The Great Barrier Reef - Day 4

For our final day in Australia we took our time exploring Port Douglas and then enjoyed the drive back down the coast to Cairns. We had such a fantastic time!! The entire trip will surely be one of our favorite memories from our entire experience over seas and we're soooo glad we got to see all the beauty that North Queensland has to offer!

View from our balcony...we could see the famous 4 mile beach!

Path to the 4 mile beach from the driveway of our hotel

Port Douglas' 4 mile beach

The great little place that we stayed in

Beautiful Port Douglas

The drive up and down the coast from Cains to Port Douglas is right along the water and its SO pretty! :)

We ceretainly never see road signs like this in the states!

The Great Barrier Reef - Day 3

On our third day in Australia we decided to visit the little mountain village of Kuranda. While the town itself is super cute, most of the fun is had in getting to and from Kuranda. We went with the Skyrail/Scenic Railway combo. Our original plan was to take the train up the mountain and the skyrail back down, but unfortunately, we got a bit turned around and ended up arriving at the train station just as the train was pulling away. Bummer! So we ventured over to the Skyrail station and hopped in a cable car ready for the 60 minute trip up the mountain. Now some of you may remember from a blog I wrote shortly after moving to Singapore that I am very afraid of being suspended in the air (ferris wheels, ski lifts and of course, cable cars), so a 60 minute ride was a huge feat for me! The skyrail ride was well worth it though! The views of the coast were absolutely breathtaking. Once we made it to Kuranda, we spent our time looking in all of the touristy gift shops and found plenty of Aussie souvenirs - including an authentic didgeridoo :) After an impromptu, hour long lesson on how to play the didge, we found a place to eat lunch and then made our way to the Scenic Railway.  Said to be one of the most scenic railways in the world, the Kuranda Scenic Railway weaves through the Barron Gorge National Park on a 90 minute ride from Kuranda to Cairns. We saw beautiful waterfalls and more amazing views of the coastline...

On the cable car headed up to Kuranda

 It was a LONG ride!

...but the views were amazing!

"I sure hope this box won't snap off this cable..."

Views like this made it possible for me to forget we were in a cable car

We made it!

Matt had been eyeing didgeridoos for a few days and decided it was time to get serious about them...

His first trying at playing one!

Time to go...

Matt inside the train

Just like from the skyrail, the views were amazing!

One more stop at the lookout point on our way back to Port Douglas - too pretty to pass up!

Listen to Matt play the didgeridoo for the first time :)

A little lesson on how to play...

The Great Barrier Reef - Day 2

From the day we decided to go to Australia over Thanksgiving, we knew our top choice of places to go was the Great Barrier Reef - its the whole reason we went to north Queensland to begin with! So when day 2 of our trip arrived we absolutely couldn't wait to head out to the reef - and let me say, the reef did NOT disappoint! From the moment we got into the water and looked down, we were amazed by the coral. We've never seen anything like it! The reef stretches more than 1,200 miles along the east coast of northern Australia. Its home to hundreds of species of fish and coral and its the only living thing on earth that is visible from the moon! As you can imagine, its a site to be seen! Our reef tour operators, Wavelength, took us to 3 different snorkel sites along the reef. We got a good 4 hours in of exploring the reef and its many fish and different types of coral. The pictures definitely wont do justice to what we saw, but they will give you a good idea of the awesome-ness that lays just below the surface of the water. Throughout the entire day, Matt and I kept saying to each other "I can't believe we're snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef!" and now that I'm sitting here in our apartment, I'm still so thankful that we got to share such a fabulous experience together. Day #2 of our trip is filled with such sweet memories - ones that we'll surely never forget! 

M & K, ready to board the boat and see the reef!

Leaving Port Douglas...the ride out to the reef took 1.5 hours. Talk about being far away from the coast!

We were blessed with a beautifully sunny day and fairly calm seas :)

We made it to the reef! We can hardly wait to see what's under the water! The turquoise area is actually just the sandy bottom of the ocean, but the dark-brownish bits are all coral reef. It stretched on for miles and miles!

First things first...we were there during stinger season so before we could enter the water, we had to put on full body lycra suits to protect ourselves from "stingers" - box jellyfish and tiny little Irakandji jellyfish. They can sting you and cause shock to your heart. Yikes! I'll take the suit over a sting and shock to the heart any day. We looked sooooo good in our suits ;)

Look at that coral below us! We are ready to see what else is down here!

Amazing! Our very first goal was to find Nemo...

Looks like we found him - and his family!

Well hello there Mr. Fish! This guy was HUGE!

So cool!

Neat, huh?

Look at the beautiful, blue clam. That's the biggest species of clams there is!

We can't believe we're at the Great Barrier Reef! Hey, what's that over there...?

...oh you know, just a SHARK!

Thankfully, we only ran into the harmless kind...white tip reef sharks.

Bye friends!