Great Barrier Reef

Greetings from Queensland!

After Tazmania, Corinne and I spent two more days/nights with the Chandlers (Felicity, Vicki, and Neil) in Melbourne, seeing the sights and watching Audrey Hepburn classics. We then took an early flight on April 11...leaving the house at "oh my god it's early!", in Felicity's words. What a sweetheart for getting out of bed at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to drive us to the airport! We arrived in tropical Cairns a little bleary-eyed but happy to be back in the heat and sun...although I was quite happy to find that it wasn't as stupidly hot and humid as Thailand.

The next morning (April 12), I got up early to go on a snorkling tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Corinne stayed back, having seen the reef on her previous trip. A bus picked me up from my hostel at 6:45am and we drove to Port Douglas, about 1.5hours away where the trip was leaving from. I borded a swanky jet-boat with about 60 other people and we made our way out to the outer reef, about 1.5hours away. We spent the day snorkling (and some people diving) at 3 different sites, spending about 1 hour at each site. Throughout the trip, we were provided with morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea. We did not go hungry...it was a big spread of very yummy food.

The reefs were spectacular! What I saw in Thailand paled in comparison to this. I thought that I would get tired spending an hour at each site, but I could have spent longer! It was just like the pictures and documentaries you see on the reef. Lots of beautiful fish and spectacular coral formations. To name a few, I saw parot fish, anemone fish (a.k.a "nemos" thanks to Disney), a baracuda, and even a sea turtle! It was such an amazing experience. After snorkling, I definately want to try my hand at scuba diving some day.

I got back to my hostel at 6:45pm and then met Corinne for supper. After that we split up, I went to see the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" (really good!) and Corinne found a coffee shop to hang out at. Around 11:30, we collected our stored bags from the hostel and trudged through the POURING rain (happy campers we were not) to the bus station to catch the 12:25am bus to Airlie Beach.

We arrived at Airlie Beach at 11:45 this morning, more than a little worn out after an over-night bus ride. We had booked our hostel in advance, and a shuttle bus picked us up from the station and took us to the hostel. We dropped our stuff off and made our way to the lagoon ( a man-made public swimming/beach area that is used when there are stingers at the real beach), where we lay all day, soaking up the sun (or in my case, the shade of a palm tree). Tomorrow I'm off for a tour of the Whitsunday Islands and Corinne is scheduling some more serious sun-worshiping. Then, it's another over-night bus to Hervey Bay for the weekend.

Tonight is my last night in a hostel. I'm glad. Although it's kinda fun, there's a real party atmosphere here in the Australian hostels which would be great if I wasn't so worn-out from all the moving around. Sleeping as much as possible is high on the priority list for me, which is tough to do in a noisy place. From here, it's an over night bus and then 4 nights with Servas Hosts.

After that, I'm coming home. Yep. Got my plane tickets and everything. I'm flying out of Brisbane late (11:45pm) on April 19 and will arrive home via Singapore and Vancouver early in the evening on April 20. It's been a great trip, but I'm looking forward to coming home. I'm getting pretty worn out from moving from place to place. Ready to give my traveling shoes a rest. That said, I'm giving a big push for the last few days, doing lots of trips and seeing lots of things. Corinne will be continuing on, spending 10 more days in Oz and then flying to New Zealand on April 30.

Anyway, Happy Easter long weekend, everyone! I hope the Easter Bunny is good to all of you!