News from Noosa

So we arrived in Noosa very early, so early that we had to sit at a rest stop for an hour before anything opened. Around 7, we ate breakfast at a little restaurant in Eumundi, a little town right outside of Noosa, where we were going to spend the morning. At breakfast, we were introduced to the director of the Discover Abroad program who will also be our director in New Zealand. He lives in Noosa so he wanted to spend a few days with us to work on our assignment for Noosa.

Noosa is a very unique part of Australia. It is known because it is a World Heritage Area because it as a city strives to be sustainable and has been known to make choices against development. The noticeable things are that there are no traffic lights, parking spaces, and buildings are limited to 4 stories high. Our assignment for the next few days would be to observe Noosa for a few days to ultimately culminate into a debate where we would make a simulated decision about whether or not to put a marina close to the ocean that would boost the economy of the area, but could potentially damage the environment.

The first part of the assignment was to spend the morning at a market that’s open every Wednesday in Eumundi. We were to randomly survey people and ask them about Noosa and how they feel about its “sense of place”. It’s definitely a little awkward to just approach people, especially when we are very obviously American. However, out of the 8 people we asked to survey, only 2 said no. It was actually pretty interesting just talking to some of the locals and everyone was very friendly and had a lot to say. And then of course, they wanted to tell us all about every single one of their travels to the US. It was funny when they’d want to tell us their impressions of California or Seattle or Texas, and I’d kind of be thinking, “Yeah that couldn’t be any further from where I live and honestly, you probably have spent more time than I have.” But, it was still a fun experience and I was struck by how friendly everyone was.

Come noon, we were all very ready to be finished. Obviously, I didn’t sleep that well in a bus and I was ready to take a nap in a real bed. Before going to our accommodations, we stopped at the grocery store and were given an allowance for meals for the next few days. I was completely blown away by our accommodations. As a group, we had 4 beach house condos and of course, Ben and I had our own. We each had our own bedroom upstairs and the downstairs had a kitchen and living room and a patio that opened up to a swimming pool. It was definitely the nicest place we’ve stayed thus far, and I have a feeling there won’t be any places nicer. I spent the afternoon catching up on the schoolwork that I didn’t get to at the Gorge and also took a nice two-hour nap. We took it pretty easy the rest of the night and it was definitely nice to have a little break.

Then next morning, we woke up and went to class at Central Queensland University. It was only a satellite campus in an office building, so it kind of felt like I was going to class at the University of Phoenix by my house. We got a little more background on Noosa and we’re given our assignment for the debate. Everyone would be representing some party with a specific interest and would have to prepare a 2-minute speech about their agenda and would have to take questions for another 2 minutes. I along with three others was given the task of being a councilman where I would have to hear the presentations and ask questions to everyone. It may sound like I got the long end of the stick, but it was actually a little tougher because I had to know something about everything in preparation for the debate whereas everyone else had to just research their topic (don’t worry, I’m over it though).  Afterwards, we had a few hours off for the afternoon and had a cookout with the group for dinner by the pool. We hung out for a couple hours and then went out for our first time in quite some time at some club in Noosa. I probably would’ve had fun, but I think I was coming down with a stomach bug and left pretty early.

I woke up the next day feeling (at least better than everyone else who stayed out). We had more morning activities relating to our assignment where we were heard from a few Noosa stakeholders and went to Noosa National Park. As always though, it was raining and it kind of put a damper on things, so we were given the rest of the afternoon off. Everyone was still feeling pretty rough from the night before and we all had work to do for our debate, so no one really did anything the rest of the day.

The next morning, we woke up, cleaned up, had our debate, and got out of Noosa to head up to the Great Barrier Reef. We had a few-hour drive to a tiny airport where we would fly in a tiny plane out to Lady Elliot Island. The flight was only 40 minutes long and it was pretty cool because we got to fly low and could see the dark spots of coral in the water. As we flew into the island, an enormous rainbow was protruding from the water all the way into the clouds. It was definitely pretty amazing. But anyway, I’m going leave a cliffhanger ending here so I can let the suspense build as you scroll down the page to the next blog with more about Lady Elliot Island.

For some reason, I didn't take any pictures. So check back later once I steal some from other people.