Greetings from a land down under! We couldn't come to Australia, especially Queenslnand without visting its most popular and biggest attraction and so thats what we did- the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a boat trip for Saturday and headed down to the boat terminal about 7.15am- a little early for our liking but we're not complaining! We checked onto the boat and we were off! It was a cheaper ticket so the boat was a little slower thqan the others- but it goes to the same reef so it doesn't really matter! it was nice to spend the two and a half hours on deck topping up the tan and looking for dolphins. We also met a couple who were honeymooning from southern queensland. they probabaly travllled the same distance as we had to get to spanin aty the least- but they were still in the same state, let alone country. Oz is huge- Maria thinks that because its a few centimetres away on the map its a five miinute drive- its probabaly more like a day!!!

Anyway we had two stops throughout the day and saw some amazing fish. Not least a potato cod which must have been four foot long at least and would have taken a few hundred kilos of potatoes to make fish and chips with!!! The reef itself is beautiful with loads of different types and colours fo coral- its never as good as in the photos though as the colours and removed by the water the deeper you get- something to do with refraction!?!? We also saw some absolutely huge clams- easily a metre or two across some of them and they snap shut if you swim over them (well not that quickly but impressive enough). The boat also had a glass bottom boat which we went out in- not as good as snorkeling but certainly less energentic! And to top it off as we sailed home we enjoyed some complimentary wine and cheese!

We had a great day in the end and saw some amazing sights- if theres one thing you are going to do in Cairns then you should defenitely do the reef!!