Last week was great! As a treat for studying and working so hard, we got to travel for one week. We could have chosen any city/ country but the majority of us went to Cairns because it is the city where most of the tours to the Great Barrier Reef start. But before talking more about it, let me tell you what we did on the very last day of class in Melbourne:
Monday (02/04): We met at 10am in the Academic Center to talk about the travel week and also about what we can expect from New Zealand. We arranged the housing in Auckland and saw a video of the famous Maori culture and how the “Welcome”-ceremony works. Afterwards we had lunch and spare time, which some of us used to finish their essays. I, personally, met my friend from Austria again, before we had a Farewell BBQ at Newman College. On that day, I went to bed early because we had to get up at 3am to catch the shuttle to the airport. We travelled with carry-on bags only and left the suitcases at the College.
Tuesday (02/05): A little bit tired, we landed in Cairns at 9.25am and took the shuttle to our hostel- the “Gilligan’s”. Unfortunately, we could not check in that early, so we changed into other clothes, because the humidity here is insane and left the luggage at the hostel while we took a bus to the Crystal Cascades. It is located in a rainforest and there usually are waterfalls and small pools where you can swim but so many people warned us to not swim there because of crocodiles in the first place. Another reason was also, that they experienced a lot of rain since Christmas, so many areas are still flooded and you never now when and where water would come running down. The path was closed at some point anyway, so we could not reach the top and while walking back, it started to rain cats and dogs. Our clothes were wet and it took plenty of time until they were dry again but it was fun to walk in a warm rain. When we got back to the hostel, we went to the bar to get our free drink and chatted with some other people.
Wednesday (02/06): I think, the three of us looked forward to this day, since we booked the travel week. It was the day, when our Scuba Diving License class started. We got picked up from our hostel and together with one guy from Germany and one girl from Singapur, we sat in the classroom, learned some theory about diving and the methods, and got to know the equipment better, while using it in the pool.
Thursday (02/07): The schedule for this day was the same: theory and pool diving training. It took a lot of energy and when we finished the days at around 5pm, we were so tired. But we were hungry as well, so we somehow managed to get something to eat and explore Cairns in the evening, such as the night market. There are a lot of Aboriginals here but they are causing many problems, sadly. The main reason is alcohol and drugs.
Friday (02/08): We had to get up even earlier that day, because we had to be at the boat to go to Fitzroy Island with our dive instructor Richard. It was the first time diving in open water. I was a bit nervous because of the underwater exercises we had to do so I could not really enjoy the view down there. I focused so hard on breathing and coming back to the surface alive.
Saturday (02/09): It was better on that day! We finally took a boat to the Great Barrier Reef, jumped with the equipment into the dark blue water, not knowing what we would find in the deep and dove down to 18m!!! Although we had to do some exercises, I could enjoy the view more and I loved it! At some point- when we actually saw the first Green Sea Turtle- I started to float towards the surface and I have no idea what I did wrong, but I managed to swim back down to my group after a short break above the surface. On the second dive that day, I finally saw, what I wanted to see so badly besides turtles: 3 sharks!! They were so cute and really not that big. The boat took 2hours to get back to Cairns and since the waves were really big, a lot of the people on board got seasick- I enjoyed the extrem movements. After reaching land again, we got our certificates and also had a drink with our instructor to celebrate our success- but it really was not hard to get the license!
Sunday (02/10): Once again, we had to wake up early because my friend from Austria took off to Sydney in the morning. So I said goodbye to her and while my other friend went skydiving the whole day, a girl from Denmark, that I met in the hostel, and I went to Kuranda Koala Gardens. Maybe you can guess what the purpose was to go there….To hold a Koala!! And it was the cutest thing I ever did! But I did feel bad for the Koalas since a lot of people want to hold them every day….
Back in Cairns, we decided to meet for dinner at a really good Burger restaurant (Jimmy’s), where we went to a few days before already with another girl from Switzerland.
Cairns has a lot of good restaurants to offer but other than eating, there is not a lot you can do in the city. You have to book tours to explore the things around Cairns but in the city itself, there is not much to see, except for the shops, the lagoons and the Botanic Gardens. One thing you will always find here are bats. I have never seen so many bats in my life before!!
My friend and I have one more day left in Cairns, before flying back to Melbourne and then heading off to New Zealand. Stay tuned for the second part of my journey!
Let the memories begin 