Blogs from open water, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 12

Had to be at the pier for 7:30am left the hostel and walked down arrived at about 7:15am boarded the passions of paradise boat which was a catamaran. There were 64 of us on board and we went to Michaelmas clay island first where we could snorkel or take an introductory dive, I stuck to the snorkelling that was good but the colour of the coral was not that bright plenty of fish. We then had lunch aboard the boat then sailed to paradise reef this was the best reef. You jumped off the boat and you were on top of the coral straight away which was colourful and you could clearly see it moving/breathing. There were reef sharks and stingrays swimming about. We snorkelled for about an hour then returned to the boat and sailed ... read more

Greetings! I hope you all are doing well! I am unsure if you received an email (or received multiple emails) regarding my last update—“Penguin Parade”; TravelBlog was experiencing difficulties sending the update to subscribers—sorry. This past weekend I traveled to Cairns, Queensland (Northeast Australia). The trip was unbelievable—arguably the best weekend of my life. The trip was very smooth……well except for the flights……I left Melbourne Wednesday morning at 7am on Jetstar (roughly Australia’s equivalent to Southwest Airlines). Once I was boarded, I immediately fell asleep; however, at 8:30am I was awoken by a flight attendant asking over the intercom if “there were any doctors on the plane.” An elderly woman near the back of the plane was apparently having a heart attack. The pilot diverted the flight to Mickelea (about an hour south of Cairns) so ... read more

Hi my friends, I just came back yesterday from a 3 day boat trip with a diving school. Almost everyone is doing a diving course in Cairns... so I thought why not try it. The course started on Monday with theory lessons and Pool training. And of course some quick multiple choise tests. I can advice everyone who wants to learn something new and who is physically and psycologically capable of diving, to do it. The PADI degree is quite easy to achieve without beeing a brainiac. The course is well built up. After two days on the boat, they offered us to do on top of the regular PADI open Water license, the Adventure course. Despite to the first step which allows you only to dive up to 18m deep, with the Adventure course you're ... read more

Well Folks I have have departed from paradise on the reef. Again amazing weather, it doesn't get bad on the reef. Spent a couple nights sleeping under the stars on the roof. Me and Marianne (Holland) spnet last night out there. It was freaking great. Man what a great experience. Got to chill out all day with som ereally cool people and was constantly making new friends with all the guests. Reef Encounter's hostie program is mandatory if ur ever in Cairns. Great fun. The Chefs Robbie and Steve are a blast. And Nadine and Marie always take care of drinks behind the bar. What a blast. So on my most recent dives I saw some bigger white tip reef sharks, tons of baricuda, and everything else u can imagine. The highlight of these dives were ... read more

My last days in Oz I explored an area that I have dreamt of since I was a child, The Great Barrier Reef. It exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. I decided the best way to experience its magnificent beauty & wildlife would be to get my scuba diving certification. So I did. After two days of classroom/pool time we departed on a massive boat with about 35 people for the next three days. Although my sailor legs didn't quite kick in I was still overwhelmed with joy and my body with shivers at the first glimpse of the reef. The first four dives were with the five other divers in my group and my instructor (Tristan-a nice lad from NZ). At the bottom of the ocean, we practiced breathing without our regulator in ... read more