Day 2 The Great Barrier Reef!! WOW!!!!!!

Wednesday morning we woke up giddy and excited to see one of the 7 great wonders of the modern world - The Great Barrier Reef!!! (interestingly enough, the boat guide told us that the reef has been growing for thousands of years, so I'm not sure why it's a modern wonder...but anyway) With Scuba Gear, Snorkel and Bathing suits in hand we boarded a bus that took us north to Port Douglas. From there we took a Catamaran for a90 minute trip out to the outer reef. The part of the reef we visited was the Agincourt Reef (FUN! The same name as our Hotel!! Agincourt Beachfront Apartments) It was a little windy that day and the boat ride proved challenging for my motion sickness, but the girls LOVED it!

Here's what we saw when we pulled up!! I wish you didn't need a $1,000 dollar camera to capture the amazing colors we saw in this water - here's the best we could get.





















Arriving with 4 hours to spend on the reef, the boat docked to a pontoon platform permanently anchored at the reef. On the pontoon there was an underwater observatory, a platform in the water and a submersible glass bottom boat. John left right away for a scuba dive while the girls and I decided it would be best to eat lunch first and then enjoy the rest of the day. Of course, the girls ate...as for me....well, without getting into the details, let's just say that I lost my battle with motion sickness...no yummy food for me. Fortunately, the handy little "bags" were all over the boat.



John's dive was an opportunity of a lifetime! Wow, do we have an awesome Creator, or what!??! We were able to rent a professional underwater camera to take our pictures and it was worth every penny!! (actually, they don't have pennies here so it was worth every nickel ;-)) There are a lot of gorgeous pictures, but for the purposes of the blog, we included the most important one. Yup! Our Daddy found Nemo's House!!! Emma sang his praises all day! If you would like to see all our reef pictures (and it will be worth your time) the link to the online album is at the bottom of this blog.

After John's dive he was starving, so he had some lunch while the girls and I took a ride on a submersible glass bottom boat. Once again, I had the privilege of seeing the reef over the rim of a barf bag, but we were able to experience the reef just like John did without getting wet!! We didn't get to see Nemo ourselves, but Crush the Sea Turtle swam right up to Emma's window and she was thrilled. Lily loved watching the fishies swim by, but was more anxious to get back to the food LOL.

Trying to make the very most of our time, John was waiting as soon as we finished our sub ride to take Emma snorkeling. She did GREAT!!! She stared out with just a noodle (which was very brave considering we were swimming in 15 meters of water!) but in the end she wore a vest (much better!) and she swam around snorkeling the reef with her dad! We were both very proud and impressed with our adventurous little 4 year old! She finished snorkeling to find that the lifeguards were feeding the fish on the platform - she was disappointed to find out that she couldn't catch one.

She had sooooo much fun!!

And here's my Lily!! Looking super cute as always - not lots for her to do, but she got to enjoy the underwater observatory and dance around in the pontoon showers. She sat with us to watch the fishies on the platform, but she held on pretty tight to mommy....not quite as adventurous as her big sister

Heather's turn next!! Even at 34 weeks pregnant, I couldn't pass an opportunity to snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef. I'm just thankful that I don't have too much of an ego to bruise because after a morning of being sick, having to wear a Lycra suit over a maternity bathing suit was no picnic. We had to wear the Lycra to protect us from the jellyfish that were still in the water. Deciding to wear a life vest, just to be safe, I chose the size I thought would fit my prego belly best.....little did I know it was largely plastered on my back. This picture is very funny - John and I laughed very hard when we noticed - I'm sure you'll get a good laugh from it too.

It was one of the best times of my life - amazing!!!! There isn't a whole lot to say about seeing this amazing place up close and in real time. John, Emma, Lily and I feel very blessed to have seen it, experience it and truly walk through a great art gallery of God!! Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!

....Emma keeps asking when we can go back ;-)

A quick video of our girl's first few minutes of snorkeling! Go Emma!!!

For more of the Moris family on the Great Barrier Reef, click on this link: http://armyofmoris.shutterfly.com/4459