Cairns, Australia
The Great Barrier Reef baby!!! Clearly that's why we're in Cairns. Cairns is the closest major airport to the Great Barrier Reef and with it being so large there is access to the reefs from hours north and south of Cairns. The weather here is just perfect, the skies are blue and we're in the high 70's. Just beautiful, after freexing our bottoms off in New Zealand.
Day One:
Chilling and enjoying the beaches and this amazing weather in mid 70s. We have been quite lucky with our flights, we've flown a lot, honestly I've lost count, looking back...it's been 14 flights! That's counting the connecting flights too. The flihgts have all been seemless, no delays, no lost luggage. We were surprised on our first JetAir flight where they didn't even offer water. They charged for water, say what? After that we were careful to always have a bottled water avaialble on the plane. We drink a lot of water. Anyways, the reason I'm telling you know about how lucky we have been is that on our flight from Auckland to Cairns we WERE NOT LUCKY!!! We were already flying in late, losing two hours to the time difference, expecting to arrive at 9:45am with our flight been over four hours delayed we landed at 2am local time and 4am our body clock time (in Auckland). OMG, we were exhausted and very irritable. I had let our hotel know if advance of our late arrival. It's funny, front desks here are not 24/7, you gotta let them know you're arriving late (anytime after 7pm) or you'll sleep outside. Expedia was smart enough to warn of this on each booking. Anyways, we were just exhausted, the airport was a ghosttown. Cairns is not a huge city and it was asleep! We were able to get the nicest (and most expensive) taxi ride to our hotel, I had instructions on how to get the key. Got the key, checked in, got in bed and SLEPT! Then the morning came and jet lagged, no matter how tired we were woke us up... We gifted ourselves a lazy morning, which was easy to do, as we were staying on the beach and the weather was beautiful, then dusted ourselves off. Parents had a lot of caffeine, love me some "flat whites coffee". Figured out the bus system and set off to discover Cairns.
Ouch, it's so very, very late and we have finally arrived in Cairns. Here we wait, patiently for a cab. It's 2am locally...4am back in New Zealand.
Day Two:
Sleep in first. Then check out Cairns.
We slept in OF COURSE. Then headed off to Cairns to check out this city salt water pool. It's lovely and the weather is lovely and we're happy again.
Enjoying the water and the view and the weather.
We had to get some beach towels, good souvenir and good beach necesitssity.
OMG, I got the best sea food lunch ever. I really wanted some great sea food...and here we go, Tha Fish delivered.
Conner's been wanting to see a digereedo and here we go. We even got a lesson on how they work. The oldest instrument in the world.
Chilling on Cairns beach.
Crazies. I can't get them to calm down, I guess that's what being young is like? If you can't beat em, join em.
My honey enjoying a bit of sparkling with me. This nice weather has left me craving a good glass of sparkling wine.
Day Three:
Today we snorkle in the Great Barrier Reef. The day is here!
Checking out the market. Rusty's, filled with local produce and souvenirs.
Aiden found himself a gem and stones shop. The vendor was patient with us as he picked out the perfect rock.
Conner and I get ready to board. We booked the Skedaddle, which is supposed to be the best boat for motion sickness, thank goodness. FAST, it's the fastest boat on the bay...and HOLY cow it was FAST.
Family picture at the start of our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef.
Our crew, yougn crew huh? Our captain is on the left.
Getting ready to get in the water. We're in Cairns in the winter. Cairns in towards the north in Australia and since we're south of the equator, the further north we go the warmer it gets...so we're in the Florida like weather of Australia. Winter is the perfect time to be here. We're off to the reef in our wet suits.
Our gear.
Skedaddle provided us complimentary pictures of our trip. Wonderful! No need for our own underwater cameras, the photos are all taken for us. We had a guide showing us around the reef, which is really nice, because while the fish as awesome, I wouldn't know what they were called on their own. This is Aiden and I looking all good in our snorkle gear, wet suit and all.
We saw a sea turtle! Isn't she amazing?!?!? This was the highlight, watching the sea turtle eat and swim about. We followed her around for a bit.
Nemo! We found Nemo and anemones. So awesome.
Here's my bestie!
Reef fish swimming in anemones. We also saw huge clams, just huge, ancient clams, breathing and pulsing water in and out. Amazing.
Family picture. This is towards the end. I did well, I suffer from terrible motion sickness. I've been testing out the motion sickness patch and it was a success on this trip. Towards the end of waiting for late snorklers to get on the boat, it got very painful and the nausea set in. Huh, I just hate it...I went downhill quickly. I never got sick though and for me, that's a huge win. I was so happy to be able to participate. I've been wanting to snorkle the Great Barrier Reef. A bucket list item really, but the fear of getting motion sickness would normally have prevented me. So happy to have found something that works with the motion sickness patch.
The full set of passengers on the boat. We had a fun group. Lots of parents and kids.