May 28, 2015 | talktraveltome | Leave a comment To end our Aussie Road Trip we thought the Tropical North Queensland would be the perfect place to cross a few things off our bucket lists. By the time we had arrived in Cairns we had driven more than 3,000kms of Australia’s East Coast and were ready for some more adventures! We actually ended up staying in Trinity Beach, a small town on the outskirts of Cairns. Since we had our car, this worked out perfect for us. We got to experience all that downtown Cairns had to offer and we were also able to enjoy some quite time, away from all the hustle and bustle, when we wanted to relax. Like most people traveling to Tropical North Queensland, we were here to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world: The Great Barrier Reef. But before we went scuba diving, Justine needed to cross one of the top things off her bucket list and jump out of a perfectly good airplane from 14,000 ft in the air. I would have joined her, but being strapped to someone half my size and jumping out of a plane isn’t exactly my idea of fun… maybe next time. After I thanked Skydiving Cairns for bringing Justine back safely, it was time to cross another thing off of both our bucket lists… Kangaroo for dinner! That night to celebrate our 8 year anniversary (just a reminder our relationship guide book will be coming out in December 2016 and we are still accepting pre-orders) we went to a local Australian restaurant, Blue Moon Grill. Unlike the popular Mexican restaurant in the US, this Blue Moon served awesome classic Australian dishes. Per usual, we ate it all. We had alligator popcorn, Egyptian honey king prawn, barramundi spring rolls, Japanese oysters, and to finish it all off, Kangaroo loin! We know what some of you are thinking, “how could you eat kangaroo? They’re such cute animals”. Well in Australia kangaroos are very over populated and are considered a pest, so we were actually doing them a favor… That and we’re just sick and twisted people that enjoy eating cute animals for dinner. One last quick note about Blue Moon Grill, not only is the food amazing, but the owner who wrote the menu is hilarious. Below is a quick example of what you can expect to see. To continue the bucket-list theme, the next day we boarded Tusa Dive to start our scuba diving adventure on the Great Barrier Reef. While there are a ton of different companies that will take you out on the reef, Tusa Dive has much more flexibility of which reef you visit, ensuring you get the best conditions for the day you go. Side note: most of the inner reef has been damaged (stop throwing shit in the ocean!) so pretty much all companies will take you to the outer reefs. When we went, we visited Michaelmas Cay, Hastings Reef and Saxon Reef. While scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef was an amazing experience, it was a little bit of a let down. There were a lot of fish and the occasional sea turtle, but there is still a lot of damage even to the outer reefs. However, we did get to see Nemo and his dad! Because the scuba diving is done in small groups, once you finish you can snorkel around in the shallower waters, and that is where we saw the really bright coral. Overall, we’re glad we spent the day scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It was an awesome experience and with the current way people are treating our oceans, who knows how much longer it will still be around. While we were on our environmental/nature kick, the next day we visited the Daintree Rainforest. Hooray! First rainforest of the trip! We took the circuit track from the Rex Creek Bridge, which is about an hour walk and gave us a quick look into the largest rainforest in Australia. During our short walk we broke a sandal, walked barefoot through the forest, crossed paths with a snake and went for a quick dip in the Wurrmbu Creek. Not a bad day! From being 14,000 ft up in the air, to diving under the sea, to frolicking through the Daintree Rainforest, Tropical North Queensland has it all and was the perfect place to finish up our Australian road trip.