Queensland, Australia - Polarsteps

Cairns, Great Barrier Reef Hello hello! I have been a bit behind with my blog posts (sorry Esther). This was two days ago, but I am pretty sure I remember every single thing that happened :) Took a little walk from Gillies to the marina to board our boat to go DIVING! When we arrived, we were told that the boat we were supposed to be going on was “sick” due to the fact that it “hit a whale”.. Our diving tour was combined with another snorkel/dive trip on a bigger boat. Of course we were happy just to be going, but there were a lot of individuals on this boat. Also, we learned that each person only gets to dive for 20 minutes. The tour was fairly pricey so at this point we were a little bit like what the heck, this isn’t right. A man named Louis taught everyone the diving basics, in the simplest english ever with lots of hand motions. It was pretty humourous, also he was a huge dreamboat slash totally old guy hot.. he made the boat ride go by really fast. I’ve scuba dived a bunch of times, but every time I have to do the same learning process and skills test before going.. I should really get certified. I am going to look into prices to do a course during spring break or maybe during the semester. Here is how this went in bullets.. - We put on our sexy sting suits that we love so much..! For some reason, my suit was bright blue and had a hood and gloves attached. Everyone else’s was black and just went up to the neck. I zipped myself into the suit, head and everything. I looked up and the entire boat was staring at me…. Posed for a pic. Glad I could provide some entertainment - the back of the boat was so hectic.. if it was not your turn to dive, then you were able to snorkel, so there were people trying to walk in flippers or carry the heavy tanks everywhere. it was very overwhelming. especially for em and z because it was their first time. I got in the water and deflated myself down to a bar about 6 feet underwater. Em came down next, but Z didn’t make it :( she wasn’t comfortable and she has slowly learned during this trip that she prefers land to water… - Did the skills test no problemo. Watching Emily try to understand Matt’s (instructor) hand motions was so freakin funny - Matt, Em, German girl and I moved off the bar and played with a sea slug and a sea cucumber - Got our pictures taken underwater with Nemo in his sea anemone, pretty cute but mine looked pretty freaking goofy because of course I felt the need to wear the blue head piece.. - The photographer is a student in Melbourne. He gave us a list of his favorite bars and restaurants and got his number so we can meet up in the city! - spent a large chunk of the day snorkeling around the reefs in my blue suit and pool noodle to float (lol). em and I could have stayed in the water forever - sat at the front of the boat on the way back, it was so pretty and felt great. sitting inside on the way to the reef made me wanna yack lots. the front was like laying out on a private yacht, I was loving life so hard - Chatted a bunch with our instructor. So many of the people we have meet have such interesting stories. In the states, the normal thing to do is graduate high school, go to college, and hopefully get a high paying job. Not as many people go to university here. Matt was the valedictorian and went to med school in New Zealand, ended up dropping out, now teaches Scuba and lives in Korea.. He is now doing what he loves, instead of doing whatever to make as much money as possible. I like that! Promised Matt I would buy him a cocktail later on, but we didn’t end up doing out where he was. Instead, we decided to check out the scene at Gilligan’s. We were handed a champagne glass on the way in… got inside and found two hunky shirtless dudes serving FREE champagne to a line of ladies. It’s Gilligan’s so I wasn’t surprised and definitely not disappointed. Ended up hanging out with a group of men there for a bachelor party. They were old but nice. After this we met a pair of aussie twins and chances are I have already told you about them if you are reading this.. lololol. Em wasn’t feeling the older men situation and they were getting incredibly drunk and it is really hard to understand Australians when they slur their speech.. Took a walk over to a different place called the Woolshed. It wasn’t a great time, though a guy bought our drinks at the bar which was a kind gesture. Somehow made it back to Gilligan’s AGAIN.. brought out all the dance moves in the club (including the Claire Christie hair whip and dramatic Hello interpretive dancing with some strangers). Bed came really soon after this. Cairns, you are one crazy city.