Note: Wifey posting

So we have finally gotten back from our 3 day 2 night scuba diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef and we have so much to update on. Why don't we start with our last day in Brisbane first. Well the wifey (me) burnt her hair trying to use her chi flatiron with a cheap converter (should have listened to the advice given) and her eyebrows were almost taken off along with some of her hair after a disaster trip to a nail salon. Long story short is that we went to a salon that waxes eyebrows and the lady had no clue what she was doing. She even apologized and asked the wifey to not say anything because she would get in trouble. No luck there because the manager was called anyways. The lady wounded up spilling wax on her hair and almost burning her eyebrows. After 45 minutes the wifey came out with her eyebrows still in tact but almost burnt off. Needless to say we weren't charged for the fiasco.

Then, on our first night in Cairns...we stood at another hostel. We were thinking back to our first hostel in Brisbane and thought ..." OMG that was like a suite compared to this." First, we were put in a room with 2 other men and of course the hubby wasn't having that so we switched to a private room which was not that much better. Thank God we didn't spot the cockroaches until we left. We booked a hotel the same night for when we returned from the diving trip. We are not getting used to being backpackers that's for sure.

Off to the good news....our diving trip. Conditions couldn't have been better. The sky was clear and the water looked like a giant swimming pool. The boat was a little smaller than expected but we could care less because we were diving the GREAT BARRIER REEF BABY!!! The first day on the boat proved successful. 4 dives later and meeting tons of interesting people we were pinching ourselves again thinking..."is this really happening." Our room had a window overlooking the Great Barrier Reef and the sunsets proved immaculate. Our second day was just as exciting as the first. We dove with sea turtles, reef sharks, gray tip sharks, barracudas, coral reef, giant red snapper, and tons more we couldn't even begin to write down because we would be here forever. We also completed our first night dive which was a bit nerve-wrecking because visibility was not good a night. Needless to say we attached to the hip during the entire night dive. We skipped on the second night dive after we saw a huge shark circling the boat which everyone was feeding their scraps too. Did we mention the great crew and interesting people we met. We met 2 fun guys that we hung out with most of the trip..one looking like Stiffler from American Pie, we met a camera person from LA who had done some work on the hit series House, we met a macroeconomist from Belgium who told us the economy is somewhat good and somewhat bad (could've figured that out, really nice guy though), someone from Switzerland, a Dutch guy, and a cool girl from Russia who was traveling solo, and plenty of Australians of course. On the last day of our diving trip we rested a little and enjoyed our last dive and one snorkeling trip that was just as exciting because the coral reef was literally a foot from the surface. We left the boat feeling accomplished and amazed. That night (yesterday) we met up with the boat crew and the people we had spent the last days on the boat with at a cool restaurant on the beach side. After drinking some good Australian beer we headed to our hotel for a good night sleep.

Like our last post we have learned some interesting things that we would like to share with everyone. Here are some Australian to American translations:


1. Telly= Television
2. Aircon= Air conditioner with the "con" sounding like con from the word con-artist.
3. Holiday= Vacation (Everyone is asking us if we are on a holiday and were like no..figured it out pretty quick though).
4. Cheers= thank you and you welcome.
5. Lifts= Elevators

Also, at most of the restaurants here you get a number and pick up your food yourself. There are waitresses that just pick up your dirty plates but they don't serve you. The nice restaurant we went to last night had us going to the bar for our drinks and going to another counter for our food.

Well, we are off to Japan tomorrow. We are trying to learn some Japanese before we go. Wish us luck.


60 second Japanese lesson for you:

1. Nani= What?
2. Doko= where?
3. Ikura= How much?
4. Wakarimasen= I don't understand
5. Arigatou= Thank you
6. Tasukete= Help
7. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka= Do you understand English?
8. Eki was doko desu ka= Where is the train station?
9. Bai Bai- Bye Bye
10. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu= Nice to meet you

P.S. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes. As you can see we are safe and enjoying our trip to the fullest.