We're still in Oz - Had a great time on the Reef!

We have now been in Australia for 2 ½ weeks. We have done lots of driving (over 2400km), seen many animals and enjoyed tons of water activities. In Hervey Bay we went on a whale watching cruise. We boarded a 15m boat and set out for the Pacific. It is whale migration time in Eastern Australia, so before long we spotted our first whale. The whales put on an amazing show, even swimming under the boat. Some of the whales were longer than the boat! We enjoyed a buffet lunch and an afternoon tea aboard the ship, arriving home around 6 p.m. After Hervey Bay we drove for 2 days up the coast to Airlie Bay to get closer to the Great Barrier Reef. We decided to splurge on a 3 day/3 night sailing adventure on a boat called The Pacific Sunrise. It was 30 m long and was really lovely inside. Only 19 passengers were on the cruise and Jeff and Sam were the only children. It was 3 totally awesome days! We sailed at 2 p.m. on Wed. which was a beautiful day. That night we dined like kings, something we had not done yet in Australia. The next morning we woke up to a light rain/drizzle. After a great breakfast we all put on our full length wet suits and went snorkelling. The Reef is amazing, just like you see on T.V., bright colours, tons of fish, and glorious coral. We continued snorkelling in the afternoon after a huge lunch (spare ribs, sausages, steak, pasta salad, tossed salad...) That night it cleared up and Kevin spotted a dolphin dining on a squid beside the boat. The next day we woke up to brilliant sunshine. Everyone had such a great time snorkelling the day before that we decided to go one more time in another location. The sun really made a difference and the location was spectacular, and Jeffrey taught me how to dive deep and then clear my mask. As usual we were the last of the crew to get back to the ship. After a great curry, which we all devoured, we spent the afternoon on the Whitsunday Beach. We spent the next few hours kayaking, swimming and learning to play beach cricket. While kayaking we saw sea turtles so close to our kayak we could touch them. That night we dined on 8 different dishes, while chatting with the other passengers. The night ended with a great jam session under the stars, a ship’s version of a campfire. Jeffrey and Sammy were perfect sailors!

We have been staying in Townsville, about 4 hours north of Airlie beach. We have rented a small cabin across the street from the ocean. The road is a little busy in front of us; however, the view is quite nice and we have tennis courts that we have used extensively. Townsville is a pretty town but it seems like a strange place. You can’t swim in the Ocean because there are small jelly fish that can kill you. No matter how minimal the sting is from some varieties you will still likely end up in the hospital. We have learned that the phrase “Everything is bigger and deadlier in Australia” is almost true.....except that there are quite a few small creatures that can kill you as well. We returned our rental car to the airport yesterday morning and Kevin and I walked back to the cabin (about 3.5km). Today the kids wrote a recount for school and did some reading. After a long tennis match we went for a nice walk along the boardwalk. We were going to head home and have dinner but it was half price pizza on Tuesday so we had a Hawaiian pizza. When we turned the corner to go home there was a McD’s and we had promised Jeff and Sam a McFlurry after some great improvement on the tennis courts. We ended up having a small dinner at McD’s----not quite the intention prior to setting out on our walk! Tomorrow we will do some laundry, get everything settled for our upcoming stay in Japan, arrange accommodation in Sydney for 3 nights, a tennis game, and dispose of some of our clothing to lighten our loads (we will actually need to carry our knapsacks shortly). We don’t instead to extend our stay in Australia but we are going to stay in Japan for two weeks rather than the one week originally planned.