We arrived in Airlie Beach and took a shuttle 20 miles to our hotel. On the way, we saw kangaroos. I felt like Crocodile Dundee. Just kidding. There is nothing outback-ish about this town.
Here's the view from our hotel room (which is more of an apartment)
We walked around the center of Airlie beach which reminds me of every Mexican beach town you've ever visited. It seems to cater to current and former fraternity members. Raglan in New Zealand was this way too. I think it's inevitable for towns that rely primarily on tourism for their survival. Once we got away from the main drag, we found more normal shops and homes. People visit the Queensland coast to go to the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is 80km away -- our trip to the reef took 3 hours each way.
Wednesday we left early for our tour. The trip out was beautiful and once we got out into open water, the water was rough. Again, thank God we are not a family that gets motion-sickness.
Once we got to the reef, we hired a guide to take us out to snorkel. She helped the kids with their snorkeling equipment. We were able to get away from the boat crowd and she introduced us to all the different types of coral and fish that we saw. There is a reason the Great Barrier Reef is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Like the eclipse, seeing the reef was so amazing that is beyond description. We visited Hardy reef -- a 50 foot tall ( and part of 2300 km long) mountain of coral covered by an ocean. We snorkeled 2 feet above the coral although we visited deeper spots as well.
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| Stinger suits, life vests, snorkeling gear. It's stinger (jellyfish) season. Queensland is home to the box jellyfish which will kill you if it stings you. |
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| the lighter water is over the reef which is looks gray-ish in this picture which captures almost none of the grandeur of this place |
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| helicopters are standing by if you'd like to fly over the reef. |
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