My trip to Cairns

I have just gotten back from Cairns with my family awhile ago, and boi.. was it farntarrrstic! Cairns and the great barrier reef region is australia's premiere nature based destination. The great barrier reef is spectacular! Photographs, movies and books cannot even provide the slightest justice. The coral, fish and bird life are more prolific than anywhere else in the world. A day at the reef is like a day on a post card, it is over 2600km long with over 1000 coral reefs and islands. Visiting the reef sure was the highlight of the whole holiday in Cairns.

On the first day, we arrived in Cairns at approximately half past nine. We had a maxicab take us to our resort which we had booked beforehand. Upon checking in, i realised that the information given in the advertisement they had provided online was so misleading!

I will not mention the name of the resort but on the ad, it had exclusively mentioned that the resort had accommodations that consisted of a master bedroom, four single beds, a lounge and a kitchen (even to the extent of providing us with a microwave, cooking utensils and cutlery). To our dismay after arriving at the reception and even worse after opening the door to our room, the so called resort was merely just a run down, shabby motel. I thought it was more like a higher class version of the backpackers. The whole room had a damp and old smell to it.

In the lounge, we have a small set of old rattan furniture comprising of a single and a two seater sofa and a tiny coffee table as the dining table. Two double decker beds and a really low and soft queen-sized bed at the other end of the room made up what was known as the master bedroom and the four single beds. Four sets of plates and cutlery were provided in the cupboards of a side table, whilst the cooking utensils was available for rent at the reception.

The kitchen was located downstairs where it was to be shared with everyone else. The inhospitable nature of the receptionist also aggravated the whole situation. Despite being deluded accommodation-wise, it didnt dampen our excitement as we busied ourselves with reservations for our trips and planning our schedule. It was hard to fit so many things into our schedule as we were only staying for two nights and three days.

We were so organised that on the first day after checking in and booking our reservations, we went grocery shopping for our supply of food for the whole length of our stay in Cairns as we didn’t feel like eating out too. We bought bread to make sandwiches for our trips, our essential supply of orange juice, bacon, sausages and eggs for brekky, some chinese vegetables, chicken, onion, corn and steak for dinner for two nights. My mom also had to make porridge as my brother had just gotten two of his wisdom tooth extracted the day before we arrived in Cairns. His cheeks were tremendously bloated, I thought he looked like a chipmunk! Hehe :P

We then went back to the hotel to rent the utensils, and make our brekky. After that, we had a nap and slept longer than we should have, bolted up, showered and left hurriedly to check out the city. I thought that Cairns was more of a town then a city. What I could see that I could call skyscrapers from my point of view were merely apartments and hotels. There were a few shopping complexes scattered here and there, many single storey buildings that largely occupied the city.

The city is relatively small. The population comprised largely of the ongoing Japanese tourists who are attracted by the sun, sand and sea of beautiful Cairns, maoris, islanders, and the local aboriginals, followed by Australians and the others. We did our shopping and came across a large crowd of people gathering at the city central.

Overcome by curiosity, we decided to check out what was going on, and found that a dance performance was taking place at the central stage in the city by the maoris. The beats of the different drums made up the music and the traditional dance moves of the females reminded me so much of the hula hula from hawaii. The traditional dance moves for the males was mostly jumping and stomping, and they sang while danced to the sound of the music. The cute little maori kids closed up the performace with their finale and of course, we were expected to give a small amount of money as donations to their bread for living. The show was quite entertaining, and we gave our share of money and left to continue with our shopping.

There were a fair share of Japanese hunks everywhere i went, all tanned with their grungy fashion, iridescent hair colour, and that oh so sexy smirk whenever i was caught checking them out. Hehe ok i shalt stop here, i know i was supposed to be checking out the place, not the people right? ;P

Anyways, back to Cairns, after the shopping spree, we went back to the resort to cook dinner, rested for a while and then went to bed early as we had to wake up at six the next morning for our trip to the great barrier reefs. the great barrier reef is the world’s greatest reef system, stretching more than 2000km along Queensland's north-east coast. As the world’s largest and most complex reef system, it has thousands of individual coral reefs and hundreds of continental islands, reef islands and cays, small bare sand cays, and permanent vegetated cays.

Day two, we woke up, packed our sandwiches and headed for the jetty. It took about fifteen minutes to get there and was soon greeted by the crew from the vessel we were about to board. We had to sign plenty of forms regarding the responsibility if we were hurt rah rah rah. They provided biscuits, muffins, and a choice of coffee or tea for breakfast and we were soon headed for the great barrier reef after everyone was on board. This was where we would be scuba diving and snorkelling for the first half of the day.

The trip took quite a few hours as our vessel wasn’t an impressive one. We all cracked up when this huge vessel sped and disappeared before us whilst ours was just sailing at a turtle’s pace. The other passengers on board were very friendly, and there was a photographer who would be going around randomly taking pictures of everyone on board or in the water. We could then buy the prints or the cd from him if we wanted to at the end of the day.

I can proudly tell you that this was the first time i have ever scuba dived or even try to learn. It was fairly easy once you know the procedures and also due mainly to the excellent diving conditions of the clear, warm water. Exploring the great barrier reef was both exhilarating and easy. We could snorkel or scuba dive with equipment provided and a trained crew on hand to assist. Once we arrived, we quickly put on our wetsuits, belts that would weigh us down in the sea, life vest, flippers, goggles (damn i forgot what its called) and oxygen tank. We had groups of five divers at a time, and the instructor was very friendly and helpful. We each had to dive in to hold on to the bar, and we had ten minutes of trial to see if we wanted to continue.

There was a fee of fifty Australian dollars for forty minutes for it. My mom and my younger sister backed out as they couldn’t control their breathing and panic, so only this other guy, my brother and i were left to continue. The photographer followed us making us pose in the sea while he clicked away happily. It was a totally different world under water. The abundant marine life and the diversity and colour of the coral seriously defined the word beautiful, no, actually breathtaking.

This made the whole experience even more enjoyable. I think im gonna go for diving lessons after this! I had difficulties with adjusting the pressure so i was sort of like swimming all the way up and then the instructor adjusted something and i was sinking all the way down again. Finally, the instructor decided he should hang onto me and everything went well after that hehe. After our forty minutes was up, we snorkelled for awhile.

There is this fish, im not sure what kind, named Wally, forty-five years old, as you can see in the pics I’ll be posting. It would always be there waiting for the different vessels to stop by so that it can be fed. It is really friendly and it allows you to come near it or to even hug it if you’re lucky, and yeap, Wally loved me! Haha, i hugged it and fed it some bread crumble, the texture of the fish feels so jelly-ish!

People who didn’t feel like snorkelling or coming close to the water could view the reef from the comfort of a semi-submersible or you can call it an under water observatory. It is sort of like a boat with a glass-bottom. We retired back to the boat at the end of the day, and we headed back feeling tired and satisfied. Lunch was served and we had English curry, ham, a toast and salad with french dressing, what a combination hey? This pretty much marked the end of our journey to the reefs.

When night fell, we finished our steak and we decided to visit the night markets and the branded shops that were located near the jetty. It was a weekend therefore the streets were fully packed. We bought ice creams and went home hours later.

On our last day here at Cairns, my mom and i decided to visit the casino in Cairns. No i don’t gamble much, but I did play roulette and pokies. as i didn’t have much luck on the table i proceeded to one of the pokies machines instead. I fed the machine a twenty dollar bill and after just pressing one button, i was so fortunate as to winning 21 free games already! This continuously happened, with me winning 21 free games after another and when it was finished, i had a credit of a hundred and twenty! Haha so much for gaining a hundred dollars for nothing. I was satisfied and we left to meet my little sister and bro.

We then headed back to the resort to get ready to check out. Unlike the cabs in brisbane, the cabs in cairns didn’t have to go through an operator to get to us when we called so they arrived as soon as we put down the phone, amazing grace! I bought a book called “The girl who played go” by Shan Sa to entertain myself in the plane. We boarded the plane and before we knew it, we were back in brisbane already..

Me and my lil sissie tryin ta get used to the bed!


The vessel we were travellin in


Sissie, mummie n bro


Michaelmas island


Me in my snorkelling gear in the clear waterz!


Isnt it beautiful?


Wally, the forty-five yrs old friendly fish!


I saw nemo!


Bro and i captured while scuba diving unknowingly


Everybody wants a piece of wally, look how i was pushed behind after? :(