Great Barrier Reef

I spent the last two days of my trip in Cairns (pronounced 'Cans'), which is one of the top places to go to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Since Matt and I are scuba divers, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the reef while I was in Australia. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good while I was there, but luckily the fish and the reef are still there

whether it's raining or not. :)

Cairns is a beautiful, super green, tropical town that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. I even saw several plumeria trees which totally made me feel like I was in Hawaii.


This is the view from my hotel room in two different directions...the bottom one is the Esplanade and the harbor for all of the reef tour boats. It was just a short 5 minute walk along the Esplanade to the docks from the hotel.



The Cairns Esplanade is the whole recreational area/tourist area along the water. A long stretch of beautiful grassy park area with barbecues, tables, trails, monuments, etc.,
runs through the middle, with the shops and restaurants on one side and the boardwalk and water on the other side.

Although Cairns is one of the closest and best places to stay to go out to the reef, it does not have nice beach areas. In fact, they said that the muddy waters on the shore here had crocodiles, sharks, and dangerous jellyfish, hence, no swimming. To make up for it, they built this awesome pool/swimming area right on the boardwalk, complete with sand, so people can swim there (next to the actual ocean) but be safe. The water you can see in the background is the ocean.

I loved the tree-lined paths along the Esplanade.



Skyrail Rainforest Cableway

The mountains surrounding Cairns are full of lush tropical rain forests. The sky rail was really amazing and gave such great views of the rain forest from above. You ride in the cable cars that take you through the forest and mountains. There were also several places where it would stop and you could walk around in the rain forest. It was really cool and so beautiful!


I was busy snapping pictures and enjoying the scenery the whole time. Some of the pictures aren't that great that were taken through the window, but it gives an idea of how green and beautiful it all was. It was cool seeing bright colored birds flying around, and I loved just listening to the sounds of the rain forest as we soared above it, too. Sometimes the air was filled with sounds of millions of different insects making noises, other times the sounds of birds, and other times it was completely quite. It was a really peaceful place! I also loved being able to see out over the ocean and see tiny islands way out in the sea.

Views of Cairns



Barron Falls:


All of the sudden along the ride this came into view...it was quite a breathtaking sight!

At one of the stops you could get off and walk out close to the falls.


Nice rain forest wildlife :)



The Main Event: The Great Barrier Reef

I LOVE the ocean, scuba diving, snorkeling, and tropical fish, so I could honestly have spent several days exploring the reef if I'd had more time. Matt and I want to go back and spend a week there someday. :)


Unfortunately it rained off and on and was cloudy most of the day on the day
that I took the tour out to the reef, but it was still beautiful. The colors and visibility just weren't as great as it would be on a sunny day.

You have to take a boat anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to get out to the reef, depending on which spot you go to.
We went to a couple of different places throughout the day, and we also got to go for a glass-bottom boat ride and look at even more coral, fish, etc.

I saw tons of amazing sea life, but my pictures got messed up in processing so they're not very clear. Here are a few of them (they're not very good) and a few others I found online of some of the things I saw.

~ Tons of coral formations, some of it bright purple, red, blue, etc.
~Millions and millions of tropical fish, all colors and sizes
~NEMO!!! (I promised Kayden I'd see Nemo and bring him pictures). I saw lots of cute little clown fish in their anemones. They were my favorite and something new I'd never seen other places I've been diving.
~We saw one big sea turtle and several sting rays
~Lots of bright blue starfish (and others, too)
~HUGE clams ( you can see them in a couple of the pictures.) It was fun to watch them open and close.



Nemo!
I told one of the dive masters that I wanted to dive down and see all the cool things, so he took me on a personal tour around to all of the clown fish hang-outs and pointed out a lot of amazing things I wouldn't have noticed on my own.


One of the places they took us was a little "cay", which is a small sand island in the middle of the ocean. Since it was high tide, all that was left above water was a tiny mound of sand, but it was still really shallow all around it. They dropped us off there and we walked on the sand out to where the reef was, a little ways out. It was a really cool feeling standing in the middle of the ocean, walking on sand but being completely surrounded on all sides by endless ocean. I took this picture as I was standing there just to show what it looked like in all directions around me. (That's our boat in the distance.) The water got deeper and deeper as we walked out further until it was too deep to touch any more. Then there were some great coral reefs to explore. This is where I saw the large sea turtle and the sting rays. Someone in our group said they saw a reef shark, but I didn't see it before it swam off.


So, that's it...that's my trip! I took off nice and early the
next morning and began my 24 hour trip home! (the trip home was much longer and harder than the way there, but so worth it!)

I did have a layover in Sydney so I at least got to see the Opera House and Harbor.

Our plane from Sydney to LA...decorated in Aboriginal-style artwork

Watching the sunrise from the airport :)--actually,
this one was in Melbourne the morning I flew to Cairns.


It was really strange leaving Sydney Sunday morning and then arriving back home the same morning in Las Vegas. The flight left Sydney around 10:30 am and by 3:30 in the afternoon (5 hours later) it was completely black outside. Crazy!