Ok now I really wanna just get all caught up with this thingy. Read previous posts if this doesn't make sense with the last thing you read. 

Megan and I flew to Brisbane and stayed a night for one reason: Store our huge huge luggages and pack one bag to take to Cairns the next day. Also we had some laundry to do, so we didn't get to see much of the city we'd be in the next few months. That's also where I went to a camera shop and they told me that my camera was definitely a goner  (although they weren't sure if hot chocolate was corrosive).

Alrighty, off to Cairns by plane the next morning!! Cairns is in the northwest corner of Australia and is basically the most touristy place to go to by the Great Barrier Reef. Driving around (and later walkin around) you could see that every other shop was a tour booking shop and every third a didjeridoo place. We were stayin at the Global Palace, but sadly once we got our room it was kinda disappointing. Luckily though, we found a much nicer lookin place while window shopping and prompty switched our reservation for the next nights.

In the morning, Deep Sea Divers Den picked us up bright and early to go out to the boats. Upon entering, we noticed the boat was crazily packed with people. Yikes!! About 9ish, the certified divers were called up to get briefed on diving. Thats us!   And this is where the fun begins folks..

Megan got a little seasick so she left pretty early in the briefing. After it finished, I headed down to ask her if she wanted a guide (which cost $15 dollars per person) for the 1st dive. To my amazement, she said yes (turns out she thought I asked if she wanted to dive). We were told to suit up right away cause we'd be going with a group. So we got chucked in the water with a Japanese tour group and their guide. Oh boy. It was cool cause we got to see Nemos and Gils and other random Pixar movie fish. I was kinda spazzing cause I didnt want to hit the coral, but I kept sinking down (I would later find out that I had to take off some weights from my weight belt). Eventually, our air did get low and we had to come back.

This is when Megan asked why we were put with a group, and we both realized we just paid for a guide who neither of us wanted. After a little arguing, it ended up being $15 instead of $30 since Megan didn't know, but I did. Phew, now that that's over let's dive again. Again, you can't complain once you're down there, it's awesome.

After our first couple dives, we were transferred to a larger boat. We'd dive the rest of the time off of this one and spend the night there as well. There were only about 15 people (not including crew) as opposed to the 40+ on the other boat. Woohooo! About 3ish, we hopped back in the water and saw a bunch more cool creatures. Dinner was impressive for an out-in-the-ocean, but-not-a-cruise-ship boat.

After we were properly fed, the captain gave us the good news that the night dive was on! We were told when we got on that it looked to windy to do it (we could end up in Taiwan if we dove and got lost). Just as the sun set, we squeezeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed into our wetsuits again (even more challenging after you've just eaten). Then off we went, but we were definitely given a guide for that. We followed her glowstick and saw giant clams, some really ugly big fish that followed us around, and a huge spotted crab.

That's not all folks, just as we were coming up, we saw these sharks all around. They were Bronze Whaler Sharks and were lookin to hunt all the fish that were gathered around the back of the boat. Go away fish! GO get eaten somewhere else! When you shined your flashlight, their eyes lit up bright green and that, I must say, was quite creepy. No worries though, we all made it with every limb accounted for.

They rewarded us with yummy ice cream and then we tackled the challenge of sleeping on a rocking bed.

Next morning, we had our first dive at 8am. This time Megan and I were given another buddy from the crew. She hadn't dove yet and wanted to get underwater. We said it was cool for her to join us. Turns out she wasn't comfortable with goin down 20+ meters underwater. Oh no...so we talked (using the Magna doodle) and she basically told us to keep diving and she'd head on up. After we watched her dive up, we dropped the Doodle, scrambled to get it, then took a very very quick tour of the reef by us because by then our air was basically out.

Just as we made it to the boat, a dive guide started asking where the third buddy was. She made it fine, but he decided to mess with us. Then we got told about how a good buddy would have taken her all the way to the boat. We offered, trust me. After a couple other ppl told us how wrong we were, we just about had it and were feelin quite down in the dumps.

Someone must've took notice of our plight because the next dive was absolutely perfect. It was not only our longest dive yet, but we got to see so many different creatures including two sea turtles!!! This is why I love scuba diving, it's a completely different world that you can just get lost in.

Unfortunately, in the next dive we did. Yep, we checked out the area so much (even saw a couple sleeping sharks) that when we thought we found the mooring line back to the boat, we surfaced and found ourselves staring right out into the open ocean. Oops. Luckily, our boat had a little dingy that saved the day.

7 dives in 2 days. Yowza! If you didn't know, that's quite a lot cause every time you dive, the nitrogen concentration in your body rises and at high levels can give you what's called decompression sickness. We didnt get that (phew), but definitelyfelt lightheaded and tired the whole rest of the day. The next day in Cairns was just a relaxing day which we spent shopping and swimming and stuff.

Our last day in Cairns we we to an Aboriginal cultural park where we saw not only a couple videos and performances on the Tjapukai people, but learned about didjeridoos (did you know that PVC pipe can be played just like a didje?), bush medicine & foods, and got to throw boomerangs and spears. That's what I'm talkin about.

After that we took a gondola up through the rainforest to a little village called Kuranda. We spent a couple hours there, then left to come back down through the village by train. By this point, we were both exhausted and slept quite soundly the entire trip. For dinner, we got us some kabobs and sweet corn, cooked on a free BBQ in the park, and ate while listening to some reggae and watching a crazy fire show. Perfect end to our travels.

We flew back to Brisbane the next morning, collected our stuff, and moved on in. Kristin came in a day later. Since then, we've been settin up the apt, gettin ready for school to start, and being surprised at how much UQ (our University) looks like Rice.  Laters!!

G'day mates!

Anywho, we've moved in and start school in a week. No internet or phone yet, so we're still doin cafes. Because I blab too much, I'm gonna wait til I don't have to pay for every minute so I can tell the stories properly. Our address is:

4/52 Warren Street 

St. Lucia, QLD 4067

Aus

(Just in case you'd like to send us goodies)

Talk later when I hopefully don't have to count my minutes!!!