Great Barrier Reef

After skydiving yesterday afternoon, we went to the swimming lagoon in Cairns. It was fun since the weather here is really hot. It’s been in the 90’s with very high humidity. Then we walked around downtown Cairns and had dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was very good.

We got up early this morning for our day trip to the Great Barrier Reef (since I am writing this, I did not get bitten from a shark that everyone back home was worried about). I booked the excursion through Passions of Paradise. We left downtown Cairns at 8:00am. There were two snorkeling stops. It took about 2 hours to get to the first snorkeling spot, Paradise Reef. Overall, it was good trip.


One thing that we found annoying was that they highly recommended wet suits to protect you from jellyfishes and stingrays. I guess it is stinger season. They were an extra $7.00 per suit. Literally everyone on the boat got one. Why not just provide the suits and charge the extra $7 to the cost of the excursion? Just a little annoying point.


When we first jumped into the water, it was amazingly clear and colorful. The coral is really something to see. At first, they convinced us that we needed floatation devices to help us in case we get tired. We quickly realized they were more of a pain then help. We are both strong swimmers so they were not needed.

Our underwater camera worked great. Brian was able to attach it to his wetsuit, which helped since our flotation devices for the camera were coming loose. Brian got some great pictures.




Our second stop was Michaelmas Cay. I thought this stop was even better. The fish were larger and more colorful. We spend about another hour there snorkeling away. It was a great day of snorkeling. The weather once again was perfect. We have been so lucky so far with the weather. Hopefully it continues (We are a little worried because Monday’s forest in Sydney is windy and if it is too windy they will cancel the bridge climb. Let’s hope that does not happen).

After snorkeling, we came back to our hotel. We are doing laundry and packing since we leave for Sydney tomorrow morning at 5:45am. This is our last night of “real “ internet. After today, we will be using the cruise lines slow internet at high prices. These last three days we have been spoiled. Readers of the blog have also been spoiled by the many pictures we have uploaded. We will still make posts, but with fewer pictures sadly.

We had Aussie Pizza for dinner tonight. It is pizza with hard-boiled eggs, onions, ham, and tomatoes. It was pretty good. Also today I have learned two new Aussie phrases: “too easy” and “no worries” (Dad you have to like that one).
Thanks for everyone who is reading this blog. We enjoy hearing from all of you. Reading the comments on the blog makes writing this everyday worth it.