Lifethrumylense

As the title of this post would suggest, I went on another Queensland trip and it was just as welcoming as the first. Queensland always reminds me a little bit of home but it also has a uniqueness that makes it really exciting to explore. It gets a few more brownie points in my book as well because the weather is mostly amazing. Shout out again to my stepbrother for choosing a place closer to the equator to live. I love Hobart and the cold doesn’t bother me too much but it’s nice to be warm sometimes. I also got to swim at the beach which I never do in Tassie because it’s too cold. I was a little scared because I could actually see jellyfish in the water around me but my need to be in the ocean was stronger than my fear of sea creatures that day. This trip, I stayed for about a week and honesty, I feel like my first trip was more exciting. Maybe it was because there were so many activities packed into the three days and I just never came down from the serotonin high. Either way, I still enjoyed myself but the last trip was one for the books. Literally…. it’s one of the most filled pages in my scrapbook. This trip, we did do a few activities and I actually took photos this time, so let’s get into the details.

The first day was more of a getting acquainted day. Nothing too exciting happened and I spent most of the day just appreciating the view from my room and walking around outside. I had stayed in the same area last trip, so it wasn’t completely new to me but it was nice to have a look around this particular stretch in Maroochydore. Later on, that day, I went to diner with my stepbrother and his friends. They’re all foodies, so the restaurants we go to never disappoint and I think this is a great time to talk about how good the food is in Queensland. There hasn’t been one place so far that hasn’t hit the spot. Dirty Moes, Burrito Bar, Miso Yum and Verona were the restaurants that stood out the most this trip. From Vietnamese to Italian, they were all amazing. Tens all across the board, I would definitely recommend. I was also vlogging this trip and trying to juggle taking photos for the blog so I may have forgotten to take photos of some of my meals but definitely check out my TikTok to see the ones I missed. Oops.

I did a number of activities this trip and I had an absolute blast during most of them. I didn’t take any photos at the aquarium (I forgot my phone and using my camera in big crowds makes me uncomfortable) but it wasn’t my favourite outing because it was pretty similar to the Sea World I went to in England. As an animal lover, it was great to see all of the animals but it didn’t have the same wow factor as seeing them for the first time in person in England. While I was excited to see the penguins as they are one of my favourites, nothing beats the experience of seeing them out in the wild, returning from their long day at sea. That experience is one I will cherish until my last breath and for me it’s just hard to top that and the feeling I had witnessing it. Especially, as a girl from a little island in the Caribbean, who would have thought that I’d ever get to see penguins with my own two eyes? Even though Australia has always been an option open to me, it just always felt so far to reach and actually being here now feels like a dream.

I went on the Aquaduck, which is a big truck? car? I don’t know, something with wheels that turns into a boat. That was an interesting experience, I wish we got to see more exciting things on the water like a dolphin or something of that nature but it was fun. Australia Zoo was another experience that felt far from my grasp. Growing up, I wasn’t the biggest Steve Irwin fan but I had so much respect for him and his mission of conservation. I always loved snakes and other ‘scary’ animals (exception of spiders) and I appreciated all that Steve did to help the public to understand that the animals we see as scary are just trying to live as much as we are (kill all spiders though). Seeing his handy work in person was a little bit of an out of body experience and it felt like a tv show crossover episode of random bits of my life in a Truman Show kind of experience. I was disappointed by the very sad looking Quokka. I had high hopes after seeing the selfie of Chris Hemsworth and the smiling Quokka. I don’t know what had my homie so down but he definitely was not in the mood for selfies. We visited two of the big things of Australia, the big pineapple and the big kangaroo. Very strange but a bucket list experience none the less. Which most of my experiences here have been so far. It has felt like just crossing things off of a summer bucket list that little me made a decade ago. I’m so grateful for the opportunity that has been given to me but I also can’t help the little overthinker in the back of my head.  

Something that has been on my mind recently is the concept of true love. What does that mean? What does it look like? How do we determine which love is true? Love has often been a hard topic for me to talk about. I honestly find it hard to believe that humans are capable of the kind of love we think we are. My favourite lit lecturer had no idea what she did when she introduced the theory of cathexis in my first-year poetry class. The concept that what we call love, is really just a reaction to others’ actions, made so much more sense to me than this mythical connection we have no control over. I’ve never experienced ‘love’ in that way, I’ve always been able to decide who I wanted in my space and who I didn’t. I’ve never felt this unexplainable attachment or connection ever in my life and I’ve always found it hard to believe that anything of that nature could really be true. What is the basis of a connection that has no foundation other than ‘it just happened one day’? I am by no means a loner or a hater but I think I just see the world a little differently. Maybe a little sadder but I’d like to say it’s a more realistic and less romantic perspective. I do think love exists, just not in ways others may see it, I see love in nature. The way animals take care of their environment, the way ecosystems depend on each organism involved and in the way the Saturn just exists way out there in the unknown. Each tiny bug has a purpose and even though we can’t see it, the wind blows as it pleases. While predators do exist in nature and their prey has to suffer, there’s always a balance. There are so many marine animals that eat various types of fish and yet none of them are the cause of overfishing. Nature is the purest form of love to me and the God of the Bible, creating it just fits together like puzzle pieces in my head. The way that everything is so intricately connected is like a love letter from God to the earth. The world that we live in now is honestly my worst nightmare. Where we pollute everything that is good and don’t care to know where the line is between greed and demand. I do think it’s beautiful to witness friendship and connection but I don’t think humans will ever come close to replicating the kind of love seen in nature. An unconditional expression of care and appreciation.

Every time I travel to a new place, I have this conversation in my head. What would the earth be like if humans followed the example of nature? What would we have built if we valued kindness more than money and status? I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to travel to the places I have but I often wish I could see what the world would look like without human intervention. I think the earth would be so beautiful if humans weren’t here to destroy it. I love that I get to experience nature every day and Tassie is such a special place because of the work that has gone into protecting the wildlife here but if protecting it meant I never got to see it, I’d be so fine what that. It’s hard sometimes to lessen our impact on the earth as individuals but protecting our environment can start with something as little as making sure you pick up your trash. So, look after yourself and your environment, love exist there as God intended it to.

Just a girl and her camera