Well well, here we go again...

So we awoke bright and early to head down to the reef terminal to catch our boat for the day. We boarded and the boat left at about 8:30am. The ride was smooth and they were offering seasickness tablets which Emilie took. I thought I'd be fine and I was until the boat hit waves...I didn't feel sick but just really dizzy!!!! The trip out to the reef was over 30k and it took a couple of hours. We got to Michaelmas Cay which was a sand cay (kind of like a small island) full of birds!! The big boat parked a hundred metres away and they took us to the island in mini boats. It was sooooo cold and windy! Wetsuits were available for optional hire but at $7 we said no, we'll brave it. So we snorkled ourselves up and headed into the sea. It was amazing. Some of the coral and fish and plants and whatever I've never even imagined let alone seen. Super stuff, highly recommended.

After a while we headed back to the big boat for a smorgasbord of pasta, salad, prawns and lamb casserole. Sexy. I kept going back for more fresh king prawns. Delicious! Then we made our way to our second reef spot...only problem is this one was out in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean and near no islands and I can't swim (well enough to be confident in the ocean at least). We had floaty belts given to us. Everybody took one...I took two. I looked like a right dufus but I don't care! The confident people jumped right off the back of the boat and I was like "heh". They said if anybody needs help we can have a special tour guide and I was like yes please! I stripped off, snorkled up and froze my arse off waiting to jump in. The guy went in and took a rubber ring with him and told me to follow. A wave came up and spashed me cold so I just jumped in! I grabbed onto the ring with one hand and wouldn't let go! Waves lashing, wind blowing!!! The guy swam towards the reef, pulling the ring (and me) along. I dared to put my head in and wow, what a treat! Even better than the first place. It took me a while to adjust to the awesomeness of the ocean. It was sooo deep and just full of aquatic wildlife. Big fish, small fish, starfish, yellow fish, blue fish...fish fish fish!!! The best were these little illiminous blue fish that stood out. My guess is they stand out to predatory sharks too! Emilie and Natascha saw a shark (not a Jaws shark, a little one we were informed only eats fish. Hmm...) I looked at the boat and we were so far away, I would have been ok snorkling by myself but who knows how far I would have drifted away from the boat! The guy says to me to hold onto the ring as he was going to dive down to see if he was in the right place. WTF?! I held on and put my head under and watched him dive down, have a look around and come back up; "this way" he says. Oh it was so amazing and just unreal. We heard the whistle a while later and everybody headed back to the boat where we got back on and dried. I'm so glad I did it and it is highly recommended! Yesterday Emilie and Natascha got up all excited at 7am for their sky dive. We asked if there was a spectator space for me and they said they'll see at the office. When we got there they told us it had been cancelled in Mission Beach due to weather (it hasn't stopped raining in 3 days). They opted to do it in Cairns and were on hold. They kept saying they'd call at 11, 13:30, 15:00 etc. and every time they did, it was cancelled. Try again today, got up this morning, no good. Delayed all day. Natascha couldn't wait as had a flight to Brisbane at 14:40 and Emilie's was cancelled all day. We're getting our campervan for 5 days tomorrow so Emilie can't do it here. She's now got an open ticket so is gonna try again in Byron Bay in a few weeks. I dallied briefly with doing a bunjy jump until I thought about it seriously and thought f*** that s***! Let's pay to jump of a ledge and let gravity do it's job. Good one. So the past 2 days in Cairns have been spent indoors (both at our new hostel and in shopping malls) waiting for the sun to come out. Yesterday myself, Emilie, Natascha and Lise (another Topdeck girl) went to the cinema to see Bridesmaids. I was wondering what I'd let myself in for but it was sooooo funny. Laughed every minute. Highly recommended. So we're going to go and have our free dinner in a bit (it's free because they give you a spoonful of spagbol in a shot glass) and then chill for the night! Campervan times tomorrow which should be fun! Hope you are well!