Finding Nemo

We arrived in Cairns about 10 am after a bit of drama in the Gold Coast airport which ended in Lauren having to pay an additional $80 for her bag, but that was behind us and we were looking forward to an eventful week in Cairns. We arrived at the Beach House (the hostel we were staying at) and were greeted by the worst receptionists I have ever encounter, not only was the service bad at this hostel but it was also a 20 minute walk to the town center, if you ever in cairns DO NOT stay here. We dropped off our bags and went to grab a bite for lunch as our room was not ready yet. We had a delicious cheap lunch of fresh fish and chips. Around one pm we got to check into our room, which wasn't very nice and extremely hot, but we were grateful to have a four share all to ourselves. Needless to say we didn't spend long in our room and headed off to the lagoon, which we had heard from other travelers was where everyone hung out during the day. We were a bit confused how people could swim in the lagoon because you can't go in the beaches there because there are crocodiles. We soon (after a 20 min walk) learned that people can swim in the lagoon because it is not a lagoon at all but rather a chlorinated pool surrounded by grass. Regardless we still had an enjoyable afternoon lounging by the "lagoon" and reading. We headed back to our hostel to get changed for dinner, which was included in our travel package while in Cairns. You would think that by now after constantly being disspaointed by things that are free I would have lower expectations, but once again I was dissapointed by the gelatin consistency of my free curry. That was the first and last time we took advantage of our free meal. Cairns is notorious for being a party spot for backpackers, but we had a low key evening and were in bed early because the next day we were going out to the Great Barrier Reef to dive.

For our dive we had to be at the pier at 7 am so we were up bright and early, but we were all pretty excited. We went out to the reef with the company Passions of Paradise and I strongly reccommend this company to anyone looking to spend the day on the reef. There were only about 50 passangers on board (some boats take 200) and the day included a great lunch buffet. Lindsay and Lauren aren't dive certified but Passions offers an introductory dive to non divers so they had the opportunity to have the dive experience on the reef. I actually can't believe they can legally do this. I was shocked that on the entire boat only three of the passangers including myself were dive certified, but I was actually really glad because there were only four people total (including the dive master) that went out with my group. We had brand new equipment that was only a week old and they gave us wet suilts, unfortunately only shorty suits and I ofcourse got stung on my arms and legs where I had exposed skin. We got to do to different dives at tw o different sights and both were breathtaking and unbelievable. My group of the certified divers got taken from the large boat where everyone was diving and snorkeling to a separate location in a little motor boat, and the entire time we were under the water we didn't see another person. What I found to be the most spectacular part of diving on the GB reef were the huge coral shelfs, I just haven't seen this diving in Florida. On the first dive we swam through cave like crevases in the coral and saw a sea turtle, the first dive was about 40 mins then it was back on the boat for lunch and to travel to our next dive location. I was happy to reunite with Lindsay and Lauren and so happy they had a good experience diving, even so much that I think they are considering getting certified. Lauren decided that she would do a second dive but Lindsay was happy snorkel the reef and take some photos. The part of the reef we were on was shallow enough that Lindsay could pretty much see everything without having to swim deep at all. The second location we went to was pretty cool because the boat we were on has special liscence to dive there so there was not a single other boat in sight. On the second dive I got to see a sting ray which was one of the things I was hoping to see. I didn't see a shark and believe it or not I was kind of hoping I would. Back on the boat on the way back to Cairns we saw another sea turtle and a dolphin.

I don't remember what we did for dinner that night, but we did get dressed to go out for the night but all ended up falling asleep by 10 pm which honestly was for the better since we had to catch a shuttle to Cape Tribulation (the rainforest) at 7:30 am. Cairns was surprisingly a much nicer city than I had anticipated and I am actually looking forward to the two nights we will spending there when we get back from the Cape.

Cheers,
Laura