Day #4
10/2/19
Hiking, Snorkeling, and Diving Day

5am wake up time, I changed, grabbed my snorkel gear, then headed to early breakfast. Enjoying my strawberry toast, I was accompanied by two cute kids who loved to tell me stories of snakes, spiders, climbing trees, and other classic child activities. Then we loaded the glass bottom boat and headed to the shore of Lizard Island again. Once on the beach, we threw down our snorkel gear then began our hike up to the Lizard Island Cook’s Lookout. It was a good hike, and a little challenging in parts! Once at the top you could see a faint line of the reef off in the distance through a layer clouds. On a clear day I bet you could see forever. It was an amazing view over the reef, with a big rock pile on top, and a journal you could sign. Once down the hill I ate a sandwich, changed into my swimmers, then jumped in the water for snorkeling! My Grandma and Grandpa went out first while I was getting ready, so I captured a picture while I could! Haha they are so awesome(:

Walking backwards into the water so I wouldn’t trip over myself, I jumped in and swam around with the fishy’s and corals. It was amazing! There were so many different fish and coral right off the beach. The water was filled with unique colors, shapes, and designs. Afterwards, we spotted a couple of Goanas (lizard like reptiles), then headed off towards Ribbon Reef 9. It took a while and was a bit bumpy as we watched the small islands go by. We are truly in the middle of nowhere. Cool.
2:00pm- Grandma’s birthday, according to the time back home in the States! What a way to celebrate. Arriving at Reef 9 I was blown away with how close we were anchored to the reef. Lets jump in! The water filled up my wet suit with a cool rush, but it didn’t last long as my eyes gazed over the thick, live reef ahead of me. Hundreds of fish swimming in and out of the colorful corals. The fish were bright vibrant colors as if created fresh out of my imagination. Hovering over the reef, it lay only 2 feet below me, allowing me to see every pattern on the coral clearly. It was a little difficult to swim against the current, so we hung out around the same area for a while. The at 4pm was my scheduled time to dive. Yay!

After buddy checks we hopped in and started down the lead line. About 2 meters down I noticed my ears were not equalizing. So I went up, did some adjustments, tried to fix them for several minutes, and they still wouldn’t pop. Slightly frustrating because I’ve never had problems with this before. Struggling while everyone was already down, one of the leaders came to assist me, telling me shes never had anyone not be able to do a dive because of ear problems. A little adjustment and I should be fine. So I tried again and again, and pushed myself a little too far as a sharp pain flashed in my right ear. When that slowly went away I continued down not much further, just hovering above the others as we swam along. After some more sharp pains and aching in both my ears, the pressure began to effect me less and I was able to go down a little lower.

Gazing up towards the surface from the bottom of the reef’s edge I watched the coral and the fish shine under the glowing blue water. A turtle, the biggest one I’ve seen, swam between the crevasse soaring elegantly up the other side out of sight. It was a beautiful dive, really. But then the pain remained. Dazed while climbing up the latter out of the water, my grandma took a picture of me smiling in my scuba gear with a face of pain I couldn’t hide. I’ll have to admit, it was actually quite a funny looking picture! Heading straight to the room, I changed and took some decongestant and pain meds to hopefully take the pressure off. Once seated at dinner with our wonderful friends from Switzerland, I remained quite and distracted as the pain grew more sharp. Kindly, the Swiss couple lent me some ear drops before the food came out. They help immensely, it was amazing. Sitting out the dinner, I enjoyed some amazing chicken dish, and shared a laugh as we talked about Swiss wrestling.

Heading back to the room, I took some more medicine then we gathered on the bed to play a game Wizard. After the oddly low scoring game, my grandpa and I walked out to the back deck to see where we docked for the night. Looking out, the water was lit by the boat, and full of a ton of grey fish. They were swimming and jumping around everywhere! With their horizontal pectoral fins, and long skinnier appearing grey bodies, I honestly thought they were sharks at first. But I guess they were most likely Great Trevally. Super cool way to end the night.

Day #5
10/3/19
Last Day on the Reef

Last day on the reef. With my Go-pro still broken from snorkeling at Lizard Island, I was a little bummed I didn’t get any pictures of the reef, but happy that the memories were mine. With an 8am snorkel time, we ate a quick breakfast, then headed to the back to prep. Anchored at Ribbon Reef 3, it was quite the sight to see. In front of me lay a circular reef with colors showing through a low tide, and a crashing line of waves behind it stretching as far as the eye can see. Behind the bright white line, tall rolling swells approached, and underneath lay the continental edge. A drop off into the deep powerful ocean with waves crashing onto the edge. Amazing.

Today my ears feel a lot better, I can only feel an odd pressure leaving my hearing off in the right ear. But it’s nothing enough to keep me out of the water! Jumping in again with my snorkel and fins I swam over to the reef. It’s amazing how different and unique each reef is, as this one was filled similar, but a different variety of fish and coral. With the low tide the coral lay right underneath me. Almost hesitant to swim over the coral, I lay as horizontal as possible, not even moving my fins, and swam with my hands hovering inches above the coral. Being so close, I could see more color and detail in everything. Most fish swimming around didn’t mind my presents as I cruised along side them. Reaching the other side of the reef I gazed into the open blue water beyond, wondering if a larger creature would come out of the blue abyss.

Staying close to the comforting protection of the reef, off the edge I spotted a huge school of silver fish, then even larger ones began to appear. The Great Trevally. These fish swam around quickly, spraying something I assumed to be eggs, recognizing this from an old shark week I watched. Excited after seeing that, I continued my swim around the reef, but this time, riding the current slowly through the middle. With the tide still low, I swam close to fish I’ve never seen before. I also came along a Giant clam. It was beautiful as its purple shell shined in the light. Tempted to touch the outer shell, I decided I’d let it be. As our boat driver informed us later today that clams do not open after for the rest of the day after they are closed and people have gotten stuck in them before. I am happy with my decision! After doing a couple more laps of the reef, and hopping in a quick glass bottom boat tour, we headed off to our final reef destination. Escape Reef.

Departing around 10am, we changed then headed to the dinning area to play more wizard to pass the time. On our trek, there was a break in the reef exposing us to the powerful open ocean making for a very bumpy ride. It was fun! As the craziness continued for about 30 minutes, we laughed and swung back and forth finishing the card game. Grandpa winning this time. After filling up with some more amazing food for lunch, we had reached our final reef. This being our last chance to snorkel, my grandma and grandpa and I all hopped in. Swimming around I gazed upon the longer reef structure full of amazing colorful tabletop coral. This reef is so different from the last ones! It had a larger variety of coral, and as I swam deep in I noticed a larger variety of fish as well. I think this is my favorite reef yet! After finding a cute anemone, I spotted the black/white/yellow fish from finding nemo and followed him around for a bit.

After exploring the reef extensively, I made my way back to the boat, changed, then headed on the last glass boat tour. The glass boat was driven by a super nice Italian man who knew everything about the reef. But when departing, we were confronted by a sheet of rain. Luckily, the storm turned quickly, and we could continue our exploring. Wanting to get some reef pictures, I brought my phone on the boat to capture as mush as I could through the glass. This ride was amazing as was a giant clam shut, more anemone, and a unicorn fish! Yes, they really do exist, you can look it up. It was all amazing! A perfect way to end water activities on the reef.

Back on the boat a rush of exhaustion hit me. Sad, but excited for our final meal with our amazing chef, crew, and new friends. I ordered the Barramundi, which was absolutely delicious! After our cheese plate dessert and a couple of glasses of wine around the table, one of the crew members started out final night trivia competition. The great couple from Washington that we sat with formed quite the competitive team. Knowing the answers to almost every question, we got the question ‘what is the name of nemo’s dad’ and the pressure fell on me! Unsure and under pressure, I told them Marlin. I was right! Ecstatic and cheering, Tom shook me with excitement. In the end we tied for second, but it was still a great way to end the night with the boat crew. Heading back to the room we packed our things, preparing for departure at 8am. Exhausted, it’s time to get a good nights rest.

Day #6
10/4/19
Kuranda

Waking up at 6am we changed, finished packing, the headed to 6:30 breakfast. About an hour away from Cairns we set off again with another bumpy ride. Sitting on the top deck as land went by, wind and clouds hovered over us. Thank goodness we had sunshine all 4 days on the water. Around 7am all passengers gathered around inside for a group picture, then we docked, said goodbye to the spectacular crew, and hopped on our bus headed to the Cairns Plaza Hotel. With a rainy day, we walked to pick up our rental car, and started our drive up to Kuranda. There being several times when Grandpa practically gave me a hear attack, him not being use to driving on the left, and me not use to being so close to the left edge of the road. Haha, it was a fun drive.

With a windy road up, we arrived in the town at 10:30. Excited to see the popular Kuranda Markets that my grandparents loved greatly in their previous visit 25 years ago, it proved slightly disappointing. My grandma explained how it used to be filled with unique Aboriginal shops, instead of normal tourist traps and mini golf that lined the market slope. I guess a lot can change in 25 years. Continuing our walk around, dehydrated and still slightly dazed from my ears, I was a tad grumpy. I needed food. After stopping at a pie shop, I re-gained some energy and we explored the shops in the center of town. Even though very touristy, we found some good shops and souvenirs. I enjoyed going into the shops and buying some things for people back home. Now it’s time to go find a waterfall.

Driving back a different way we came across Barron falls. As my grandpa and I walked to the lookout, I carried along my camera taking pictures of everything. It was a really pretty walk as the rain forest was sat thick around the boardwalk, and the falls was beautiful. Taking the long way around to Cairns, we stopped in a town and tried their famous coffee, then headed down the longest curvy road I think I’ve ever been on. Once back at the hotel we changed then headed to have a fancy dinner at the aquarium. It was really good food and fun to sit next to fish we just saw the day before on the reef.

Day 7 and 8
Final days in Cairns

These two days went by quicker. Day 7 we traveled up the coast to Port Douglas, driving along a road that lined the coast with a neat water view. On the way we stopped to check out some classic Aussie animals and Crocodiles, the first ones I’ve seen! Before turning back we stopped for a drink, a bucket of prawns, and some sushi. When back in Cairns we then grabbed some delicious ice cream, went back to the hotel and relaxed for a long time, then walked to a small Chinese restaurant. Day 8, we packed our bags, enjoyed a last breakfast together, then headed to the airport. It was a sad, but good goodbye to my amazing grandparents. They are so fun, I love spending time with them on adventures, and I am extremely thankful that they came to see me and took me to see the amazing Great Barrier Reef. You guys are the best, have fun in New Zealand, and see you at Christmas!