Today we visited the largest living thing on earth, the great barrier reef, and be assured it is truly great.

We had decided to venture out to the outer reef as it had been recommended to us. We checked in at the reef fleet terminal bright and early, checked In and jumped aboard to start our 90 minute journey to a pontoon around 50km from the shore.

Mum and dad had previously recalled to us Katie's first trip on a ferry (Dover to Calais) when she was only about 5 or 6. Apparnetly Katie was taken on the outer deck and was transfixed staring at the water as the ferry moved along for the entire journey. We sat at the back if the top deck and she did exactly the same thing on this trip.

At the beginning of the journey they were dishing out anti sickness tablets willy nilly, we decided we didn't need them and were fortunate to have been right, as I ventured downstairs to the toilet during the journey there were around ten unhappy tourists with there faces in sick bags, it was a realatively bumpy ride!

We arrived at the pontoon and popped up in the sun deck to relax with a cup of tea, but it wasn't long before we donned wetsuits and jumped in to do a spot of snorkelling. This was for me one of the activities I was most looking forward to not only in Australia but on my whole trip and it did not disappoint!

It was absolutely spectacular. It was exactly the same as when you see footage on documentaries or see brochures. When the three of us popped our heads out the water we all agreed and were on a real high.

The day before the trip my underwater camera had stopped working. Can you believe it?! I had rang the tour company to ask if they hired cameras and was told that there would be professional taking pictures and that we would be able to buy them at the end of the day. I was disappointed that I may not be able to take my own pictures but was pleased that photographs of the day would still be available. Once we had been in we all agreed to buy an underwater case for out working camera to be able to take some pictures, they really dont do it justice but I was able to make a few videos while I was snorkelling too so will be able to bore people with those on our return!

There were regular trips on semi submersible and glass bottom boats from the pontoon which were included in out ticket so after a slap up lunch we headed out on the semi sub and learnt about coral and the reef along the way. We also saw two sharks.....not great Whites or anything but even so!

Got as much snorkelling in before we had to leave and make the journey back to cairns. Another brilliant day down under!

Over and out

Han x