i had 36 hours of the 4th of july to celebrate this weekend, so i made sure they all counted

After a beautiful sunset commute home across the Sydney Harbor Bridge:

I sprinted to my room and packed my bag in under 20 minutes (because of course I left my packing until the absolute last second), and headed out the door, looking forward to a weekend full of swimming, diving and soaking up the sun in beautiful Cairns. 

Sleepy as could be, we checked into our rooms sometime around 1am, curled up into our lovely bunk beds, and passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Sooner than we would have liked, our alarms went off for our early morning wake up; and after a quick breakfast where they offered us vegemite - which no one was keen to eat (that stuff is vile) - we headed down to the docks to catch our boat for our excursion out to the reef. 

*the beautiful mountains surrounding Cairns as seen from the docks*

I was jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas morning and kept saying "GUYS I am SO eXCITED!!!!" over and over again like a broken record the entire way there, because I really was SO excited. It was a literal dream come true, and I could hardly wait to shimmy into my gear and get underwater. 

After a ridiculously rocky boat ride where easily half the boat was ready to toss their cookies (not me though, I'm super tough) we arrived at our first dive site. Right as we arrived, we could see humpback whales breaching in the not so distant distance and I almost fainted I was so happy. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming (don't worry, I wasn't). 

After staring in awe for a few more seconds hoping to spot a few more, we geared up (and I was so excited I put my wet suit on backwards), and jumped right on in the water. 

 *scuba selfies*

Sting rays, a black tipped reef shark, clams the size of me and 3 different types of sea turtles (the green sea turtle was so friendly, almost like a little puppy dog with the way she wanted to nuzzle you and be pet) were the big highlights of the day. We even were able to see a beautiful 80+ year old loggerhead turtle, just meandering on by, not at all alarmed or bothered by the 20 shocked and ecited divers circling around him. 

The water was unbelievably clear, and the corals were brilliant shades of every color you could possibly think of - pinks, purples, yellows, greens, reds, blues, you name it, it's somewhere in that reef - and the wide array of fish swimming next to/under/above you was absolutely breathtaking. So I was feeling pretty #blessed.

After our dives were over, we tanned our faces in the warm sun and had coffee on the back deck while we waited for the snorkelers to wrap it up, and I was so happy and peaceful after the beautiful day on/under the water we had that I couldn't stop smiling (or maybe that was just the massive amount of caffeine I had in such a short amount of time).

Fully caffeinated and running on an extreme diver's high, we made the bumpy boat ride back to shore where we were once again greeted by the beautiful mountains surrounding us on all sides.

With knuckles cracked and bleeding from pulling on my wet suit so many times, a massive bruise on the top of my foot from who knows what and wobbling like I was still being smacked by waves we all stumbled into bed for a nice pre-dinner nap, and woke up refreshed and so hungry we could eat a whole pizza. Which I did.......woops.......

Cheers

Katie