Cairns - Day 2

Today has been one of our best days so far….and that’s saying a lot! We had our adventure out on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), we saw lots of fish, coral, sea turtles, weird sea creatures and NO sharks so it was a great success. Eventhough it was suppose to be a calm day it was a little windy so we had some choppy waters going out (and coming back – which didn’t bode well for some of the Chinese tourists…but that story is too gross to share so I’ll spare the details). Luckily we all handled it okay (although 5 hours on dry land and I still feel like I’m rocking). Jeff, Steven and Brad did the introductory dive on the first reef.

Ready to SCUBA

Kristen and I went snorkeling and because we were one of the last ones in the water one of the crew offered to take us on a guided tour of the reef. Although Kristen has never been snorkeling before she handled it like a pro. We got to touch a sea cucumber (ugly, black, squishy, extremely large sluglike creature), saw lots of giant clams, saw Nemo in the sea anemone (in a strange coincidence Finding Nemo was on t.v. last night….of course we watched it). When we got back the boys were done their dive and they snorkeled with us for a bit.

Kristen snorkelling like a pro!

Even with a wetsuit on Bradley was shivering (no surprise since he doesn’t have an extra ounce of fat) so we all got out and had lunch. Soon after we headed to the next reef.

Bradley underwater

Steven and Jeff went on another dive so Bradley, Kristen and I went on the glass bottomed boat tour. We learned about the different types of corals and fish. Then we snorkeled – again, we were lucky that there was a crew member in the water and he offered to take us around. Kristen was the youngest one snorkeling so I think that’s why we got the preferential treatment. They probably wanted to keep an eye on her since it was a little choppy. This was the bonus round for us. We touched a pineapple sea cucumber – the least grossest of the sea cucumber family. He is orange and looks like he has little starfish stuck to him....and…..the best part: we saw 3 sea turtles and I got to give Crush a bellyrub! I touched Crush – and he wasn’t in a pet store!!

Crush - for real!

We also saw lots of other fish and coral and a huge Wrasse fish (who is a resident on that reef and pretty friendly – they call him Wally). Jeff and Steven also had a good dive. They saw 5 or 6 sea turtles and because there were only 2 of them with the dive master he allowed them to swim on their own and follow him (on the first dive they all had to join arms and go around as a group).

Steven - just before he did the "Happy-Little-Scuba-Diver" sign.

Steven aptly noted that starting their snorkel/dive experience on the GBR meant there was nowhere to go but down. Jeff said that Mexico compares pretty well – obviously not for the vastness of the reefs but for the coral and fish. We arrived back at the wharf in time to catch a parade on the Esplanade. It’s the start of the Cairns Festival. We also met up with a few nice people who gave us some tips on where to go and what to do while we’re here. When we told them we were staying in Yorkeys Knob they asked if we had seen any pythons yet since Yorkeys Knob is known for their population of pythons. I almost passed out right there. They didn’t seem too concerned with the fact and said that this is the tropics and that’s where they live….still, I would prefer NOT to see one at all. The one lady is doing a teacher swap and coming to live in Halifax next September.

We warned her about a few things:

• cold weather and snow
• the Tim Hortons addiction
• the Newfies (just kidding – Lord Tunderin’ we love our Maritime friends!)

The evening ended with an amazing fireworks display, I would say it was probably almost equal to the one we saw in Ottawa on Canada Day. It ended with the sky absolutely filled with a golden cascade of lights, Kristen said it looked like a lot of chandeliers. And so it was a great ending to our absolutely great day.