Australia

We arrived in Cairns, Australia on Thursday November 6 at some point in the afternoon. On the flight from Samoa to Australia we crossed the International Date Line and lost a day. So, Wednesday never actually happened for us! Once we got to Cairns we had an hour ride to Port Douglas where we were staying. Most of the group stopped by an indoor animal habitat on the way to the resort, but I decided to go straight there. We stayed at Sea Temple Resort and Spa, which was about 10 minutes from down town Port Douglas. The resort was apartment style, so our room had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, den, and patio which opened up to the pool. It also had a washer/dryer so we could do laundry. After switching rooms due to the internet not working we got settled in.
Both nights we got to have dinner on our own, which was a nice change. There were four restaurants in Port Douglas we could go to, so the first night Diana, mom, dad, and I went to a place called Nautilus. It was a neat place! All the seating was outdoors on a patio and it felt like you were in the rainforest. I was so sleepy though, I fell asleep at the dinner table!
The next morning we had to be ready to leave the resort at 8 if we were going out to the Great Barrier Reef. The marina was only about 5 minutes from the resort and when we got there we boarded the silver sonic.

It was a really nice boat and Diana and I made our way to the second floor patio area. Here is Diana on the way to the reef!


It took about an hour to reach the first spot where we snorkeled. The reef was beautiful! We had to wear full body lycra suits because of poisonous jelly fish that could be on the reef. Here is the reef and mom and dad!

After this spot we rode another 15 minutes to the ‘kindergarten reef.’ We ate lunch before going out on the second reef. This spot is where a lot of fish raise their fish families, like in Finding Nemo! Diana told me not to put this picture up but I am anyways, it's cute!

We returned to the marina around 3 and had about 30 minutes to walk in the shops at the marina. Then we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready from dinner. Mr. Lanier’s birthday was today, so all 11 of us went to eat at a local place called Salsa. It was good, but in Australia dinner last about 4 hours, so everyone was restless!
The next morning we got our things together and had to make sure our overnight bags only weighed 22 lbs. for the next part of our trip. When we left we went to a Queenslander home, the Whitfield House, for lunch. It was beautiful and lunch was great! Then we went back to the airport and got a wonderful surprise! Our pilots had been granted to fly at 1500 feet over the Great Barrier Reef! It was unbelievable, and you can truly understand why it is the Great Barrier Reef at this altitude! The last reef we flew over was the reef where Steve Irwin suffered his fatal sting ray bite.

After the tour we continued on to Papua New Guinea. I will post pictures and info from New Guinea tomorrow! Talk about an interesting place...