Ziska Down Under: Beauty as far as the eye can see

This weekend was definitely a highlight of my semester Down Under. We spent Friday to Sunday on a Catamaran out on the Great Barrier Reef. We left Cairns to head to Port Douglas on Friday afternoon and set sail in the evening around six o'clock. The water was a little rough and we got splashed heaps of times. After getting to a calm area, we dropped anchor for the night. The spot we ended up for the night was right next to the island where Steve Irwin was pronounced dead, so that was interesting. Scary because we were VERY near the area where he was stung, but also special because he was such an iconic person. After playing some games, well all went to bed. It was so nice sleeping on the boat! We had some rain on and off all evening and into the night, but it was so wonderful to sleep with an ocean breeze! Nothing beats an ocean breeze!

Saturday we woke up and immediately put on our suits, sunscreen, and sat out on the nets. Great way to start the day! We spent all of Saturday going out further in the ocean to see more and more reef. We stopped to cook breakfast and continued to lay around in the sun and swim/snorkel. Before my Australia trip, I had never snorkeled before. There is seriously a whole other world below the surface of this massive body of water. You never see the same scene twice while you're underwater. For dinner that night, Ryan, the guy who owns the boat, cooked fish that he caught literally 30 mins. prior to dinner time. Talk about free range and fresh! We had a great dinner then laid out on the nets to watch the stars. It was so clear out that you could see millions of stars. I even saw my first shooting star...it was BEAUTIFUL. I was sure to make a big, special wish. We were all pretty tired after a long day of fun in the sun, so we went to bed early.

Sunday morning, we were all up and awake by eight. Again, we just put our suits and sunscreen on and started our day! The water was pretty rough all day, so swimming and snorkeling was pretty though. Strong currents and big waves lead to some hard conditions. Two girls got taken out pretty far and had to be brought back by the little dingy boat. They were fine, but it was kind of scary. I also had the chance to do an introductory scuba dive which was really cool. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I thought it was amazing. We got up close and personal with so many different kinds of fish, coral, etc. After we were all done with swimming, snorkeling, diving, etc., it was time to head back into shore. We were told it we had a six hour journey ahead of us to get back to Port Douglas, where the boat is docked. Didn't seem like too bad of a ride especially with the pretty sky...well, it got dark....and rainy...and EXTREMELY rough. I didn't time it, but it took us ages to get back. Really, really big waves and lots of wind going in all different directions made for an interesting ride. Many people felt sick, and understandably so. Once we finally made it back, we were all really relieved and drenched.

Such a great, great weekend.
Hope everyone is starting to enjoy SPRING weather!
XOXO
SZ