Now this was excellent. I purchased one of those Kodak Underwater Cameras and went snorkelling on the Norman Reef near Cairns. For those of you who don't know where the reef is, it essentially runs from Queensland, up into some of those Pacific Rim countries. Here is where we were:

The water was very warm... Like a pleasant salt water bath. The air temperature was in the mid 30's and the humidity was very high. Some wimps wore wetsuits. I don't know why.
The only way I can relate this experience to you is to say "Picture the biggest and nicest aquarium you have ever seen. Make it a billion times bigger and get into it."

Where we were, the water was only about 15 feet at the deepest point, and about 2 or 3 feet at the most shallow point.

Rhonda broke the world speed record for swimming when one of the other people pointed out the shark just 5 feet below her. It was only a reef shark, but will still about 5 or 6 feet long. Later it swam below me as well. Very interesting.

There was lots and lots and lots of fish of all shapes and sizes who didn't really seem to care that you were there.They would swim right up to you and around you.

Even though the coral was very easily damaged (and this was explained to us on the boat in English and Japanese), there was still a lot of stupid tourists who would stand on it and wave to their significant other with the camera.

Even though we only spent 1 day on the reef, I wish we had done that the first day there, rather than our last. Rhonda and I could have spent lots of time there.

If you are looking for a good book on where to go to in the Great Barrier Reef, have a look at this one - it can be ordered online from Amazon-have a peek at any of the books below.

A Side Note... Adventure Tours

My father and I were interested in going Scuba diving when we were there. The company "Great Adventures" a subsidiary of "Dalkyo" offered such packages. We selected this company because of this offer and paid extra. However, it was not until halfway to the reef (about an hour later) that they told my father he could not go unless he had a medical certificate (since he was over 55), and he is about as physically fit as they get. In fact, they had a huge list of conditions that would exclude a lot of people from the scuba. No where in the brochures did it say "Some Conditions Apply." We were given rebate on the difference between the scuba and the non-scuba trip. We were not the only ones who were 'misled.' There were other people who were, shall we say, P.O'd about the whole trip.
In addition, food was promised at the beginning of the trip... A small plate was brought out which was swallowed up by the tourists before we could get to it. The complimentary coffee was nowhere to be found either. Ah well, at lunch they promised plenty of food for everyone. Again, you had to wait a while for it, and if you didn't eat seafood there was only cold chicken wings and white bread to eat. The lineups were quite long.
We were told that the boat had lockers on it to keep our stuff in. Terrific, as I didn't want to hang onto my camera bag. Hmm... The locker was about 6 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and about 6 inches deep... Perhaps I could have put some of the cold chicken wings in it, but then there would have been no room for anything else.
My father and I signed up for a snorkelling trip at 1PM. When we showed up, there was no one else there, except a few other people who were also waiting. After searching around for the person in charge, they informed us that they had taken the liberty of rescheduling us to 2:30. I'm glad they let us know.
I'm certainly glad we went during the non-peak season of holidays. I couldn't imagine how poor the service would have been had the trip been full (in fact if was only about 1/4 or 1/3 full).

Would I take Adventure Tours again? Nope. No way. Not. Non! Nein! Would I recommend it to anyone? Take a guess.