One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

One fish

Two fish

Red fish

Blue Fish

Cairns! 

Ready to go!

Scott, Sonya, Miles, and me

One of the coolest things that I have ever done is scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. A few days after final exams ended Sonya, Miles, Scott and I flew to Cairns for scuba and snorkeling adventures. We rented an underwater camera to document the whole thing. Our trip went out in the morning and started with some sun baking out on the top of the boat. A short way into the boat ride they called us all inside for the scuba briefing. It was miserably hot and crowded in the small room where they talked to us. I thought poor Sonya was going to yak. They won’t over the basic rules and regulations for scuba diving and then split us up into groups to go into the water. The instructors took us down in groups of four, which was perfect! After a little manipulation, the four of us got to go in the same group.

            Since none of us are scuba certified we did an introductory dive, which meant that we were only allowed to go as deep as 8 meters and had to be with the instructor the entire time. It may sound like it is not as fun as being certified and having more freedom under the water, but it was awesome! It was a fantastic way to try it out without having to pay a few hundred bucks to get certified. So when it was our group’s turn, we suited up in sting suits (it was jelly fish season) and scuba gear and jumped in the water. We submerged just at the end of the boat to practice clearing our masks and taking our regulators (the bit that you breathe through) in and out. These are the two skills that are considered necessary for an intro dive. Once we could do both of these and were comfortable clearing our ears, down we went!

            If you don’t know how far 8 meters is (don’t feel badly, I certainly didn’t) it is about 26 feet, which was plenty deep enough to get down to the ocean floor in the area that we were exploring. I had a little trouble getting my ears to clear, which was uncomfortable, but other than that it was AMAZING. I have always thought that it would be really cool to be a fish, because I love how it feels to sit under the water and now I could actually breathe while I sat under there! The fish on the reef were just what I expected too, mostly flashy and bright-colored.

Baracuda

            After scuba diving, we stripped down to just our snorkel gear and jumped back out. I have never been a huge fan of snorkeling. I think the whole idea of floating on the surface with my back exposed made me uncomfortable. Not to mention I am usually cold and shivering within about 5 minutes. But the water temp on the reef was perfect and for some reason, after scuba diving I was much more comfortable with the snorkeling. We goofed around for quite a while chasing fish and taking lots of cheesy photos and videos. I think it’s safe to say that we had the most fun out of anyone out there that day. After lunch the boat stopped at another good spot and while other people went scuba diving, or rode in a helicopter, we went snorkeling again. It was just as fun as the first place just with new fishy friends. I won’t go into detail describing each and every fish, I’ll just mention my one barracuda friend. I first saw him from the boat and had to ask one the snorkel instructor guys what kind of fish the big fella was. He was still hanging around by the time we got back in the water, so I chased after him to take a few photos. I thought he was super cool while I was the one chasing him, but as soon as he turned around and started coming after me I got a little freaked out. I swam really quickly back to the boat. I laughed about it later, but at the time it was pretty startling, especially when he got close enough for me to see his pointy little teeth.

View from the Promenade

The Lagoon

            The rest of our time in Cairns was fairly uneventful. We went out one night to the club attached to the hostel we were staying at (Gilligan’s) to watch jelly wrestling. Gilligan's was a party-oriented hostel that always had some sort of drinking-related activity going on. We chose to be spectators in most of them rather than participating. Australian Jelly is the equivalent to our Jell-O. Turns out jelly wrestling is not nearly as cool as we thought it would be. It’s actually just pretty trashy and dumb. We called it a night as soon as it was over. There is not much to do in Cairns other than party and go out on the reef. The beach is inaccessible because there are too many jelly fish (and sometimes crocodiles) to go swimming. There is a nice walk along the edge of the water called the promenade, and a cool swimming pool called the lagoon. We hung around the lagoon a fair bit because it was too hot to be outside and not be near water. We also swam in and laid by the pool at Gilligan’s. Overall, Cairns was not terribly exciting, but the time on the reef more than made up for it.

Miles and Me

This picture just makes me laugh. Miles didn't bring a towel, so he used his blanket...