Ranger Jen!!

 Helloooooo cute little bedroom!!! :) And it’s allllll mine! Oh the little things that make you happy :) 

After two hot trips of walking my stuff 10 minutes up the road from Bungalow Bay, with deceivingly heavy backpack loads, I officially have moved into my new permanent home. As I said before, I live with Emma, who’s personality meshes really well with mine (or at least our sarcasm), and her son Toby, who has taken a while to acknowledge my presence, but has finally started to warm up to me a bit (although he still ignores me sometimes). I think getting invited to play Xbox Kinect with him was the breaking point.

In case you haven't already looked it up, Magnetic Island is a tiny 50sqkm island off the coast of Townsville, and more than half of the island is a national park. Population: 2,100. I live in Horseshoe Bay. A 10 minute walk to work, and 5 minutes further to get to Horseshoe bay beach. There is only one main road that goes from Picnic bay, through Nelly Bay (the ferry terminal), to Horseshoe Bay. When I walk to the end of the road, I dead end at the water and the "town center" of Horseshoe. This is the view to the left....

that is my tea house on the corner :)

And this is the view to the right....

(and yes, what you can see, is the extent of it haha)

And then there is Horseshoe Bay itself...

For my final days of freedom before rejoining the working world, I got invited back over to stay the night at the Richards’ house for a Sunday night home cooked meal and a live stream of the Seahawks vs. Cowboys game at 6:25am Monday morning. I mentioned I liked this family right? Illegally streaming an NFL game from a laptop to the TV doesn’t exactly qualify as an HD experience, but nonetheless, having breakfast and tea, lounging on a giant couch sectional, watching the Hawks on a giant tv with surround sound... made me feel so American again! After having put so much effort into trying to catch Seahawks games since being here, it would have been nice to see a winning game... thanks for that Hawks. 

Getting my first paycheck for my first full week of work was extremely exciting! It kind of feels a bit like monopoly money haha having my foreign bank account and not having to take money from my account back home anymore. After failing to convince myself I wouldn’t take the ferry that often, I finally decided to go the cheaper route and buy a 5-pack of round trip ferry rides to Townsville (kicking myself a little bit for not having brought my college ID with me to Australia, to get the student discount - not that it stopped me from trying to convince them anyways haha). That was a good plan on my part, considering I’ve almost used them up already! Jacob has basically become my tour guide and instant best friend. He came to hangout with me on Magnetic Island one day, fully intending to rent mopeds (who knew they would be sold out for the day by 10am...), but instead, making the trek to the next of the 4 bays, Radical Bay! Beach hangout with a mix of football and rugby catch, and gourmet pb&j for lunch. Classic. Jacob’s little sister Jasmine also came over to hangout with me on another one of my days off. Girl beach time and tanning of course. Fast forward a week, and she blames me for her peeling, because she wanted to be as dark as me haha. I have also been back to Townsville a few times to hangout with them. One of the days, Jacob drove me around town to show me around (and do some more necessary shopping - poor guy) and took me to the Strand (the Townsville beachfront), as well as to the top of the hill where you can overlook the city and Magnetic Island. 

That is Magnetic Island straight ahead!

My home sweet home :)

My most recent trip over to Townsville, we ended up spending the day up at a family friend’s cabin on the water. 4wheeling on the beach, hanging on for dear life on the roof of the truck = AWESOME. Stopping on the way home to jump off the bridge into the river, and then spending the night playing Cards Against Humanity with new friends and watching soccer; not a bad way to spend a Saturday. 

As far as work has gone, it has taken me about a week to start to feel more comfortable.  New job anxiety gets me every time. But coming up to two weeks in now, I am feeling much more at home and less like the “newbie”. All of my coworkers have been extremely nice and the other female rangers have been a big help in learning information about the animals. At this point, I am working about 38 hours a week, working 8am-5pm. 2hours of cleaning/feeding animals and the rest dedicated to three 2 hour tours. On Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays we run a Koala breakfast, so I start at 6:30am and cook a buffet breakfast for 20-40ish people. And yes, I am actually the cook. Bacon, sausage, chops, fish, french toast, toad-in-a-hole, pancakes, jaffles, the works!! Be impressed ;) 

I am right on the edge of being able to run my own tours now. The last couple days I have been working with Tony and he lets me run the tour alone unless it is a large group, in which case, we bring out multiple animals at once, and he tends to take over from there. That and he has only just yesterday/today let me handle the koalas on my own for photos and petting. I can pretty much say at this point that I am one with the animals and am holding my own. I get to start off the tour talking about the freshwater turtles, and passing around little Donatella (whose dang little claws have left me looking like I may need to seek help for a wrist cutting problem...). Then I move on to Shadow, the red-tailed black cockatoo, who I teach people how to hold and give a sunflower seed kiss to. From there, I get to talk about Harry the wombat (and attempt to try and catch him so that people can hold the 30kilo chunk of a guy). I have mastered catching the baby saltwater crocodile (yes, the ones that grow up to eat people), and actually really enjoy talking about and passing around all of the crazy lizards. We have 6 koalas, which I am excited about finally being allowed to go get and handle on my own now. Pebbles is my favorite :) although Thor can be quite charming as well! I am now completely comfortable handling all of the snakes, but I definitely have my favorites that I tend to go for, and I still hate when they hide in the box and are all tangled up with each other; I swear they don’t like it when I try to pull them out. 

I have already had a few compliments for my tour guiding, from Tony and from travelers (and even got some compliments on my breakfast cooking ;) which has been a good confidence booster. I am feeling more and more comfortable about the job and Magnetic Island, and starting to feel more at home. The last couple days that I have walked home from work, I have laughed to myself about how I now wrangle crocodiles, handle koalas and talk about and work with animals for a living... I notice my shadow on the sidewalk, of me in my boots, khakis and my awesome ranger hat, laugh to myself a bit for the “cowboyesque-ness” of it all, while realizing how much I own and ROCK that gettup, and I tell myself “yep, I’m awesome.”... and then I pass by the two gentlemen playing tennis that I pass by every afternoon, and one of them asks if I am the new ranger at the koala park, and wants to know what my ranger name is. “Ranger Jen!” We talk for awhile, and I continue on home, smiling even bigger, realizing how much I am loving the people here and this place :) Small town island living isn’t so bad.

October 10th: Townsville!

With Steve Irwin attire necessary for my new job, and nowhere on the island to get such  a thing, it was inevitable that I was going to have to make the $32 round trip ferry ride over to Townsville sometime this week. And today was the day! Having looked up the nearest art supplies store, and knowing exactly where to go for my groceries, I was prepared for a long and heart-breakingly expensive day of shopping.

Lucky for me, I had made a new friend two nights before. Jacob, who is a Townsville native that had previously gone to college in Iowa. He targeted me because of my American accent, and we got along right away. He had offered to drive me around Townsville to do all of my shopping, and surprisingly, that is exactly what he did. He picked me up from the ferry terminal, took me to the art store, multiple work clothes places (that had nothing that would even remotely fit me), and then stores that I managed to at least find SOMETHING that would get me through the first week. I was impressed. Considering we were practically strangers, and he was driving a girl around shopping all morning, he was incredibly patient and really quite helpful. After a lunch break, and a few more stops, we had to go pick his sister Jasmine up from school. I ended up going back to their house to hangout for awhile before heading back to the ferry terminal with all of my stuff. After meeting their dad and the 4 dogs, throwing the football around a bit, and talking sports, it has already been established that this may be my new adoptive family. I mean, I did get invited to come over for Christmas within the first 10 minutes, if that says anything at all about how well we all got along. 

With hundreds of dollars worth of art supplies, work clothes, and an overwhelming amount of groceries, I looked completely ridiculous waddling onto the ferry with my hoard of stuff. But I am ready and excited (and a little bit nervous) to make my move into my new and permanent home tomorrow! Goodbyyyyye hostel living!!

October 9th: Settling In!

So Bungalow Bay is SUPPOSED to do trivia and games every night, but they have yet to do it once since I have been here. Apparently the bartenders are not too keen to run them and think that nobody cares (or notices) if they just don’t do it. But I definitely care! It makes me sad. I like games. That is what they SHOULD have hired me for... to run their games and be the fun starter. Maybe it’s the lack of entertainment or just the laid back atmosphere, but it makes it more difficult to meet and interact with people here. Nevertheless, I have jumped in with some of the other staff and made some friends. Unfortunately for me, some of the newest employees JUST went in on a 4 bedroom house together... so I may have some difficulty finding a permanent place to live. It’s not like I have a ton of roommate or housing options here... At least that’s what I thought for a few days!

This morning, not wanting to waste what precious Wifi time I had left (internet is not free here haha in case you have been wondering why I am so behind on my blog), I decided to walk down the street and see if I could find a place to live to by just asking around. I really liked Marci, the tea cafe owner, so I decided to start there. Lucky for me, she said her daughter was actually thinking about renting a room in her house. She called up her daughter to come down right then and meet me. How easy was that?! I will be moving in with Emma, her 7 year old son Toby, and apparently a rather annoying little dog on Saturday! But Emma and Marci are both really nice people, and she asked for less rent then I was prepared to pay, so that was a bonus! Emma even offered me her bike (which I was planning on buying a second hand one when I got the ferry back over to Townsville tomorrow) so I can avoid taking the bus around the island which is $3 one-way. Another fun fact?! While sitting there talking to the both of them over a cup of coffee, I also discovered that the “top of the mornin” old man that I love, is actually Marci’s father!! I think I may have just found my adoptive Australian family :)

After setting out on a day-long mission to find somewhere to live, and accomplishing it all within an hour, I had the rest of the day to explore! I decided to do the walk to the 4 beaches. It’s a hiking trail that takes you to 4 different bays along the way. It is supposedly about a 4hour round trip. Again, setting out around the hottest part of the day, it took me close to an hour to get to the first one, and after sweating about half my body weight (wishful thinking) climbing up and down the rocks, I decided it was a much better idea to just spend the day at the one, and hit the other 3 beaches another day. 

 Part of my hike!

 Almost there!!

 Beeaaaaaachhh!

 Yes! :)

Welcome to Balding Bay!!

A gorgeous, secluded bay that I seemed to have completely to myself! I pulled out my towel and setup my spot next to a big rock, enjoying the sun for about a half hour before I learned that Balding Bay is apparently a nude beach! haha. One where people are not shy about approaching you and starting a conversation. Nevertheless, the pattern continues, the residents of Magnetic Island are very friendly and welcoming. 

Wednesday October 8th: Get Ready Magnetic Island!!

Well, I officially got offered the job! In one week I will officially be the new tour guide/park ranger at Bungalow Bay Koala Sanctuary! So before I start, I have a bit of time to go explore the island (which really should only take a day or two, it’s reallllllly small).

The view coming into Nelly Bay, the ferry terminal on Magnetic Island.

To start off my morning, I went for a run down along the beach as far as I could go. It’s a pretty cool feeling sitting in the sand and looking back where you came from and realizing that you are literally the only person around. As I walked back through “town” scoping out a good breakfast spot (from the only 3 restaurants available), the little old man waving his cane, that said “top of the mornin’ to ya”, definitely got a huge smile out of me.

The Bungalows :)

When I got back to my room, I met one of my new roommates, Iggy from Israel. I decided to bring him along for breakfast. The obvious choice for me was the little English cafe place on the corner. I declared that it will be my favorite place on the island within seconds. Walking inside and being greeted with a “top of the mornin to ya” by the same old man who may or may not remember that he just said that to me 20minutes earlier, just made me love this place even more. I got my pot of tea with jam and cream scones :) It was so cute! In fancy teacups and everything! My family should be proud of me for this one ;) REAL tea!

It is recommended that if you do the hike to the forts (one of the “must do’s” of the island), you should go later in the afternoon, not just to avoid the heat, but also, so you can see koala’s in the wild and hopefully during a time when they are active. My plan was to go late enough that I could see the koalas and make it to the top around sunset. 

 The view from the first lookout

 Walking up the main path

Mom and baby!!!!

 The view from the top!

I did in fact see quite a few koalas. Two adult ones eating leaves over the path, and then a mom and her teeny tiny furry baby!! They were so cute and entertaining to watch, that I barely caught the last bit of sun before it went behind the hills. After my short moment of “aww how pretty”... I took a look around, and realized all of a sudden, how quickly it was getting dark, that I hadn’t seen or passed by any other people on the trails in the last hour... and quietly congratulated myself on my genius decision to go hiking, in the dark, by myself, without telling anyone where I was.

I quickly climbed down the ladders and in and out of the forts trying to think happy thoughts and desperately trying NOT to reminisce about the college days of getting scared S***less playing hide and seek in forts... Still getting darker, I’m speed walking as fast as I can go, trying to find the main path, wondering why the hell this 800m loop feels like 5000m... second guessing if the rocks I’m climbing down are even part of the path... trying to remember what that one sign said about the poisonous snake... curious if my phone has reception up here, just in case something happened, but not wanting to stop to dig my phone out of my bag.... so many thoughts!.... and then you walk face first into a spider web.... the kind that is so strong that it doesn’t break right away... and you gladly choose all of the previous thoughts, over thinking about what monstrous spider built something like that straight across the path. The speed walk turned into a modified version of parkour at one point, that is, until I finally found my way back to the much wider and significantly less intimidating main path. Don’t worry. I made it home. Although walking along the sidewalk-less curvy roads in the pitch dark was equally terrifying, especially when you still occasionally question which direction the cars are coming from.

Trial Day!!

I apologize in advance for not having any photos, but I was trying to be professional ;)

For my trial day, I spent the first two hours of the morning raking up leaves and cleaning out animal cages (which really isn’t that bad, they are not very messy animals). Considering right off the bat, I was in the cages face to face with all of the animals who just sat there and watched me clean, it was pretty cool.

We run three 2hour tours per day, at 10am, 12, and 2:30pm. We also do a Koala breakfast 3x per week briiiight and early in the morning, but luckily that wasn’t today. Tony, the head ranger, is an interesting person.... some of his interactions with the animals and with people seemed a bit questionable to me, but I get the feeling he is not the kind of person you want to question, especially on your work trial day. But he definitely knows his stuff. I basically just job shadowed Tony through all of the tours, and also got some more inside info from May, the Japanese volunteer who has been here for about 2 months. The first tour, I basically was just one of the tourists, holding all the animals like everyone else. I got to kiss the cockatoo, hold all of the lizards and baby crocs, and the koalas (the wombat didn’t come out until later :(.... By the second tour, without warning, Tony told me to go grab one of the snakes out of the shed.... pretty sure that was my test... or a mean joke... but either way, I laughed a little, until I realized he was completely serious, put on a smile and walked into the shed as bravely as I could, with the 8 or so snakes, wondering which one looked the smallest and least intimidating. The answer? None of them. But I did it! I proudly brought one back out and continued to walk around and let people hold it. That’s one way to get over a fear (strong dislike rather...). The rest of the day, that became my job.... so much for cute koalas...

By the third tour, Tony threw me under the bus and told me to start off the tour with the turtles... the animal that I had learned absolutely nothing about throughout the day (Tony doesn’t always give a whole lot of animal information, probably because he has been doing this for so long that he gets bored of saying the same things)... either way, I figured this was my next test... I was loud and chipper and did a fine introduction... and then handed it back off to Tony to actually talk about the turtles haha. But I think he was pleased that I said anything at all.

By the end of the day, I was already comfortable handling snakes (although I still don’t like waking them up when they are curled up fast asleep.... I imagine them being very angry with me...), I could handle the birds, one which LOVES me and the others who some don’t like to obey me right away, and I fell in love with a little squirrel glider named Chino :)

Tony seemed happy with my personality, said he would put in a good word for me, handed me three dictionaries of animals to study up on and sent me on my way. 

I think that is a good sign.

Extennnnnded!!

Some people you meet in hostels, know exactly what they are doing, where they are going and when. Some of us have no idea. So when people ask you about your plans, you say you are trying to figure it out and you might extend your stay a few more nights in the meantime. It becomes quite humorous when another day goes by and you get asked again... and then the moment comes when you leave the group momentarily to go to reception to book a couple more nights, and return to the conversation and just laugh and say “extennnnnded!!”

The first few times I extended, happened because of the sailing trip that I booked and then just enjoying hanging out with the group of friends I had made. Between job hunting, grocery trips, visits to the lagoon and the beach, getting angrily lectured at by a really strange Australian, and other random adventures, I have kept quite busy and simultaneously made myself quite at home at the hostel. We have trivia every night, which is kind of a must-do here. It can get quite intense, and it is just too entertaining to miss. Steve, our trivia host, is a complete crackup. 

Wondering what to do one afternoon, a handful of us were told to go hike up Mt. Whitsunday. Knowing that it was a 1km hike.... and also hearing that some people didn’t make it to the top.... we were all curious to know how a 1km hike could really be that difficult....

10 minutes into it, breathing heavy already, and with our calves feeling like they might explode, we realized just how steep the hill was that we were climbing, and realized it would be like that allllll the way to the top. 

Walking backwards for parts of it (literally), the English and the Americans (appropriately referred to as #TeamFreedom) made it to the top!! The top and beyond I might add. 1km+ hike completed!

Another night was dedicated to Jimmy since it was his 25th birthday! We decided to throw him a bbq burger party. I couldn’t help myself, I had to get some party hats (which those who were delegated one, proudly wore allllll night long) and especially a cake (one that I convinced Steve to carry out and start the “happy birthday” song at the start of trivia. 

Jimmy the birthday boy!

Awesome birthday accomplished :)

flash forward a few days... I was a bit bummed that my original group of friends had all moved on to other places. But I had decided to extend through the weekend (through Oct. 4th), in hopes of hearing back from some job prospects in Airlie and specifically hoping to hear back from the tour guide/ranger position I had managed to find a phone number for and called and got myself an impromptu phone interview for. 

Lucky for me, I got what I hoped for! The manager from Bungalow Bay on Magnetic Island called to offer me a trial day for Monday the 5th! Greyhound bus booked, I am traveling to Magnetic Island!!

Helloooo Airlie Beach!!

Well, I have been in Airlie Beach long enough now that I feel like I am a permanent resident at my hostel. It really hasn't been that long, but it's getting down to the last few of the original friends I made when I first got here. I came here and made friends right away (I swear someone should just pay me to be a social butterfly here...), and have gone out on a few adventures. The first morning, I had to make my way to Cannonvale (the next town over) to pick up my banking stuff from the post office. I was told that the easiest way was to just walk along the boardwalk. So that is exactly what I did, although, had I known it would take me well over an hour each way, I probably would have avoided going during the hottest part of the day... 

Granted, a hot walk just gives me all the more reason to stop and take photos along the way. 

So this is the boardwalk, that has now become a part of my daily morning run. Not a bad view :)

While in Cannonvale, I also went to the art store (the ONLY art store within about 3+hours driving distance from where I am - yes, I researched art supplies beforehand). Lets just say I about cried when I saw the exact same pack of paintbrushes that I usually buy for $5, sitting on the shelf for $34..... I won't even mention the heart attack inducing cost of the paint.... I miss you Michaels, and your 40% off coupons :(...

Airlie Beach is the jumping off point to the Whitsunday Islands, so it's a must to do some kind of sailing trip to get an up-close look. I opted for the 2 day 1 night trip. Good choice on my part, because sleeping on a sailboat was not the greatest sleep I have ever had in my life. We left bright and early in the morning and headed first for Whitehaven Beach. One of the top 3 beaches in the world. We anchored on the backside of the island, and from there, hiked up to the lookout point for the beach.... Get ready to be jealous ;)... I think walking down onto the beach might be the first time I have truly needed my sunglasses so far this trip, it was SO bright-white it was blinding. But it is GORGEOUS! The sand feels like flour... and it is perfectly clean. I don't think I even saw a single rock or shell in the sand. We walked out into the water, and just kept walking.... The stingrays would swim right up to you! Which was terrifying the first time when you didn't know what to expect, and you see a large dark blob in the water swimming towards you. Good thing I had some Brazilians and Europeans to sacrifice if I needed to get away ;)

The color of the water and the sand in outrageous!

Jealous yet? ;)

I met some pretty awesome people on the sailing trip. Chris (our go-pro camera man) and Gabriel, both from Brazil. Rebecca and Michael from Germany (there are ALOT of Germans here), and Manuela, my Swiss friend who looks to me to help her with some of her English, and who I also convinced to do the scuba-dive with me :). So after a not so comfortable sleep, I woke up bright and early the next morning and had my cup of tea up on the deck, watching the sunrise over the islands.... it's a terrible life isn't it?.... The first location we went to we met up with a scuba-diving boat and went on a morning dive. I don't know about anyone else, but I was quite entertained, watching our dive instructor giving us the talk about the basics.... knowing full well that besides Manuela and myself, the Chinese couple and the French couple didn't understand a WORD of English. It was quite funny to see our guide’s reaction in the end when he told me and Manuela NOT to nod in response to his next question, to see if the others would understand, without just copying us. Let’s just say, I’m actually quite impressed that he was confident enough to take them down on the dive.

This was taken in the beginning of the trip, but I actually DID sail the boat.... for quite a long time actually.... long enough that I was starting to wonder if I should be charging them by the hour... But in my chatty mood, I learned all kinds of stuff about sailing, and got the inside info about how to get their job ;) Being pro-active on my job hunt!

Add some more brightly colored alien-looking coral, fish and a few turtles to the list from our mid-day snorkeling at another beach, and it was time to head back. With a lack of wind half-way home, we stopped for a mid-afternoon swim. A few jumped in right away, but it wasn’t until the captain said he would buy a pitcher of beer for the person with the best belly-flop, that I jumped up and leaped off the boat with no hesitation. Bonus points for me! I don’t know how it looked, but judging by the reaction and how awesome it felt, it was nearly perfect! (and yes he did pay up at our boat after party. I tried to trade my beer for cider, but nobody approved, so I had to settle for a rum and coke). 

First night out dancing - check!