And just like that, it is time to say goodbye to Sydney. I truly cannot understand where the last 8 weeks went but I’m very excited for what is ahead. At this point, I’ve received most of my grades back and am very happy with what I have gotten back so far. Other than wrapping up my classes, I did not get up to very much during the course of the week, knowing the following week would be full of adventure.
On Saturday, we checked out of the hotel and spent most of the day traveling to Cairns. Once we landed, it was amazing how immediately different Cairns was from Sydney both by feeling the humidity and seeing the mountainous landscape. We spent most of this first day getting antiquated with the resort, relaxing around the pool area, and adjusting to the humidity before heading to dinner. At dinner, I had the chance to sit with some of the people from Bucknell that I hadn’t gotten as much of a chance to speak with through the trip since so few of us will be headed to New Zealand next week. I then went over to Tommy, Dom, and Dylan’s room to watch a movie before everyone decided to call it an early night.
The view from the window at the airport as I walked into the terminal
Sunday was one of my favorite days of the entire trip. We woke up early to head into Cairns for breakfast before we embarked on the boat to the Great Barrier Reef. While I thankfully took seasickness medicine ahead of the journey, the water was not very choppy and allowed for a smooth and enjoyable ride off of the coast. When the anchor dropped at the first location, everyone got their wetsuits on and hopped into the water. It took about 100 feet of swimming to reach the reef but once I did, I was amazed by all of the colors I could make out through the water’s blue hue. I did my due diligence to see as much of this area before the hour was suddenly up and we repositioned to the next snorkeling spot.
Some of the very colorful coral from the first snorkeling spot
As we settled in the new location, we were given a brief lecture about the reef and the conservation efforts made to preserve it. I really enjoyed this brief information session due to how it paralleled many of the discussions we had in my Animal Behavior class last semester, specifically when it came to how the ecosystem is sustained. We then enjoyed a surprisingly good lunch on the boat before heading back out to the reef. Similar to the first session, there were many sections of various corals and many different fish to watch, the main of not being one lone but large clownfish. Due to the lunch and exhaustion from the first hour (before I decided to make the day much easier with a life jacket), I only spent about 20 minutes in the water at this stop but was very excited for the third and final snorkeling location, promised to be the best.
It was indeed the best. One of the parts that made this stop so cool was that the marine biologist had to do her reef health report of the location and encouraged people to join her as she did her survey. This helped me understand what I was looking at and know why they are important. She helped me find sea cucumbers, different colors of parrotfish, and other small organisms living on the reef. As she finished her survey, I asked her to remind me where to fins the anemone so that I could go look at it again. She very graciously decided to take me back to the location which allowed me to see so many other amazing things. After seeing it, a small group of other snorkelers called us over to see a shark down near the ocean floor. After watching it for a few minutes we made our way back towards the boat but watched a ray swim by along the way. I was amazed by this experience out in the water and reflected back on the amazing day I had just had.
Completely exhausted, I went into Cairns with a few other people from the program to grab dinner and frozen yogurt. We then had another movie night before everyone went to bed, ready for the journey to the rainforest.
While I am not very used to the humidity here in Cairns, I have really enjoyed the excursions that we have done thus far and look forward to the next few scheduled. I am also excited for the fully-free days to enjoy a little bit of downtime but am extremely excited to arrive in Auckland on Saturday.
One more picture of the reef to leave you with this week
Are the reefs getting healthier? I feel like that coral looks more vibrant and not at bleached and so I am very hopeful that the conservation efforts are working?!
We still saw a lot of bleaching especially on the harder coral but one thing that the marine biologist explained is that while rising ocean temperatures are one of the biggest reasons for the bleaching, the tropical storm’s presence also stresses them which is why she noted major differences between the week we snorkeled and the week before