Jake Mix
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Jake Mix is an agricultural business senior and Mustang News study abroad columnist.
The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of adventure. After finishing finals in what would’ve been week seven of winter quarter back home, my spring break began very prematurely. My first destination was Cairns in Queensland. Cairns is well-known for two things, namely its waterfalls and its tropical rainforests full of strange creatures. However, I was there for something else entirely: to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef.
I set out on a three-day liveaboard with Josh Heinicke, Joe Alarid and 30 other individuals from all over the world. While on the boat, we did only three things: dive, eat and sleep. We saw a lot of amazing things (including a family of clown fish, which the boat had named Nemo and Co.) and went on some incredible dives — my favorite of which was one of the night dives.
Night dives are pretty self-explanatory — scuba dives performed at night. You get to see a host of nocturnal critters that don’t come out during the day. Armed with just a little flashlight, Josh and I were set to explore by ourselves. I knew it was going to be a great experience when Josh entered the water before me and turned around, startled, and exclaimed, “I almost just jumped on a shark!” Sure enough, there were about three 5-foot grey reef sharks circling the water illuminated by the boat’s floodlights. The rest of the dive carried out in an equally eerie manner, with everything cast in total darkness except for the light cast by our torches, which only extended approximately 10 feet. Even without being able to see very much, Josh found a lionfish (a venomous type of scorpion fish), a big crab and a very strange worm that kept following our lights. After exploring for a little, we went back to admire the sharks before climbing aboard the boat.
Even though I’m not in a classroom anymore, I’m still learning a lot. Staying in hostels has given me a chance to meet people from all over the world and to learn about their cultures. I’ve also learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of. At this very moment, I’m sunbathing alone beneath the partly cloudy, yet still bright blue skies on a beautiful, secluded sandy beach on Waiheke Island, which is a 30-minute ferry ride from Auckland, New Zealand. Before leaving California, I was most nervous about traveling by myself, but now I find it’s been one the most enjoyable parts of my trip. If you were to ask me this morning, “Jake, what are you going to do today?” or, “Where are you going today?” my truthful response would have been, “I have no clue.”
Actually, that is pretty much how today started out. As I got out of my bed in a cramped 10-bunk hostel room in Auckland (where I didn’t know anyone until I arrived), one of my British roommates asked me those very questions. I told her I was just going to see where the day took me.
I wandered down to a café by the Auckland wharf and grabbed a muffin and coffee. That’s when I noticed a very long line of people getting ready to board a ferry. I walked over to the ticket office and asked where the ferry was going. The attendant excitedly informed me, “To Waiheke Island, of course!” I heard the name before (somebody in my hostel mentioned they wanted to go there), but I knew absolutely nothing else about it.
Since I didn’t have any concrete plans for the day, I thought, “What the hell?” and promptly paid for a ferry ticket. The ferry departed minutes after I boarded and I was beginning to feel spontaneous — and by that I mean I felt like I had no idea what I was going to do on the island.
When the ferry arrived at Waiheke Island, I noticed a sign advertising daily bike rentals. On the boat ride over, I had looked at a map, and decided biking seemed like a feasible way to get around since the island isn’t that big.
One minor setback was that even though the island wasn’t very expansive, it was quite hilly. I haven’t ridden a bike for months, so I tired fairly quickly. I did the only logical thing I to do when you’re exhausted and riding a bike around a foreign island: I pulled off at one of the island wineries. While I caught my breath and let my legs rest, I graciously paid the small fee to sample some of their fruity vintages. Wanting to be a responsible biker, I also treated myself to lunch there so as to let the effects of the early afternoon’s indulgences wear off.
It didn’t take long before I hopped back on the bike and rode around for an hour, eventually finding the beach I’m presently sitting on. Once again, I decided to take a break to enjoy the view and the refreshing water. It’s given me a chance to think back and reflect on all of my time abroad. I’ve learned so much from the people I met and the places I have been. I still have a few more weeks abroad before I head back to California, so I’m sure I’ll still experience plenty more, but I think the most important thing I’ve learned can be summed up by a quotation from Pixar’s “Up” — “adventure is out there!”