Time to Fly North

When I think of must-see destinations in Australia, there are several that come to mind.  But there is one place in particular that I knew I had to experience in order to be able to return to the United States in good conscience.  And that place is the Great Barrier Reef.

Last Thursday on ANZAC Day we made yet another trip to the Brisbane Airport, this time to head north to the tropical city of Cairns, home of the Great Barrier Reef.  Once again, we booked the ridiculously early flight in order to maximize time for exploration and adventure.  And when I say early, I mean we were settled in our hotel in Cairns in time to grab breakfast before it ended at 10:30.  With a two hour flight, you do the math.  It was an early morning.  But no worries, because after breakfast we planted our butts in the sand at the Palm Cove beach to relax for the afternoon and soak up some sun.  Beautiful!  You can pretend these are your legs:

 Thanks to Jess’s dad being a Hilton Gold Member, we scored a great deal on the executive floor of the fabulous Hilton hotel.  Thanks Mr. Neal!!  So after returning from the beach we enjoyed complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks (which were really just pre-paid, so we made sure to get our money’s worth!).  Compared to the other people in the executive lounge, which consisted mainly of middle aged couples on romantic getaways, the four of us uni girls stuck out like a sore thumb.  But did that bother us?  Not in the slightest.

While enjoying our dinner and drinks each evening, we witnessed one of the strangest things.  Every day at 5:30 PM sharp swarms of bats appeared in the skies, squawking and flying around everywhere.  They were so loud that if you were outside you had to yell to the person next to you just to be heard.  To top it off, this continued for a solid half hour, with the swarms getting bigger by the minute.  Never have I seen so many bats in my life, let alone at one time.  Crazy right?  

 

The next morning was another early one in order to make it to our first real adventure in Cairns.  After talking to many Australians, it became clear that I could not leave Cairns without doing this one thing.  Considering the world’s most magnificent reef was only kilometers away, you should be able to guess.  Think about it.

We boarded the boat equipped with plenty of sunscreen and motion sickness tablets (there would be no puking for us on this adventure at sea) and headed off to…(drumroll please)…SCUBA DIVE!  Due to an unfortunate booking fiasco and reluctance of my other friends to participate, I would be diving solo.  Which I thought I was fine with.  Until I actually got in the water.  If you know anything about me or have been following my blog, you know I am a pretty fearless person when it comes to adventure.  But never in my life have I experienced anything like scuba diving.  While I do have ribbons and certificates from completing swim lessons back in the day, this didn’t exactly prepare me to handle myself underwater for an extended period of time.  In Australia you can do introductory dives without having SCUBA certification, so before you can go down to any real depth there are a couple safety tests you have to master.  On the first go every bit of advice that had just been drilled into my head became a crazy mess and forgotten completely as the fear of not being able to breathe took over my mind.  Survival instinct I guess.  After a couple attempts I worked myself into a panicked mess and insisted on returning to the safety of the boat.  I sat on the upper deck, trying to function as a normal person again, and suddenly became filled with disappointment for not completing the dive. 

You know how when you were a kid and did something wrong, disappointment from your parents was a million times worse than them screaming at you for the whole neighborhood to hear?  Well I guess that works on a personal level.  I was so upset I didn’t dive!  Figuring snorkeling was the next best option, I went back to the lower deck, donned my snorkel and flippers, and jumped in the water.  One plus of this situation—seeing reef sharks swimming below me!  Too cool!

After a while it was time to head off to our second location on the reef, which was promised to be more beautiful and packed with marine life.  Aka—perfect place to give diving another go.  I was bound and determined.  Lucky for me, one of the more patient dive instructors led a “second chance” dive, so another girl and I suited up and hopped in the water again with the hopes of completing the dive.  And guess what.  I DID IT!  Constantly reminding myself to stay calm, breathe slowly, and equalize my ears, the dive was an epic success.  I saw some amazing things, most notably fluorescent colored parrotfish, a meter long sea clam that I was able to touch, and two squid that actually changed color to camouflage as they swam past us!  Once I returned to the surface and breathed fresh air again, I was filled with the greatest sense of accomplishment (just a bit more than the Nevis bungy, which made me feel pretty darn accomplished so this is saying a lot).  I felt like I just returned from a whole new world, which I actually kind of had!

 

The icing on the cake was when the instructors said that I had paid for two dives and since that technically counted as dive number one, they asked if I wanted to go right back down for dive number two.  Of course I was all over that.  So they refilled my oxygen tank and tossed me back in the water (well, not literally), this time with a camera, to do it all over again.  The first thing I saw once going underwater was a sea turtle, which I couldn’t get a good photo of, but was still awesome.  This time, instead of linking arms with the instructor the whole time, we were able to swim around on our own, which let me explore more things and control the depth at which I was swimming.  Guys, despite the rocky start, it was awesome and I would dive again in a heartbeat!

 

Another big attraction in Cairns is the rainforest, so guess what we did Saturday... We went to check it out!  We took a train through the mountains overlooking the rainforest until we reached the town of Kuranda, which is a quaint village full of Aboriginal markets and shops.  To all you Big Bang Theory fans out there, all I could think about the whole train ride was Sheldon and his love of trains…no shame.  Anyway, Kuranda was a great town to explore and purchase some Aboriginal products.  After that, we took the skyrail down the mountain, stopping along the way to walk through the forest for a bit.  The skyrail provided great aerial views of the rainforest, especially when we got one with a glass bottom.

The next day, some people wanted to bungy jump and do other activities that involved jumping from heights.  Deciding that I had my fair share of that kind of thrill for a bit, I decided to explore the Botanical Gardens.  There were so many beautiful tropical plants and flowers, especially palm trees which are one of my favorite things.  Seriously, I think my mood improves instantly once I am around palm trees.  So needless to say, it was a very happy day for me.  Look at this beauty!

I was in luck because that Sunday was the one Sunday out of the month that the markets came to the Botanical Gardens.  A girl’s day isn’t complete until she has done a bit of shopping, so of course I got my fix of browsing and made a few purchases.  After that, I did some hiking which not even Pitt’s cardiac hill prepared me for, but at least I was surrounded by nature and fresh air instead of ambulance sirens and car exhaust.  The hard work paid off because at the top of the hill was a beautiful view of Cairns and the International Airport, where I saw a few planes take off.  Unfortunately my camera died before I got there, so you will just have to take my word that the views were stunning.  The return trip was luckily all downhill, so I made my way back to the gardens and caught the bus back to the city in time to get to the airport and head back home to Brisbane.  All in all, it was another successful trip!

Until later, cheers!