Welcome to Cairns!

Hi! A major move has just been made...I have semi-permanently moved to Cairns! Located in far north Queensland, on the east coast! Melbourne was amazing but the winter season was coming and it was starting to get colder (no snow, but cold) so it was time to move on! For the past month I have been working 24/7 to save money so I could move to Cairns and start traveling down the east coast!

Queensland is where many of Australia's beaches are located, and there is so much to do and see. I have already spent half of my savings on activities I will eventually do as we start traveling down. Yesterday I completed my first activity and went snorkeling AND scuba diving at one of the biggest attractions, the Great Barrier Reef. It was so amazing! We got picked up at our hostel around 6:45 am in Cairns and we drove about an hour north to Port Douglas to get on our boat. On board, there was a mixture of about 30 people who would be snorkeling, scuba diving, etc. We set sail and cruised for about an hour while our scuba diving instructor briefed us on the safety precautions and how scuba diving works. It was very serious as it can be dangerous... especially if you have heart problems or asthma...a few people ended up not being able to go due to health issues, doctors orders. But the main points were about equalizing your ears every foot or meter, to ensure your ear drums do not pop, and also constantly breathing in and out of your
mouth. It's funny, but once I finally got under water I understood why he focused so much on breathing because I got really caught up with the amazing sight of the coral and fish and almost forgot to keep breathing! But after the briefing we arrived at our scuba spot and the boat docked. We got into groups of 4 and put on our wet suits, weights to hold us down, tanks, masks/goggles and flippers. Then, one by one we submerged and did a skills test to ensure we were breathing right, we knew how to put our mouth piece back in if for some reason it would
come out, and also test to make sure we knew how to clear water out of our mask if it should fill up. All things that would cause someone to quickly panic. Once we all passed our little tests and we were under water holding on to a rope we gradually started swimming down and exploring the coral and fish. One of the first things the instructorshowed us was the nemo fish! Throughout the time there was a cameraman underwater with us taking our pictures! We were under the
water for 30 minutes and went down 6-10 meters. It was so amazing! After the first dive we came back up and took off our gear and we were able to snorkel. Not as cool after you have scuba dived but I had an underwater camera so I was able to take lots of cool pictures! Soon it was lunch time and we rested after a long time in the water. Sadly my camera screen decided to stop working for the rest of the time on the boat...maybe it was exhausted after I turned into a fish paparazzi and literally stalked the same 2 fish most of the time I was snorkeling.

After lunch there was an option to do another dive at a different location and I could not resist! The second dive was even better than the first! It was deeper and had more fish and coral to explore. It was also a lot more laid back because we had a better idea of what was going on. Another 30 minutes of peace in the water down 10 meters. If only my camera had worked for the second dive! Of course as we docked back at Port Douglas the camera man, who followed me, Jill and Condon all day, gave us a deal on a picture package so some good pictures will be posted soon! Along with the pictures of my snorkeling adventure because on the drive home my camera conveniently was back to normal! Some new potential jobs if all else fails are dive instructor
or fish paparazzi...back up plan of course...

Some of the tanks lined up:

Air Gauge: