Finding Nemo (And Crush Too!)

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Wednesday morning was an early start—our cab picked us up from the hostel at 4:30 AM and we were off to the airport to catch a 6 AM flight up to Cairns. Still pitch black outside, our taxi driver picked us up rocking out to some type of Australian folk music and wearing sunglasses. It was pretty great—we paid for a cab ride but got a free mediocre concert before the sun was even up. Security at the airport once again took all of 60 seconds, and before long we were on our way to Cairns. I had the window seat, and as we flew up to Cairns you could see the Great Barrier Reef from the airplane! By the time we touched down in Cairns at 8 AM, Emily and I were itching to get to see the reef from underwater as well. We arrived at the hostel to find the most incompetent people I have ever met working there. I’m not sure I could have been more unhelpful than these people if I had tried. Emily and I had booked two beds in the same 10-person dorm room, but when we got there they had booked us separately saying they didn’t know we’d want to be in the same 10-person room. This seems questionable seeing as we booked on the same credit card and under only one of our names, but whatever. Then they told us that they weren’t expecting us this early, also questionable since they had picked us up from the airport about five seconds beforehand. After telling us we couldn’t check in (also questionable since I had asked if we could check in at 9 AM and they said yes), we figured we’d just store our backpacks and go snorkeling for the day. Obviously, the hostel makes a commission when we buy a ferry ticket from them, but since it’s the same price everywhere we didn’t really care where we booked our ticket to the island we wanted to snorkel at for the day. So when we asked the hostel guy if we could book a ticket, his answer was “well, we turned our internet off for the day”, to which my immediate response was “well can you turn it back on, or can you make a phone call or should we go somewhere else to book it?” and his response was “well you need to book it now, but you should book it with us, but we have no way of doing that for you so maybe you should wait a couple hours”. After going in circles for ten minutes, Emily and I just grabbed our snorkeling stuff and headed two feet down the road to someone who could help us get a ferry ticket.

Acquiring a ferry ticket seemed like the biggest accomplishment in the world, and once we had them in our hands we were able to relax and enjoy the scenery around Cairns for the first time. Our hostel, although staffed with unhelpful people, was right on the water overlooking the esplanade. Cairns is surrounded by rainforest, so when we looked out on the bay there was rainforest everywhere—it was so beautiful! The ferry ride to the island was about an hour, during which we enjoyed the views that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. Once we actually got to the island, Emily and I hopped in the water and were only knee deep before we ran into a sea turtle who resembled Crush from Finding Nemo. After hanging out with the turtle, we went a little deeper and saw tons of really colorful fish. I saw Australian's version of humuhumunukunukuapua’a, my favorite Hawaiian fish, in addition to almost every fish and starfish that starred in Finding Nemo. I kept myself thoroughly entertained with my GoPro the entire time, and before we knew it Emily and I were both really sunburnt (sorry Mom—I put sunscreen on I promise) and we had been in the water for almost 5 hours and it was time to go back to Cairns. Once back in Cairns, Emily and I went straight to the store to buy Aloe and then ate ice cream on the beach.

Thursday morning we were again up at the crack of dawn, but this time we were headed to the Outer Great Barrier Reef for scuba diving. Despite the fact that we were again up before the sun, I was hopping up and down the whole way to the boat I was so excited. Thursday was definitely the highlight of an already amazing week. We got on the boat and were immediately served a cup of coffee. Although only instant coffee, it’s been about two months since my last cup of coffee because it is so expensive in Australia so we staked out a table right by the coffee station. Once everyone was on the boat, they served us breakfast complete with watermelon. I think I might have eaten an entire watermelon by myself. After breakfast, we were given a safety briefing. Emily and I specifically picked that reef trip because it had both certified scuba dives and intro dives, since I’m certified but Emily isn’t. That way, I could hang out with the certified divers, but she still had a chance to do a dive without ever having done it before. I got a little nervous when the person in charge asked all the people who wanted to do intro dives who had snorkeled before and only a handful of people raised their hands. I feel like snorkeling should be a prerequisite, and sure enough almost everyone that hadn’t snorkeled before didn’t manage to complete their intro dives. Regardless, I didn’t have to worry about it because I was with all of the certified divers, all of who had been diving for way longer than I have. I was a little nervous because this was my first dive outside of getting certified, but my dive buddy was a spitting image of Bob Marley so I just had “don’t worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be alright” stuck in my head the whole dive. My first dive was amazing—I swam right up to Nemo and friends, swam through some cool rock formations, and touched a huge clam type thing. Dive number two was at a turtle breeding ground, and some people even saw a huge manta ray! Unfortunately I didn’t, but that’s because I was playing with a starfish and huge sea cucumber at the bottom of the ocean. I was bummed once I got back to the boat and found out that they often see whales and sharks out there, so I will obviously have to come back one day to see them! It’s one of my dreams to swim with a shark, both the whale shark variety and otherwise. Anyways, after two different dive sites, tons of diving and snorkeling, and lots and lots of good food, we were finally headed back to the mainland. They kept us entertained for the hour and a half ride back, giving us “free” wine and cheese. After an entire day of swimming and eating, one glass of wine was enough to put me to sleep for the entire boat ride back.

Friday was our free day in Cairns aka by this time Emily’s and my bank accounts were both hurting so we walked around Cairns and went to the markets. We also found a place with free Wi-Fi, which was good for me because apparently Babson is having a housing crisis and also the students aren’t super happy with our new president. Since I haven’t been at Babson for a year, I’m a little out of the loop, but hopefully my housing stuff gets figured out for next year.

Saturday Emily and I were again up before the sun (is anyone seeing a theme here?) and we were off to the rainforest! Not only did we walk through the rainforest, but we also saw four different waterfalls throughout the day, the last one being where a shampoo commercial was shot (you know the one, where a girl is standing in front of a waterfall and does a hair flip and boom her hair is all shampooed). So, guys and girls alike stood in front of the waterfall doing hair flip after hair flip to get the picture just right. We also swam underneath the waterfall, which was amazing! At a different waterfall, there was a rockslide that kept us entertained for a while. The only bad thing was that I pulled three different leeches off of me throughout the day, but I got them all before they’d gotten really big. One had just attached itself to the bottom of my foot when I found it but it held on for dear life as I struggled to peel it off. No worries, I triumphed over all the leeches in the end.

Sunday we were again up early to catch a plane ride back to Sydney. I was sad to bid the Great Barrier Reef goodbye—I’ll definitely be back again eventually--but Emily and I both had our weight in homework waiting for us back in Sydney.

Also just a quick shout out to all my Babson and Boston friends--I know we Babson students have Marathon Monday off and we usually go to the marathon so I hope everyone's okay. It made the news here in Australia--quite a shock to turn on the news at breakfast this morning and see that. My thoughts are with you all.

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Photos

Not Even Sure What This Is...
...but it had suction cups that stuck to my hand. Also note what the bubbles from my regulator do to my hair.

Blowing Bubbles
I love my GoPro so much.

Comments

[Anastasia78]

Beautiful!!
I think I'm gonna try this sometime. :)

[D MJ Binkley]

Ah the joys of diving and blowing some bubbles
Glad you found a boat that would work for both of you.

[John and Sylvia]

Dive sites closer to Sydney
If you like diving, you don't need to go so far next time. There are good dive sites on the Central Coast, only an hour north of Sydney. Also, just because you didn't see any security at the airport doesn't mean it isn't there. It is not in your face like in the States but it works very well and doesn't inconvenience people who are not a threat. John.

[John and Sylvia]

Mooney Beach
I forgot to mention that at Mooney Beach, near Catherine Hill Bay, you can swim with grey nurse sharks. They have a nursery there in a cave beneath the cliff. John

[24900 Miles in 525600 Minutes]

Re: Mooney Beach
That sounds amazing! I'll definitely have to try that out!