Australia & New Zealand trip

Here goes my review of Cairns.

The Top 6

1. Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef

Wow!! So nervous going in, but so happy we did it. Wetsuit was a must, and trying not to panic at the start when working on the breathing, and also trying not to panic when seeing the shark, obstacles that I could overcome.

2. Feeling like we were in the tropics.

Super warm, super high humidity, but still, just a great feeling of being "somewhere different". A lot more relaxed than the city feel of Sydney.

3. Lilly, the waddle cat!

Such a nice sweetheart and helped get our cat fix in. Missing the girls, but we can make it to the end thanks to Lilly

4. Flying Fruit bats - HUGE! Plus them taking off at dusk in large hordes and sleeping clinging to trees by one foot was super cute. Can't see those in Oregon.

5. Skyrail - wished the weather was a touch better for the ride, but cruising over the top of the rainforest and looking straight down was super impressive. Such a dense lush environment and again, so different from our location at home.

6. The aquarium. - Smallish, and not quite as stocked as they are expecting it to eventually be (it had only been open for 4 weeks), but it was a great primer for getting ready for the reef.

The bottom 6.

1. The weather in general. The only super nice "sunny" day was our Great Barrier Reef day. Which is great that we were able to pick the right day to go to the snorkeling adventure, but it's a bit of a shame that there was a fair amount of rain on the other days.

2. Sunburned legs - I knew I should have added more stuff at the lunch time, but honestly I'm not sure it would have helped as we were at just the right water level with our snorkeling that I probably would have been burned anyway. Thank goodness for the suits though or I would have been burned all over.

3. Swallowing salt water - just right at the end of the swimming. Picked just the wrong time to try and clear the mask of water and took in a bunch. Spent the next couple of minutes hacking up water trying to clear my system. Didn't go back out after that, so that's a bummer of a note to end the swimming on.

4. Quite crowded snorkeling environment. This one is a bit of a challenge.. You want a larger boat for the best chance not to get sea sick, and we had the newest / best boat in the area. However, you also want something small enough that it takes out a smaller group. I'd guess that we had about 175 on the boat. While one the boat it didn't feel all that crowded, but get all 175 into the water in a focused area and it was tough. Plus, inexperienced swimmers, so everyone is running into each other. "MMMMPPPHEEERYYY" means "sorry" in snorkel. You get to hear / say that a lot to people.

5. The tuna - It could have been so much better, but I guess it's better that we learned that early before buying a lot of the flavors to take with us.

6. The time we had to leave. Pretty much just took a nap, since we needed to get up and to the airport super early. Add that with such a rigorous travel day (with super tight connections) and it was a total "non-relaxing" day. Guess that helps with the sleeping that night, but not the way I would usually want to travel.

Overall though, some amazing experiences and I'd love to have another chance to do some snorkeling.Okumaya devam et