Great Barrier Reef - Part 2
Sorry to be a negative Nancy – I just had really high expectations. I’m sure there are much better places to view the Great Barrier Reef in all of it’s natural beauty. There were some really great aspects of our trip – I saw some beautiful coral (my favorite had bright blue tips which you can kind of tell from the picture I took of it – see below), I got to see a lot of beautiful fish (even though I hate to eat fish, I love to swim amongst them) and we got to wear some pretty awesome jellyfish suits! The Irukandji jellyfish is a silent, mysterious, nearly invisible killer found in the seas off northern Australia. They can be as tiny as your thumb tip – you don’t see them before they sting and potentially kill you. Also, because the tide was going out, we wore life jackets because the water was swirling around the reef – we didn’t want to be inadvertently sucked toward the coral and hurt any of it. We made friends with the boat photographer and got some AWESOME pictures taken (see previous post).
When we returned from our day at sea I was exhausted – something about the humid, salty air got to me and I slept for about 13 hours straight. Monday morning we all packed up and went to the airport. And, get this, it was perfectly sunny and beautiful out. There were butterflies all over the place, playing into the majestic beauty around us. Luckily, we got to see the island for a few hours in all of it’s sun-filled glory. Weather can’t be controlled but it really does change your plans while on vacation. It was great to spend the time with Gav and my parents and do some relaxing. I read two books, The Great Gasby and The Life of Pi and really caught up on sleep. We also got to sit each night and either watch the sunset (if there was a break in the clouds) and/or listen to evening animal symphony at dusk. Two things I wish I did more often. Taking the time to sit and think is definitely underrated, especially when you have such a gorgeous view to enjoy.
All in all – it was a fun trip but we all agreed that New Zealand was our collective favorite.
