Reef from Above

I had a great time out on the Reef. I did a 3 night live aboard trip with a flight out to Lizard Island to start with, and then a cruise back along the Reef toward Cairns. The flight was a nice way to get an overview of the Reef. Also, all the dive sites were more than 100 kilometers from Cairns, which is a good thing because a lot of the Reef is getting damaged from high density tourist use. A number of things I read were quite pessimistic about the future of this massive reef system that runs all the way up into Indonesia. The tour I went on was very aware of the need to make efforts to preserve the Reef.

 

Flying in Formation over the Reef

On Approach to Lizard Island

Spoilsport, our home for 3 nights

I did my PADI certification for scuba back in Auckland a few weeks ago. I had difficulty equalizing the pressure in my ears and had some fluid in my ears after that (four flights in a week with pressure changes highlighted that I still had some problems with equalization), so I ended up snorkeling the whole time. Of the 12 dives, there was only one that I was somewhat disappointed that I wasn’t able to go under water.

Parrot Fish with Remora

Reef View

Every time I went out, I saw more and more amazing things, the kind of things you generally only see in books or documentaries…

Unicorn Fish Close-up

Puffer Fish

Green Sea Turtle

Trigger Fish

I’ll post some more photos in another blog…