We left early Friday morning and got on kind of a sketchy old bus. I decided to take my medicine late morning instead of first thing so that I didn't have to wake up super early... but that was a horrible idea because I got a horrendous sinus headache from the weather and bus ride that lasted the entire day. We spent about 5 hours on the bus, but made a few stops for lunch (at a pretty cool beach with a jetty) and a mine site (where they mine minerals and do a great job restoring the land afterwards or something-- I was kind of half unconscious and didn't really pay any attention). We spent the evening hanging out at the hostel, which was pretty nice. I fell asleep until dinner, which was delicious BBQ food. They had wine and beer for everyone, and I found it interesting / kind of funny that on a school trip we are given alcohol. I went to bed around 945 because although I was feeling quite a bit better at that point, I definitely wasn't completely recovered.
I woke up early Saturday morning refreshed and excited for an awesome day. I took my medicine and hung out stretching and such for like an hour waiting for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed out for a Bush Tucker tour. We walked along a beautiful beach that is famous for surfing to the site where we got in our canoes. We then got in 6 person canoes and paddled down the river. My group had some issues getting started, we were a little slow, but we got the hang of it. The guide told us a lot about the history of the area, which was pretty interesting. We stopped at this one part with these awesome looking trees. He peeled off the bark and it was called paper bark and it was really soft. And we tried some of the plants and he
told us what everything was for-- some of it for when your sick or some of it was antiseptic and used as soap and such. Learning about the Aboriginals is really interesting because all the stuff in nature stuff seem genius, just lots of little things you'd never know. Then we paddled some more past the Bussel house (people that were important in the area in the past) and to a cliff with caves. We walked through an area with lots of tulips that looks like a fairy tale and up the cliff. The guide pointed out lots of flowers, and interesting plants and stuff. The view of the river from the top of the cliff was pretty amazing. After that, we had a traditional bush tucker lunch. We had different meats-- kangaroo, emu and turkey with lots of different sauces made from plants that the Aboriginals used. The sandwiches were very delicious, kangaroo and emu meat is very good! Next, we went into a cave, which was pretty cool
at the time. They forgot "torches" (flashlights), so it was dark, and we climbed through this tiny little hole that was pitch dark. It was fun but so hard to navigate through-- it was like a maze because you could go the wrong way and have to turn around, but you couldn't see where you were going and you had to crawl. Haha, definitely would have been wicked scary if I hadn't been with a bunch of others. We found out later that the site was apparently sacred, and the tour we went on was controversial, so now I feel kind of bad that we were there. After the caves, we raced back to the start. My team didn't do so well, we got pushed into the side by another boat, but oh well, was quite fun anyway.
Next up was horseback riding. My horse's name was Sausage, Saucy for short, haha, she was a good horse. The ride was nice, the horses just followed each other through the trail in the bush. At the end, we went to the fenced area and tried some trotting and cantering. Trotting was good, I got the up/down motion pretty well, but I was having some issues cantering. I kept getting a little scared when Sausage would go too fast, but I think I finally got it by the end. Next, the other half of the kids went and we talked to the polo player, which was really cool-- he was a really impressive rider. Then we had some wine and cheese and hung out around the fire for a bit and reeelaxed.The rest of Saturday was pretty chill. We had a pretty amazing dinner with lots of great meat and potatoes. I love meals on these trips, such a great change from the blah Tommie food. We sat there forever telling jokes, was a pretty amusing meal. And then bed very early for everyone.
On Sunday I was up at 530 because we were on the road at 630 to head to surfing. We did some drills on the beach and then headed into the water. For my first wave, the instructor told me what to do and kind of gave my board a little push and I got up for a few seconds. I was super excited and that pumped me up for the rest of the time. It was such a blast, I now love surfing. Though one of my favorite parts was paddling out into a wave and doing girl push-ups over waves. I also loved riding waves in and not standing up. But the actual surfing part was amazing too, of course.
The rest of the day was pretty good as well. I walked around town a bit and got some bread at the bakery, mmm bread. Next was a wine tour. We toured around a vineyard and tried some different wines as we learned about them. I learned that expensive wines don't necessary taste better, and the cork is the most changing thing in the wine industry. Then it was on the bus to go to an Aboriginal thing, which was pretty cool with learning about different 
plants and weapons and other Aboriginal culture stuff. And then we went a little further north to a beach to learn about why it should be "saved", but that was pretty superficial and I couldn't really hear what she was saying. The beach was really awesome though, crazy waves and lots of different shades of blue in the water. After that, we had lots more time on the bus. I sat in the front and stared at the road so as to avoid another insane headache like on Friday, and I succeeded, but I was quite bored and had issues staying awake.So all in all, amazing weekend. Yay for canoeing, horseback riding, surfing and wine tasting. I love Australia.
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