Great Barrier Reef – Mar 22

Summary: misdirection early in the morning, Green Island, on the reef, check out this room, causing trouble again

Our last full day and we are going to the reef. Cool. We got up early, grabbed breakfast, and headed out for our trip. This trip might have a few things we can’t do, but I figured we would do enough things to have a memorable time. I was right.

The folks at Great Adventures did a great job on the trip, but in places they did not have their directions straight. Example 1: this company had two boats – a small one on the right and a larger one on the left. We were told to take the small one on the right at the ticketing desk, then when we got to the jetty and were about to board, we were told to take the larger one on the left. Example 2: I knew that the tour went to an island and the reef, but I was not sure what order. The announcement said if you are going to the reef stay on the boat at the island, but we were actually all supposed to get off at the island. They mentioned that in a later announcement after we told them we weren’t sure we heard the announcement correctly. Those two hiccups aside, the tour was flawless.

First thing we did was go to Green Island. This is a little coral reef that grew up and grew plants on top. We went snorkeling on the beach. Alex was game for snorkeling until water became part of the scene. Then he was game to play on the beach with the goggles while I swam. Nothing much to see, actually - just some seaweed. Still, if I were to be stuck on a desert isle, this would be a good choice. We walked around the island – half of a boardwalk, half on a beach. Pretty place with interesting little birds. They have a croc farm, but I had a feeling we had seen enough crocs. They had a gift shop with a shirt about driving around Australia and hitting all the cities, so I had to get it (names the cities, then says "16,000 km - bloody long way"... and Alex is modeling it, with sunglasses on). On the ride over we met Yulanda from Melbourne – nice person who liked Alex and was enjoying a few days in Tropical Northern Queensland. We bumped into her on the way back to the boat. It is fun to meet fellow travelers and Australians are (just about) all really proud of their country and love hearing good things about it.

Most of the tour passengers were Japanese, with the rest appearing to be Australian. This was noteworthy as every announcement was in English and Japanese. They loved Alex – this might be because (natural) redheads in Japan are rare. Just as some women wish guys would notice that their eyes are about a foot higher than the guys are looking, Alex probably wondered why they were looking a couple inches higher than his eyes.

Anyhow, after a couple hours on Green Island, it was off to the platform on the outer reef. Great Adventures has a platform right off a reef where you can snorkel, dive, drive these James Bond-like underwater motorcycles, view the underwater observatory, or take the semi-submersible submarine around the reef. All the photos above are from the semi-submersible. None of these photos are as good as other photos you’ve seen of a reef and the color in these photos does not do justice to what I actually saw in the sub or snorkeling. It was awesome: every shape and form of coral you can imagine, fish large and small… just wow. By “large fish” I mean about 50kgs or 100+ pounds.

So it was time to snorkel. It was funny - the Japanese all rented wet suits to prevent jellyfish stings and none of the Australians did. Seriously, it was about 100% in both cases. True to form, I rented one for Alex (not wanting to explain on the blog that Alex got stung because I was cheap), but not for me (if Australians are not worried, neither am I). Actually, between the two of us, we had a full snorkel outfit: Alex had a life vest and wet suit (that was about the right size for an 8 year old) while I had a snorkel, goggles, and fins. At first, Alex did not enjoy going out into the water as the salt water tended to splash a little and get in his eyes, but then he got into it. He especially liked hanging onto the cage. I don’t like the life vests because it is harder to swim down to the coral and fish. The photographer took a photo of Alex hanging onto the cage and I bought it. I never buy those photos, let alone take pictures of a picture, but he looked cute in the water. Anyhow, he would hang onto the cage or stand on the platform and tell me to leave. I would lurk, then sprint to the reef (30m), look back to make sure he was not doing anything questionable (like wandering off to dry his hair), dive down amongst the coral, and head back. We did this for about an hour. You’d have to have been there, but it was really an ideal situation. Good times. Really good times. Alex had a blast and I actually got to snorkel a little. I never did find a clown fish, but there were a few anenomies. It was simply beautiful.

We got back to the hotel and checked into the premier suite. Wow, what a room. Life is good. I wish Alex’s mom was here. The Muse found a way to be somewhere that the water swirls like it does here, but not be anywhere near us. Somehow, she is working (and perhaps checking out some tango places) in Argentina this week. I'll save a commenter the effort - "at least she's working!" Well, we can all catch up on the mail together. Anyhow, we swung by the lounge and had some appetizers, then walked around the Esplanade again. The city was once again alive with people enjoying the waterfront. Neither of us was hungry, so we walked around for a bit longer and went back.

The executive lounge was still open and the night was beautiful, so we stepped outside and spoke with a few people smoking outside. They liked Alex immediately and he broke out some of the Aussie phrases he’s heard and is allowed to repeat: good on ya, g’day, how ya going? He has also repeated “what the hell?” in the way that I have …um…blurted it out a few times. I have said it just a few times, but he doesn’t need much repetition as the Phil story attests. Aside: you can’t bring food out where you are allowed to smoke. We heard this once before at the lawn bowling club in Coolum Beach, but I thought I had heard it wrong. It is not that you can’t smoke where people eat. No, you can’t eat where people are allowed to smoke. Somehow, the group of people outside that we were talking with rubbed the server the wrong way (either laughing too loud or the doors - which were hard to open and close - slammed one time too many). Anyhow, it was a lovely evening with smiles all around until right at the end. Sometimes it is easy to miss tension between people when you’re getting along with both. Odd, but a fine night nonetheless.

Alex was in the mood for Finding Nemo for about the 100th time since we left Sydney, but so was I. With a little help, we played it on the big screen. It really is amazing how nice things – things you’ve seen a few too many times – look on a high end TV.

What a great way to finish.

Next: I will try Palm Cove and a playground in the morning, go to the airport, and get down to Sydney for our last night.