See Cairns Attractions and Activities for Families & Individuals
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On my first trip to Australia my priority was to get to Cairns. The main reason why I visited Queensland and the city of Cairns was to make it to the great barrier reef. Even from the surface, you see some amazing colors of blue. I enjoyed scuba diving here so much, that I went out on a total of 5 dives on two different days. Above is a photo of the water surface, and on the right a random school of fish that passed me by. The mountains of coral and amazing colors here was something I had never seen before
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Cairns Sea Life Centre
This was actually one of my first times diving, I had just gotten my diving license a year ago and had only used it one other time in Hawaii so far. I have yet to top the diving experience here, and don’t ever really expect to! Something else that I haven’t yet topped where the enormous fish I saw here, the one of the left was probably about 70lbs or so I’d guess. The gigantic fish on the right is the largest I’ve ever seen while diving. I think he was at least three times my size, and he got close enough that I could actually see his teeth!
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Unfortunately you lose color quickly the deeper you go when you dive. You can make out the amazing blue on the coral to the left because it was somewhat close to the surface. The giant fish on the right was a little deeper, and the clams below probably under 30 or 40 feet.
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The great barrier reef expands for hundreds of miles along the north eastern coast of Australia. I imagine there are parts that are distinct from each other, and whenever I return to Australia I will definitely be making another stop here, hopefully with better camera equipment! The coral above, hundreds of fish on the upper right, and guys like the sea turtle here make this an amazing experience. Other wildlife I came across here were manta rays and a small eel. Fortunately I didn’t swim face first into any poisonous jellyfish, but rumor is those guys hang out by the coast and aren’t really a risk to the divers.