Tourist in Australia - Day 11 - Cairns - Great Barrier Reef

Sunday, 30 October  2016

After our hotel breakfast, we walked down to the pier to meet our boat with the Reef Magic Cruises. We had a 90 minute ride out to their platform in Moore Reef.

The cruise included the following activities of scuba diving, snorkeling, glass bottom boat, helicopter ride around area, and lunch including tea times. 

Unfortunately, I ended up with seasickness/dizziness. With my health issues, it was recommended that I not do scuba diving and snorkeling. That was fine with me as I totally enjoyed being out here and seeing everyone else enjoy themselves. There were many families with small children. 

I also discovered Aussie’s version of our ginger ale, which they call ginger beer. It had a lighter taste and color compared to ours. It was recommended to drink this and chew on ice to help with my ail.

Eileen and I went on the glass bottom boat to see the ocean life at the bottom of the reef.

Most of my underwater pictures were too bluish like the two here. This was the best with the camera I had. It cost extra money to rent an underwater camera for the actual diving. We had a delicious lunch after this adventure. At 1:15, it was fish feeding time by the marine biologist. 

The large fish, Wally, came right up to the swimmers feet. He is called a Maori Wrasse. He was like a pet dog swimming around wanting to be petted. Wally is the Great Barrier Reef mascot.

As I was clicking away on my camera, another group of black fish came called giant trevally to be fed.

We left around 3:30 to return back to the Cairns pier by 5:00 PM. We rested and freshened up for dinner at the Ochre Restaurant at Harbor Lights not far from our hotel. This place focused on local menus. I had the Morganbury Pork Fillet which I enjoyed immensely. Eileen loved her salmon dish.