Going Down Under

We’ve all been looking forward to this trip but it was so hard to decide what to do as there are so many different options & not all live up to their PR. We were on the boat & set off at 8am, picking up & dropping off guests for Hamilton island (1.5hrs away) before heading out to the GBR & Hardy Reef about another 1.5hr away from Hamilton. We moored up at a floating permanent pontoon close to the reef. On the way over Jack had signed up to do a scuba dive & Paige a snorkel safari. As both of us not keen in the water we signed up for a helicopter ride over the reef & Heart reef which A really wanted to see. Once moored up we went down into the underwater observation chamber & saw loads of fishes . It was then time to go for our flight, the helicopters were on separate pontoons & and a launch took us out to them. We were lucky being the only 2 in a brand new helicopter 🚁, only 2 weeks old. The flight was amazing smooth, low so that we could see so much, I was in the front with 360 views.. I saw some reef sharks, rays & a turtle 🐢 once I got used to picking them out. Perfect landing back on the pontoon. We then had a ride in the semi submersible that went out to the reef, though the tide was strong so not always clear, but we saw plate coral, brain & mushroom corals, a lot of it bleached sadly, but there were some blues & other colours.. & lots of parrot fish and other smaller fish. After lunch I put on my stinger suit to protect from box jelly fish & had a go at snorkelling 🤿.. it was busy & I am not the best swimmer but I managed glimpses of the coral & sea. Then it was time to return to Airlie.. 3hrs having covered 140 miles there and back. You can stay on the pontoon overnight which i imagine would be lovely once everyone had gone.
As a young child I had a storybook called Digit Dick & the Great Barrier Reef 🪸, and this trip reminded me of this book & the adventures the boy had.
Back on dry land it was time to party for NYE, the bars were already very busy so we decided to head back to our apartment. In oz there is a firework display for children in most places, & we watched Airlie’s from out balcony with a glass of fizz. After dinner we watched Sydney’s NYE fireworks as they are an hour ahead of Queensland, before watching Airlie’s fireworks at midnight .. all in all a fantastic day and great way to end the yearLäs mer