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We've come to our last day in Cairns, so I decided to pay the $2 do an update while killing time and waiting for our flight.
Cairns has been...good. I think if I were to come back to the area, I'd like to stay further North up the coast. We heard there were some prettier beaches there. In Cairns, there's usually a beach and lagoon, but the lagoon is actually dry now (I've heard something about a drought in the area...). So how have we spent our time here? Mostly in tourist shops that all look the same. Okay...not really, but we did spend a fair share of time shopping.
The first night we got here, I was able to meet up with a friend that I met while studying in Germany, Martina, and her boyfriend. We went out for drinks and got caught up (it had been 6 years!) and got some great advice on the area. Meeting them the first night turned out to be very good for us, since their advice led us to a great tourist booking agency that was independent and was able to help us plan the rest of our trip with ease. It also lead us to a great place for breakfast where we ended up running into them the next morning again!
After a leisurely morning, we headed off to take the sky rail over the rainforest (the longest sky rail in the world...about 5 miles, I think) to Kuranda. The whole thing was a bit overpriced, but there were really stunning views. Kuranda itself was one big money-sucking tourist trap. It had a very artificial feel to it. We did get to see a huge butterfly sanctuary, though, while there. The butterflies were all unique to the area of Queensland and really pretty. One even laid an egg on me...I must have looked like a plant that day.
After searching for a seafood dinner with vegetarian friendly meals, we ate and then meandered back home for an early night. The next morning we needed to get up super early for our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef.
We ended up going with a great company (Deep Sea Divers). The trip out there took about 1.5 hours, during which they went over the necessary information for our introductory SCUBA dive.
Ronit and I had both signed up (though Ronit was hesitant) and were scheduled to do the 2nd diver at the first reef. So we started out snorkelling. I'm so excited about the Underwater camera that Gwen and Mike got me for Christmas....I got some excellent pictures in while snorkelling. It wasn't at all like my last snorkel experience in Cozumel, where everything was far away. There were fishies everywhere and you could get really close to the actual reef. After about 20 minutes, we swam back in for our dive. We first had to take a quick test of 3 skills to make sure we would be comfortable and safe underwater. Ronit wasn't feeling comfortable with the breathing, so she ended up heading back to the snorkel area. It ended up just being me and a 1 other kid and our guide. SCUBA was quite an experience....I was surprised that you could swim so close to the fishies and they wouldn't swim away. While under (maybe about 20-30 feet or so), you could see a lot of fish, but we didn't see too many big ones. The largest was probably about 4ft long. I think I may have seen a sleeping shark (just a small, harmless one...we were in shallow water), but I can't be sure.
I liked the first dive so much, that I ended up signing up for the second intro dive at the next reef stop (both stops were at Norman reef). The second time we went even deeper and had more time in the water, since we didn't have to do the skills part.
okay...my $2 is running out, so let me sum up.
Diving...awesome. I wanna get certified.
After diving, shower, dinner, and then to the casino where I walked away $25 richer on a really easy chance game. Today to Adelaide...TTFN!
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Nhien
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4 LONG Lauraless weeks : (
Hi Laura!!! Finally got some time to sit and read all of your entries... Your trip sounds awesome - I was thinking once you're done, I'll have to print out all your entries and save them for tips when I plan my Australia trip! Grace and I have been working hard to sustain the estrogen level in the office with you and Joyce both out last week : ) Say "Hi" to Ronit for me! Can't wait to have you back! I miss ya!!