Easter Break, Part 2: Cairns

   We took a very enjoyable Qantas flight to Cairns – they just really know how to do air travel, let me tell you. Great food, great service, free flowing alcohol, and movies all the way. We landed in Cairns and it was HOT. We were so in love. Since it was Easter we wore bunny ears on the plane. I’m sure everyone was thinking “stupid Americans” but whatever, I had plenty of fun saying, “HOPPY Easter” to anyone that stared. Of course the baggage service in Sydney broke down and none of our bags made it there. So with the clothes on our back and money in our pockets we checked into our hostel, which was super tropical and chilled out. Love it. We went into the center of town and checked out some stores and ate delicious veggie burgers at a café. We laid out at the Cairns Lagoon. In much of Queensland, so many dangerous things live in the water so people pretty much don’t swim in the ocean. It’s kind of disappointing, but they build these beautiful and very natural looking lagoons everywhere for people to swim in instead. You still get to look out at the ocean at least.

  We didn’t have much time to enjoy our fake ocean though because we had a 4pm appointment to SKYDIVE. I was nervous all day and didn’t even want to read the papers they made us sign, basically signing our life away. After a brief training video and giving us old sneakers to wear (we had no luggage and of course were in flip flops…great) we were in the bus off to the tarmac. My skydive instructor, Doug, was extremely friendly and as soon as I met the guy I would be trusting my life with I felt much, much better. Us four girls along with 2 guys piled into this little hanger with all of our instructors and off we went. I was talking so much and asking my instructor a million questions…definitely some nervous rambling going on. He assured me that yes, my harness was tight enough and no, I wasn’t going to die. We got out of the clouds and I thought we must be close to our dropping height, 14,000 feet. Nope, we were only halfway. Panic sets in. A red light was on in the front of the plane, when it turned orange we double checked our harnesses and put on our goggles and then it turned green and off we went! Eileen was first up and she dropped out of that plane like a little fly. Then a very nervous Meg flew out followed by Hilary and all of a sudden I was dangling over the edge of the plane, Doug told me to cross my arms and we dropped forward! We did a flip out of the plane and then we were free falling for a minute. All I can say is it felt like I was flying and it was awesome. Absolutely amazing! The best rush I’ve ever felt! After a minute our parachute was pulled, but something wasn’t quite right. Doug got very quiet and all of a sudden our parachute was released, we were falling again, and the reserve parachute was pulled. I guess our first one wasn’t catching quite right – Thank god for the reserve!! We made a safe landing after a beautiful and serene parachute ride and the adrenaline rushed through me all night. What a great experience. Did I mention it was at sunset? Incredible.

Skydiving at sunset

Our hostel

Downtown Cairns

Cairns lagoon

   That night we went to Gilligans hostel which is pretty much party central and had a great time celebrating Easter our way! We saw a bunch of people from Melbourne who were traveling up there too and even partied with our new friend Mackenzie who we met skydiving. The whole night we were all on such a natural high from the skydiving it was sooo much fun. Early the next morning was struggle city, however, when we had to wake up and take a 2 hour bus to the Daintree rainforest for our day tour. We weren’t looking too hot and not feeling our best so the whole day was kind of a hassle with all the driving (we were told it would include hiking but we were with all these old lazy people so that was a downer). But we did see the beautiful Daintree rainforest which is one of the oldest in the world. Saw some pretty huge spiders, mangrove trees, some crocodiles on a river cruise and had a delicious bbq for lunch. We had a chill night eating downtown in Cairns because we wanted to be fresh and ready for scuba diving the next day.

dancing at Gilligan's

The rainforest

Cape Tribulation - only place where land meets the reef!

    Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef is something I’ve always dreamed of doing and the day was finally here! We took a very bumpy boat for an hour out to the reef (I got sea sick…go figure.) and stopped at two different spots for scuba diving and snorkeling. I’ve never dived before so at first it was a little overwhelming because you really have to think about breathing and equalizing your ears and what not but after a few minutes it all became second nature and I got to enjoy the reef. We saw so many beautiful parrot fish and coral and anemones. It was amazing! The most vibrant colors and fish you would only think to see watching and episode of Planet Earth or something. We touched giant clams and zig zagged our way around the reef. Snorkeling was awesome too because the fish didn’t get scared and swim away so we saw a lot through that as well – and the water was the best temperature! The second dive we did we saw a huge eel and my friend Meg saw a reef shark! Amazing.

      That night was our last night in Cairns so we went to Gilligans and partied all night, I don’t think Meg and I got home until 4 am. That was not so fun when we had to take a 10 hour bus to Airlie Beach the next day. I think I was in the bathroom for ¾ of the ride. Oof.