"The Dropoff!"

The majority of today was spent quoting "Finding Nemo". Amy, Laurie, Roberta, and I took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was not the best--cloudy and rainy--but we had a great day nonetheless. It took about 2 hours to get to the reef, but once there we snorkeled off a small island (Michaelmans Island I think). We saw many fish--small and big but the reef itself was stunning. Being wary of swimming in the ocean near live things, I was a bit nervous most of the time. The water was also relatively shallow where we were so I had to try hard not to kick any of the coral. The temperatures weren't too bad, but I was slightly concerned about hypothermia. The wind and rain made things just unpleasant enough.

After lunch on the boat (a delicious buffet where I had prawns--the eyes freaked me out), we took a ride on a semi-submersible to get a closer look at the reef. That was very cool--we saw some different types of coral we hadn't seen and several different types of fish. Again, the pictures that we took can not do what we saw justice.

Cairns is a much smaller town than Brisbane and is right on the beach. It's hot and humid here which is a nice change from the cool dry temps in Brisbane. I can stop wearing the same long sleeve shirt that I've been wearing for the past week. We're also enjoying hanging out with Roberta since that hasn't happened in forever. We have another full day tomorrow--something cultural I think--and I'm looking forward to it.