Everything Aussie: Spring Break at The Great Barrier Reef Part 1

Think of the MTV spring break specials and you’ve got the right picture of Cairns, Australia in your head. Our flight got in at 1am, so we were checking into our hostel, Gilligan’s, at prime intoxication hours. It was highly entertaining watching people stagger past us trying to get to their rooms, but inevitably being turned down by the security guard because they had forgotten their key. Some people wanted to stay awake all night and jump right into the party scene, but thankfully the overwhelming opinion was to crash in our super sweet bunkbeds since we had to be at the marina the next morning by 8am.

Our lovely hostel

Downtown Cairns

Cairns Marina

First on the agenda was scuba diving at the reef. We had to travel about an hour and half to get to the reef, and many of my friends struggled to fight off sea sickness. Thankfully, I was safe and contented myself by gazing out at the amazing views on the way out to the open ocean. Since we weren’t certified scuba divers, we had to have a training session before we were let loose into the water. My instructor was Villi, a crazy crazy man from Fiji. I was all ready to start taking notes, fearing that scuba diving would be super complicated and I would need to remember everything or I would risk death. Not so much. Basically, they taught us how to equalize the pressure in our ears and the hand signals for communicating under water. Done in 30 minutes after signing some forms saying that we could potentially die and get eaten by a shark. Kidding. Sort of.

Left to right: Erik, Jordyn, Me, and Brian 12m(40ft) under the Pacific Ocean!

Nemo!

The reef

Scuba diving was amazing. It is by far my favorite thing that I’ve done here. The first dive was a little scary because at first you’re on the surface breathing through a mouthpiece when you could breathe much easier if you just took the thing out. Second, as you start going down deeper, you feel the pressure building and it almost feels like your head is in-between two boards and someone keeps tightening them. You hold your nose and blow like you would in an airplane, but you often have to do that several times before the pressure alleviates. Third, you realize that you’re about 6m under water and breathing like it’s no big thing. However, once you get past that, scuba diving is phenomenal. I was in bio nerd heaven. I swam past so much beautiful coral, looked at all the fish living in the little crevices, took a picture with Nemo, stuck my hand inside a giant clam, saw a shark and pet a 3ft long parrotfish! The funniest part was that the instructor basically had a wrestling match with the fish before the fish lunged at the instructor’s fanny pack that had the fish food in it. On the second dive, we got to stay down longer because we didn’t have to go through all the training procedures and after it was over, I was planning on giving up med school so that I could scuba for the rest of my life. The third dive brought me back to reality because I had trouble equalizing the pressure in my ears and was in a lot of pain for most of the dive. I ended up pulling a muscle in my ear which was not so fun.

The next day we went white water rafting on the Tully River. I’ve been rafting several times before, but never in the middle of the rainforest. It was so beautiful, and we were out on the water for what seemed like ages. Our guide was Leon, a self proclaimed hippie, who was extra knowledgeable about the surrounding flora and fauna. He was a newer guide, and told us which rapids he had recently flipped on. And then we proceeded to flip on those same rapids… There was also this beautiful blue butterfly that decided to follow us down the river. It’s called the Ulysses Butterfly, and if you see one, you’re allowed to make a wish. I’m hoping extra hard that my wish comes true.

Wetsuit tan. Still rocking the after effect of this...

Tully River in Northern Queensland

The rafting crew

Leon the Healthy Hippie and the Emu raft

Ulysses Butterfly

On the third day, we joined a rainforest tour group and did an assortment of random activities. First we stopped at a wildlife sanctuary which was in situ, meaning you were in the animals’ cages and were walking around next to the kookaburras and kangaroos. One of our friends is terrified of birds so we had to lead her in with her eyes closed so that she could see the koala. The koala was hilarious. He let out the strangest roar I have ever heard. Also, in Australia, the only state that allows you pet and hold a koala is Queensland so this was my only chance to snuggle the adorable creature. After the koala, we pet a saltwater crocodile, more kangaroos and wallabies, and saw a cassowary up close and personal.

Koala Roar

Me and my new koala friend

Kangaroos and wallabies at the Sanctuary

After the wildlife sanctuary, we hiked through the rainforest learning a little bit about the flora and fauna there. It was gorgeous and felt very authentic as it was raining the entire time! Watching the rain fall through the little holes in the canopy was like something out of a movie. We also kept making Jurassic Park jokes because it often felt like at any moment a velociraptor was going to jump out and eat us.