Under the Sea

The Great Barrier Reef is an indescribable place.  It is very hard to do it justice with my description and these pictures.  Needless to say, Luke has already booked us in to come back in four years when he is 12 and can go scuba diving.

We spent two days on a live-aboard boat out on the Outer Reef near Norman Reef.  This is near Cairns (Pronounced Cannes, all the Rs are silent in Australia for some reason: Melbourne is Melbun, Lorne is Lawn).

We went on a boat called the Reef Encounter and it was great except that the A/C went out on the boat 4 days before we got on (BUMMER). (Walk, we could have definitely used your skills on the boat.  I almost called you for some FaceTime troubleshooting.) We survived with fans and some portable A/C units.

I did four scuba dive sessions and Luke and Suzanne snorkeled.  I was also able to do four snorkeling sessions with Luke and Suzanne.  In total we had eight different times out on the reef over the two days at three different locations on the reef.

It felt like being inside the tanks of the greatest aquarium you have ever seen.  The fish were every color of the rainbow with unique patterns and shapes. The varying corals were subtle shades of pastel, and the water every shade of blue and green you can imagine.  We saw sea turtles, sharks, sting rays, Nemos, and many more beautiful fish.  Suzanne said that the costume designers from The Hunger Games movies must have gone snorkeling on the GBR to get inspiration.  The colors and patterns on the fish reminded her of the Capital costumes!

Luke absolutely loved snorkeling.  He had some trepidation on the ride out to the reef and for about two minutes after he jumped in the water.  After that he was like another fish in the reef! He enjoyed diving under with me to get as close as possible to the fish.

Being out on the GBR felt a bit surreal to me.  It is such a remote place.  So beautiful.

Our Ship, The Reef Encounter.

Yes, We found Bodhi from Point Break.  He was our dive master on our boat.