Seriously...or not so serious: Australia - Cairns and The Great Barrier Reef

Thursday we left Sydney for Cairns. That morning we just hung out, packed up, got a few last things and headed to the airport. At the domestic terminals in Australia I found out they do not check your id...at all...ever. I kept trying to hand my passport to people and apparently no one wanted to see it. It was like flying in the US in the 90's...such a strange feeling. They let you keep your shoes on, bring through liquids. You don't even have to have a boarding pass to go through security. I'm telling you it was a blast from the past.

Then we got on our flight and we were on the party plane. Apparently Cairns is like going to Vegas for the weekend. We had at least 3 different groups of guys flying up there for their 'stag' party (bachelor party) The guys directly behind us were so loud, already had been drinking, were drinking on the flight and the flight attendants were way nicer than the US ones would've been. At one point they all started counting really loudly to 20. I didn't know what was going on and was sure they were getting ready to storm the cockpit (remember, no one checked their id's either) Come to find out after the flight Jeff told me they were doing push ups in the aisle. On the flight (less than 3 hours long) they also gave us a small meal (who does that in the US these days for a 3 hour flight?) The meal was a pickle and cheese sandwich....not good. I took one bite and put it down. Shane didn't open his up so when I saw the guy sitting next to me down his, we asked him if he wanted it. He turned to Shane and in his Australian accent said "Are you sure mate? Oh man, you're a legend!" Haha, he was sooo excited to eat his pickle and cheese sandwich. So then we talked for a lot of the flight. He was also going up for his stag party and was getting married in a couple week and coming to the US for his honeymoon. We was all excited he was going to get there the day after the election. Anyways, a very interesting flight.

When we got to Cairns we picked up our car and I got to drive on the left side of the road. I was kind of nervous but was amazed at how fast I became pretty comfortable driving on that side of the road again. We had a 6 passenger car but with all 6 of us and luggage we had luggage stacked everywhere. Luckily it was just until we got to the condo. After we got settled in we drove back to the Esplanade in Cairns and walked around for a bit and found a chinese food court...seriously it was this food court and every shop was chinese or thai buffet. While we were eating we saw on a TV the Australian Bachelorette was playing....what? so happy. So we went home and watched the last part of the home town dates. I kind of want to look it up and watch it online now.

The next morning we got nice and early for our trip to The Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately we picked a really windy day to go out. Our ride out was sooo bumpy. The boat was rocking side to side a lot. Lots of people were getting sick. As long as I stayed outside I was ok, but wasn't feeling super great. Luckily I kept it all in. One of the workers said this is one of the windiest days they go out. had it been any windier they would've cancelled the trip that day. So yay we got to go out. We stopped at 2 different areas that day. The first was called Breaking Patches and the other was Hastings Reef. I liked Hastings Reef the best. I feel like I'm a pretty confident swimmer but I gag easily so putting in the snorkel and going out with these huge waves had me a bit freaked out. The only other time I've snorkeled was in calm water in a bay, etc., The waves were literally crashing over my head and water was going down my snorkel. Gratefully I calmed down and then I was fine after that. Shane has never snorkeled before and wasn't sure he even wanted to but afterwards told me he liked it way more than he thought he would. I bought a disposable underwater camera and sadly the pictures didn't turn out nearly half as how amazing it was to see in person. Plus I thought I was getting these good close up pictures and apparently it's hard to take a picture with a mask on. (at least that's my excuse!) We saw lots of fish and the brightest coral. We saw 2 huge clams. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Great Barrier Reef. It was so amazing to see the beauty under the ocean. And even on the boat just looking out and you could see the water change colors where the coral was right underneath the water. There is really no other way to describe what a great day this was. And luckily the ride back wasn't quite as bumpy!