Honeymoon to Australia - Barrier reef tour
Discussion
Mrs durbs and I spent the night out on the reef. I'd definitely recommend that. we did it some time ago (2006) but it looks like it's still a thing:
https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/experiences/reef...
We booked it without really knowing what to expect. We went out with the normal tourist boat - note: it's pretty rough and most of the boat got sea sick - and then at the end of the day, the tourist boat departed and to our surprise, it was just us and the crew left.
We tried scuba diving for the first time, and a bit of snorkelling and then the crew seemed to disappear so it was as if we had the whole place to ourselves, aside from them bringing food and booze when we wanted.
We spent an hour or two with free use of the underwater viewing chamber, sipping fizzy booze and eating crackers. Then we went up top for a meal at sunset.
I realised I would never be able to plan anything that would romantically beat that moment so although I didn't have a ring (I used a serviette holder) I decided to propose.
A bit of breakfast, some more scuba diving in the morning and then the boat arrived and we had another day there before heading back to shore.
https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/experiences/reef...
We booked it without really knowing what to expect. We went out with the normal tourist boat - note: it's pretty rough and most of the boat got sea sick - and then at the end of the day, the tourist boat departed and to our surprise, it was just us and the crew left.
We tried scuba diving for the first time, and a bit of snorkelling and then the crew seemed to disappear so it was as if we had the whole place to ourselves, aside from them bringing food and booze when we wanted.
We spent an hour or two with free use of the underwater viewing chamber, sipping fizzy booze and eating crackers. Then we went up top for a meal at sunset.
I realised I would never be able to plan anything that would romantically beat that moment so although I didn't have a ring (I used a serviette holder) I decided to propose.
A bit of breakfast, some more scuba diving in the morning and then the boat arrived and we had another day there before heading back to shore.
The reef is the length of the entire UK so it really depends whereabouts you're staying, but if you're at the Hervey Bay end, there's Fraser Island which you can hire a 4x4 and the whole thing is sand, so you can drive along the beach and look for whales and tiger sharks (we saw humpback whales from the beach there).
There's also a little town called Tin Can Bay where they regularly have dolphins come in to the bay and you can (pay to) feed them. No idea what it's like now but it wasn't massively known about when we were there and there were only about 10 people there when we went.
If you're up Airlie beach way then you have the Whitsunday islands. That's a big tourist draw so lots going on there and stuff to do. Whitehaven beach is a popular trip. It is spectacular and we saw another whale in the bay but it's a long way to go to sit on a beach really. It looks spectacular in travel brochures from above but when you're sat on the sand it's just a pretty and busy beach.
If you're further north in the Cairns area then the Daintree river is worth a trip. It's all rainforest so it's beautiful and largely untouched, and the river is infested with crocodiles so it's a good chance to see them.
There's also a little town called Tin Can Bay where they regularly have dolphins come in to the bay and you can (pay to) feed them. No idea what it's like now but it wasn't massively known about when we were there and there were only about 10 people there when we went.
If you're up Airlie beach way then you have the Whitsunday islands. That's a big tourist draw so lots going on there and stuff to do. Whitehaven beach is a popular trip. It is spectacular and we saw another whale in the bay but it's a long way to go to sit on a beach really. It looks spectacular in travel brochures from above but when you're sat on the sand it's just a pretty and busy beach.
If you're further north in the Cairns area then the Daintree river is worth a trip. It's all rainforest so it's beautiful and largely untouched, and the river is infested with crocodiles so it's a good chance to see them.
durbster said:
Mrs durbs and I spent the night out on the reef. I'd definitely recommend that. we did it some time ago (2006) but it looks like it's still a thing:
https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/experiences/reef...
We booked it without really knowing what to expect. We went out with the normal tourist boat - note: it's pretty rough and most of the boat got sea sick - and then at the end of the day, the tourist boat departed and to our surprise, it was just us and the crew left.
We tried scuba diving for the first time, and a bit of snorkelling and then the crew seemed to disappear so it was as if we had the whole place to ourselves, aside from them bringing food and booze when we wanted.
We spent an hour or two with free use of the underwater viewing chamber, sipping fizzy booze and eating crackers. Then we went up top for a meal at sunset.
I realised I would never be able to plan anything that would romantically beat that moment so although I didn't have a ring (I used a serviette holder) I decided to propose.
A bit of breakfast, some more scuba diving in the morning and then the boat arrived and we had another day there before heading back to shore.
That’s an amazing story man sounds like a brilliant day. https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/experiences/reef...
We booked it without really knowing what to expect. We went out with the normal tourist boat - note: it's pretty rough and most of the boat got sea sick - and then at the end of the day, the tourist boat departed and to our surprise, it was just us and the crew left.
We tried scuba diving for the first time, and a bit of snorkelling and then the crew seemed to disappear so it was as if we had the whole place to ourselves, aside from them bringing food and booze when we wanted.
We spent an hour or two with free use of the underwater viewing chamber, sipping fizzy booze and eating crackers. Then we went up top for a meal at sunset.
I realised I would never be able to plan anything that would romantically beat that moment so although I didn't have a ring (I used a serviette holder) I decided to propose.
A bit of breakfast, some more scuba diving in the morning and then the boat arrived and we had another day there before heading back to shore.
CheesecakeRunner said:
We went on the Quicksilver catamaran from Cairns about 15 years ago. It was great. Out to the reef, swimming and snorkelling, intro to scuba, and then a semi-submarine boat ride.
https://quicksilver-cruises.com/
We went with an outfit called seastar, who delighted in pointing out how their jetboat meant leaving the reef later than everyone else then speeding past them all to arrive back in cairns firsthttps://quicksilver-cruises.com/
Other than that all the tourist stuff you'll see anyway, skyforest railway to kurunda, it's a shame the Tjapukai place closed that was great. Standard of food is reliably high in Oz but we had a great meal at the salt house.
durbster said:
The reef is the length of the entire UK so it really depends whereabouts you're staying, but if you're at the Hervey Bay end, there's Fraser Island which you can hire a 4x4 and the whole thing is sand, so you can drive along the beach and look for whales and tiger sharks (we saw humpback whales from the beach there).
There's also a little town called Tin Can Bay where they regularly have dolphins come in to the bay and you can (pay to) feed them. No idea what it's like now but it wasn't massively known about when we were there and there were only about 10 people there when we went.
If you're up Airlie beach way then you have the Whitsunday islands. That's a big tourist draw so lots going on there and stuff to do. Whitehaven beach is a popular trip. It is spectacular and we saw another whale in the bay but it's a long way to go to sit on a beach really. It looks spectacular in travel brochures from above but when you're sat on the sand it's just a pretty and busy beach.
If you're further north in the Cairns area then the Daintree river is worth a trip. It's all rainforest so it's beautiful and largely untouched, and the river is infested with crocodiles so it's a good chance to see them.
Great story, thanks for sharing. That is probably a bit too romantic for me, we are already married now There's also a little town called Tin Can Bay where they regularly have dolphins come in to the bay and you can (pay to) feed them. No idea what it's like now but it wasn't massively known about when we were there and there were only about 10 people there when we went.
If you're up Airlie beach way then you have the Whitsunday islands. That's a big tourist draw so lots going on there and stuff to do. Whitehaven beach is a popular trip. It is spectacular and we saw another whale in the bay but it's a long way to go to sit on a beach really. It looks spectacular in travel brochures from above but when you're sat on the sand it's just a pretty and busy beach.
If you're further north in the Cairns area then the Daintree river is worth a trip. It's all rainforest so it's beautiful and largely untouched, and the river is infested with crocodiles so it's a good chance to see them.
Teddy Lop said:
CheesecakeRunner said:
We went on the Quicksilver catamaran from Cairns about 15 years ago. It was great. Out to the reef, swimming and snorkelling, intro to scuba, and then a semi-submarine boat ride.
https://quicksilver-cruises.com/
We went with an outfit called seastar, who delighted in pointing out how their jetboat meant leaving the reef later than everyone else then speeding past them all to arrive back in cairns firsthttps://quicksilver-cruises.com/
Other than that all the tourist stuff you'll see anyway, skyforest railway to kurunda, it's a shame the Tjapukai place closed that was great. Standard of food is reliably high in Oz but we had a great meal at the salt house.
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