A whole new world

If you aren’t one of those people that have a life time goal of visiting all of the 7 natural wonders of the world, I suggest you become one. In my short life I have already been to two of them; The Grand Canyon, and now the Great Barrier Reef. Both were spectacular.

We booked our Reef trip with ‘Sunlover Cruises’, and were one of the first out of 200 people to arrive. I wore my new board shorts that I bought from Myer last night, with a bikini top. Dad wore long board shorts instead of speedos, thankfully! We put on our caps, sunnies and loaded up with sunblock before boarding the boat. We made our way to the top level where it was nice and cool inside. In Wellington you would go inside to feel the warmth, here you go outside! Its much colder inside here than it is outside. The weather was looking good, and the crew said it was a really good day for the Reef. The boat ride was an hour and a half out to the reef which was 40km from shore. Esmee was pretty tired already so she nodded off to sleep and stoked up on energy for the rest of the day.


Camiel and I on the boat

They had a pantoon out in the water, which was like a big docking station that had tables, chairs and all of the equipment needed. We instantly got ready to snorkle and jumped in the water. Once under, its a whole new world. We swam out and saw so many species of fish and coral. It was beautiful. There were hundreds of colours and the fish would swim so close to you! We couldn’t touch the coral, but seeing it was enough. There were thousands of fish at the edge of the reefs, which would get to depths of about 20 metres. Esmee real enjoyed it until she started getting salt in her eyes. There were little tiny jellyfish that would sting, but they were only small stings, like little pricks which were a little irritating for a while. We kicked around and spotted fish like Nemo, Dorie and stripy black and white ones. Mum and I really wanted to see a sea turtle, but couldn’t find one. It was truely amazing. After an hour we kicked back to the boat and had a buffet style lunch which had heaps of fruit! I ate lots of rock-melon, and thought of Ross and all of the fruit he needs to be eating now he’s on a high fiber diet. Eh Ross?


Geared up and ready to go!

They had small tours going every half hour or so so we jumped on some after lunch. The first one we went on was called the Bottom Glass Boat, which was a boat with glass at the bottom so you could see all of the coral. There are 400 different species of coral in the Barrier Reef, and 1500 different species of fish. The tour was about 15 minutes long, and it was really amazing to see the fish from birds eye view. After this we crammed onto the Submarine. It was a boat that had a bit under the water with windows all around it, so you could look out into the reef. In this we saw tiny jellyfish and big fish about half a metre long. There were rainbow coloured ones, bright blue ones, and even ones that looked like they were glowing. We then decided to get back in there and do some more snorkeling, but it wasn’t long until Esmee got attacked by stings so I took her back to shore to sit with dad. They also had a helicopter tour there, where you could see the Reef from the sky.


The Bottom Glass Boat

I’m lost for words on what to say about the Reef. I could try and write it down, but there’s no point; you have to experience it for yourself. It was amazing, and nothing compared to Rarotonga where I previously snorkled. The water here was so nice and warm, and crystal clear too.

The boat trip home was nice and cruisey and Esmee, Camiel and I sat outside majority of the time. We came home tired after a long day. The reef was so amazing - I wish I could go and do it again tomorrow!

Bye bye

Fem
xox