Cairns

zebras swim in water

deer antlers and spaghetti

taking pictures and scuba diving all at once

Captain James Cook once set foot here.

a walk through the rainforest

Scuba diving in The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most adventurous and daring things I've done in my life so far. My first descent scuba diving was one small step for other adventurers and thrill seekers out there, a huge step for someone like me who was afraid to submerge their entire body in the ocean for more than five seconds. Scuba diving in the ocean, seeing coral reef, floating and getting lost in all sorts of directions is a surreal breathtaking (literally) experience. Seeing the biodiverse ecological life swimming around you is almost an out of body experience, nothing is holding you back and you see an entirely magnificent different world. When all kinds of fishes swim before your eyes, you realize you're not alone in the ocean and the ocean doesn't belong to you. Being there was unbelievably incredible, better than any aquarium trip because you're in the aquarium and you realize all of this is real.

I journeyed back in time on the train to Kuranda Village, a period before World War II. The train looked like a historical trip back to the past. I imagined if everyone had been wearing vintage clothes, I would have believed I was in a scene in an old photograph.

I have a journal cover with the quote, "just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it turned into a butterfly." The Butterfly Sanctuary made the quote even more sense once I saw these caterpillars and rather large cocoons, only later turning into graceful, fragile winged species.

There's a beach at Cape Tribulation, a place Captain James Cook once ventured and broke down and I walked on those same grounds. Pebble sized crabs crawled beneath the sand, a bank near the shore lurked crocodile territory, a vinegar station and warning signs made me aware that life is very much alive on that corner of the earth. Never so much until then, I was almost convinced I arrived on a primitive and forgotten island, some sort of Treasure Island.

On the crocodile hunt, I didn't see any killer crocs, but as dangerous as crocs are, I would have to say crocs rule! (And no, I'm not talking about the gardener's plastic shoes with holes in them).

Some highlights and things I did:

John Butler (well, posters of his tour)

Tim Tam gelato and Milo ice cream

Scuba diving in The Great Barrier Reef!

Train to Kuranda Village

Butterfly Sanctuary and cassowaries

Cape Tribulation

Rain forest walks and crocodile hunting, crikey!