Cairns Day 3 - The Reef

Ok, wow. That is how I am starting this post on the reef. Wow wow wow. It was much more fun and amazing than I had thought it would be. I wound up taking over 400 pictures during the day, and I put up only about a 60 of them on facebook. And now, I don't know how much I can put here in a blog post before making it way too long, but here it goes.

We started the day out early in the morning to get on the boat around 8:30am. Loading was quick and easy, and I bought some sea sickness tablets to help keep me from leaning over the railing. We road out on the boat to the pontoon that they had set up near one of the reefs. On the way out, they gave talks on diving, helicopter rides, and other things going on.

I listened to the diving brief, just in case I wanted to do that. They did have some perscription goggles on hand to rent (hire) for the day, but they didn't have my exact perscription. I got the worse that they have, and I could see much better than nothing. Because of this, I didn't do the diving, but it did make my snorkling through the day a lot better.

I then signed up for the 10 minute helicopter ride. This went up to 3000 feet, and then down to 500 feet before landing again. I took pics from the flight, and it was cool to see the reef from that height. You get the prespective of how the reef is so large, but is not one continuous reef.

After landing, I went out and did some snorkling. I tried without the vest, but it was too much of a struggle for me to enjoy, so I put on the vest and went out again. It was a lot easier to move around with the vest keeping me up on the water. I went out a couple of times before lunch and took a whole bunch of pictures. When I was coming out for lunch, I was one of the last people out. One of the crew was diving and taking pictures with this big fish with people, and I got right there and got my pic taken. I am not going to post them, because I hate how I look, but it was cool being that close and touching the fish. Really amazing.

So after lunch, I went out once more snorkling, and then did the semi-submersible tour. That was cool, and then the day was over. Franck went out a couple times, and Hubred did the diving all day. He loved it so much that he is going to do the course for diving here. He will have to stay a couple extra days, but that is fine. He will just meet us in Sydney after he is done with the course.

So we came back, and I realized I lost my wedding ring on the reef. I was upset, but Kim took it in stride when I told her later. I did get her an Opal pendant that I think she will truly like. We just relaxed for the rest of the night, and tomorrow is driving to Port Douglas.

It is tomorrow right now, and I am being lazy this morning and holding us back from leaving when scheduled. I needed to do laundry though, and clean up before we go. I also loaded pics on facebook, and wrote up this blog. Besides, this is vacation. There should be no rush if you are on your own time, right???

Until next time.....