Long night into long day at Bruny Island

We had our first visiter a few weekends ago.  Alison, Lindsay's friend, came to visit us for a week.  She is currently living in Melbourne with her boyfriend who is playing on a basketball team similar to Lindsay's.  Anyways...Alison came down to visit.  She is a wonderful person and so easy to get along with.  She can talk to anyone and is just a very friendly person.  She joined us on Friday for Lindsay's game and then on Saturday we took her to Salamanca for the market.  At night we went to a fundraiser for the Chargers and we went and played trivia.  We named ourselves Team America (fitting) but didn't do very well.  At least we didn't come in last place but there were a lot of questions that had to do with Australia, so we didn't do very well on those.  After trivia most people headed back to our house and we began to party.  Here are a few pictures of us before we headed out.

We had plans to go on a Bruny Island cruise the next morning that started at 8:30/9, so we decided we would make it somewhat an early night and be home by at least 2, 2:30 the latest......yeah that didn't happen.  We didn't walk into our house until about 4:30, so giving us about 3 hours of sleep before we had to get up.  Let's just say it was not an easy morning for any of us.

Up we all got though and made our way to the dock.  Let's just say as soon as I got up I put my glasses on and didn't take them off for about 5 hours due to the light, headache and my bloodshot eyes.  We reached the dock and got into a van to start our tour.  We then got onto the ferry that takes you across to Bruny Island.  Here are a few pictures of the marina and then us girls ready to begin our adventure.

Once over to the other side we had to drive about 30min to get to our destination.  Once there we got out of the van and made our way inside for some tea and a muffin.  Both were needed and helped our bellies! We then made our way to the boats.  The 5 of us got to be in the front which I liked because I wanted to be able to see everything.  Here we are off on our adventure!

We started off looking at some of the rock formations and then made our way to some caves.  You can see how blue/green the water is but the pictures do not do justice to how clear and beautiful it looked.  The water is the Tasmanian Sea.

We were following the outside perimeter of Bruny Island.  The rock formation went up pretty high.  Here is a picture of it straight on and then one of me looking up as I leaned over the boat.  It was an incredible sight and as you can see a beautiful day.

Next we went through these rock formations and a pretty fast speed.  The drivers of the boat get really close to the rocks but clearly not close enough to harm us.  It was really cool and they went through it twice for us.

Here are some group photos of us.  I love the second one!  Oh yeah we had to wear those red jackets just in case we were to get wet.

Next we went to an underwater cave.  It just peeked out the top of the water so when the waves came through it sucked the water in and then when the water came back out it created a blow hole.  It was awesome and one of my favorite things on the cruise.

We continued on our way and looked at different formations of the island and then headed down to the southern tip of the island.  The ride down there was very rocky and it felt like we were on a roller coaster.  I loved it but Caila started feeling sick and some of the others didn't feel all that good.  Thank goodness they gave us sea sickness pills in the beginning of the ride, but I took them more for my hangover than for the ride! Ha!

Anyways, this is where we found the seals at the southern tip.  There were a bunch of them and they smelled bad.  Some were in the water and some were on the land.  Here they are the stinky things.

My favorite part of the trip was the end.  I have been dying to see dolphins the entire time I have been here and dolphins we saw.  At first they were near our boat, like right next to me and then they were in front of the other boat that traveled with us.  It was so exciting and it made my day!

As we traveled back we just stared at the open water and enjoyed the beautiful day that it was.  I couldn't help but think how lucky I am to be here.  It amazes me sometimes that this is where I live and this is the life that I am living.  I am on this amazing adventure that most people could or would never take.  I am a lucky lady and I am continually loving my time here!