She says: I am not a responsible snorkeller. I got one of the guides in trouble because I followed a turtle WAY far away from the boat. She had to swim out and coax me back into our snorkel zone.

The Great Barrier Reef is totally amazing. Despite battling a cold, and being on a boat in HUGE waves for over an hour and a half to get to the Reef, it surpassed my expectations. I thought the snorkelling we did in Lombok would have been hard to beat, but the Great Barrier Reef did it, no problem.

The water was really rough and it was hard to stay put to look at anything, as the waves and current pulled like crazy. It was a great workout, but some of the most challenging swimming I've ever done.

We booked our tour with a company called Calypso and were on the first tender off the ship, and came back on the last tender in the evening. We had a super full day, stopping at three different spots to snorkel.

We were pretty excited because we had a photographer with us who was planning to take underwater shots throughout the day. Unfortunately, fifteen minutes into our first site, he had to get onto the boat to help some of our fellow snorkellers as they struggled. The water was rough enough that he said it was the first time he ever had to stop taking shots to help pull people out of the water.

When we first arrived to the pier for our day at the reef, the boat wasn't there yet. I, of course, got into a bit of a panic. We spotted another pair who were looking around, lost, just like us. They seemed super friendly and we ended up chatting with them. They are a brother/sister duo on the Dawn Princess with their parents. They had also booked the Calypso outing, from their home in Seattle. We had a ton of laughs with Anne-Marie and Carsten as we were tossed about on the Calypso ship, watched the Germans wander around in their panties, and then nearly submarined in the lifeboat we were tendered back to the Dawn Princess in. Carsten was even stuck under a leaking vent in the Dawn Princess tender. We are happy to have made some under-70 year old friends on the cruise.

Before we headed out for our day on the Reef (the main reason we're in Australia, by the way, was Matt's burning desire to see the GBR), Matt said he really hoped to see a certain kind of fish. It's a huge blue-green fish that is called something like Maori Rax. On our first stop, there was one that situated itself right under the boat. Matt spent a lot of time hanging out with him. On our next stop, there seemed to be another one. We soon learned that this was the same guy and the staff call him Angus. We had our lunch at the second stop and it was as though Angus could sense it, as he was swimming right at the surface, practically begging. The snorkelling teacher brought some roast beef out and fed it to him, coaxing him to bring his entire mouth out of the water. Matt was like a little kid. Angus, of course, followed us to our third stop as well.

I know I've mentioned the waves a few times, but the waves were INSANE. When we first popped in the water, the guides told us to stick with our buddies and one of them pointed Matt and I in the direction of a special piece of broken-off reef. Right as we got there, Matt's snorkel got swamped from the waves and he drank half the ocean. That was nearly the end of the day for him. After a short break and the addition of a pool noodle to his gear, he was back in action, and glad for it. We got so close to the gorgeous, rainbow coloured coral and fish. Even the teeny sections we explored were seemingly unending and the vastness of the GBR is incredible.

We did get to see, hear and smell a lot of puke that day, though. I, in fact, watched a fish puke, which was amazingly cool. I don't quite know what was going on, but a big pink fish opened its mouth right in front of me and puked white flakes upwards. The prettiest barf I ever saw.

As hard as it was to stay still and watch things happen on the reef, let alone slow down because of the waves, those were the best moments. Once you could focus on a small area, you could see how much life was teeming in it. I loved the fish that camouflaged almost perfectly with the coral surrounding them, and you could only spot them when they moved. I also got a huge kick out of finding the little guys who cling to sea grass, anemones or coral with their little fish fin/arms. So lazy and cute.

Of course, the turtle was my absolute favourite. I was swimming back to the boat for a little break when someone shouted "Turtle" and pointed. I took right off, and there was a hawkbill turtle, swimming 1 foot from the surface of the water. I got to swim right next to him as he popped his head out of the water and then slowly flew around. I really didn't want to leave him.

The Great Barrier Reef was spectacular. Even though the weather was crazy, we had an INCREDIBLE time. I only wish we'd had another couple of days and gotten to experience it on a calm, sunny day. I can't imagine how much brighter everything must look. The sun did appear for a bit on our last stop and everything seemed 10 times more saturated. Giant clams even reacted when I swam over them. Their light receptors noticed me, and they tried to close up.