Australia: Day 1 and 2

After arrival in the airport, we all exchanged our US dollars for Australian money, which is much more colorful and feels like plastic! I kinda didn’t want to spend it because it was so pretty and some of the coins had kangaroos on them.Yesterday we arrived in Townsville and took a ferry to Magnetic (Maggie) Island. We also had orientation and saw our first wallaby in our front yard! I can't upload many photos because the internet is extremely slow here, but I'll try and put up the best ones.








Today, we had mostly a free day to get settled and do what we wanted with our time. Most of us decided to go to the grocery store and then go on a hike to possibly see some koalas in their natural habitat. It was raining the entire day and we all decided to meet at noon to catch the bus to the trail head. It turned out that we missed the bus by 5 min so we had two options: wait an hour for the next one or hike 3 miles to the trail head. Half of us decided to do the 3 mile hike. Most strenuous and steepest hike I've ever encountered. Oh. my. lordy. Once we got to the trail head, it was easy hiking from there. Near the top, with no spottings of koala,  we decided to keep trekking and see the fort that was built during WWII. The view at the top was absolutely breathtaking. Once we had our fill at the top, we headed back down the trail and kept our eyes peeled for koalas. Then something amazing happened. Jared stopped us all and pointed to a tree in the distance. From afar it just looked like a enormous lump in a tree. Some Aussies were near us and we asked if that was a koala and they didn't think it was since it was so large. We used Charlie's binoculars and it was in fact a koala! It was a big boy koala. AND, it started moving and stroking the tree trunk when we were watching it. One of the coolest things ever, by far. Pictures below:

















Tomorrow we are hiking to Balding Bay (which is a clothing-optional beach). Should be interesting!