Day 38-39 Cairns Australia

Weather
Sunny, Mid 90's, felt like 110!

Map

What we did
On our first day in Cairns, we visited the Cairns Aquarium. The layout of the museum was interesting as the first exhibit started with a drop of rain and followed the water ways as that drop of water descends from the mountainous waterfalls into the freshwater rivers, flowing through the rainforest, across the mangroves, into the shallow lagoons of the Great Barrier Reef and finally into the depths of the Coral Sea. It was a great tour and would recommend to everyone.

After the visit to the aquarium, we decided to walk back to the ship via the local mall (nice air conditioned stop while it felt like 110 out there) and then visited the night market to check it out before returning to the ship. We didn't buy anything and were amazed at the amount of places that offered foot massages. We put a lot of steps in and were quite tired by the time we returned to the ship.

The next day we booked an excursion to visit the the Great Barrier Reef for a snorkel tour. We took a pleasant 1 1/2 hour boat ride out to the permanent platform for the day. After getting assigned to different tour groups, we were then fitted for Lycra suits (mandatory sine it is jelly fish season). We had about four hours on the platform and we could have used a few more, it was that enjoyable. Tom took the local expedition which was a 1/2 hour tour of the local reef and Amy took the 50 minute tour that took her to the edge of the reef near the drastic drop off. Both were amazing. We were very fortunate as the waters were calm and underwater visibility was fantastic. While on the platform, we also were able to go on trips via a semi-submersible boat as well as a glass bottom boat. The platform also had a below sea observation area where we were able to get a front row seat for a fish feeding demonstration. Lunch and beverages were included before we boarded our return boat ride after 3 1/2 hours on the platform. What a great day!

Thank you Cairns for a memorable 2 days!

One of the pictures below includes Kendra who is the Head Waiter in the World Cafe. We always look forward to seeing him at meal times as he has such amazing positive energy.