Reef and Rainforest

For my Easter break I decided that I wanted to go to Cairns. I flew up on Saturday, to a rainy Cairns. I was really excited to see my mom and dad. We stayed at trinity beach, which was a little north of cairns. The first few days weren't too exciting, since it pretty much rained. We walked around Cairns, going into shops. We walked along the esplanade, in which there was a salt water lagoon, which was pretty cool. We also went into the night markets, which was pretty cool. They had some interesting stuff. I got some fruity wine made from lychee. I liked it, but it was very sweet. One day we also went into the mall in Cairns. We ate at the food court, which was packed. It was hard to get a seat. Mom and I also went to the rainforest dome in cairns. I thought it was interesting. None of the birds were caged, so they flew all around you. I really enjoyed it because I got to look at some native australian birds. There were also some koalas and rainforest wallabies there.

The major things that we did was go see the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Both were amazing. We went and saw the rainforest first. We went on the Billy Tea Safaris. The first thing that we did in the tour was go down the Daintree river. We saw a snake and a couple of crocodiles, and the crocodiles were a lot smaller than I was expecting. We then went to the rainforest itself and went on a boardwalk. We saw a cassowary, which is endangered. We also saw a spider and some lizards. The scenery itself was really pretty. At lunch we were able to feed some kangaroos and wallabies. After lunch we went to a creek. The water was really pretty. We relaxed there for a bit and ate some tropical fruit. A couple I really liked was dragonfruit and a custard fruit. After that we went to cape tribulation beach and were able to walk around. It was really pretty there too.

The exciting thing of the week was going to see the reef. I thought it was fantastic. We went with a boat called Seastar. The crew was really nice, and I thought it was good because it was a small group. There was only 30 people. I couldn't imagine going in a group larger than that. The first thing that we did was go to Michealmas Cay. We went on a snorkeling tour first. The coral there was pretty. It was amazing to see. I don't even know how to describe it. It's stuff I've seen on tv, but it was amazing to see in real life. Dad and I also did some introductory diving, which was cool. I was nervous at first about the diving, but it wasn't too difficult and I really enjoyed it. After that we had some lunch and headed off to Hastings Reef. There were so many fish there! I can't even remember all of the fish that we saw. Quite a few nemos, that's for sure. Dad and I went on a second dive. We saw lots of fish, and even got to feed some. We even swam between walls of coral. We were able to touch a sea slug and a giant clam, which was cool. We then went snorkeling again. I was surprised about how you saw different things snorkeling and diving. When we were snorkeling, we were among the shallow coral and were able to see lots of colorfish there too. I thought it was amazing. I had so much fun. It went by really fast.