Scuba Diving in the Great Barrier Reef

Today I did what I came to Cairns to do… I went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef!

At first, I was a little hesitant to go… I didn’t know whether I would actually be able to go in the water because of my eye/glaucoma (I’m not supposed to go swimming in any water that isn’t clean because it could infect the drainage duct that is in my eye from surgery a couple of years ago).

Anyway, I decided to just go… If I did not get to go in the water, it’s okay. At least I got to see the reef.

The day started out pretty good… a little rainy, but for the most part, nice. I was afraid I wouldn’t get to go because for the last week or so, it had been flooding in Cairns due to the rain.

What was really kind of scary, however, was as I was walking to my boat, another boat in the harbor was sinking! No, I’m not kidding, it was completely sinking, and all these people were running around, going crazy, and trying to dump the water out of the ship (see pictures below).

Eh, I didn’t care… I wanted to see the reef. The only thing I was hesitant about was my eye… and sharks. Like most people, I’m not a fan of sharks.

Anyway, with the tour I took, I was allowed one free scuba dive and unlimited snorkeling around the reef. I ended up talking with the scuba instructor, and he let me try on the goggles. He told me that water would most likely NOT get in my eyes, and he showed me a way to get it out of my goggles if it did (blow really hard through your nose).

So I made up my mind… I was going to take advantage of my free dive and go into the water. If my eye got infected, I would deal with it… when else was I going to be at the Great Barrier Reef? I needed to take advantage of it.

It turned out to be an amazing experience. At first, it was kind of hard learning to breathe with just my mouth and how to swallow to make equilibrium in your ears/head. The only thing I had trouble with was how to put back my breathing tube if it fell out under water… eek.

Eh, I did my best, and before I knew it, my instructor was telling me to go under. I just went for it… I put in my mouth piece, closed my eyes, and took a dive. I didn’t know if I was going to make it all the way through without having to quit, but I really didn’t care.

Scuba diving is an amazing thing. I recommend it to everyone to try just once in their lifetime. It’s so surreal. You are under water and there are tons of fish around you. It’s kind of like flying I guess… You really aren’t limited to just being at one level… you can go up and down and all-around.

But the reef was amazing… by far, the best thing I have done in Australia so far. There were nothing but corals and tons of fish… It looked exactly like “Finding Nemo,” except the water was a lot murkier… no sharks though (haha). I even took a 2nd dive for $55. This time, though, my instructor found a sea turtle, and it swam around us. We couldn’t touch it though because chemicals/oils in our hands from sunscreen may have burnt it.

Here are my pictures of getting ready to go diving. I don’t have the pictures yet of me actually below the water in the reef because I had to take them with an underwater camera and the film is not yet developed.

I’ll post them ASAP though when I get them! Enjoy…

Preparing to dive

Snorkeling gear

Taking my last breath before going under

Paying attention to the instructor, trying to learn everything and not freak out at the same time (haha)

My scuba instructor... SCUBA STEVE

The wetsuit

On my way to the reef

The boat that was sinking... They were trying to dive under the boat to find the problem.

Not the way to begin a reef excursion

More Things I Have Noticed about Being in Australia

1) They abbreviate and/or have nicknames for everything (“uni” for university; “saltie” for crocodile; “Sheila” for girl; “bloke” for guy)

2) Airports never check any form of identification… I know… kind of scary. You just show up, get your boarding pass, and then get on the plane. They never ask to see a photo id or anything!

3) They only have 5 TV channels. They are like 10 years behind the US. They do, however, still love themselves some “American Idol.”

4) If given the chance, everyone walks everywhere. America is so lazy… we take our cars to check the mail (which is at the end of the driveway).

5) There is no tax on anything; tax is already included in price.

6) Australians love to talk about and compare Australian culture with American.

7) There is no free internet anywhere… even at the University of Western Australia (my school)… ugh, ugh, ugh!

Cairns, Queensland – “Sunshine State”

I arrived in my last destination in AUS before Perth.

Cairns (pronounced CANS) is just a sigh of relief from the big city that was Sydney. It is very similar to Hobart… a small tourist town, very beautiful, right by the ocean. The only difference is you CANNOT swim in the oceans here… or any lakes or ponds… because there are SALTIES (saltwater crocodiles) everywhere. They swim from ocean to freshwater and will attack if given the opportunity.

Additionally, Cairns is 100x more humid that any place I’ve ever been. It’s located in the very northern part of Australia, so it’s in the tropical area. Everything is green; the air is always moist; there are bugs everywhere; and of course it rains daily.

There are also a ton of Aboriginal people living here. It’s pretty amazing… much like New Mexico with a lot of Native Americans living in Albuquerque or Gallup.

It’s a complete tourist city… The only reason people go to Cairns is to get to the Great Barrier Reef. The main dock is just filled with boats and cruises, all leaving daily for the reef. There are also lots of sugar cane fields everywhere… the two largest industries in Cairns are tourism and sugar production.

Finally, Cairns just looks like a scene right out of Jurassic Park… the green mountains with the fog sitting on the top… very pretty & tropical.

Next on the agenda is the Great Barrier Reef and a crocodile farm!

"Downtown" Cairns

Typical fog on the mountains

Palm trees are everywhere!

The main dock FILLED with boats going to the Great Barrier Reef

I love this photo

The "Lagoon," a FREE public swimming area in the middle of town (it was made to prevent people from swimming in the ocean where the crocs are)

The biggest tree I've ever seen...

Sugar cane fields

Fighting the Bad... I Will Not Be Beaten!

So far, everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong here in Australia. The good thing is most of these things were fixable or are fixable.

First of all on my flight to Sydney a week ago, I noticed that every time I zoomed out and took a picture with my camera, these two spots would appear in the picture. Story cut short – I ended up getting water in the camera while taking pictures of the dolphins, and the spots were dried up water between the two lenses. Luckily, the spots are not that noticeable and only appear when I zoom out completely, so for the most part, my camera still works fine. Plus, I have insurance on it, so I can return it when I get back to America.

Next, for a short period of time my phone completely stopped working. It said that the SIM card no was no longer working. Luckily though, since I had insurance on it, I took it back to my phone company and got a new SIM card.

Then there was my ATM card... I ordered an ATM card with my new bank here in AUS. It was supposed to be sent to a branch in Sydney, so when I got there, I could pick it up and have it. Instead, it “somehow” didn’t get there in time, so I had to call and cancel it. Now, any time I need money, I have to go into a bank and withdraw money (kind of a hassle, but no worries).

Finally, the biggie… when I turned on my computer last night, for some weird reason, everything… I mean completely EVERYTHING… E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G from my laptop was erased. Every file, document, and program I added in the last three years is gone. My computer completely rebooted itself to the original settings that it first had when I bought it. Luckily, however, I prepared for this day, and I have everything from my computer backed on a USB stick, so nothing is really lost. I just have to get my computer fixed ASAP when I get back to the US.

But after everything that has gone wrong to me in Australia, I can only be happy that I am here. It’s all about making mistakes and learning from them. In the words of Alanis, “You live, you learn” (haha).

The Weirdest Creature in Australia Thus Far…

The weirdest & most interesting creatures live here in Australia… one of which is the cassowary bird, one of Australia’s main icons.

This bird is outrageous…

To begin, the cassowary is a towering bird as big as an emu or ostrich. But instead of having feathers like a bird, it has all these thin fur-like black feathers covering its body. It also has a blue face with this huge red turkey-like gobbler hanging from it. Not to mention, there is this huge plate on the top of its head that makes it look like a brontosaurus. Plus, the cassowary has these two huge nails (one per foot) on the inside of each foot that it uses as a dagger to hurt/kill anything that might bother it. It could kill a human with just one kick.

But the coolest thing about this creature is its call… It has the deepest call of any other bird on the planet, which sounds something like a deep bass beat from a hip-hop song.

I thought the platypus was crazy… check out the cassowary on youtube.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOPVVdg8noc

Feeding a cassowary

Weirdest creature ever

A turkey bird gone wrong...?

The Deadliest Creatures in Australia!

Today I went to Wildlife World at Darling Harbor in Sydney.

There I got to see the deadliest spider in the world, the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus). What is crazy about this spider is it is located in URBAN areas all over Sydney and spends most of its time wandering around the city (very much in contact with humans) in search of a mate. I think its venom can kill you in something like a couple of minutes, but fortunately, there is antivenom for it.

I also got to see the 2 most deadly snakes in the world – the inland taipan & the eastern brown snake – both of which are native to Australia. Luckily, however, they are only located in remote areas of Australia nowhere near Perth. What is interesting about them, though, is the reason their venom is so deadly… “Supposedly” there are these mice-like creatures that these snakes hunt, which are also poisonous and dangerous to the snakes themselves. Thus, to ensure that these rodents don’t kill the snakes with their poison, the snakes have evolved very potent venom that can kill the rodents immediately after biting them…

Additionally, something like 15 of the 30 most venomous snakes in the world inhabit Australia… Yay for all the deadliest creatures in the world living in Australia!!!

Attached are also some more pics of animals found at the Sydney Wildlife World.

Atrax robustus - the world's deadliest spider (native to Sydney)

The world's most deadly snakes (look how many are native to Australia)

2nd most deadly snake

Deadliest snake in the world!

It may look fake... but it's a real spider in its web... EEK!

Two bugs mating...?

Australia's largest lizard

Sleepy Joey

Sydney, New South Wales

I just arrived in Sydney yesterday morning, and weirdly enough, it has been my least favorite place on my excursion through Australia. Don’t get me wrong though – Sydney is an amazing city, but there just really wasn’t as much to do as in the other cities.

Sydney is a lot like Melbourne… It’s super hot and very big. It’s another big shift into city life craziness, coming from the small city of Hobart, Tasmania.

The Opera House was beautiful and really interesting to see because it is one of Sydney’s and Australia’s most recognizable icons. Plus the Sydney Bridge was nice to see from the ferry boat to Darling Harbor.

My favorite part of Sydney, however, has been Darling Harbor. Everything seemed to be other there… the aquarium, the wildlife center, McDonalds, etc. I also tried to find where the Real World Sydney house was, but I had no luck.

The only negative thing about Sydney was its transportation. I had to take public transportation everywhere I went because it is just too hot and too big to walk anywhere. Not to mention, the city is completely spread out over miles and miles of land and water, so you have to keep switching from bus to subway to ferry, then back to bus, and then back to subway, etc.

And at one point, because of the heat, my subway got stuck on the rails, so it took me four hours to get back to my hostel. For some reason, the heat was causing the railways to shift or something like that, so I had to just sit there on the subway and listen to my iPod for a couple of hours (not too bad though).

For the most part, Sydney was a great city, but I enjoyed Melbourne a lot better. I guess it was because there were actually things to do in Melbourne, like the Australian Open and the Great Ocean Road. In Sydney, there is not really much to do… there are only things to see. And after I saw the city, I got kind of tired and bored from walking around.

Darling Harbor

Sydney Bridge from the top of a 100+ floor building

The city of Sydney

The Opera House

Mini NYC

Opera House/Sydney Bridge Combo

Chinatown

And I present to you... Sydney Opera House!

My favorite picture of Sydney... except for that strange man in the black shirt ruining my photo (haha)!