Whales, Bush, sailing, and wallabies

Once again, I've had a blur of activities. Yesterday I was in Hervey Bay, famous for its closeness to Fraser Island (the worlds largest sand island that I went on that safari tour) and for whale watching. So after my adventure at Fraser Island, I had to go whale watching. After a 6:15am wake-up call, I quickly packed up my stuff, stored it at the hostel, boarded a bus to go to a boat to take us whale watching. I think I was expecting us to go to some special area where the whales hung out, but actually, it was us who were scouting for whales that were just hanging out in the ocean! Fortunately, we had luck! The humpback whales are pretty social and usually travel at least in pairs if not the whole family, so almost right away we saw a mom and her calf. The whales migrate north (to tropical climates like in Cairns, where I was), breed, and then slowly make there way back down to Antartica 'training' the calves as they go. Seeing whales in the wild is absolutely amazing - their size is outstanding. They usually are around 15 meters long and can way up to 80,000pounds, with one fin, ONE fin, weighing around 1.5 tons! It was awesome because we saw a whale breach (when they jump out of the water and show there white bellies) which was quite the spectacle. You should have heard the gasps and the "oh my!" in a million different languages. It was hard to take pictures because they are unpredictable of when they surface to breathe (they can hold their breaths up to 45 minutes), so it definitely takes a lot of patience and a camera perma aimed, which I wasn't too good at. So my picts are so-so. Teen whales are the most 'friendly' and can get pretty close to the boats and kind of play. We had a couple of whales 'wave' their fins at us, which was fun. So yea - whales are pretty darn cool I tell ya!

Long story short, I rushed back to my hostel to grab my things, had to wait a nerve-racking 20 minutes for a taxi, to get to the small Hervey Bay airport at 1:28, to check in at 1:30, and literally to depart at 1:55 for Sydney. Man, did I cut it close! They actually let me check in that late, and I wasn't the only one (a couple I did the safari came in after me, as well as some other people). So it was cool that they are sooo much more relaxed with rules, and security for that matter. Phew though!

So our good 'ol president Bush has followed me to Sydney for this Big APEC meeting (Asia-Pacific Economic Conference). Bush, Putin, and 45 other world leaders are all here to talk about environmental issues and other stuff. The city is on TOTAL lock-down. The government made everyone take Friday off, they barricaded the city (seriously), have something like 300,000 police force out, and have spent that same amount on security. I'm kinda away from all this action, but its definitely affected things like trains, getting around, etc. Hearing about the US here is interesting, Bush and American are definitely the butt of a lot of jokes, but views are pretty similiar to the States as far as getting out of the Iraq war, etc. The protests have been pretty peaceful, but with this crazy security, it can't be otherwise - they are REALLY cracking down and arresting people who even joke about stuff.

Today the friend of a family friend I'm staying with invited us to go sailing with him! So although it was an early start yet again (I'm getting used to it!), we had a really nice relaxing day on the boat, with sun and a little showers. I just can't get over how pretty Sydney is and how its sooo nice to be surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. And of course hanging around architects, I'm appreciating the modern architecture around here as well! We stopped for lunch at this really cute camping ground/park/lake and there I saw a couple of wallabies just hanging out!! I was just thinking how I've been in Australia for 3 weeks and have yet to see a kangaroo, or their mini-version, the wallaby. So yea, finally! Here's a pict, and yes, we were that close and it was looking right at us (I was a little nervous):

Hmm.... I still have yet to see a koala outside a zoo or something, but i still have a couple of weeks left!

Okay, we are off to New Zealand tomorrow, and by the way, if you want to read another person's perspective on our travels, check out Lauren's website: http://lauren.travellerspoint.com.