It is difficult to describe The Great Barrier Reef, one of the most beautiful places in the world, without over-using the extremely positive adjectives we use conversationally ("amazing", "incredible", "breathtaking" for instance). We could delve deeper into our vocabulary and produce some more exotic ones (like "magnificent" or "spectacular") but rather than describe what we saw, we'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Sarah and I booked a full-day boat tour on the Ocean Freedom - we'd been recommended this boat by our hostel, our rental car agent and many, many reviewers online. They did not disappoint. The crew was friendly and knowledgeable, the food was ample and delicious and the weather provided a perfect backdrop for the day. There were around 50 other passengers with us and we spent the day snorkeling around the reef and sunning ourselves on the boat. We were lucky enough to see many different kinds of fish, sea turtles, an octopus, a barracuda and even a shark (albeit a very friendly, not-interested-in-eating-humans kind of shark)! Sarah nonetheless got out of the water pretty quickly after the crew announced that a shark was in the area! All in all it was a great day and we saw some of the best scenery of our trip!

Snorkeling Video

Looking back at our boat from the glass-bottomed boat tour we had post-snorkel.

A glass-bottomed boat wasn't really necessary though - we could see straight to the bottom of the water the whole time!

Back on the boat - view from the upper deck.

After six hours on the reef, our boat returned to the marina. It was an incredible day and Cairns should be a must-see on anyone's Australia itinerary given its amazing access to The Great Barrier Reef. As Sarah and I walked back to our hostel, we stopped near the lagoon in town to look at the Christmas tree there - it's easy to forget we're only a couple weeks away from Christmas when the weather is like this!

Tomorrow we drive north to Daintree to explore the rainforest. Very different than a day on the ocean but we're excited nonetheless!

We couldn't, at first (the Australian pronunciation removes the "ir" so it sounds like "Cans").

We arrived Monday after a short flight from Sydney and were surprised to gain an hour - the town is virtually due north of Sydney (but the difference is due to daylight savings time, or so we were told!). First stop was the Budget rental car desk where we met Ian, perhaps the most friendly and helpful Australian ever. He gave us various maps and recommendations and also noted he had visited 41 out of all 50 US states - more than either of us! We got settled into our rental car, which will be taking us down the coast back to Sydney over the next three weeks, and Alex tried to adjust to sitting in the right seat and driving on the left side of the road. He seemed nervous at first but definitely has the hang of it now!

A little nervous at first but now he's a pro. Tomorrow I get to try...

The Cairns airport is only ten minutes from town so we were able to check in to our hostel quickly. Neither of us got much sleep during the previous night so after booking a reef tour (thanks Ian!) we headed straight to the water.

During "stinger season" you can't swim in certain areas of the water along Australia's coast because of the jellyfish migration. However, the beachside towns have compensated by either putting up large nets or creating an alternative swimming space. In Cairns there is a huge public swimming pool and park called The Lagoon, located right off the beach. We found a great spot under a palm tree and perched there for most of the afternoon, reading and taking multiple dips in the pool to cool down.

One of the nicest public pools I've ever been to!

One more shot of the beach as the water disappears.

Cairns is a pretty laid-back beach town, at least during this time of year. We suspect that it gets more crowded once the holidays near but there wasn't much action at most of the shops, bars and restaurants. We picked a cute little Greek spot for dinner, Fetta's, and left only after we'd seen our fair share of plates get broken (but before the owner - who seemed quite drunk at this point - started pulling people out of their chair to start dancing).

Tomorrow we get up early to explore the Great Barrier Reef so we are pretty excited!

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