Today was the great barrier reef cruise, which was the entire reason I signed up for this tour in the first place. When we got to the boat, we took a group picture of all of us. It took about an hour and a half to get out to where we needed to be in order to snorkel. I didn't get sick on the boat, but I didn't exactly enjoy it either. When we got there, everybody rented wetsuits because the water was so cold. But they ran out of my size, so I had to go in just my bathing suit. It was freeeeezing, but I wasn't going to miss out on the great barrier reef just because of that. I didn't do any dives, but I had fun just snorkeling the whole time. I got to meet Wally, the giant Maori Wrasse, and had my picture taken with him. He was HUGE! It was amazing how normal the water looked from up above, but then when you get under, there are all these fish and colorful coral and everything. Definitely the best part of my Australian tour.
Once I was frozen solid and felt like I had done enough snorkeling, I changed back into dry clothes and sat down. All of a sudden, I felt really seasick and miserable. So of course they announced that it was lunchtime, and it was a seafood buffet. Yuck. So I sat on a bench for a while and Jessie brought me some kind of motion sickness medicine. My heeeero! Then Lee (from London) came and introduced himself and told me how he chickened out of his scuba dive. He ended up being my bff by the end of the tour, but at this point, I was just kind of like "Who is this guy?" Apparently when he was putting on his wetsuit, he asked Carolyn (from Germany) if he was supposed to put it on over his clothes because he thought it would keep him dry. Now every time Carolyn looks at Lee, she starts laughing at the thought of him in his wetsuit. Poor Lee.
Before going back, I went down to the little underwater observation area and got a few pictures and videos. They also have an area up top where you can see the reef from above the water. The last thing I did before leaving was take a ride on the glass-bottom boat, where we saw lots of coral, anemones, and even some sharks. Overall, the reef cruise was definitely worth coming to Australia for.
On the way back to Cairns, I sat on the top of the boat with Jessie, Nathan, and Lorne. It was cold and wet, but at least it seemed to help with the seasickness. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Ochre. I ordered the vegetarian lasagna. It was okay, but everything was way too fancy for me. I would have been perfectly happy eating pizza again. Some people tried kangaroo for the first time here. I went straight back to the hotel after dinner again while most people stayed out.
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