Day 8 June 16th 2011

The Great Barrier Reef

Today at the Reef was amazing! Because we were able to get such a good sleep, I was able to get a better experience from the day. On the bus ride to the pier, it was easy to tell that everybody was excited and in a good mood. The high speed boat was really cool. It was slightly colder than what I expected and the boat didn’t exactly help with the chill. As we were on the boat I was too excited and could hardly contain my happiness. The hour and a half was almost too much anticipation. I was one of the first people off the boat and onto the plateau. Of course, it took me a while to find the right snorkeling equipment, but once I did I was in the water. The water was absolutely BEATIFUL! The vast colors available in the reef just blew my mind. When I first went in, I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At first I was freezing, but I quickly got over the cold and began swimming to see all of the sights. I kind of wish I had gotten an underwater camera for the trip, despite the fact that it cost 25 aussie dollars! That says a lot because I am a very bad spender and hate wasting money. The sights were just so beautiful that I would spend a lot of money to cherish. I spent about an hour and a half swimming around in the water. Once I went through the extremely shallow part of the reef and got cut on the coral. I had no idea I really touched one, but I came out with a scratch on my leg! On my first submersion into the water, I had on a life jacket and couldn’t really dive to be closer to the fish. I kept it on because it gave my body buoyancy and I didn’t have to work as hard swimming. I wanted to go out far and so I went a pretty far distance. I saw a lot of fish that I have never had a chance to see before. I saw Dori very often, like schools of them all over the place. Then at 12:30-ish I went and got some of the best food we had the whole trip. The tortellini and garlic bread was DELECTABLE! After the food, I had the opportunity to take a semisubmersible submarine and saw some beautiful sights. The sub trip was about 15 minutes, so it didn’t really detract much from my reef time. I almost immediately went back into the water, this time I did not use a life jacket and was able to swim right next to the fish. There was one HUGE fish that stuck closer to the bottom of the reef but got near me multiple times. Then I headed over towards the boat because people were waving us over. The lifeguard was handing out food to people and they were feeding the fish. There was a large amount of fish there and they were so hunger that they didn’t care that people were swimming with them! A couple times that swam right at me and touched me! I can truly say I swam with the fishes! Then I had to pee so I got out of the water. There was a live tank of fishes that one of the workers got today. I got to hold a sea cucumber and a starfish! After that I went on a boat tour with a glass bottom. I was able to see other types of coral and cool fish. We even got to see a turtle, it was huge! This trip made me rethink my career choices. When I was younger I wanted to be a marine biologist, and the reef made me want to re look into that profession. Overall the trip to the reef was awesome and beautiful. I doubt I will ever forget what happened there!

After the reef, we went back to the hotel. We had a similar dinner time. We got free time until 9 to see Cairns. We got pizza and saw what was at Cairns. There was a night market! This market had cheap souvenirs and uggs! It was so exciting because I thought my souvenir shopping was over! We finished and had an hour left so we went to the hot tub! It was a great day.