Great Barrier Reef = EPIC

Julie, Jayme, Me, and Matt sporting our sexy blue suits!!! =)
1/29/2010

Right before the Great Barrier Reef Trip!
It’s 2:20pm at home but about 6:00am here in Cairns…just about to go to the reef! Soo excited but nervous to burn. Wish me luck! I’ll need it!
Well well…where did I leave off? Ok right, the Great Barrier Reef! So yesterday we went on a boat called “PASSIONS of Paradise” (for all you health friends out there I hope you find that a bit ironic.) Jayme and I did giggle when we realized it…although we didn’t realize it until we were snorkeling right next to the boat-ha!

It took 2 hours to cruise out to the first spot of the reef, during that time the scuba crew had us sign our life away and teach us a little bit about scuba diving and snorkeling! Afterwards we were offered the opportunity to rent a jelly fish resistant suit…since the instructors said we wouldn’t be able to see the poisonous jellyfish because they were soo small and I didn’t want to spend the next week in the hospital I got a sexy blue suit. Ha, wait till you see the pics! Lol

Since I was in group 3 with Jayme…they dropped us off on this little island with more birds than you can imagine. We put our snorkel stuff on and we were off...when we first started out we had trouble keeping the water out of our mask because every time we would look at each other, we’d start laughing! When you see how sexy we looked, you’ll understand.

Regardless, we had heaps of fun checking out the reef and saw soooooo many fish from Finding Nemo! We also saw about 34 pink jelly fish (sorry I forgot the name of them), which at first we would freak out every time we saw one and swim in the opposite direction…but later learned that they were harmless and I even touched one while on my scuba adventure. Once we were finished with the snorkeling we switched over to scuba diving. I WAS FREAKING OUT…the instructor told us no matter what happens we “had to remember to breathe and never hold our breath”…and I hold my breath when I’m nervous so you see where I’m coming from here;) But I survived of course, and our scuba instructor showed us sooo many fascinating creatures living within the GB Reef. I could name them all but I’d be here for awhile but here’s some things that stood out, 2 sting-rays, 3 nemos, touched the inside of a clam (very cool and very soft surprisingly) touched a jelly fish twice, 2 different star-fish and these water slugs (I think that’s what they’re called?) were pretty cool to touch too.

We had an amazing lunch after we were through scuba’ing and then the boat took us to Paradise Reef which was unbelievable. First of all, Jayme and I decided to save some money and just snorkel rather than scuba another time. And we dragged Princess (who is deathly afraid of water, because she can’t swim) in the water so she could enjoy it too (which was quite the process, let me tell you!) So Jay (remember he’s like our camp councilor) was pulling Princess around on a raft, Jayme, Matt and I are tagging along and just checking out the reef. When all of a sudden I’m like OMG THAT’S A EFFIN SHARK! I popped my head up and was like, “I think I see a shark! I pointed towards the direction I found it and everyone confirmed it really was a shark!!!! Sooo cool, but I was bigger than this shark so I wasn’t too scared, just fascinated=) And all day I got to tease that “Shar found the shark” because we had practically the same name, lol.

All in all, the Great Barrier Reef was so much cooler than words could describe, I had the time of my life out there just swimming around with all those animals!!! I highly recommend doing a boat tour with “Passions of Paradise” for anyone who’s considering checking out the GBR in the future=)

Later that night, we returned home to our hostel and showered before our last orientation session. Afterward we (Jayme, Princess, Caty, Matt, Julie, Rachel and myself) went out for a few drinks…it was kind-of entertaining to watch the Aussies rock out to our music-with a techno twist. We didn’t stay out too late because Jayme and I were feeling a little jet legged still and Jayme Matt and I had to leave a 4am the next day...