Great Barrier Reef... Whaaat?

Tuesday is the day we went to the Great Barrier Reef! This trip was planned and included in our package that we got with the accommodation so we didn’t have to do anything but show up at 7:30 am and check onto our boat.

The boat was about a 1 minute walk from our hotel so that worked out really well. We woke up and had cereal and toast for breakfast and packed a backpack with our camera’s, waterproof case (best idea ever) and a towel and some snacks and whatever else we thought we wanted.

We got on our boat and did the whole, “in the unfortunate event of an accident…” talk and went through some safety stuff and normal things like that and then we set off to the reef. The Great Barrier Reef was about 2 hours from the harbour so we just went outside and laid in the sun and met a few people and hung out for two hours. We got coffee and cookies before our dives but I skipped that.

<-- [These were our stinger outfits, we needed them so we would not get stung by jelly fish. There are deadly jelly fish that are the size of our thumb nail. We went at the end of the jelly fish season but they are still being spotted here and there. Either way, we got the sweet outfits] The transportation to the reef was included with our package that we got but that only included snorkelling, not diving. Since I did the whole Padi certification class and learned all of the underwater stuff to become certified it wasn’t really an option for me to just snorkel, although snorkelling was really cool to. Ian and I both upgraded to the scuba dive. Even though he wasn’t certified he still got to go.

I think there was probably 15 people who went scuba diving that were not certified, I was the only one certified out of the group besides the guys that went with us, this just meant I didn’t have to be within an arms-reach of the guide. The first dive we went on was 30 minutes long and it was awesome!

We saw a lot of fish and tons of beautiful coral and we saw a white sting ray. After our first dive we came back up and Ian and I just snorkelled around for a while. I didn’t want to snorkel anymore so I went back to the boat to try and warm up but that task was pretty impossible.

Ian stayed in the water and snorkelled for a lot longer but I just laid in the sun in the front of the boat until everybody else came back and it was time for lunch. We had a buffet and then nachos. So of course we did what you do at buffets and stuffed our faces and then we headed to the next part of the reef.

The next destination we also had the option to snorkel or dive. We chose the dive option because this was a different part of the reef and it was totally different than the first one. This dive was way cooler than the first one.

It was way more beautiful and we went deeper this time and we saw a White Tipped Reef Shark. It was awesome but we had to put our head in this weird spot in order to see it and I felt totally uncomfortable with my head there so unfortunately I didn’t take a picture. I wish I would have but at least I got pictures of the reef and the cool fish I saw.

I saw a few Nemo fishes and a few of these huge giant fish. They got really close to us and were not scared at all. I also saw a sea cucumber and I held it, they are really soft and fuzzy in a slimy kind of way, haha.

Our second dive was 40 minutes long so it was cool that we got to stay under for longer. Ian and I both thought that that this was definitely one of the coolest things we have ever done. It is really awesome to be able to experience life under water and it is a completely different world under there. It was even better to experience it together and at World Heritage spot!

This experience was nothing less than perfect! We both felt really lucky that we got to do this because it is just something that people dream of and actually never get to do. So we are just happy and thankful that we got to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef.

Once we got back on the boat there wasn’t enough time to snorkel so we didn’t get to but I was okay with that because I was ready to warm up. Once we all got back on the boat we headed back to shore. During this time I had the dive instructors help me fill out my dive book and then we just had coffee and tea and cookies. Also one of the dive instructors was a magician so he did a magic show for us and it was really entertaining. He had some pretty cool stuff up his sleeve.

Two hours later we made it back to the Harbour and walked back to our hotel. One of the cool things about this tour was the employees remembered each of our names. I don’t know how in the world they did it but I wish I knew the secret. It’s not like we talked to each of them for a long period of time or anything but they still remembered us all.

They even went around the table and said all of our names (no we didn’t have name tags). They remembered all of our names but one girl who had a really hard German name. So I thought that was really neat! All of the employees did a really good job and made the trip even more fun.

This is one of the only locally owned tour boats, I would recommend Passions of Paradise to anybody who is planning on going to Cairns : ). It was simply amazing!

Byeee for now and I hope you enjoyed reading about my Great Barrier Reef experience as much as I enjoyed being there : )! XOXO!
(PS. Although it looks like we may be grumpy, we are not. However, we would be if we smiled and got the lovely taste of salt water in our mouths and eyes from it leaking in our goggles and mouth peice - encase you were wondering why we are not, haha!)