Volunteer Trip: Mount Barney

Hello all!
So this past weekend was quite an adventure. I went on a volunteer trip to Mount Barney, which was one of the mountains in a large mountainous national park region in southeast Queensland. For those of you who don't already know, Queensland is one of the states of Australia, and it is the one in which I reside. So anyway, the weekend started off quite interestingly. There were eight students from AustraLearn on the trip. None of us knew what to expect, as they sent us very little information about what to expect of our weekend ahead. We were picked up at Bond Uni on Friday morning in a 4 x 4 by Kim, our tree-hugging, conservation loving, 8 week-pregnant guide for the weekend. From Bond we drove for about two hours, packed into the back of a Land Rover, until we hit a small town out in the middle of nowhere where we stopped to use the restroom and pick up groceries for the weekend. From there began the hour or so of the off-roading/ 4-wheel drive part of our trip. It was pretty crazy. (As I re-read my entry thus far, it seems as if I wasn't enjoying my weekend so let me just clarify that I was having a great time with all of the crazy adventerous aspects of the trip.) When we arrived at camp, we were greeted by Ben and Max, the owners of the land who were hilarious stereotypical Australian men who enjoy living the simple life, caring for their land, and speaking in almost incomprehensible Australian slang. The camp was WAYYY out in the middle of the mountains and it was so nice to get completely away from all sorts of modern technology and civilization. The camp was very simple: there were two bunks, one kitchen/dining room building, and two bath houses, complete with eco friendly composite toilets. Friday afternoon was spent helping Ben pick up logs in the forest in order to help prevent the spreading of forest fires. I should mention that out in the mountains we saw tons of kookaburras, which are the strangest, most feisty birds I've ever seen. While we were picking up logs, one of the logs split in half and out came crawling a gigantic scorpion. We were all circled around the scorpion, and within seconds of it appearing, a kookaburra comes flying down between all of us and devours it in seconds like a potato chip. (Side note: the kookaburras reminded me of my Grandma Irma and the song she used to sing to me about the kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree-- they actually were sitting in the gum trees!!) Friday night we all pitched in and helped cook a nice "barbie" (bbq), and then we built a bonfire and sat around drinking tea and getting to know one another. Saturday we drove to a different part of the mountains and helped pick moth vine, which is a species of an invasive weed. I was very proud of myself because I seemed to have an easier time than others identifying the weed.. some others had trouble distinguishing between the different plants, but i seemed to have a natural knack! =) Unfortunately I also got very familiar with the Nettle Plant, which is a stinging plant, and I personally got to experience the sting three separate times (how nice). After we finished picking the vines, we helped Ben pick up some loose rocks in the forest, which was another way that he helped to prevent the spreading of forest fires. Saturday night we all helped cook dinner again; this time a delicious pasta dinner. After dinner, we all took a hike through the woods (got plenty of ticks on us as well) and found a nice spot to sit and watch the sun set. Saturday night we had another bonfire, and did a good amount of star gazing. The stars that we could see were absolutely magnificent and almost surreal-- I've never seen such a clear view of space; it was so completely untouched by city lights because we were so far out in the wilderness. At night when it was time to sleep, it felt like it was approximately 0 degrees farenheit because we were higher up and not used to the colder temperatures, but luckily they had plenty of spare blankets, so I was able to sleep with three as well as in my hoodie. It was a really fun weekend-- so nice to get away from everything and experience the true Australian nature.
This week so far has been nice. Sunday and Monday nights were both just calm and relaxing. Tuesday night Steph and I decided to go out. We went to 360 Bar to see a friend of mine from the volunteer trip this weekend sing and play the guitar (please note Catie) and then we moseyed over to Bar CBD in Market Square and met up with some other friends for a few drinks before calling it a night. The rest of this week should be pretty fun- there's a couple parties planned for this weekend and I think we're planning on trying to make it over to the beach on Friday. Big news: I booked my trip to New Zealand!! I'm so excited. I'm going for two weeks!!! The first week I'll spend in Wellington with Di, and then from there I fly down to Christchurch and join a one-week tour of the south island. I'm doing the tour by myself and I'm actually extremely excited about it. The tour is specifically restricted for young adults and the travel agent said many people go alone and meet people on the way. I've never done a trip like that on my own and I can't wait to kind of force myself outside of my comfort zone a little bit and hopefully have a really great time and meet really great people.

That's all I've got for now! I love and miss everyone!
Arlyn