Great Barrier Reef*

*All photos are courtesy of KL's waterproof camera. It's the best!


SCUBA DIVING IS THE GREATEST. EVER.

Today I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, thereby checking off one more location I’ve visited from the show Planet Earth. It was absolutely stunning. I thought Hawaii was beautiful, but it can’t compare to the vibrant colors and fish diversity I saw today. I swam in a school of thousands of beautiful blue fish and saw lots of turtles, clownfish, a giant clam, and reef sharks.





Our boat was gorgeous and the cost of diving included gear, 3 dives, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea. The guides were great, the food was really tasty, and I was only seasick for half the time! Here's a photo of me with Erikka, KL, and Ryan:







After I ate some rice and had a motion sickness pill during lunch, I felt way better. The dive sites were beautiful and we went down to depths of 19 meters, 14 meters, and 12 meters on the 3 dives, as well as a bit of snorkeling. Since I don’t use much air, I was able to stay down longer than a lot of my group. I can’t describe how beautiful it was, but I think I forgot to breathe sometimes because I was so transfixed by what was around me.






KL took her waterproof camera with her when we went snorkeling, hence all these wonderful photos:




The gear was really nice, and KL was in love with the onesie lycra suit they gave us to protect us from jellyfish stings. None of us were stung today, although one of the guys in our program got stung a couple times yesterday. It was absolutely worth every minute of seasickness and post-diving exhaustion because it was just so beautiful.



The Silverswift boat:


Tomorrow we get on a 24-hour train ride from Cairns to Gladstone, where we’ll then take a boat to Heron Island for our coral reef class. Internet will be pretty sketchy there – it’s a tiny island with a resort and a research station, and nothing else, so resources are somewhat limited. It’s also on the outer reef, meaning it’s pretty far from shore, so it will be our own island oasis! And after scuba diving here, I can’t wait to scuba at Heron Island and snorkel every day.

So far, every experience I’ve had in Australia has surpassed my expectations. I hope this trend continues, and I fully expect to be wowed and awed at Heron Island and beyond!!