Cairns

From Sydney, we flew up the east coast of Australia to the small city of Cairns. Cairns is the place to go for excursions to the Great Barrier Reef, which was the main purpose for our stop there. We took a day trip to the reef, which consisted of about 4 hours on a boat and about 3 hours of snorkeling/relaxing time at the reef. What a beautiful sight! We don't have a lot of pictures of the day, since the fish like to hang out under water where our camera couldn't go, but it was just as amazing as we'd imagined! The rest of our time in Cairns was pretty relaxed. We had a couple of rainy days, which was a good excuse to hang out at our hostel, catching up on our reading and our naps. When the sun came out, we spent a day at the "Lagoon" in Cairns. Since the beaches within the city are not safe for swimming, they constructed a public pool that is right next to the beach, so you get the best of both worlds - the feeling of being at the beach, with the safe and calm (and warm) waters of the pool.

Our boat for the Great Barrier Reef tour:


Some fish:


Do you recognize this fish?


The lagoon: