Day 5: Great Barrier Reef!!!

 Today I went to the great barrier reef! It was incredible, I went on a dive and a snorkel. What an absolute joy. I wish I had a go pro to take photos under there, cause it was amazing. Just so many beautiful fish. 


It started with a boat ride out to the reef, we piled on the boat and they gave us breakfast sandwiches and fruit and coffee for our journey out to the reef. Its about a 2 hour boat ride there, but the first half was full of lots of information on the reefs and then a diving briefing. Luckily, they sold sea sick tablets, cause that boat was rocking and I went to the top open air deck for a while, and came down for a minute and looked around at all the people 'too good' to take the seasick tablets, and they were definitely regretting their life choices. 

We finally made it to our first stop and it was so lovely. Me and a girl from the netherlands dove together and we saw lots of black tipped sharks, parrotfish, anemone fish (nemo), and surgeon fish (dory) and lots of other schools. It was so lovely.

After our dive we had a big lunch on the boat and then we moved to another dive site. There I decided to snorkel with Yvonne, which was really nice. We went around together and got to spend more time on the water than scuba cause it takes so much less set up a break down. I absolutely love diving, but snorkeling is so much easier because you don't have to think so much. You don't have to worry about your air or the depth or anything, so it's just a lot  simpler, even if you cant get as close to the fish. Snorkeling I was able to see heaps more fish like the massive Maori Wrasse which get over 6ft long. Huge puffer fish! I watched two parrot fish  fight over territory, chasing each other around. I saw some beautiful schools of butterfly fish and angelfish. Just so many really neat fish. It was pretty grand. I loved just floating and watching all the fishes interact. What a great experience!

After the snorkel we piled back on the boat and begin our trip back home, they served up a bit of wine and cheese, but the journey home was a bit of a rough one. I tried to take a video of it, but it was so bumpy I didn't want to lose my phone. The boat would crash over waves and we were getting absolutely soaked by sea spray. Additionally, the sun had gone so it was quite chilly. We made the most of it, laughing and joking about the journey, most people went back inside, but we decided to stay out where we might be wet and cold, but at least we weren't getting sick with everyone in the cabin. It was a very chilly 2 hour home, but so worth the trip. 




Finally, we made it back for a shower and feed, and after that I was quite tired and decided to call it a night.

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