yeah, extreme, yeah!

Friday morning I took a bus to Bryon, a greyhound to the Gold Coast, another bus to Coolengatta, and then finally a plan to Cairns for a full weekend jammed packed of amazing adventures. In Cairns (pronounced “CANS”) a small group of us had plans to do some SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Britny, Stephanie, Joe, Chris, Danny, Kelsey and I arrived in the city and had the day and night to explore. Parts of Cairns reminded me of Bolder, Colorado. The street was filled with miscellaneous shops (most souvenir shops), restaurants, and random street vendors selling things like jewelry. At night, we went to the night market where there was a bunch of little cheapy souvenir shops selling just about everything you could imagine. . . I loved it!

Saturday the adventure began. We were picked up at our hotel by the Cairns Dive Centre where we soon boarded a tiny boat. We took the boat, Sunkist, on a two hour bumpy ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. Luckily, I did not get sea sick, but about half the individuals (there was about 40 on the boat) were starting to look a little green. One girl spent the two hours vomiting into a bucket. Needless to say, it was a long two hours. We then boarded our boat, The Kangaroo Explorer, which became our home for two amazing days. After a quick tour and briefing meeting, we were already gearing up for our first SCUBA dive. We did six dives total all throughout various times of the day (and night!) Each dive was better than the previous. I don’t know if it was because I was getting more comfortable in the water or because we were moving to different parts of the reef or what…but it was incredible. I saw thousands of fish, turtles, sharks (small reef sharks…that I tried to chase down so I could touch them), a barracuda, and HUGE clams. The coral was absolutely stunning. Many times through my dives, I would just stare up and the reef, admiring massive structure and brilliant colors. The night dive was neat…although it was a little scary at first. It was creepy being in the middle of the ocean, about 20 meters below the surface, in the complete dark, geared with only a tiny flashlight (aussies call flashlights “torches”…but this was not a torch at all…it was a small, dim light.) That night on the boat, we were all exhausted and went to bed early. Although I was so tired, I found it took me a while to fall asleep in the top bunk of a rocking boat. Late Sunday afternoon, we left the boat, boarded the tiny Sunkist boat again for the 2 hour trip back to the city of Cairns. That night, we got to our really nice resort that we were staying at, drank a beer, and passed out only to wake up for our next adventure. (after SCUBA diving, there is a lot of nitrogen in your body…and one beer is all you need…trust me hahah)

Monday was an EXTREME day. (Extreme became the theme of this trip…it’s the only word that can describe all the madness) We got up early (again) to head to Tully for a full day of white water rafting. We signed up for the “extreme” tour which included over 5 hours of rafting, body surfing down the rapids, jumping off cliffs, waterfalls, and “drowning simulations.” It was intense…no, I mean EXTREME! The rapid guides were nuts, they were so full of energy (and full of bullcrap!) They told stories of previous groups…some of which were hilarious and others were scary. They mentioned that there had been crocs spotted in the river too…which I was not thrilled about! I had not been rafting before so I was already nervous and their extreme stories were not calming me down much. But after a while of being out there, I was loving it! There were times in the river where we would stop to climb up rocks and jump into the water below. We were able to swim down some of the rapids which was sooo fun. One bigger rapid was a bit intense…I got several mouthfuls of water. At the end, we swam down this rapid that shoots you below the surface about 15-20 meters…it was so much fun! Unfortunately, we ended the extreme tour in the ER because Britny busted here knee.

The next day, we flew back into the Gold Coast where Mary picked me up and I was able to spend a day with my family at their home. It was great to be able to relax and spend some more time with her, Ken, Jason, and their new little pet- Joey, a cockatiel they found.

I’m running out of time in Australia and only have one more travel adventure left before I head to New Zealand. I only have a few more things on my “Aussie To Do list” in my short time left here…I better get working on that.

Cheers, Mates!