Hey guys so we did this trip a while ago but, I figure posting about it would be a great idea because it was such an amazing trip. We traveled to Australia a while ago after graduating from college and lived there for a year, meeting some amazing people and experiencing basically a whole new world!
In this post I want to share all my little traveler tips about how you can save money, while planning a trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
We did most of our trips on the GBR from Cairns, Australia. Known as the gateway to the GBR. Over the course of our stay in Cairns we did a few day trips, a course on scuba diving and even stayed a week on the reef. One of the ways that we saved a lot of money was finding out about the “Hostie” positions they have available on the live aboard boats. This one was available through Deep Sea Divers Den and we only found out about it while we were at the dive shop. We did this a while back so, they may not offer it anymore! However, it never hurts to ask if there is such a position available.
Diving the Reef for Free
My husband got to travel for free and do as many dives as scheduled! The only catch was you had to help out, so work for free but hey who wouldn’t want to get a free stay on the reef, by doing a few chores daily like (making beds, vacuuming and dishes), you also get all your meals for free and attended all the scheduled dives. He did at least 3 dives a day. We ended up paying for myself because there wasn’t 2 positions available at the time. But secretly I didn’t mind not having to do chores and just got to relax 😉 So ultimately the savings for this trip was over $1000 dollars. We got 2 for the price of 1 person yahoo, and when traveling you want to save as much as possible!
Husbands Note: After my one week free dive we lived in Cairns for 3 months. I signed up for a lot of 1 day hostie jobs during that time and did about 20 more dives absolutely free. The 1 day jobs require you to do some dishes and clean a little and that’s it. You will usually get 1-3 dives. To sign up for these positions just go into the local dive shops and ask about volunteering as a hostie.
Here are a few pictures we snapped throughout our stay on the live aboard boat!
Lion Fish very poisonous
Some type of startfish
Napoleon Wrasse also known as “Wally” They are so friendly 🙂
White Tip Reef Shark
Jeremy goofing around with a sea cucumber
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Batfish
Type of Clown Fish
Starry Puffer fish he was half the size of me!
I didn’t take this picture, my friend that we met during our travels took this one, but I thought it was to cool not to share! There is little fish living inside this jellies body, protected by other fish!
ME 🙂
Here’s a video that I shot while doing a night snorkel with sharks on the GBR, its a little long but really cool I think!
Would I go back? Yes, absolutely! Such an amazing experience, highly recommend this part of the trip 🙂
If you want to dive for free – Go into the local dive shops and ask about hostie positions
