Sunday was Tom's birthday (and Valentine's Day). We were also going to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, something we were all looking forward to. We started the day with breakfast in bed for Tom (a family tradition). Then we were off to board our boat for snorkeling. The boat was much bigger than I expected. It held several hundred people. We had originally planned on going to Australia over Christmas, but Tom had to work. I thought Chinese New Year would be better because Christmas, being in the middle of its summer, is a huge travel time for Australians. I hadn't thought about the fact that over CNY, Australia would be full of Chinese tourists. Our boat had 3 levels, with the top deck having by far the least inside seating. About an hour into our trip, they made an announcement they were going to do demonstrations on how to use the snorkeling equipment, with Chinese explanations on the first 2 decks and English on the top deck. A few people came up to the top deck, there were only about 30 non-Chinese customers total. It took us about 2.5 hours to get out to the area of the Moore Reef where we were snorkeling. The kids were very excited to get started. Charlotte was nervous about using her snorkeling gear, but they both figured out how to breathe quickly.
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| The morning boat leaving the snorkeling site |
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| All ready to go |
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| Tom and Charlotte head off |
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| Break for lunch |
We had a great time! The fish and coral were amazing. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get good pictures of what we saw, but it was beautiful. We saw many different kinds of fish, including clown fish, black and white striped fish, and huge green and purple fish. It was also amazing how at the edge of the reef the coral would just drop off 50 feet straight down in the ocean like a cliff. We took a break for lunch, then took a ride in a glass bottomed boat, and took one more turn snorkeling. We had 5 hours at the reef, but it went quickly. We had a wonderful time!
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