Wednesday 29th January 2014

We had been keeping a close eye on the news due to a cyclone that was heading to the Queensland coast which was getting worse as the hours went by. Our flight was still scheduled to go, so we grabbed a taxi and headed off.

We got on went through security where Stu once again got stopped! He clearly gives off a bad vibe!! We were on Qantas today, so a little more class than Tiger or Jet Star!

The flight was fine and we landed in Cairns and were out the airport in record time! The weather didn't look too favorable, was very dark and grey!

We arrived at the hotel, which we had a fantastic view across the harbour! We didn't really escape the hotel much as the weather was awful and the rain and wind had picked up.

We did go out for dinner across the road, which did some AMAZING meals and the best dessert trio ever! I was extremely stuffed after!

Thursday 30th January 2014

We woke up this morning with news the cyclone, now named Dylan had moved further south down the coast. Hurray!

We grabbed some breakfast at the hotel, which was packed full of Chinese tourist for the Chinese new year. There was a queue for a table at breakfast, which none of the Chinese could grasp this idea of queuing. So the hotel staff had to keep moving them on every time they sat at a 'free' table! This was mildly amusing to watch, and some what satisfying too!

We headed out towards the dive shop to check ourselves in for our dive tomorrow. Not before we had to wade through the king tide that had come on land. Luckily the hotel is on a high slope and our rooms are the 8th floor! We were lucky that the dive was going out tomorrow, but it would be extremely full boat due to a full cancellations in the past few days.

We were all checked in and ready to go tomorrow. We had a little stroll around town before we decided to head back to the hotel for a dip in the pool!

We had dinner in town and an earlyish night due to our pick up for diving at 6 am!

Friday 31st January 2014

An early wake up this morning, but the sunrise was pretty awesome to watch. We got ourselves picked up and driven to the boat. We all took a sea sickness tablet this morning, just in case. I'm glad I did as it was a little rough going out! But I didn't throw up this time!

We got our rooms we both were on the upper deck in bunk beds. I gave Stu the short straw and he had the upper bunk!

We had a long way to go for our first dive, so we all relaxed. Everyone got sun burnt, except for me, and was pretty pink for the remaining of the holiday too!

We arrived at our first dive site at 12, so we got ourselves kitted out. We had sting suits due to the jellyfish season and we had already spotted a few big ones! We went out just the four of us seeing as we are 'pro' divers and the dive instructors were out teaching everyone.

We didn't see a lot due to the bad weather that has just come through. We saw some pretty big sea cucumbers a blue spotted ray and plenty of my favourite, butterfly fish.

We had some lunch, which was a pretty big buffet style before our next dive at 3 pm. It was pretty bad this dive, it was a very strong current and we had drifted pretty far from the boat when we surfaced. Dad's poor legs were knackered so I had to use my rescue diver training and tow him back to the boat. Its bloody hard work!

Stu decided to do his advance water dive as it was pretty cheap and we were already here so why not. I decided to do the nitrox dive seeing as it was on offer!

We had some dinner before our night dive, I was really crapping myself! I have only done one night dive and that ended with me running out of air due to the hyperventilation! Plus it was still just the three of us going out, no guide no nothing! It went better than expected, I kept pretty calm, plus we were expecting to see sharks here but none today.

I don't think I have swam so fast to get out of the water! Apparently sharks can hear the fishes heart beats, so they know that they are panicking and scared. This worried me more as my heart was going at a thousand beats a minute!

Safely on board we munched into some well earned cake!

The sea was pretty rough tonight, and as we were getting showered all I could hear was Stu and Mum screaming as the boat swayed them from one side to the other. I could not stop laughing for hours! It was a pretty rough night and sleep was impossible almost!

Saturday 1st February 2014

Stu was up early for the first dive at 6 am, no thanks! I emerged for breakfast and joined in the second dive of the day at a new location.

We had more success seeing fishes! Six bar angel fish more butterfly fish, trigger fish HUGE one actually! They are pretty dangerous in mating season and if you get too close to their nest they we come an attack you, biting you too!

The third dive was good, we decided to use one of the instructors that was going to guide. We saw the biggest pufferfish I have EVER seen!

The last dive we headed to another location in the hopes to see sharks. I was very seriously contemplating not going, but I would be so upset if I didn't see a shark.

It was just me and Stu, so we decided to go with a guide again to be sure we wouldn't miss the sharks.

We were descending via the rope, and literally two minutes into the dive I saw a shark. A pretty big one and I was already terrified and excited at the same time!

Our guide took us round the reef and we saw some big lobsters hiding in the coral, red bass and trevellian. I was trying my best not to shine my torch behind me into the black abyss called the ocean!

We headed up underneath the boat where we held onto the bar, turned out lights off and watched the feeding frenzy of the sharks! I completely forgot where I was and really enjoyed seeing the sharks. There was plenty of small fish, followed by bigger fish, followed by the sharks! They were grey tip reef sharks, and they were more interested in the fish than us. Although a few got pretty close and our guide shone a torch at the shark to scare it away.

It was absolutely worth it! On board the boat you could see the sharks still enjoying the feeding frenzy. They were jumping out of the water chasing the fish around, a pretty cool sight to see!

I throughly enjoyed the cake on offer tonight!

Sunday 2nd February 2014

I got up for the 6 am dive as I was excited to see what was about during the day if there were sharks about!

We saw a huge Titan Trigger fish, the extremely cute clown trigger fish (I was pretty stoked spotting this!) the bizarre unicorn fish, spotted sting ray, a very tiny purple spanish dancer (even more stoked!) a sweet lips and a hump head wrasse.

After breakfast I had my last dive, my ears were beginning to hurt a little. We went with a guide again so he could point out the true anemone clown fish. So cute! While we were looking at the clown fish a white tip shark was obviously startled by us and swam away! Pretty awesome seeing a shark in the day! We saw another big spanish dance, a big flowery cod, pufferfish. Stu spotted a horrid stonefish, pretty good spot and for the win, we saw a VERY friendly Maori wrasse. A funny looking fish plus he was pretty big! Got some really good up close footage that I need to get editing!

It was overall a pretty awesome three days! It was a long way back to Cairns and I think I slept most of the way to the harbour.

I had an awesome shower, I think I washed my hair three times to get all the salt out, but it was so good after not being able to have a proper shower for three days. While waiting to go out, we enjoyed an awesome show of the bats coming out to hunt! There must have been millions!

We decided to head back to the same restaurant as the first night. I wanted the dessert again! We had an early night as we were all pretty pooped after all the diving. I felt like I was still on a boat for the next week. Not enjoyable experience!

Monday 3rd February 2014

Mum and Dad went to pick up the camper van, which attracted more Chinese on lookers than I have ever seen. Some were so nosey that we thought they were going to climb on board to look! So rude!

We headed to the sky rail to head up the mountain to Kuranda. The sky had decided to open up and it rain for pretty much the whole day! We got our rail tickets, which included a glass bottom view over the rain forest. It was enjoyable even in the rain, but we all came to the conclusion that the rain forest wouldn't be here without the rain!

We stopped off to look at the Buller falls, which wasn't very full flowing. The staff at the stop said that the rainy season is two months late our perfect timing again!

We made it to the top of the mountain and we stopped for a bit of lunch. I like Kuranda, even though it is extremely 'hippie'! Mum and I really enjoyed spending money! I brought myself a vase, more coasters and a pair or trousers!

We headed back down the cable car and swapping to the next line half way down. While waiting for the next cable car I noticed a paid of pretty big spiders just chilling out!! Scary and cool creatures!

We headed back to the camper van and drove a little way down the road to our campsite for the night.

It was a pretty chilled evening of cooking dinner and card playing! Mum and Dad had the big double bed while Stu and I had to climb up above the diver and passenger for our bed. It was very claustrophobic...for Stu who had to be in the corner! It was an interesting night for sure...!