WE FOUND NEMO!!!!!

Classes were over, exams were over and people were leaving to go home. But going home wasn’t really an option for us. Jessie, Scott, Miles and I hopped on a plane and we were off to Cairns. We got there in the evening and went straight to our hostel, Gilligans. Gilligans has a club/bar next to the hostel and there was a line of about 100 people! We were tired from travelling so just went straight up to our room. Although, our room was right next to the bar it was nice and quiet and we were asleep before we knew it.

The Lagoon

Cairns is an interesting town. It is almost purely a vacation town and there’s honestly not a lot to do. But that was fine with us! After two weeks of studying and exams we were ready for a break. It was hot and sunny so we just took it easy, walking around, doing some window shopping, and hanging out at the lagoon and Gilligans pool. Although Cairns is on the coast, you can’t go in the water because of crocodiles and jellyfish. But that was fine with us – we had a lagoon and a pool! There’s a night market that we checked out and found all sorts of wacky Australian things.

But we weren’t really in Cairns to just walk around and sit at a pool. We were there to go to the Great Barrier Reef. We woke up nice and early and walked down to the terminal where we met our boat to bring us to the Reef. As we walked onto the boat we were given a mask and a pair of flippers. We were given a quick briefing about how the day would go and then we got to lie up on the top deck soaking up the sun and looking at the beautiful blue water in front of us. Finally we were called up to a small room to get a briefing on scuba diving. It was a small room with a lot of people and it was really hot. We were given the low down on how our dive would go, safety tips and different hand movements. I missed about ¾ of that talk because I thought I was going to throw up but it all turned out ok and we were back in the fresh air in no time.

When it was time for our dive we were jittery with excitement! We had our really attractive blue sting-suits on (they even had hand covers that looked like mittens!) and we were ready to see life underwater. We sat town and had our tanks put on us – I had no idea how heavy they’d be!!! It took a couple of tries before I could actually stand up! We were in the water pretty fast so we didn’t have to stand too long with the heavy weight of our tanks. Before we really went down we had to practice a couple of safety things. First getting into the water is weird – it is not natural to breathe underwater and it was a little disconcerting but you just have to keep telling yourself to breath normally and eventually it doesn’t seem so strange. Before we knew it we were ready to explore!

Note: drink a lot of water before you go scuba diving – its thirsty work!!

The underwater life on the Great Barrier Reef is incredible! It’s so bright and colorful – fish almost seem neon they’re so bright! We touched a giant clam that felt silky and clamped almost shut when you touched it. It was incredible. We went down about 8 meters and just took in all the sights. It’s almost hard to describe because it’s like nothing I’ve never seen before and there was so much going on! Good thing we rented an underwater camera!

Note: if you ever go scuba diving – rent an underwater camera. They’re priceless!

Before we knew it we had resurfaced on the water – time flies when you’re having fun! After a very long drink of water we agreed that we hadn’t had enough of exploring so we jumped back in for some snorkeling. The reef is huge and although we couldn’t see all the animals that lie on the bottom of the Reef we saw fish everywhere! But that was only our first snorkeling spot.

 They called us back onto the boat where we had a delicious Aussie BBQ – no a sausage sizzle, thank goodness! As soon as the boat stopped at our next spot we jumped right in! This time we were at a shallower spot on the Reef – we were so close as some points that I was afraid of getting to close and cutting my leg on the Reef! But we could touch it easily. Before we got into the water though they threw some fish food off the boat and hundreds of fish came up to the boat. It was amazing. It was hard not to touch them. After playing around for what seemed like not enough time it was time to leave. None of us wanted to but at least we had pictures to look forward to!

Scuba diving is probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done in my life. I told Jessie that until I got heli-skiing, it is the most amazing thing. Jessie and I decided that as soon as we got home we’d look into getting certified. We learnt from some of roommates in the hostel that Fiji is supposed to be absolutely incredible for scuba diving. So my goal is to get certified and go scuba diving in Fiji within the next 10 years. I would encourage anyone to go scuba diving – it is a little strange but you get used to it and you can see the most incredible colors and sights!