For my Birthday dad gave me a trip up to Cairns (in northern Queensland) to go scuba diving for two days on the Great Barrier Reef! Thanks Dad! It was weird at first because this was the first time I had traveled within Australia by myself. Every other time I head off to some corner of the continent, it is with at least 1 other person. While I was apprehensive to be "alone" for the weekend, it proved to be something that I really needed.
On Friday morning, I bid adieu to the girls (who were still on their cleanse at the time... and not in the best moods:) ) and started off towards Cairns. Since I was traveling alone, I decided to spoil myself... I walked STRAIGHT past the Toowoomba Transit Terminal and RIGHT into the Greyhound. Never have I traveled in Australia in such luxury. There was leg room, cumfy seats, reading lamps, and shades you could pull over the windows. The cost isn't that much different, and I think that I have ridden my last ride on the ole' TT coaches. Part of me will miss the intense feeling of impending death as the van speeds down the range towards Brisbane. However, the other part of me likes much better to be comfortable.
Travel to Cairns was the usual: city bus, greyhound, train to the airport, flight to cairns, and shuttle to my hostel. My hostel was really nice. I was staying in a 12 bed dorm, but it didn't seem like it. There was a really nice pool in the courtyard, as well as a hot-tub. I put my stuff down, changed out of my warm Toowoomba clothes and into shorts and a t-shirt, and then walked around the town to see what was up. I walked all around the waterfront, through a few parks, and in and out of a few shops. by about 4 o'clock I was pretty hungry, so I made my way to an Italian restaurant and had my fill of pasta... as well as some vino. There was a movie theater right next door and I decided that since I didn't know anyone, and had only spoken to my waitress, that I would go to a movie. I saw a French film called Summer Hours. I didn't know it was french. Nor did I know that it was subtitled. Needless to say, I fell asleep in the middle - it was the wine. I think I may have been snoring, actually. I did wake up soon enough to catch the last half hour or so. Afterwards I headed back to my hostel, chatted with a few of my roommates (German and English - EVERYONE that's traveling in Australia is either German of English.) I called it an early night, as I was being picked up at 8am.\
The next morning the Cairns Dive Center van came swinging up to the YHA and I piled in with my gear so we could head to the dive shop. We filled out all the necessary health forms, signed our legal rights away, and were then taken to the dock. From here we got onto a smaller boat (probably 30 feet) which would take us to the Live-aboard boat which stays out on the reef for a month at a time before coming to Cairns to refill on fuel. The ocean was like GLASS... and I'm not exaggerating. I mean like a lake at 6am... it was FLAT. All the staff on the boat said that they had never seen it like that before. After two hours we made it to the Kangaroo Explorer (the live-aboard) and piled out things into our rooms before getting briefed on the boat. By this time I had chatted with a few people, and actually kind of made friends. A far improvement from the night before. After our briefing, we had lunch made by the chef onboard (delicious!) and then got ready for our first dive. Unfortunately I remembered, after I got on the boat, that I was only Scuba Diver certified and not Open Water certified. The difference is that open water can go anywhere with a buddy to a depth of 18meters and I can only go to 12meters with a certified instructor. Now, in the long run this wasn't so bad at all... I got to dive with a really cool guy named Tom who knew everything there was to see about the reef. So basically he would take me along and show me all of the coolest things. The downside to this was I had to pay $11 per dive... but such is live.
All in all we did 6 dives while I was on the boat, one of which was a dive at night with flashlights. Some of the highlights of what I saw are: white tipped sharks, clown fish, heaps of sea turtles on the night dive and I was able to swim with one on my last day dive for about 5 minutes, starfish, parrot fish, and some beautiful coral. I had forgotten how cool of a sensation is is to scuba... being weighless under water is so fun. Every once in a while I would just start doing flips or barrel rolls underwater. I'm incredibly glad that I did the night dive. If you asked me that morning if I would do it I probably would have said "HELL NO!" However, by the end of the day I told myself... I didn't come to the GBR to sit on a boat... I'm doing it. We did see a few sharks on that dive, but I just pointed my flashlight (or my 'torch' as it would be called here) somewhere else so I didn't have to see them. :)
That night we were so exhausted that we were all in bed by 11. Which is good, because the staff came around at 5:30am to wake us up for our 6am dive. The sun wasn't even up yet when they were knocking on our doors. It proved to make it's way just over the horizon right as I was diving into the water. It's hard to not want to get up with you are watching the sunrise over the Pacific while floating over the Great Barrier Reef. I rented an underwater camera and managed to get a few good photos. I'll upload those sometime soon. After our last dive we had a few hours before the little boat, the Sun-Kist, brought us back to Cairns. We all sat and sun bathed on the top deck of the Kangaroo Explorer and chatted. There were people from England and Germany (obviously), a few guys from America (also studying in Aus), a guy from Korea, a few Canadians, and a few people from Japan. It was fun to just enjoy the sun, look at the reef, and talk with people from all over the world.
As all good things do... it came to and end. We were back on the sunkist, with slightly more turbulent waters, and heading back towards Cairns. We docked just around 5pm and headed towards our hostels. That night, the two American guys, two of my English roommates, and myself went to a cheap restaurant with great food for dinner. Two people from the boat met us there and joined in on our fun and conversation. After a while they were turning the restaurant to "bar-mode" and the table we were at was being taken away. We spotted a huge table with 2 guys sitting at it, and threw ourselves into it. Whether they liked it or not. The group of people we had was so eclectic and random, but it was so fun at the same time. We talked, drank, and danced the night away, and I had a blast!
The next day I had a few hours before my plane left so I sat by the pool at my hostel and tried to get a tan. Heading back to Toowoomba, was not high on my list of things I wanted to do that day... but I had no choice. After meeting people, Cairns seemed to be a lot more exciting, and I didn't want to leave.
This week went well, school wise. I had a nursing lab test-out and also a presentation for my mental health class. Both of which went incredibly well. I'm now done with class and only have two days before Lauren and I take the Greyhound to Mitchell. We spoke with the two people that have been there for the last two weeks and they really like it. They said the accomodation at the hospital is really nice (free wireless! look for photos!) and that the nurses are too. They also said that the hot-springs there are amazing! So Lauren and I are actually kind of excited.
Sorry for such a long post... but Cairns was just that exciting! I'll probably post again once we're in Mitchell.
Hope all is well at home!
Miss you all!
