Coral reefs, golf carts, and the wrong side of the road.
We had known when we decided to go to Australia that we had to see the coral reef. There are a few ways to get there. Most people go to Carins which is a large city, I wanted to do something more exotic...cuz you know I don’t like doing things the easy way. So I just googled some stuff like “Taylor Swift Australia” (that’s for Sierra) and found the Sunday’s Islands? Then there was this place called Hamilton Island there, then we realized there were only a few rentals left (and the main resort there doesn’t allow kids :/) so we opted to haggle with a huge fancy house that literally had a pool in the middle of it. We got the best last minute deal ever. This house was completely out of our budget but I managed to “negotiate”(possibly annoy) this guy into getting it down into our budget. It was totally awesome. Plus it came with a golf cart(normally there’s 2 but I conceded we could make do with one-cuz there’s no cars on the island.) So suffice it to say a combination of kids being scared of box jellyfish and a magazine worthy house and pool meant we stayed at the house a lot. It helped that it was basically a live zoo which we realized when the kids exclaimed that there was a kangaroo in the backyard. “Whatever? It’s probably a dog.” I replied until I walked into the yard to realize “Holy crap, it’s a kangaroo!” I was remembering Austin sharing his research on the top deadliest animals, (apparently kangaroos make that list) as this guy just sort of looked at me like “what was I doing in HIS backyard” I left the way I came. The next zoo moment was when I got out of the shower, stepped out to take in the epic view we had to discover a pair of cockatoo who were sitting on the deck as if waiting for me to come out. Hello! The “don’t feed the birds” sign now made sense. Then one night while eating burgers we’d bbqed something huge was clearly thrashing in the tree by the deck. We’d assumed it was one of the thousands of huge(think 12+inches) fox or fruit bats we’d see every night darkening the sky. I was proud of the fact that although clearly it was the mission of whatever creature it was to get onto the deck none of us even moved but rather continued our dinner waiting to see what it was. Finally arriving was what some google research let me know was a black possum. He landed on the deck, looked around and climbed back into the darkness...we all went on eating.
We did leave for groceries at the one market on the island, and ice cream, but if it hadn’t been for the fact you got to the beach via your own golf cart I find it hard to believe we would have left at all.
Wonder of the world. I remember planning to go to see the Grand Canyon and feeling like meh I’ve seen it in pictures....until I stepped out of the car and walked to the edge.
The reef was like that. Every couple minutes its appearance changes. The colors lighten and deepen with the sun and depth of the waves. The water current was extremely strong. When we got there. We all donned stinger suits and the normal snorkel gear. Todd and I can scuba dive but a combination of forgetting contacts and having 4 kids we couldn’t really leave/trust with a world treasure made us decide we’d all snorkel.
Getting in the water you instantly realized why they have rope lines set up....the current will literally drag you off in moments. It was rough at first but then we began to see the wonder
beneath us. Big fish, small fish, every color of coral you can imagine and sea anemones the size of a large pizza. The edge of the reef to me was the most spectacular part. Years and years of giant pieces of coral trying to outgrow the one below them creates this wall that disappears into the depths with beautiful shelves and arching coral. We drank a lot of sea water trying to manage the waves and tide, eventually going back to regroup.
beneath us. Big fish, small fish, every color of coral you can imagine and sea anemones the size of a large pizza. The edge of the reef to me was the most spectacular part. Years and years of giant pieces of coral trying to outgrow the one below them creates this wall that disappears into the depths with beautiful shelves and arching coral. We drank a lot of sea water trying to manage the waves and tide, eventually going back to regroup.
There was a large permanent “pontoon” that this company has anchored near the reef so there was room to spread out and hang. A crew member on the boat told me it was about to be low tide. He said the current would be less then. So we headed back. There were far fewer people in the water and it was even more impressive than before. Jackson, who’d bailed on the first swim, was coaxed back out by Austin. The two of them eventually exploring together until it was time to go.
We went running on the island though it was....an island, and a hill-covered one at that so not terribly satisfying but it counted as running. I let Austin practice his driving with the golf cart. Also on the wrong side of the road so it was interesting, I think I had to remind him less about staying on the right side of the road here.
We’d basically be island people for a week until we were forced to leave. We had a wonderful time.
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