Diving the Great Barrier Reef has long been on my bucket list. It was nothing short of spectacular.
We took a week vacation and flew from Auckland to Airlie Beach, about halfway between Cairns and Brisbane. Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays, a group of 74 islands about an hour by sailboat from the east coast of Australia.
The Whitsundays are known for incredible beaches, including Whitehaven beach, previously ranked as 'the best beach in the world' (whose job is it to decide and how do I get on this committee?).
The Whitsundays are also a great place to snorkel and dive. They are part of the Great Barrier Reef, which extends from the 'top end' of Australia to just north of Brisbane. The Whitsundays are part of the inshore and mid-shelf waters of the reef, and to get to the offshore waters takes another 4 hours by sailboat.
We had booked a 3 day-2 night liveaboard on a sailboat called the Kiana, which started off from the Airlie Beach Marina. There were five other people on the boat, including a couple from Sweden and a family from the Netherlands.
Our first day was spent sailing to the Whitsunday Islands and going to the famed Whitehaven Beach. It was really beautiful- but hard to say if it was the best in the entire world.
We anchored in a cove of one of the islands for the night, and had an early dive the next morning.
I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed. The visibility wasn't great, and the coral wasn't as incredible as I thought it was going to be. I tried to tell myself that I had too high of expectations, and just to enjoy the beauty that was there. However, we were told we would be heading to the outer reef if the weather permitted, and I was holding on to hope that the offshore waters would be a little better diving.
Thankfully, the weather held and we set out that morning for a four-hour sail to the outer reef. The trip out itself was pretty incredible. July-August if the peak migration time for humpback whales coming up from Antartica to calf in the warm waters of the Pacific Islands. We saw so many whales on the crossing- it was unbelievable. We saw spouts and breaches at a distance, and even some whales swimming right by the boat.
The weather was beautiful, and we all enjoyed the trip out.
Once we got to the outer reef, we went for an afternoon dive. And I was blown away. It was so much different from our previous dive. The visibility was awesome, the coral was spectacular, and the fish were everywhere. I was truly stunned. We did another dive that afternoon, which was just as good as the first one.
The next morning, right after sunrise, we went for our last dive. The humpback whales were so close we could hear them calling to one another in the water. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them while we were in the water, but about five minutes after we had got back on the ship, a family of whales swam right over the spot we had just been diving!
Afterwards, we headed back to Airlie beach, which was about a six-hour sail. Once again, we saw tons of whales. After spending the night in Airlie beach, we flew to Brisbane. We walked around the city and checked out some local artwork.
The next morning, we took a 90-minute ferry from the port of Brisbane to Moreton Island. This is a 65 square mile sand island that has no roads, only sand paths across the island and wide sandy beaches that act as highways. It was gorgeous.
We only had one night there, but we enjoyed it!
We headed back to Brisbane the next day and walked around some more before flying back to Auckland. Even in the middle of winter, we had great weather. I now understand why Queensland is called the sunshine coast. It was William's favorite part of Australia- and a close second for me behind Tasmania. Our GoPro video was so much fun to make because we got to relive our dives and see what footage we caught. I hope you enjoy it too!
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