Tags
adventure, adventures, Australia, Australian weather, beach, bucket list, cabin, college, comedy, friends, fun, lucky, pub, quokka, rottnest, rotto, volunteer, weekend away
So as most of you will know I spent the past weekend at Rottnest! I signed up to volunteer over in Rotto planting trees and such and in return I got to spend three days and two nights there for only 35$. To put this in perspective the ferry alone is around 70$… Not to mention the two nights accommodation.
so I signed up at the start of semester but there was only fifteen places for Notre dame students and about thirty people applied so I had all fingers and toes crossed and success I was picked! And it came at an amazing time too! I had a double essay week and then at that weekend I would be heading to rotto where in theory I could relax after my stressful double essay week!
so upon finishing and handing in my essays I got my bag ready and was set to go to rotto! I checked the weather forecast and just my luck rain was scheduled! So I packed for cold weather with only bringing jeans and long pants! No shorts or my swimming stuff cause it was. Want to rain and be cold! After my lecture on the Friday I went to buy my motion sickness tablets and some food to bring! I did debate brining my five dollar bottle of wine over but as I didn’t know anyone that was going over I didn’t want to bring wine and people be all judging cause we were volunteering not there to drink. So I opted against it and lucky I did cause the queue in the chemist was super long and I just about had time to get food and run to collect my ferry ticket!
after a very, very bumpy ferry ride over I set off to find my cabin and hopeful befriend my cabin mates! Upon arriving the keys were in the door which meant I was the first to arrive! This was a good thing cause I got pick of the beds! I picked a bottom bunk right beside the heater and away from the door! No more sketchy shack for me! Oh I should say that we were staying in a different part of the island as well! So once I was settled in I set off to explore the island a bit before it got dark! I got some pretty pictures and then headed back to the cabin. I left the door open to let some air in and began to fill out a form for Trish(the coordinator). I got uo and closed the door and then as I was filling out this form I could see movement through my hair. Thinking it was just my hair I was like meh until I moved my hair behind my shoulder and seen there was a thing in the room with me! It’s okay it wasn’t a rat but a quokka! The happiest animal in the world so I breathed a sigh of relief! I mean one of my goals while I was back in rotto was to get a quokka selfie this was my chance! So slowly making my way toward him(before I kicked him out of the cabin) so I tried to get a selfie but he kept moving way to quickly! So I decided enough was enough and I was getting him out of the cabin! I opened the door and tried to usher him out to no avail. I tried to like brush him out but that didn’t work so I know we aren’t meant to feed them human food but I had to get him out of the room! So I got a cracker and enticed him out of the room! Success!! Apart from before I could close the door he snuck back in and hid under one of the beds……. Out came another cracker and this time I made sure to bring him far away and closed the door before he could get back in!
I spent some time outside with the quokka getting some pictures, but he moved to quickly so most came out blurry. I sat on the floor attempting once more for my quokka selfie but he kept trying to climb up on me and even attempted to sniff/eat my hair! I was done, I no longer wanted a quokka selfie! But I then had to sneak back into the room before he could which I managed to do! Luckily cause I didn’t want to give him anymore of my crackers!
it got dark really quick so I made myself some dinner. I was then wondering where my cabin mates where! I thought they had got lost! After having my pasta, which I had to cook in a covered bowl with boiling water cause the hot plate wasn’t working! Anyway I went over to Trish’s cabin to give her my form and found out she had gone down to collect them at the ferry that the had gotten the later one cause of uni work! So I wouldn’t be by myself for long! After chatting to these guys for a while I headed back to the cabin!but not after I had been told to keep the door closed cause quokkas could get in(oops I thought) and also was told not to pet them cause they carried salmonella………
after about ten minutes my cabin mates arrived! After introductions and deciding what to do cause they couldn’t explore in the dark and everywhere was closed! We settled on heading to the pub cause two of the girls wanted chips! So after consulting my map I knew where we were heading. Walking to the pub was a different story cause there is minimal street lights and quokkas look like giant rats in the dark…. Who like to run out in front of you….. I think we scared some away from screaming…..
when we got to the pub we found out they were doing a comedy night and would have to pay ten dollars to get in! We eventually were allowed in cause we had thirty minutes before it was starting so time to get our “grub and get out” direct quote from the bouncer, such a lovely gentlemen! When we were nearly finished the chips a guy(the person who set up this comedy night) came over and asked us to stay for the comedy night and that we wouldn’t have to pay the ten dollars. So we were like meh we got nothing else to do…..
BIG MISTAKE! The people were not funny at all! One did racist jokes and jokes about suburbs in australia (which we obviously didn’t get) and another had the most boring monotonous voice and his “jokes” was just describing what he did during the week….. Finally someone semi funny got on and we thought things were looking up! Until the guy telling the racist jokes kept coming on and playing “funny songs” between the eh acts and we were like ugh what have we gotten ourselves into! The last guy we seen was hilarious! So we decided to leave on a high note and get out quick! But cause there wasn’t that many people as we stood up (all five of us) they were like oh there is another performer etc etc we were like no we have to go etc. worst decision ever!
back to the cabin we went and chatted for a while before going to bed cause we were up early in the morning! Il do another post soon about what we did! Friday was a free day so we had no work but Saturday we were working from 9 until 3:30 so a long day of planting trees! Sorry for the uber long post but rotto is so amazing I love it!