From the time we knew we were coming to Sydney, Ethan was determined to get to the Great Barrier Reef. Because his work schedule is packed tight, we could only squeeze in a few days for the vacation up to northern Queensland. We left Friday night and flew up to Cairns. Then it was about an hour drive from Cairns to Port Douglas, the town we stayed in. We had a wonderful villa with a gorgeous tropical pool right off of our balcony. It was most definitely paradise!
The climate up there is much more tropical, it is the one place in the world where the rainforest meets the reef, the Great Barrier Reef, that is. We had 3 full days to enjoy. The first day we just decided to hang at our pool and also took a picnic lunch to the famous "4 Mile Beach" right on the coast, which is along the Coral Sea. This beach was unlike any other beach we have been to. First of all, there was a net enclosure within which we could swim. It is stinger season down here, and we have learned that the box jellyfish, also called the sea stinger, is the most deadly animal in Australia! They are very large jellyfish and if you get stung, it is most likely fatal. We definitely stayed within the swimming enclosure!!! But the waves are very small, and you can go out really far and still quite shallow. Plus the water was much warmer up this far north, so it was my first time actually swimming since we've been here!
You can see the mountainous coastline that meets with the beach. The sand here was much finer than down in the Sydney area.
You can see the swim enclosure behind them, that white floating line.
Check out the sign behind the boys. Stingers! But it sure didn't keep people away. The beach was quite crowded, you felt very safe inside the swim enclosure.
That night we had dinner at a restaurant along the strip of the town of Port Douglas. It was a really cute town with just one main strip full of restaurants, reef tour and rainforest tour storefronts, and shops.
Our second day was our Reef tour! This was definitely the highlight of the trip. We went out with Quicksilver Cruises, the largest tour group out of Port Douglas. They took us for an hour and a half ride on a very nice and large boat out to the reef. They recommended that we all wear their "stinger suits" so that we would not get stung in case there were stingers. We never saw any, luckily! They have a large platform that stays out at the reef, and they can do scuba diving from the same platform. We all chose to snorkel. They also had an underwater viewing site that you could see lots of the reef from without going into the water. And then there was another option, a semi submersible boat that drove around the reef with the seating about 5 feet under water so you could see a lot of the fish and reef as well. Elise, Brady, and I took that ride and our highlight was seeing 3 different sea turtles! They were really cool to see, but Ethan had our camera at the time so we didn't get pictures of those! Ethan had an underwater camera and got lots of really cool pictures of the reef and some gorgeous colorful fish.
Brady snorkeling...
This is me, Suzanne...not a great picture but I wanted proof that I did in fact snorkel! :)
Ethan...he is NOT laying on that coral, by the way...
Luke didn't like the fins or the snorkel...but still managed to snorkel the entire time with Ethan!
Such vibrant colors! They were so beautiful!
Look at this starfish!
The kids with our boat in the background.
Modeling the stinger suits!
I know that's a ton of pictures...if you are still with me you deserve some reward for hanging in there. Guess what your reward will be? Some more pictures of the most amazing CROCODILES you've ever seen! Our third day we decided to go to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure! Brady has wanted to see some crocs since we got here. This was definitely the place for that! They were like nothing we have ever seen. This place was crawling with crocs...both saltwater (who do eat humans) and freshwater (who don't eat humans.) We rode this boat (picture the Animal Kingdom safari boat ride) but with real crocs. The tour guide was quite the stereotypical Aussie. I wish we had videoed part of his commentary! He was hilarious. He would hold a stick out over the water attached to the head of a fish, trying to get the crocs to come get it. They sure would come, and jump up to get the fish! We got some great pictures of them...
This was the boat we rode. Those are windows on the bottom half...we were NOT going to be that susceptible to them!
Jason, our Aussie "Crocodile Hunter" tour guide...
They look fake. I know! Those are REAL!
These were the saltwater crocs. They are much larger, have less pointy noses, and Do see humans as a food source.
The kids posing by the WARNING sign. I have never been so paranoid in a "theme park" or zoo of the animals getting out! It sort of freaked me out.
The Saltwater croc feeding time.
This is a freshwater croc. At least they are smaller, and can't fit a human in their mouth! They don't chew their prey, so they don't consider humans a food source.
The obligatory kangaroos found in every Australian wildlife park!
We got to take our picture with a real baby croc!!!
Another "Crocodile Hunter" wannabe...Duncan. He is holding an Inland Taipan, the #1 most venomous snake in the world.
Look at this croc checking out the kids helping with the snake show...this totally freaked me out!!! He seemed ready to pounce on these kids. There was a 5 foot glass wall in his way.
What an amazing trip we had! I have to post a few other pictures from some stops along the coastal drive, more hotel pool swimming, and another dinner in town. Too many photo ops plus a photo crazy dad, makes for thousands of photos for this trip!!!
You just can't drive along this coast without stopping for some photos.
We are holding little starfish.
We will be home to KC in less than 3 weeks. Time is flying now and we look forward to coming home for Christmas, however a trip to Queenstown, New Zealand first. There will be more pics to come I am sure.
