Green Island Is The Place To Be!

From Cairns, we took a day trip to Green Island.  Our arrival was welcomed by a pod of minke whales and dolphins just off the reef!  We spent the day snorkeling with occasional breaks relaxing on the beach.  The snorkeling was incredible.  The first things we saw were amazing coral, fish, starfish, and a green octopus with tentacles a foot long!  Kent spotted a turtle while we were on the beach, so we raced to put on our gear and swim with the turtle.  We were swimming as fast as our fins would take us, with our heads down looking for the turtle, and we finally spotted him...and his friend reef shark!!!  Kent and I have differing stories of our reactions when we realized we were about to headbutt a shark, but I am just bummed I didn't get a picture! 
Later, we tried another spot to snorkel and found 3 large sea turtles, which we swam right next to!  That was awesome, and my pride and joy is the underwater video I took swimming next to one!  The whole day was just an amazing experience and only a taste of what the Great Barrier Reef offers.

North Queensland...The End of the East

There were plenty of sights to keep us occupied in Townsville for more than a few days. The city was getting ready for the Townsville 400 and there was a lot of preparation going on. We managed to enjoy ourselves by visiting the Riverway with beautiful public swimming pools along the Ross River. We met up for a great dinner with Cathy, a friend of mine from the YMCA Hurricanes swim team. Another day we strolled along the 2km Strand (a walkway along the ocean) to the Rock Pool-- a public saltwater swimming pool, much like the Lagoon in Airlie Beach. Along the Strand we got our fix of fish & chips and also a treat from Cold Rock (the Aussie version of Cold Stone). Kent and I hopped on the ferry to Magnetic Island to stay for a couple of nights, do some kayaking, and enjoy being one with nature.

From Townsville it was north to Mission Beach, THE place to skydive, apparently. I spent the time trying to recover from a bout of sore throat. Our last leg of the trip north was the bus ride to Cairns. We finished traveling up the east coast a week earlier than expected, but are looking forward to staying in one place for 9 days!

Airlie Adventures

  After we recovered from the overnight bus ride, Airlie Beach was heaven. We were finally in tropical weather and ready to soak up the sun, especially after hearing about the heat wave back home.  Airlie Beach has an awesome "lagoon" - a man made pool designed to look like a beach or lagoon, right next to the harbor.  We relaxed and swam; it was preparation for our sailing trip in the Whitsundays Islands!  When it was time to set sail, we couldn't have asked for better weather.  Wind 10-12 knots, sunshine all around. We raised the sails and headed east.  The first stop was Hayman Island, where we we spotted a humpback whale!  They migrate north this time of year to have their calves and fatten them up for the trip south.  Hayman Island is also where Kent and I did our first ever scuba dive!  We got a quick lesson from our instructor and next thing we knew, we were surrounded by tropical fish...yellow tailed fusiliers swam all around and over us, and a huge (1 meter long!) Maori wrasse came to see what all the commotion was about.  We were on cloud 9.  We saw some great coral and amazing fish, including parrotfish, anemonefish, giant clams, coral trout, barramundi cod, and tons more.  We were totally hooked by this underwater world and did another dive the next day!  Getting certified is now on our to-do list.  Another highlight of our sailing trip was when we visited Whitehaven Beach.  We walked up to a lookout point and I was able to get a postcard-worthy panoramic picture, so you can all see the amazing view!  We spent a few hours on the beach; the sand was the whitest and finest I have ever seen.  There were some stingrays and batfish in the water, but luckily there were no jellyfish!  We didn't want the tour to end, but we eventually had to step back on land and continue north to Townsville!