Finding Nemo!

I just got back from what is easily the best vacation EVER.  Six of us exchange students flew up to Cairns, Queensland for a week to leave Canberra and get a taste of tropical living, getting to be complete tourists for a while.  Being poor backpackers, we drug ourselves out of bed the morning after returning form Surf Camp and took a three-hour bus ride to Sydney to get a cheaper flight to Cairns, again roughly three hours, to touch down in Queensland Monday evening, just in time to check in to our hostel and go to dinner.

We stayed at Caravella Backpacker Resort, where the we got a six-person room to share for the week.  This hostel was Great!  It was right on the boardwalk, a ten-minute walk from the city center, and offered 10% all tours booked through their travel agent who we made instant friends with.  Gloria is an adorable white-haired, petite kiwi who has been in Cairns for years and told us which tours were the best bang for our buck and loved to look at our "beautiful" American credit cards.  She kept tabs on us all week, amazed that a group of Americans could be so congenial and that we could get along with the Canadian travelling with us-- we told her it was because we are Southerners ;)  Another wonderful thing about Caravella-- the resort had a deal with a local restaurant to give backpackers free meals every night!  Granted that the limited menu meant I ate spaghetti for six nights in a row, but at least it was free, tasty spaghetti!

Tuesday, as recommended by Gloria, the we joined a tour from Passions of Paradise to take us out to the reef for the day!  We got to the boat at 7:30 to get a full day, just as the fog was rising off of the surrounding mountains... lovely.

We left the city of Cairns behind us and went about two hours out onto the Coral Sea before we arrived at Michaelmas Cay a bird sanctuary where we had our first look at the Great Barrier Reef!!  

The water was a beautiful blue that I had never seen before, and was quoted to be 29 degrees Celsius, so something like 85 in Fahrenheit, almost like swimming in bathwater.  Very beautiful, salty bathwater with heaps of pretty things stuck to the bottom of the tub.  We took a glass-bottom boat ride to shore and were informed about some of the many interesting things hanging out on the reef, like the different types of coral and fish.  I asked the guide about how it is said that the reef is disappearing because of climate change, to which he replied that he has been diving the reef for twenty years and has noticed nothing of the sort.  He said that the reef does indeed have picky taste as to the temperature of the water and if it is too hot or cold for too long, the coral bleaches and goes into a sort of shock, but after the temperature is corrected, it will come back to life.  The balance is in a constant state of flux--as temperatures get too high, there will generally be a cyclone, which beings in cooler water, naturally fixing itself.  In other words, according the the friendly local, you have plenty of time to save up and come see it for yourself.

We snorkelled at the cay for a couple hours, then moved on to Paradise Reef for two more hours, which was teeming with even more marine life!  A few of us went in together and bought a disposable underwater camera, so I have pictures, but they hardly do justice to how beautiful it is!!  It is every bit as colorful and vibrant as all of the pictures and documentaries have you to believe.  There are fish EVERYWHERE, and they have no sense of personal space.  I could swim into a big group, and they could care less about me being right up with them.  There were parrot fish all over the place, and I could actually hear them munching on dead coral!  There were huge clams more than two feet in diameter that would snap shut when hit by my shadow, and once when I was at the edge of the reef bordering a drop-off to the deep blue, I looked out and saw a shark swimming about 20 yards away from me!  It was probably only as big as I am and could care less about me, but it was enough to make me want to get away from the edge.

I found NEMO!!!!!!!!

 

Myself and Casey, one of my travelling buddies for the week

We had a BLAST snorkelling!  Being able to see such a wonder of nature was absolutely amazing!  It was worth every cent to have the chance to swim around with all of the beautiful creatures and learn about such a fascinating ecosystem.  I also have a new respect for Marlin.  It took me over three hours to fly from Sydney to the reef, I can not imagine how that poor little clown fish made it from there all the way to Sydney Harbor. That's a devoted dad, right there.  Nemo should feel very loved.

After our time was up, the crew stowed the anchors, hoisted the sails and went full force toward the mainland.  It was truly a lovely day, and a wonderful way to start our week in Cairns!