Day 8: Scenic Hinterland Tour (Last day for reflections)

Msg from the teachers:
Parents, please take note that this will be our last day of reflections as we will be checking out of the hotel tomorrow morning and will not be able to have internet access by then.

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Today we went for a scenic hinterland tour and our coach captain was a  friendly japanese guy. He was very accomodating as he brought us to surfer's paradise even though it was not part of the itinerary. We were not allowed to get down because at this point in time, the "schoolies" were around. Schoolies refer to students who have just graduated from high school and they are free to roam around. They converge in surfers' paradise and may be rather messy and chaotic if we do get down. So we just passed by the beach in the bus and admire the waves from the bus.

Amazingly the waves were very large and it could be dangerous for swimming due to the large waves. In addition, the guide told us about the story of him spotting a great white shark in the waters along surfer' paradise. Swimming areas along surfers paradise is stipulated by a red and yellow flag.

We also went along the border of Queensland and New South Wales. We could tell the difference from one side and the other by the road signs - in Queensland, pedesterian crossings were clearly marked while in NSW, it was rather unclear. We also went to Point Danger - where Captain Cook (founder of Australia) noted that this position along the coast was dangerous due to the rocks and positioned a lighthouse to mark the position to alert approaching ships.

We then proceeded to Tropical Fruit World where we were given a chance to taste different types of tropical fruits like exotic dragonfruit (red and yellow varieties); black, white and yellow sapote; star apples and bananas. Yellow sapotes tasted like sweet potatoes or pumpkins, while black sapotes tasted like chocolates. Star apples tasted like our local chiku! We bought a whole lot of stuff like macadamia nuts, fruit jams (like mango and mulberries) and dried fruits! We were told about the natural benefits of the various types of fruits - and that Papayas have superb healing properties beside just clearing our bowels.

From there, we went on to the Springbrook National Park - a subtropical rainforest where we saw the Natural Bridge. We were also told that there are glow worms in Springbrook National Park - but the population of glow worms are decreasing at an alarming rate because of human activities. Humans smoke, and deforestation caused the glow worms to decrease.

What's more, the guide told us about the identify milk cows and beef cows as we pass by herds of cows in our bus. Milk cows don't have their calves with them while beef cows are allowed to have their calves with them.

We also went to see Antartic Breech Trees and a waterfall.

Unfortunately, internet connection is running out. We can't elaborate more... we will update later when we get back...

More photos will be added later!