Thursday morning, Kay and I caught a train to Sydney where we met Martha and Jayme and caught our flight to Cairns. When we arrived, after our three hour flight, we were shuttled to our beach front apartment on Trinity Beach, about 20 minutes outside of Cairns. Our apartment was beautiful and we had a deck with an amazing ocean view! Our first night there, we got settled, went down and checked out the beach, and grabbed dinner to bring back to the apartment. We were all exhausted! Kay and I watched a movie and crashed early! We got up early the next morning to go scuba diving and snorkeling with Reef Experience. We had breakfast on the boat and drove about 45 minutes out to The Great Barrier Reef. It was 86 degrees and the water was 84 degrees; it was the perfect day! On our trip out, I got really seasick and dizzy. I sat out on the top of the boat and tried to sleep until we got there. Once the boat stopped, I felt a lot better! I put on my wet suit, flippers, and goggles and got ready for my first dive. They put a weighted belt around my waist and an air tank on my back. I felt like I weighed 500 pounds and I was going to sink as soon as I dropped in the water. I got in and began to practice using my airtank and going under the water with my instructor, Alex. I was secretly scared to death and I couldn't get my breathing right. It is so unnatural to breath solely out of your mouth; I always felt short of breath or like I needed to come up for air. Alex held my hand through most of my dive and I ended up having an amazing time! We dove to 25 feet and saw beautiful coral, hundereds of different types of tropical fish, and lots of other wildlife! It was gorgeous!! I don't think any words could explain what we saw! After my dive, we snorkeled around and saw lots more of the reef before lunch. Then we got back on the boat and ate and suntanned on the top of the boat. Then, all of a sudden, we heard rescue,rescue, rescue!! Immediately, a rescue diver and a rescue boat raced out to the last group of divers. A woman had a pain in her ear and shook her head. When she did that, her regulator had fallen out and she had inhaled so much water, she was frothing and puking. They called a rescue helicopter, but luckily once they got her on the boat and helped her, she was doing ok and she didn't have to leave on the helicopter. It was really scary and we were all glad she was ok!! After that long delay, we went out to our second destination on the reef and I snorkeled again! It was so much fun! Then, we got back on the boat again for wine, and cheese, and fresh fruit on our way home as the sun was setting. It was the perfect day :)
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