My Trip to the Great Barrier Reef

Turtles, fish, and coral-oh my! Over the holidays, I was fortunate enough to spend my vacation in Australia and New Zealand. And what visiting northern hemisphere citizen would go down under and not see the Great Barrier Reef?

December marks the beginning of summertime in Australia, so my family and I thought it would be the perfect time to see the fish and enjoy the weather. But what we didn't know was that summertime is actually Australia's rainy season, and the day before we arrived at Cairns, the nearest city to the Great Barrier Reef, there was heavy rain and a cyclone warning.

Although the cyclone warning was lifted, we were told that if we had more time, we should wait a day or two to go out and see the Reef. The heavy rain the night before had disturbed the Reef, making the waters murky and hard to see any fish. Also the waters were still choppy. But, since we only had one day to see the Reef, we decided to take the 45 minute trip on the catamaran and try to see as much as possible.

Just for future reference: if you are ever in that situation, and you have time to wait until the water gets calm again, by all means do so.

Once we got to Green Island, we immediately boarded a glass bottom boat for a half hour tour of the reef. The guides throw out fish food, and within seconds hundreds of fish swarm underneath the boat. The water was a little green, but we could see the outlines of all the fish-and most of them were very large.

After our glass bottom boat ride, we went on a semi-submerged submarine tour. We could see the fish much more clearly, and since the submarine was so narrow, at times I felt I could reach out and touch the fish. My sister, who is very afraid of all things aquatic, spent the whole ride with her eyes closed and her back turned towards the glass, trying not to squeal too much.

While it was an adventure and there were a lot of coral and fish to see-my favorite was the spaghetti coral, which looked like pasta waving to me underwater-next time I will definitely plan on snorkeling. I was only on choppy waters for a brief 2.5 hours, but I felt seasick the rest of the day.

Some interesting facts about the Great Barrier Reef:

• The Reef is 1300 meters long

• It comprises one fifth of all the reef in the world, making it the largest in the world

• You can see the Reef from outer space

• Approximately 1500 species of fish and 400 different types of coral live in the Reef

For more details about my trip, and to see some photos of the Reef and Green Island, check out my blog post, "Boxing Day and the Great Barrier Reef."