Glass House Mountains!

Last Friday everyone started talking about going to hike the Glass House Mountains on Saturday. I had planned on working on spring break ("intra-semester break"- September 15-30th) plans, but on the bus tour I took during the first week here I had seen the mountains (which are really rhyolite and trachyte volcanic plugs, the cores of extinct volcanoes that formed 26-27 million years ago.... learned that from Wikipedia!) and really wanted to hike them. So I decided to go and was so pumped! We had to wake up early Saturday morning (well, 9am, which is early for me!) and we made our way to the bus by 10. There were 13 of us, and it was an awesome group of people! We took a bus and then a train and didn't know exactly where we were going, but it ended up working out. The first mountain we hiked was called Mount Beerburrum. I've done a decent amount of hiking in my life, but nothing could have prepared me for the hikes I was about to go on! The hike up Mount Beerburrum was SO steep. The pictures definitely don't do it justice (none of these photos do any justice, so you all need to just come visit me and I'll take you there to see it all for yourself!) The hiking path was made out of concrete, which was so different than the hikes I'm used to. I guess they had to make it out of concrete in order to prevent erosion because it was so steep. But anyways, we all had to take multiple stops on our way up to the top. I felt like I was in decent shape before that hike, but apparently I wasn't! When we finally got to the top it was SO worth it though! There was a viewing tower that we climbed the stairs up to, and then some of my friends climbed up this small building next to the tower. Some of us brought our lunches (PB&J on an English muffin for me!), so we sat and ate. Then we all just laid down and enjoyed the sunshine for about half an hour before hiking back down. The hike back down was just as tough as the hike up- I thought my knees were going to break haha! Once we got back to the bottom of the mountain we had about 45 minutes to kill before getting back on the train to go to another mountain, so we stopped by the general store to get snacks!

"Steep" is most definitely an understatement!

 There used to be a hospital on Mount Beerburrum, but it was only there for about 9 years

 It was so much steeper than it looks!

 The viewing tower!

 My crazy friends climbing the building

 Our whole group!

 My new friend

 Sarsaparilla (aka root beer- still can't pronounce the name)! Not as good as the kind I had at the bowling alley though!

 So many pretty flowers everywhere!

Then we got back on the train to hike the next mountain. Once again, we didn't know where we were going, so we kind of just walked around for awhile trying to figure out where to go. We walked through a cute neighborhood and found some people to ask. Finally we got to the mountain- Mount Ngungun (don't ask me how to pronounce it- absolutely no idea!). This hike was beautiful! There was a sign at the start of the hike saying to look out for koalas, which we were all excited about. Sadly, we didn't see any, but we passed by so many cool trees, so it was still awesome! Then we got to the really cool part of the hike. I'm not even sure how to explain it, but it was crazy! It was super steep and had lots of rocks and tree roots that we had to climb up. Then we finally got to the top. I was speechless. I have seen SO many extraordinarily beautiful views from mountains in my life (I mean, I go to App State, which is right off of the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway!), but I hadn't seen a view like this in my entire life. We were at the tippy top of the mountain, so we had a 360 degree view. We could see everything from the other Glass House Mountains to the sea. The pictures certainly don't do it justice, but I'm going to post a ton anyway!

 More flowers!

 There was a man selling locally grown bananas on the side of the road!

 We passed by a cute little school!

 On our way to the mountain!

 So many cool birds in this country!

 Trees in the neighborhood we walked through!

 See the picture of the koala towards the top of this sign? SO wish we had seen one! Chances are we walked past one but just didn't see it- they can be hard to spot!

 The super cool part of the hike!

 The cave we went in!

 Almost all of us went in there, a lot of people are just hidden in this picture

 SO worth the hike!

 We asked a woman to take our picture and she was SO nice and took a bunch of pictures from all different angles! 

 Not the entire group, but most of us!

 That's the ocean in the distance!

 The immature 4 year old in me thought this was funny

Once we started hiking back down the mountain we realized we didn't have much time until the next train, so we really booked it. We were so exhausted and did NOT feel like waiting another 2 hours or so to go back. Luckily, we caught the train, but then we had to wait in Landsborough, a tiny historical town, for an hour and a half. We were all SO hungry, so some people went to get a burger, but a few of us went to a tiny pizza place called Woodfire Pizza. Best. Decision. EVER. I had been craving pizza all day and it was SO scrumptious! I don't even know if it was just because I was so hungry, but either way it was amazing! Then we met up with everybody else. The little restaurant/store they were at had a bunch of "American imports" and proudly advertised them all. I bought a small glass bottle of Dr. Pepper (so excited, as always, to find it!). They even had Dr. Pepper barbecue sauce... what?!?! The store also had Hershey Cookies and Cream chocolate bars, which are probably my all-time favorite chocolate bars, but I didn't buy one because they were like $3 (regretting that decision now though haha!) On our walk back to the train we passed by a drive-thru liquor store (or as they call them here, bottleshop)- can't believe those even exist!

 Notice that I couldn't even resist eating a slice before I took the picture!

 I was so grossed out when I saw this, but then I read the package and saw that they weren't actually pea and carrot flavored! 

Drive-thru liquor store... really?!

As you can tell, it was an incredible day! I certainly slept well that night! 

This week has definitely been my most stressful week here. I had a paper due for my Animal Geographies class and it was really tough. Turning it in today gave me such a feeling of relief though, even though I don't think I did too great on it. Then I had an issue with an assignment for my Integrated Marine Systems class. Everything here is just so different than in the US and I'm still trying to get used to it. Professors in America tend to be much more helpful/clear/approachable than the ones here, or at least that's what it seems like to me. The professors here are great, don't get me wrong, it's just different.  I also have been working on spring break plans all week, which has been extremely stressful. I finally got my plane tickets though! My friend Amy and I are planning on spending about a week in the Whitsundays (apparently the most beautiful beaches in Australia!) at Airlie Beach, and then going to Cairns for about a week. We're planning on snorkeling, sailing, and exploring the different islands in the Whitsundays (along with laying out on the beaches, of course!), and then scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef (AHHHHHHHH SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!), and hopefully skydiving and bungy jumping in Cairns, but there's nothing set in stone yet, so we'll see! 

Tomorrow I leave for my 4 day surf trip in Byron Bay! SO super excited to learn how to surf (I really hope I can at least get up on the board)! The weather forecast is calling for rain- just my luck! It hasn't rained ONCE since we got here, and now when we really need it to be sunny, it's calling for rain. Cross your fingers for me that the forecast is wrong! Then Monday is my 21st birthday, and then Tuesday I leave for my Fraser Island field trip. So much to look forward to!!! :)

Miss everyone so so so so so so so much! Hope everything is going well for all of you! <3