One Fish – A Loyola Tradition

“One Fish Two Fish will be the absolute most unbelievable ten days of your life. Plus, it’s kind of a Loyola tradition.” I have had several friends study abroad at Loyola’s Monash program that have all uttered variations of this same statement to me at different times between the time they came home and I departed for Australia. So, naturally, upon arriving in Melbourne all but four of us wrote our names down on the list and dropped our life savings to embark on what we hoped would soon be the best ten days of our lives.

Our adventure began with waking up at 3:30am to catch the airport shuttle at 4:00am to arrive at the airport by 5:00am for our flight at 7:00am. I don’t actually even remember a second of our flight, due to the fact that I was the walking dead, except when I was startled awake when we touched down in Brisbane. We spent most of our time in Brisbane sleeping, relaxing and mentally preparing for the days ahead of us, except for the boys who went out to the bars along with one of the girls in our group. Upon arrival back to her room she fell off her top bunk onto her face, then proceeded to step on a broken mug. Basically, the 25 of us rolled up to our meeting place in the morning with what looked like a crack head amongst us. That girl would soon be the first to have to donate to the "Sin Tin" for arriving to spring break already battered.

Chappy, our tour guide that we also had in Sydney, would be the man responsible for providing us with the so-called "time of our lives" for the next ten days. He greeted us at the bus station and almost immediately handed us a blown up kangaroo. We were instructed to sign the kangaroo, graffiti it and brainstorm names because later that night would be the sacred “naming of the roo.”

Our first stop was at Steve Irwin’s National zoo where we immediately all flocked to the kangaroo exhibite where you can actually walk amongst the kangaroos, pet and feed them. After that, my dreams came true when I was handed a koala bear that easily resembled a little grumpy grandpa. The koala smelled pleasantly like eucalyptus and gripped on to my arms firmly as I became his new tree and home for the next couple minutes. 

The Irwins also put on a crocodile show a couple times a year and we were lucky enough to catch one. Steve Irwin’s son looks like a miniature clone of him and his daughter, Bindy, seems to be the next up and coming celebrity Irwin with a whole line of Bindy merchandise available in the gift shop.

In knowing that One Fish Two Fish is a "Loyola tradition," you go into the trip having a vague idea of what is in store, the activities you'll be taking part in and will even recognize some places you visit from having seen pictures in the past. As soon as we left the zoo and boarded the bus the goon bags began to be passed around. We arrived to our hostel where we were guided uphill through the winding jungle-like woods until finally the trees and vines parted revealing the huge sand dunes of Rainbow Beach. The dunes sloped sharply downwards and looked like a sand version of a half-pipe for skiing.

Upon reaching the top of the dunes we suddenly had a birds-eye view overlooking the entire town. The sun was huge and dominating the sky and sank into the horizon faster than quicksand, all the while blowing the sunset we saw in the outback out of the water. The sky was aflame and filled with the honey glow that colored the rooftops and water below as Bon Iver softly serenaded the scene. The sunset, mood and overall ambience were so powerful that a lot of us became completely overwhelmed with inexplicable emotion. At that moment I broke from all feelings of stress, ill will, and worries and put my spring break face on.

Because of our absolute defacing of the roo on the bus it now appeared to be of both sexes, so we decided on the name Hermapharoo at the naming of the roo that night at dinner. This kangaroo would stand as our mascot, icon, symbol of our trip and would be taken care of and looked after as a very important member of our group. We had sangria and headed down to the beach where we made a huge campfire and took a dip in the ocean which was brilliantly illuminated by the full moon. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the smartest move judging by the colossal waves that continuously kept taking group members down, however, everyone survived our first night.

On our second morning we all piled into ten-person off-roading ATVs after a delicious breakfast of pancakes that were both burnt and raw at the same time. The ATVs took us onto an open air ferry to Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, where they drove all through the forest and along the beach to take us to a huge fresh water lake. The island is named Fraser Island after Eliza Fraser who survived a ship wreck on the island and lived amongst the aboriginals. The water of the lake just about matched the sky in how blue it was but was also as clear as drinking water. We lounged in the warm lake and along the beach all day until we barbequed and boarded the bus for our overnight voyage north.

It also pains me to mention that our second day also marked the death of Hermapharoo. Three groups of 60 students left for One Fish Two Fish on three consecutive days, meaning we met up randomly at different points in the trip and there was always a sense of rivalry and minimal cross-group mingling. The heartless day one group seized and decapitated our trip mascot. We retaliated by slicing their roo into small pieces when we met up with them again two days later.