Yesterday we finally made it out to the Great Barrier Reef! We took the boat out to Michaelmas Cay. It was almost a 2-hour boat ride but it was totally worth it. Unfortunately I was not allowed to do an intro dive because I have asthma but I was still able to do some amazing snorkeling. The cool thing about Michaelmas Cay is that there is a small island that a boat can take you to so, although you are in the middle of an ocean, you still get to snorkel right off the beach.
As soon as we got on the boat we picked up our free glass of tea and cookies and got settled on the front deck waiting for out lovely boat ride out to the reef. The only problem is that it gets rather windy on the front deck and the waves come up through the grate in the floor and you get pretty soaked so after a bit we moved inside where is was better, as long as you ignored the air conditioning. When we got to the reef there was a little fish feeding so we got to see the giant fish that live here before we even got in the water which was pretty cool. I got to wait around and have about 4 runs to the super delicious complimentary lunch buffet while I waited for my friends to finish scuba diving. 12 pieces of watermelon, a kiwi, loads of bread and cheese, teriyaki chicken, fried fish and a couple pieces of pineapple later we grabbed our masks and fins and took the little boat to the island. It was so awesome!!!
There were schools of parrotfish and Jennifer followed a Maori wrasse and there were giant clams and butterfly fish and Christmas tree worms! We did have to fight the waves because of the high winds but it was so awesome. There were tiny colorful fish and so many types of parrotfish, I will have to look some up so I can give you their official names but they were all so beautiful. We just kept going in circles around the reef for an hour so see all the fish! We dragged our selves out of the water to take the last ferry back to our boat and get ready to set off. We had another complimentary cup of tea, with milk, and a slice of cake.
The trip was only slightly marred by the fact that the fact that the trip back to Cairns was extremely rough. I no longer feel any need to go on a roller coaster in the next year, and especially not one that lasts over an hour. However, our friend Sam, who came to visit us from Townsville, and I had a marvelous time listing off the spa treatments we had that day: a sea salt scrub, courtesy of the mist and waves, a fruit acid skin peal, thanks to the water melon that I managed to get all over my face, a herbal infused steam, from our free cups of tea and lastly a sand exfoliation process from the glorious sharp bits of sand that were hurled into us while we got ready to get in the water. Although the ride back was, shall we say les than perfect, none of us joined the masses on the rear deck “taking care of business” and we all arrived safely back home on solid ground and got the chance to look through our pictures of such a great day.
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