The Great Barrier Reef - Day 3

Finally it's here...the day we'd been waiting for!  The Great Barrier Reef!  We chose to go out to the reef with Wavelength, a company that only does snorkeling, and only allows a maximum of 30 people on their tours.  It turned out to be the best decision we ever could've made!  The boat left Port Douglas early in the morning on a stunningly beautiful day! The ocean was calm, the sun was out, and we were relaxing away on the hour and a half boat ride out to the reef. This was the first time that either of us have been so far out on the ocean that we couldn't see land! Our day on the reef was fantastic! First of all, we were blessed with out-of-the-ordinary beautiful weather for this time of the year (normally it's so rough that everyone gets seasick!), secondly, every creature we came across was friendly, and thirdly, let's remember that we were snorkeling at the GREAT BARRIER REEF. We went to 3 different parts of the reef, and the last one was our absolute favorite because it was the sea turtle cleaning station! The sea turtles travel to this particular spot to find these special fish that swim around them and eat all of the barnacles/algae off of their shells. Picture a car wash for turtles. Anyways, it was just amazing! The sea turtles were by far my favorite site of the whole day - but then again, Tyson did look pretty H-O-T is his stinger suit, so it's a toss up!   

The Great Barrier Reef - Day 2

Our second day in tropical North Queensland started with a drive north to the Daintree Rainforest.  We went on a boat tour of the Daintree River searching from saltwater crocs -- and not only did we find a MASSIVE croc, but we also saw a snake, a green tree frog, a few smaller crocs and some interesting birds.  Luckily, we all walked away safely.  We continued our drive up through the rainforest making some stops along the way at a few of the beaches.  We found some sort of scary huge lizard that looked like a Komoto Dragon!  I stayed a nice distance away while Tyson followed it to snap some pictures.  We also did a boardwalk walk through the rainforest too.  Today was a day of firsts - seeing our first crocodile in the wild, our first time to see a Komoto Dragon lookalike, our first time to ever even BE in a rainforest, and our first time to eat Wattleseed ice cream!

The Great Barrier Reef - Day 1

Tyson and I just returned from an AMAZING trip to tropical North Queensland.  Just as all of our other adventures around Australia, this one definitely did not disappoint.  We flew into Cairns and then drove up the coast about an hour and a half and stayed in the most precious little town of Port Douglas.  This gave us the perfect "base" to explore the rainforest AND the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef!  North Queensland has such a different landscape compared to Perth.  It's covered in lush green mountains that scoop right down to the ocean.  It truly is where the rainforest meets the reef, and was most definitely filled with fun and exciting sights for us to see!  These pictures are from our first day there - I took most of them as we were driving from the airport to our hotel in Port Douglas because I was so in love with the green mountains.  We spent the first day exploring around Port Douglas - it has some wonderful lookout points that allow you to see their famous "4 mile beach" with the mountains in the background.  The beaches in North Queensland aren't nearly as pretty as the ones in Perth...but the scenery surrounding them is spectacular.