As a native Australian it is rare that I see any reason to go and do "touristy" things. However my good friend Steve and his adventurous daughter Hillary were visitng from the good old USA and suggested I join them to do the Great Barrier Reef.Awesome.

The reef as you will see wasn't the problem... It takes 2 flights from Melbourne to get to Cairns and then a bus trip and then about a 3 hour boat trip out to the reef.The first flight left us in Brisbane with about 10 hrs to spare, so we got a train into town did some sight seeing for about 20 mins, then found a bar and then drank pretty heavily for about 10 hrs.yeh, yeh everyone says they drink pretty heavily in stories but we got kicked out of a few bars and I am sure I lost my capacity to speak-I am not bragging just setting a scene. We somehow managed to get to the airport only to find the plane was delayed by about 4 hours. We get on a 2 hour flight at about 2.00am in the morning, arrive, get a cab and get to the hotel to get about 55 minutes sleep before getting up to get on the bus and then the boat. To this day I will still claim I do not get seasick, just that I had alcohol poisoning on the boat. The next phase is you learn to dive. I was freaked out before we did the lesson, and after it even more so. So we get to the first site, and I have to spend about 10 minutes calming myself because I was CERTAIN I was going to die on the barrier.Really the headline in the paer read"Australian man drowns on reef after a night of heavy drinking." So after a lot off coaching, I get to the bottom and these massive fish are just swimming around, and this tour guide is talking to me under water ( apparently I still looked like I was freaking out) and he puts this long black sea cucmber in my hand, it looks like something from a sex shop, so I am still freaking out, my heart beat is through the roof, and then I see this little fish, its just amazing, it is so beautiful and just swimming around me and I am looking at it and looking at it, and then I look up, and we are about 100ft under water, I start seeing the coral and then I just GET it, I mean everything switches in a moment from this scary unknown to this absolutely speechless beauty. Time kinda stood still, and I was just totally present, for the first time in the longest time. I remind myself of this experience regularly, going from fear to bliss only takes a moment and the small things help you get there- like the little fish. Please confirm these facts with Steve and Hill because they tell it a lot better. Lots of love to anyone who reads this.