Australia - Day 5 - Whitewater World and the Glow Worms

24th December, 2008.

Today was a fantastic day for us.  (Although we spent far more money than we wanted to...but we had fun.)

First order of business:  A day at the water park, Whitewater World.  I thought I'd be all cool and bring my camera in the underwater housing to take on the water rides and get some action photos of David.  There was only one slight problem:  I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera after downloading yesterday's scuba pictures.  So after taking one picture, it told me the memory card was full.  Ug.  Operator error.  So much for being cool and all that.

But we had fun anyway.  We found a spot by the wave pool and set up our beach chairs then we were off to enjoy the water slides, etc.  Our favorite ride was called the BRO, or Blue-Ringed Octopus.  It was a water slide with eight different lanes with everybody racing down.  The line for this ride wasn't very long, so David and I did it over and over.  Finally I figured out I could give him a head start and catch him on the bottom part of the slide, yelling "David!" as I went past him.  Lots of fun.

We went back to the hotel for a shower and a nap before heading out for another adventure.  Devin booked us into a tour of the "Natural Bridge" area of Springbrook National Park to look at the Glow-worms.  (The Glow-worm isn't actually a worm.  It's the larval stage of a fly, Arachnocampa flava.)  A tour bus picked us up at the hotel for the 45-minute drive out to the park while our guide Tom gave us some history of the area and taught us some Aboriginal phrases.  (e.g. Jingay = Hello)  Once at the park, we donned ponchos and got torches.  (Flashlights, for you Americans reading this.) We walked down a trail into a cave that was COVERED in small glowing spots.  Since we didn't get to take flash photographs, I don't have any good pictures, but once I get back home I'll scan the tourist brochure pictures and add them here so you can see.  It was VERY COOL!  Seeing the glowing worms (although they're not really worms...) reminded me of night dives in Puget Sound with bioluminescence that would sparkle as you ran your hand through the water.  Words and pictures just don't do it justice.

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM.  Just in time for David to go to sleep in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there.  (Or something like that...)

Pictures to come...later...