The Great Barrier Reef

This weekend a group of us had booked an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef for a long weekend.  It was the trip of a lifetime!  Leaving early Saturday morning, we arrived at Cairns, Queensland around 10am.  For the rest of the day we explored the little beach town.  It was beautiful!  Mountain rainforests surround the coast of Northern Queensland and the beaches are incredibly beautiful.  Though it was raining that day we had fun exploring the area, shops and our sketchy little motel, Aspect Central (where we weren’t sure if the pool was a frog pond for decoration or something for us to enjoy… we enjoyed it in the rain anyway:) ).  There also happened to be the Iron Man competition in Cairns this weekend so there were a whole heap of festivities to entertain us!  The nearby lagoon was the central hub for the excitement.  Then the night markets opened up later, which we took advantage of as well.  This laid back, beach town is WAY more my style than the city buzz of Sydney so it was fun to escape here for a while.

Sunday was the big day.  There were 17 of us who had traveled to the Reef this weekend from ASC (though we all stayed in separate hotels in smaller groups), we all had booked the same boat to go out to the outer reef for a day of snorkeling and scuba diving.  It was an all day adventure!  The boat ride was a 90 minute trip to an outer reef where we spent about 2 hours in the water exploring millions of neon fish, the brightest coral you could imagine and the bluest water!!!  The staff was raving because this was the “best day out in the reef all season!” The water was crystal clear and calm, the sun was shining strong (yep, we got burned) and we got to be there!!!!  The water was FILLED with amazing sights, my eyes couldn’t take it all in!  All the fish from Nemo were there, we saw a small shark, a sea turtle and eels as well. The shells, sea urchins and coral looked prehistoric or right out of the Discovery channel!  I couldn’t stop saying, “God, You are absolutely incredible!!” all day! My Father made that!!!

After a while we laid out on the front of the boat deck to dry out in the sun with our lunches.  They provided a great fresh lunch buffet while we traveled to our second dive spot where we spent the rest of the afternoon.  It was here where I touched Nemo! I stuck my hand down and played with the little guy and his friends then realized I stuck my hand in his toxic home as well… oh well, so my wrist burned a bit for the rest of the night, a small price to pay :) The coral and sea life was highly dangerous so we weren’t supposed to touch anything if we could help it.  I couldn’t help it! 

The ride back was fun because we were all so filled with excitement and stories about our experiences Down Under (literally) that we talked and laughed non-stop.

We arrived back to the Lagoon where we hung around for the rest of the afternoon/night to enjoy the festivities.  We were pulled into Havana Music Bar where we ordered a few refreshments while the live band sang to Megan and her "three friends" (Sarah, Carly and I).  It was a pretty funny night and the owner brought us out free freshly fried plantain chips!  Crossing the streets was treacherous though because the Iron Man was that day…  We returned to our tiny little five-man motel room where we crashed, feeling like life is surreal and thanking God for His amazing blessings.  We woke up early Monday morning to tight sunburnt skin and tired muscles, sadly heading back to Sydney. None of us were ready to leave but we were just so thankful we were able to go! 

One more week in Sydney, finishing up work, finals and the rest of the life we’ve established here then on to New Zealand!  This is all so bittersweet; I don’t think reality has fully set in yet for what the next two weeks will hold.