I Want to Travel for Cheap

Friday, August 8, 2014

Australia Day 8--The Great Barrier Reef

Australia series

Australia Day 1--Qantas flight 8 DFW-BNE (Dallas to Brisbane)
Australia Day 2--Flight to Sydney, the Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing
Australia Days 3/4--Hunter Valley & the Blue Mountains
Australia Day 5--Sydney sightseeing and Manly Beach
Australia Day 6--Paddy's Market, Bondi to Coogee Walk & Darling Harbour
Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade
Australia Day 8--The Great Barrier Reef
Australia Day 9--Kuranda Koala Gardens, Skyrail & Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Australia Day 10--Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 1, Cairns to Brisbane
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 2, Brisbane to Honolulu

It was finally time for one of the activities I was most excited about! In my pre-trip planning, I found an inexpensive ($99 AUD), bare bones, snorkeling tour of the Great Barrier Reef. I would have been perfectly happy to do this tour, however, after talking it over with my cousin, we decided we were up for something more adventurous (and expensive).

I was tempted to try an introductory scuba dive as no certification is needed, but I was a little freaked out by the idea of the tank & concerned about my underwater swimming ability. Since my cousin is a non-swimmer and I'm not totally confident swimming in open water, ultimately, I thought one of the tours with something called a "helmet dive" would be a good activity that my cousin and I could do together.

Basically with a helmet dive, they put a giant helmet on your head with tubes coming out the top that enable you to breathe normally. An added bonus is your hair doesn't get wet. No swimming skill is needed because you just walk on an underwater platform. I think the guide said we were 4 meters (about 13 feet) underwater.

I found a tour online going for $320 AUD, in addition to the helmet dive, it included snorkeling, glass bottom boat, semi-submersible boat and lunch. I thought it might be good to compare that with what the hotel tour desk had available. We went down and talked to the lady (wish I had written down her name), and she basically told us about the same tour with a different operator. She said it was normally $340, but they were offering a discount, making it $289.

I noticed the tour desk had a 1.5% surcharge for paying with a credit card. I didn't have that much on me in cash, and I don't think my cousin did either, so I told her we'd have to come back later. She was probably afraid we wouldn't come back, so she said she'd drop the surcharge. Score! So we paid and booked our tour for the next day. And in case you're wondering about the conversion rate, $289 AUD worked out to be $270.97 USD on my credit card statement.

I was so excited I could hardly sleep the night before.

Awake to watch the sunrise

We had to be at the Cairns Reef Fleet Terminal by 8:30 am. We woke up, got ready, had a quick breakfast at McDonald's and then walked over to a nearby camera store.

Mickey D's Australia prices

We had visited the camera store the night before to see what kind of options they had for underwater photography, but decided to think about it overnight. The digital cameras for rent (or hire, as the Aussies call it) were $45. A waterproof case for my Nikon camera was over $100. A waterproof iPhone case was around $35 and disposable cameras were $20-$25. Ultimately, we decided to each purchase a Kodak disposable camera at a cost of $20 each.

Now we were ready to walk over to the the Reef Fleet Terminal to check in for our tour. After a brief wait, we were boarding the boat, which departed at 9:30 am. It was a large vessel, maybe the biggest I've ever been on, not having cruised before. I'm not sure how many people on were on board, maybe around 100. There were a lot of Japanese and Chinese tourists.

Inside the boat

The boat first made a stop at Fitzroy Island for the folks who were day-tripping there, then continued on to our final destination of Moore Reef.

Fitzroy Island

The company has a large pontoon at Moore Reef. A pontoon is a floating platform, which I think is basically their permanent spot out in the reef. All of the snorkeling, diving, glass bottom boat and semi-submersible rides are done from the pontoon.

Before departing, I made sure to take the free ginger pills that were available. This was to ward off seasickness. Even if you're the type to never get seasick, I would suggest taking them anyways. There were some rough waters heading out to the reef and I felt very queasy, but luckily my breakfast stayed down.

During the presentation by one of the staff members on the day's schedule, there was a young man nearby who tossed his cookies. The staff were very prepared for this type of thing, having barf bags on hand and ready to collect full bags from passengers. They also walked around with cups of ice, which they said helped with seasickness.

Because we were doing the seawalker helmet dive, we had to go over the dive and learn some hand signals to tell the guide that we were okay. We also learned about equalizing our ears (basically what you do on an airplane when your ears pop).

After about two hours, we arrived at Moore Reef. Our seawalker helmet dive was scheduled for the afternoon, so we had time to do a few other things first. We went on the glass bottom boat tour and the semi-submersible where we got to see the coral and fish, and learn more about the Great Barrier Reef.

Glass bottom boat at Moore Reef


Coral at the Great Barrier Reef

We went quite a distance from the vessel and pontoon

Guide explaining the different fish we saw underwater

After those two activities, we ate lunch.

Buffet lunch

Then it was time to get ready for our dive. We put on our (included) wetsuits, weight belts and swim shoes. We lined up for pictures, then headed down into the water.

I will admit, I was very nervous. Even though I can swim and this didn't require swimming, the idea of being underwater and not being able to come up for air was nerve-wracking for me. The helmet was large and heavy. Basically, they put it on and just pushed you under. Then there was a staircase to walk down and a platform to stand on and see/touch the fish. We lined up for underwater pictures and then it was over.

We're underwater!

Big fish we could touch

As I was going under, I got some water in my helmet, which caused me to lose focus a bit. Also we were supposed to breathe normally, but it felt funny to me. I was just concentrating on walking and breathing and forgot about equalizing my ears until about 10 minutes had passed. But that also could be because I didn't really feel much pressure on my ears like I do on airplanes.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I would do it again. Maybe I would even be brave enough to try scuba diving in the future.

However, the day wasn't over yet. We still had another hour at the pontoon, which was good, since we hadn't snorkeled yet. They had a designated snorkeling enclosure area. Since the water was on the colder side, we decided wetsuits would be good, but had to rent them for $10 since they weren't included for snorkeling. So we put on our wetsuits, fins, mask and life jackets and hopped in.

I really enjoyed it and time flew by. I got very close to the coral and fish. I swam out a bit from the boat and was just amazed at all of the cool-looking stuff living under the water.

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef

Soon it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Cairns. I decided to buy a souvenir photo for $25.

My souvenir photo

If I had to make one complaint, it would be about the staff member going around giving a hard sell on the guided snorkeling tour. He talked about all the cool stuff we would see with him that we wouldn't see just snorkeling at the pontoon. It sounded good, but it was an extra $40, and I felt like I had paid enough already. It wasn't just the hard sell, but later in the day after he finished his guided tour, he actually came back to me and said how it was so great and I missed it out on it.

That negative aside, this tour was definitely a worthwhile splurge for me, but who knows when, or if, I'll ever go to the Great Barrier Reef again, and I didn't want to have any regrets.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade

Australia series

Sydney to Cairns

Another one of my aspirations was to visit The Great Barrier Reef. I decided Cairns (pronounced "cans" by the locals) was the best place for us to stay based on the hotel options and reef tours. So after five nights in Sydney, we packed up our belongings and flew to Cairns.

My cousin had a very early flight to Cairns, so she headed to the airport just before 5 am. I got to sleep in a bit, checking out of the hotel around 7:30 am. As I mentioned previously, the train to the airport was quite expensive for such a short ride. The ride from Sydney CBD to the domestic airport was $16.40 AUD. I like to cut costs wherever I can and splurge on the fun things, so I decided to once again go with the cheaper train/bus combo to the airport.

Going to the airport

I got on the train at St. James station (a 10-minute walk from the Westin) and bought a $3.80 ticket to Mascot station, which was the stop just before the airport. At Mascot, I was supposed to catch the 400 bus, and I had a little trouble locating the bus stop, but I eventually found it. After 10 minutes, the bus came. I thought the bus cost around $2, however the driver told everyone getting on that it was free fare. Woohoo!

One stop later, I was at the domestic terminal checking in for my three-hour flight to Cairns. I booked a one-way flight in economy class using 10,000 American Airlines miles and paid $21.50 USD in taxes. I was on Qantas flight 922, departing at 10:40 am and sat in seat 25A, which was near the back of the plane.

Goodbye Sydney!

Typical economy leg room

I was surprised that we were served lunch, being that USA domestic flights in economy don't get lunch. I was offered a hot choice of chicken pie or fish curry. I declined both and just took the tray without the main course. Later, we were given an ice cream bar.

I was surprised to get food in coach

And dessert!

When we landed in Cairns and de-planed, I immediately felt the difference in temperature from Sydney. In Sydney, the days were nice (highs in the 60s), but the nights were colder (40s to 50s). In Cairns, it was much warmer (highs in the mid to upper 70s).

Hello Cairns!

My cousin was waiting for me near the car rental counters as we had previously discussed. In researching transportation options from the airport to our hotel in Cairns city, I found the taxi to be the most reasonable, as far as price and convenience. There was no public transportation, so the only options were shuttles and taxi.

Holiday Inn Cairns

The taxi ride to the Holiday Inn was around $24, so $12 per person & we didn't have to worry about it taking longer to drop other people off like a shuttle would do. We arrived at the hotel after 15 minutes or so. It was around 2 pm.

Photo taken later in the evening

Holiday Inn atrium

We were able to immediately check in. The room cost 30,000 IHG Rewards points per night, so I used 120,000 points for 4 nights. The nice thing about the IHG program is that if you have the credit card (I do), you get a 10% percent rebate on all points redemptions, meaning I should get back 12,000 points. This usually posts to my account 4-6 weeks after the stay. This drops the number of points used to 108,000.

I got the points by participating in IHG's Big Win promotion earlier in the year. This promotion involved completing various stays at IHG properties. Everyone's specific promotion was different, but I was able to "mattress run" four nights in my local area for a total cost of about $300 to receive over 100,000 points. Instead of just paying this out of pocket, I used cash back bonuses from some new credit cards, bringing my expense to $0.

Unlike the gorgeous Westin we stayed at in Sydney, the Holiday Inn Cairns was quite rough around the edges. As I am a platinum rewards member (thanks to the IHG credit card), at check-in, I was upgraded to a sea-view room. The view was the best thing about the room.

Balcony in the room

I could look at that view all day

View in the other direction

First, the room and the bathroom were considerably smaller than the room we had in Sydney.

No more Westin "Heavenly Bed"

Second, there were bugs! When I felt the tropical climate, I had a feeling there might be bugs. Well, I opened a desk drawer and saw a nice little note from management about if you see ants in the room to call management for spraying. The note also mentioned that the geckos were quite common. We have those in Texas, so I understood, but still not a fan of them.

I didn't see any geckos, but I definitely saw ants. We had to call for spraying on the first night and the last night. I will say that customer service was top-notch. They came in to spray promptly and even changed my cousin's bed sheets. They were very apologetic and offered us drink coupons the first time and free breakfast the second time. The hotel had free Internet for rewards members, but the signal was very weak from the room.

The Cairns Esplanade

The Holiday Inn was located was well-suited for visiting the Esplanade, or the main drag in Cairns. There were lots of shops, restaurants and live entertainment along the Esplanade.

Live music on the Esplanade

Cairns Esplanade

Entertainment on the Esplanade

Some people are surprised to find that instead of a beach in Cairns, there are only mudflats. However, I had done my research, and I knew there was no beach.

Cairns is NOT a beach town

Since there is no real beach in Cairns, there is a free public swimming lagoon along the Esplanade. It was a little cool, but I really wanted to swim, so I hopped in for a little while, while my cousin used the free public wi-fi.

Swimming lagoon

We enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Then we grabbed dinner from a local spot along the Esplanade and watched a Japanese man performing a fire show before calling it a night.

Where we ate dinner

More entertainment

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Australia Day 6--Paddy's Market, Bondi to Coogee Walk & Darling Harbour

Australia series

This was our last day in Sydney. I had read online that Paddy's Markets was a good place to get cheap souvenirs, so we jumped on the free 555 bus that travels around the CBD, and got off at Hay Street. From there, it was a block to the market. The market was large & had an impressive number of things for sale at various vendors, including souvenirs, clothes, jewelry and beauty products. The souvenirs were basically the same made-in-China stuff found elsewhere, but at much lower prices.

After shopping, we went back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. Then we walked over to Elizabeth Street to catch the bus to the world famous Bondi Beach. The bus cost $3.80, the ride was about 40 minutes.

The Pacific Ocean, Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. It was a perfectly clear and sunny day. There were surfers in the water, but it was a little too cold to swim for me.

Surfers at Bondi Beach

Swimming pool overlooking the ocean

Skating at Bondi's Winter Magic Ice Rink

The plan was to do the coastal cliff walk from Bondi to Coogee. This walk takes approximately two hours and is of medium difficulty, as there are stairs to go up and down.

During the walk we passed through Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Clovelly before getting to Coogee. One spot of interest was Waverley Cemetery on top of the cliffs near Bronte Beach. What a beautiful spot to have one's final resting place.

Bronte Beach

Waverley Cemetery near Bronte Beach

Clovelly Beach

Coogee Beach

I had really wanted to swim in the Bronte Bath, a free outdoor pool at Bronte Beach, but it was just too cold for me.

Bronte Bath

We were quite tired after the walk, but I thought it was worth it. The views were amazing. At Coogee Beach, we located the bus going back to the Sydney CBD. The bus driver was chatty and feeling quite generous toward us two American gals and let us ride for free.

We got off at a stop near Darling Harbour, but still had to walk a fair bit. As it was Saturday, there were fireworks scheduled to take place at 8:30 pm. Before watching the fireworks, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe (expensive, but I liked it), and walked around the Harbourside shops.