From New Zealand we hopped a flight to Sydney, then to Brisbane, stayed overnight, then a flight to Gladstone and then a 2 hour boat ride..... to get to Heron Island for 5 days.
Heron Island is a small island right on the Great Barrier Reef. It's a national park and has nothing on it other than the resort and a small research facility. It is one of the special places where sea turtles come year after year to lay their eggs. We were so excited to see the mamas drag their big bodies up onto the beach, find just the right spot and then dig huge holes to lay their eggs.
Chris and the kids even got to see some of the hatchlings make their way out to the water. Sadly, they saw most of them get gobbled up by seagulls, but a few made it out there.
The snorkeling was easily the highlight of the trip to Heron. Go HERE to see a video of some of the things we saw. FYI, that cute girl in the beginning of the video is my sister-in-law, Marli. I think the coral and fish were more spectacular in Thailand but here we saw sharks (eek!), rays and swam with turtles, which was my personal fave. The kids did so awesome snorkeling! Caleb liked to stay right close to someone (as did I as soon as I saw one of the sharks), and Ellie was a little fish as usual. She said the only time she got scared is when she saw a huge ray and then she swam really quickly back to her uncle Pat.
This is were Truman spent most of his time on this trip. Chris and I were taking turns watching him while the other snorkeled. The second day though were smartened up and got a babysitter to watch him. This particular picture was taken at a spot the call Shark Bay. We saw about 7 or 8 black tips right up near the shore at one point.
One night Chris stayed out really late looking for hatchlings and watching the turtles. He says he just kept seeing cool stuff, and by the time he was ready for bed the sun was starting to come up. So instead of going to bed he took some sunrise pictures and then went snorkeling one last time.
Such a cool island to spend a few days- definitely got the best Great Barrier Reef experience!
Heron Island is a small island right on the Great Barrier Reef. It's a national park and has nothing on it other than the resort and a small research facility. It is one of the special places where sea turtles come year after year to lay their eggs. We were so excited to see the mamas drag their big bodies up onto the beach, find just the right spot and then dig huge holes to lay their eggs.
Chris and the kids even got to see some of the hatchlings make their way out to the water. Sadly, they saw most of them get gobbled up by seagulls, but a few made it out there.
This is were Truman spent most of his time on this trip. Chris and I were taking turns watching him while the other snorkeled. The second day though were smartened up and got a babysitter to watch him. This particular picture was taken at a spot the call Shark Bay. We saw about 7 or 8 black tips right up near the shore at one point.
One night Chris stayed out really late looking for hatchlings and watching the turtles. He says he just kept seeing cool stuff, and by the time he was ready for bed the sun was starting to come up. So instead of going to bed he took some sunrise pictures and then went snorkeling one last time.
Such a cool island to spend a few days- definitely got the best Great Barrier Reef experience!
2 comments:
We love the pictures! The baby sea turtle made Nathaniel smile real big! Looks like it was an awesome trip. I can't believe you took such a trip with a baby! Wow!
Totally jealous of all your fun adventures...thinking I need to make another trip to see you :)
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