take a picture of the creature instead! :)

Buff, snapping away.....this was here second morning in a row! You go girl :)

A live hermit crab! This is so pretty! I love all the colors :)

Later the same morning, after brekky, a group of us headed down to the marina to try and get on a boat transfer to Langford Island to go snorkeling. On the way there, I stopped at the photo shop to rent an underwater digital camera, but they were already all rented out by the guests. Therefore, I was unable to get pictures of the sea turtles, jelly fish, schools of fish, reef shark, and massive coral to name a few! It's a whole new world under the water! Crazy. Another highlight of the day was that I learned how to dive with the snorkel gear and not come up sputtering for air :)

Langford Island

Sploosh! In goes Buff :)

I have a feeling that these chicas are having a superb day! ;)

Soaking it in! Trying to ingrain it in the memory.

How about a few more on this massive transfer boat! :) Prior to this, we witnessed another transfer boat bringing some people to the island and the boat got turned sideways and due to the wind there were bigger waves than normal......the result.....the people on the boat getting soaked when the waves came crashing over the sides! Haha :) It would've made a great video all because it ended well!

The only staff that got to go out.....we felt quite lucky! Buff, Bambs, Xerox, Jemma, Abbie and Andy.

Hayman Island....my home for one more week!

The other side of Langford Island. This sand strip is nearly gone when it's high tide. We had gotten there at low tide and half way through the day we had to move all of our beach gear so it wouldn't get drenched from the sea.

View from our balcony one night! These clouds are so cool!

Another night, Buff and I went to the beach to slack line and watch sunset! Let me share this......when the slack line goes to the beach there are a few different scenarios that can happen...... 1. Nobody else is there, so you get it to yourself.
2. People are there, but are not interested in trying out the slack line.
3. People are there and are interested enough to just watch.
4. People are there and they want to try it.
On this particular night, option four occurred! The only difference was that there were heaps of people and more kept coming! I think it was a "weekend" night for a lot of people and the weather was so comfy.

I love it, everyone has their own technique and facial expressions! It's so fun to watch people learn!

Part of the spectators....watching their friend have a go.

....and out across the ocean....the sunset! A nice end to a lovely evening.

 I must say that for being wet season, we have had minimal rain for the past 5 weeks. Then today, it poured, saturated the ground etc.! Wow.....this time I am so glad that I have a solid roof over my head and not the tent! haha. Perhaps today made up for all the days we didn't have rain.....caused there were many showers of dumping rain! It was refreshing though. The weather has been so beastly hot and humid, although, I'd rather take this right now than sub zero temps that they are having in America.

Capturing the rain from our balcony.

These flowers are still so pretty, even in the rain :)

Does it look like a rainforest?!

A view from a different perspective....looking over towards our neighboring building.

The next few days will be an adventure, especially if the rain continues! Tomorrow, we have a Whitehaven Beach tour scheduled and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be decent weather! We are to stop at Dream Island as well after which we will spend the night on main land before coming back to Hayman for our last few days. 

After our Hayman reign, we are pumping it to Fraser Island to meet up with most of the North Americans that are here in Aussie for a weekend camping trip! Wahoo. I can speak on behalf of my travel mates too, we are excited to be off adventuring and meeting up with the other North Americans! Then off to New Zealand I go, while the other gals make their way south to more work in Melbourne. Melbourne will likely be our home for the next couple to few months!

Cheers to a G'day! Until next time...... :)