Calvin Synod Herald, 2005 (106. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-03-01 / 3-4. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 11 living organisms that live in the reef. After the presentation, we were taken to the hotel where we were staying. Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge was Steven s favorite part of the trip. He is pictured with his fellow People to People bridge-climbing mates. “This was literally the climb of my life!” After our night in Airlie Beach, we left the coast and set out on our journey toward the beginning of the outback. Before we arrived at our destination, we stopped and received a civic welcome from the Burdekin Shire Council. After we received the really nice civic welcome, we left for our farm stay. The Charters Towers Farm stay is a special treat to all People-to-People delegates. The farm we stayed on is a fully operational farm for nine months of the year, and for the other three, it is closed to just the People-to-People delegates. The property that we were on was completely huge. The owner owns 50,000 acres of land. He had owned more, but gave some of his land to his son, and he was talking about buying some more land in the future. Even though we were in the winter in Australia, the farm was really hot. It was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The first night we were introduced to the owners and we played capture the flag. It was really fun. When we woke up the next day, we had breakfast, and then we began our day as farmers. We were taught how to bushwalk, and how to hypnotize a chicken. We were shown how cows got tagged, how cows got taken care off, and how they got cleaned. We learned that working at a farm is no easy task and that it was even harder during the extremely hot summers in Australia. At night, we were shown how to crack a whip, and for the rest of the stay there, you could here the cracking of whips from people in our group. (I didn’t want to offend my hosts, or my delegation partners, so I did not tell them, that their whips are nowhere as good as the ones Gabe Csapó makes at the Hungarian Reformed Youth Camp in Laurelville, Pennsylvania. Just among ourselves though, they really sounded sickly compared to those made by Gabe.) It was good to get away from the city, and experience life as a farmer in the country. This was another stay that I really enjoyed. The next day we left the Charters Tower Farm stay to go to our last destination, Cairns. The first stop that we made was to Townsville. At Townsville we went to a wildlife sanctuary. This is where I held a koala bear. Our tour guide described the koalas as the softest animal that could kill you. Even though the koala bear looks really nice and safe, it is extremely dangerous out in the wild. After holding the koala bear, I got to hold a wombat, and then a snake. There were a lot of kangaroos at the sanctuary walking around freely. One of the kangaroos stopped directly in front of where I was sitting, and it let me pet it for a while. This was the closest that I have ever been to a kangaroo. I also held a baby crocodile for the second time of the trip, and we were shown the crocodiles that were at the wildlife sanctuary. Right before we arrived at Cairns, we went through the wettest place in Australia, Tully. Our tour guide said that we had the lucky opportunity to see Tully while it wasn’t raining. We finally arrived at Cairns late at night. We ate dinner and had free time until lights-out once arriving at the hotel. “The Australian wombat is calm, but kind of ugly, ’’said Steven. The next day we went to the great barrier reef. We were shown an instructional video on the boat before we were taken out to the reef. The first thing we did when we arrived was take a ride on a semi-submersible boat. We were able to look at fish that lived in the Coral Reef that passed by our boat. We saw a lot of different fish. The boat ride lasted about half an hour. The next thing we did was put on the flippers and the scuba diving equipment, and go snorkeling into the Coral Reef. It was a great experience. I enjoyed looking into the water and seeing the different fish that were around the Coral Reef. We spent the entire day in the Reef, and I was sorry that we had to leave. Our last day in Australia started with a ride on a ski lift type gondola into a part of the rainforest. I enjoyed the view as we kept going higher and higher with the lift. After we reached the top of the ski lift ride, we went on a different bus that took us to the village of Kuranda, which was deep in the rainforest. The
