July 3, 2010

Today was day 7 of our 2 week trip. We took a Jet boat out on the pacific ocean to the Great Barrier Reef! The boat hasn’t ran in a year, and our ride was its last trip out to Fitzroy Island (which is the island on the reef). It went so fast, and we would literally go airborne for 5 seconds at a time before landing. It was like a rollercoaster. We all had to wear seatbelts on the boat. I put on a pair of goggles because the waves kept on crashing on me over the side of the boat. At Fitzroy island we got all of our snorkeling gear and than rode the boat to the outer reef. We rented underwater cameras so we could take lots of pictures. It was an over cast day so they sun wasn’t shinning too bright which mean the reef wasn’t as colorful as it usually is but it was still great to see and still fairly vibrant. It was amazing to actually swim in the great barrier reef! We snorkled for a couple of hours and than went back to the island for lunch. During our lunch break we jumped on a trampoline in the middle of the ocean. After lunch we took the boat back out to the inner reef to Shark Fin Island and snorkeled for another couple of hours. I saw lots of colorful fish, a stingray and lots of coral. I don’t think I looked up for an hour. I just kept following the fish, and finding new colorful coral. We even got to swim down and touch all the different hard and soft coral! It was another amazing day in Cairns ☺