From plane rides to under the sea this was a fantastic way to spend 4-5 days!
It’s our FIRST TIME IN AUSTRALIA!!! Oh man, going to Australia and seeing the Great Barrier Reef has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl looking through my dad’s National Geographic and Discover Magazines in wonder and awe. Can you imagine, floating freely through the warm ocean surrounded by majestic colors and creatures of otherwordly shapes and sizes??!!! It was one of those experiences that you always dream of but it seems so big and so far away, you almost don’t believe it can really happen. But here we are. And here I am. And I think I would blow the socks off that little girl. FLASH BACK – It’s 1992 and she doesn’t even know what life has in store for her yet!
This opportunity and this trip feels very “Once in a Lifetime” even though I know our plan is to travel extensively for the next decade, there is something about this particular trip that has that magical feel. So where do you start if your lifelong dream is to dive the Great Barrier Reef?
Arlie Beach.
So the start of the trip went like this…
Tulsa to DFW, DFW to Brisbane, Brisbane to Proserpine. Land, get a taxi, 30-minute drive and find our hotel! You’ve heard of tiny homes but how about tiny boats?! For around $132 USD per night, you stay in one of their adorable houseboats! Don’t worry about seasickness though because it is only boat-themed and modeled; you are docked on land! A short walk takes you down to an oceanside restaurant and bar for a sunset you won’t forget! Our room was very cute, super comfortable, and clean, and the staff was great. If I had to choose a downside, it would be that it isn’t walkable to anything other than its on-property beach restaurant. It was great and all, but if you wanted something else, you would need to grab a taxi or an Uber! We didn’t mind though, after our long flights, we enjoyed the time without pressure to get out and explore. The 5-minute car ride to town keeps you just enough away that it feels quiet and quaint.
Day 2 in Australia just happens to be a special day… Valentine’s! So what better way to celebrate this romantic day than with a seaplane flight over the Heart Reef?!!! After a quick breakfast at the hotel we took a cab over to the Shute Harbor Airport where we got our flight instructions and safety breifing then borded the plane for a great take off! Our flight took us over Whithaven Beach, the Great Barrier Reef and of course the Heart Reef a natural coral reef that is just perfectly the shape of a heart! The views were spectacular and it was fun scanning the ocean to find dolphins and manta rays from above. I thought I was getting the most epic video ever when the plane took my side over the heart reef and a shark swam right through it! Unfortunately I didn’t hit the record button so instead we just have a picture from Jake of me not-videoing it! Haha! The plane also flew his side over the reef but the shark was not present for that recorded moment. I want to say the flight for 2 ran us just under $380 USD and I booked through TripAdvisor. After the flight we had a taxi drop us off near Arlie Beach and spent the rest of the day strolling the beach town, eating, drinking and eating some more! Finally settled in for our last night at Freedom Shores, tomorrow brings a new adventure…
The Reef Suite
First thing in the morning (like 6:30am) our taxi was waiting to take us to the port! At the port we checked in, left our main luggage with the office and had a quick coffee before boarding the ship. We had packed a small overnight bag to take with us for our time out on the reef. We boarded the boat shortly and almost immediately made new friends, chatting it up, learning where they are from and why they are here. It just so happened that the first people we met, 2 girls who happen to be doctors from Germany, had booked an overnight stay on the reef as well! Staying on the Reef is a full 2 day itinerary so its great to getting to know the people you’ll be spending your next several meals with! The ride to the reef pontoon was a couple hours, we were srved lunch and some snacks while on the cruiser. Now I’m not sure what you call a pontoon where you are from but the “pontoon” they said we were riding out to was not an Oklahoma pontoon. This was more of a floating platform ankered and bolted to the seabed. You didn’t feel ocean movement on the pontoon. The cruiser and other boats could hook up to it letting passengers on or off.
Not everyone on the cruiser is staying overnight, there were lots of people just riding out to the reef as a day excursion. In fact there were three ways you can experience the reef out here.
- Overnight Stay at the Reef Suite (Underwater Hotel Room) 2 suites available
- Overnight Stay with Reef Sleep (sleep on deck of pontoon in your own little pod under the stars! 12 pods available!
- Day Excursion by boat, sailboat, helicopter really there are just so many amazing tours in this area and this was a great company with amazing staff and adventures! Clink on the underlined wowrds to get to the website!
With the lofty goal of visiting all 195 UN Recognized Countries its going to be a bit before we can double up and visit twice. So I really wanted to do it up in Australia, afterall, so many experiences on this trip were things I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little girl. So I totally justified spending the extra $$$, splurged on the Reef Suites and I have ZERO regrets.
This was honestly one of the coolest experiences in my life. Upon docking with the pontoon we immediately get geared up for our first scuba.
In 2004 while planning our wedding and honeymoon we decided to get Open Water certified so we could go scuba diving on our honeymoon! The plan was to dive the Great Blue Hole while in Belize but this was the summer of hurricanes in the Carribean and we never quite made it to Belize. We did get to check out Nassau, St. Martin and St. Thomas though and that was nice but pretty mild diving, not much to see even with a shipwreck. Since 2004 we have probably dove 8-9 times, all being in and around the Carribean. Getting certified in Oklahoma was kind of crazy. We spent many many hours of days at the depths of some of the murkiest lakes I’ve ever been to!
So now you know we’ve dove in the Carribean, even spent a few days off the Caymen Islands along this cool underwater ridgeline but we have never seen anything so alive and so colorful as the Great Barrier Reef. Of course a native Aussie on board had to rain on my parade saying that 30 years ago when he dove this there was so much more alive…yada yada… okay its still the coolest thing ever to me dude and definitely the most alive.
Then those of us staying overnight on the Reef were called to the top deck for lunch while the day trip people finished up their activities and said goodbye to the pontoon. This is the part of this trip blog that I get cheesy and talk about how much I love meeting people while on our adventures. How I feel that sharing with people from all over the world, in all walks of life, finding our similarities and chuckling at our differences is one of the very most important aspects of travel. The world is so big and yet- if you want to find a connection, its there waiting. There is also something to be said for the person you are in the moment, we are being judged (and judging others) based on the very actions we see in the present. Sure they can tell you their story and it offers insight but at our very core we are who we are in the moment. In a way, I feel like you are getting the opportunity to meet people void of all baggage, no one is trying to be anybody because it doesn’t affect them one bit tomorrow as we sail away.
After lunch we had more time to dive, snorkel and play around – but not before suiting up!!! The water is warm here so not much need for a wetsuit, a stinger suit however is a must! There are jellyfish here that one touch of the stinger can put you in the hospital. Again, so gorgeous. At some point I turned my back to Jake and the guide and just peered into the unknown, soaking up the feeling of insignificance, freaking myself out on purpose but hey, what is fun if you don’t voluntarily freak yourself out every now and then?! LOL. After that dive we showered and just enjoyed lounging around our room with this fun view! Oh yeah, and Jake jumped back in the water to get this pic!
We had so much fun in our room! Overnight the sounds of the coral sounded eerily like glass popping, and if you happened to wake up for a second and open your eyes, you might just find yourself awake for hours, staring mesmerized by the fish! In fact around 2:30am after being awake for about 45 minutes I hear Jake whisper “Kris? Are you awake?” and I’m like “Yes, for awhile, what about you? I can’t stop watching the ocean.” That is when we realized we had both been up awhile just trying to be quiet for the other. So then we sat up and watched the show together finishing our champagne from the night before!
..and then you wake up to this and breakfast…
Another dive/snorkel option, this time we decided to snorkle so we could see the reef from the top. So beautiful as well, seriously I just felt like a giddy little kid the whole time! Once again the day cruiser pulled up and we went back to the top deck for our special goodbye lunch with our friends and staff. The staff was truly great and definitely enhanced our time with their smiles and friendliness. When 3pm hit we took the cruiser with the other tourists back to the harbor! Great Barrier Reef was a wrap! We have endless memories to hold onto!
We disembarked the boat around 6:30 pm, grabbed an Uber and made our way to Mantra Club Croc where had dinner and stayed for the night, only $90 USD! This trip is pretty extra special accomodations heavy but typically I book low budget accomodations for the in-between experiences nights. For instance in India we did a night camping in the sand dunes (it was magical), then a couple nights in a hotel often used for Bollywood films, then a night on a sleeper t rain, then a couple nights in a former palace. Okay, back to Australia! – Had a slow morning and got to the Prosepine Airport 45 minutes before take off. Y’all, Australian Airports are crazy! When you ask the hotel when you should leave for the airport they just shrug and say maybe an hour before departure meaning the shuttle ride, check in, bag drop, security, grab a sandwich and board in less than an hour! Oh yeah and not once were we asked for our IDs!!! We could have been anyone!
We disembarked the boat around 6:30 pm, grabbed an Uber and made our way to Mantra Club Croc where had dinner and stayed for the night, only $90 USD! This trip is pretty extra special accomodations heavy but typically I book low budget accomodations for the in-between experiences nights. For instance in India we did a night camping in the sand dunes (it was magical), then a couple nights in a hotel often used for Bollywood films, then a night on a sleeper t rain, then a couple nights in a former palace. Okay, back to Australia! – Had a slow morning and got to the Prosepine Airport 45 minutes before take off. Y’all, Australian Airports are crazy! When you ask the hotel when you should leave for the airport they just shrug and say maybe an hour before departure meaning the shuttle ride, check in, bag drop, security, grab a sandwich and board in less than an hour! Oh yeah and not once were we asked for our IDs!!! We could have been anyone!
So there you have it! That is how we spent our first few days on the amazing continent of Australia!!! Thank you so much for following along on our adventures, feel free to reach out with any questions about the trip and if I can help you plan your own!
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