I just got back from Lizard Island Research Station, a marine research center on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. We left 2 weeks ago and had to fly in small, 20-person planes to get there - very exciting. We stayed in two of the research houses, each about a 30 second walk from the beach. The beach was beautiful, with some of the clearest, bluest water I've ever seen (it reminded me of Hawaii in that way).

At times it definitely felt like family vacation - what with the beautiful place we were at (and there was a really fancy resort around the corner, some say $1500 a night per person, and people like Tiger Woods go there to vacation) and Tony brought his family, so we had a 2-year-ol and 4-year-old running around all the time, starting at 5 am. But it definitely was not vacation, what with the busy work-filled schedule we had: breakfast at 7am, morning lecture, morning snorkel, lunch, afternoon lecture, afternoon snorkel, dinner, sometimes a night lecture, and homework. I definitely slept there more than I have any other night this trip.

The morning snorkels were all at the same site - Watson's Bay, a reef on the west side of the island sheltered from the southeasterly trade winds. That's where we did our marine research projects, collecting data every morning of the trip for about 2 hours a day. I studied goatfish, elongated fish with a pair of barbells on their chin that they use to dig up the ground while foraging. It was really interesting to follow individual fish and study their behavior, getting to learn many of the goatfish species as well as the fish that they interact with. Having the project definitely helped me focus my learning because otherwise there were way too many fish to learn to identify them all (which our crazy Irish lecturer, Paddy, tried to make us do using only scientific names!).

The afternoon snorkels were always for fun, or as Paddy always said, "for crack," and they were fantastic! It took me a few days to get comfortable in the water with all the snorkel gear, but once I did, I was diving to the bottom to get a better look at everything. We saw so many brightly colored fish that I can't even begin to name them all, and some places really did look like the reef pictures you see on postcards. I also saw a white-tipped shark, a manta ray, a few sea turtles, lots of sting rays (including a mating pair), starfish, and sea cucumbers. The coral was beautiful as well - many different shapes and colors. Some of the soft corals you can touch and make change color because all the little coral animals (polyps) crawl deep into the coral so it turns white - really fun to watch.

There was one day when we did not do two snorkels, and that's because we took the afternoon to climb up to Cook's Point, the highest point on the highlight where Captain Cook looked from when exploring to Australia. It was a fairly short hike (about 1 hour up), and some of the trail was very steep and included some huge rock boulders you had to scramble up. Once at the top, we had a spectacular view of the entire island (it's not that big) and the ocean and reefs off the coast. The other best sights were the sunsets, just sitting at the beach or hopping in the water while watching the sky turn beautiful colors. I've never seen such great sunsets or seen the sun fall so quickly.

One of the final highlights of the trip was the flight back to Cairns. We had two planes again, but one was tiny - only 5 passengers and lots of luggage. I ended up on that one, and the pilot invited me to sit in the co-pilot seat (he didn't have a co-pilot), and then he let me fly the plane! It was so cool! He did the take-off, then I got to steer during the ascent, we cruised during the flight, then I steered the descent and kind of helped with landing (I got a little scared and the winds picked up, so he took over the controls). It was completely safe because we each had a controller and they were connected (kind of like a drivers ed car), so if something wasn't quite right he could take over immediately. He also only let me steer, I didn't control anything else, but that seems like the most fun part anyway. When I first started, he had me test out the controls, so I dipped the plane, and my friend in the back freaked out because she thought it was accidental. At the end of the flight, however, all the boys were saying how they wished I had dipped it more. Anyway, it was a great end to a wonderful 10-day trip.

Now we're back in Cairns for a week finishing up final papers, projects, and exams. On Sunday, I fly down to Brisbane where I'll be working at the Australia Wildlife Hospital for my independent study project (ISP) for the month of November. No one else from the group will be in the Brisbane area. It'll be strange to be away from them after living with them for the past 2 months, but I'm excited to meet new people and hopefully more Aussies. My project will most like be a study on koalas because that's their focus animal, but I have to wait and see which animals are there when I get there. Back to my paper writing, and I'll update again from Brisbane!