so we went on a really great boat and spent the day on the "Outer Reef" (right on the outer edge where it is apparently the best and least damaged). It was amazing! Beautiful coral and lovely colourful fish...it's everything it's cracked up to be for sure. We even spotted a couple sting rays, which was something we hadn't seen yet.
Then the trauma began...we realized that night that we forgotten our camera on the bus from our snorkelling port back to Cairns...AND by the time we realized it, everything was closed for the day...AND we were booked on the bus for the next morning at 7am, before most places opened. Talk about stress...so thankfully the front desk at our hostel opened at 6am the next morning and they were able to track it down for us, however we had to leave before they could get it back to us...so they sent it ahead of us and we'll get it back tomorrow if all goes well. But we've had to spend the last four days without it (which is alot considering all that we've been doing). It's disappointing but we've been making do with disposables and AT LEAST we didn't actually lose it. That would be VERY sad!
Anyways, after Cairns we went to Magnetic Island, which was highly recommended to us as a good place to see koalas and other cool stuff in the wild. We had a great time there. We weren't able to spot any wild koala's, but not for lack of trying:o) But we did have some really cool wildlife experiences...like feeding wild rock wallaby's out of our hands, petting some kangaroos, an emu and some koalas (including a little baby...so cute!!)- that was in a wildlife sanctuary (orphans, injured or sick). It was also there that I met Snowy the little white parrot...he was flirting with me so bad. From dancing to cooing to sticking his head out so I could pet it...he pretty much won me over straight away.
We also had a lot of fun on the island with this tiny 4x4 that we rented and scooted all over the place. Driving on the left side of the road was very strange, but David did a great job and I even gave it a go for a bit too.

After a ride in the police drunk tank in the wee hours of the morning (don't worry, we weren't drunk but it is a good story), we are now in Airlie beach where we just came back from our 2 day/2 night sailing cruise in the Whitsunday Islands. What a great experience that was. We were on a beautiful catamaran (much more stable than single hull sailboats...thus less chance of being seasick the whole time), had mostly nice weather, great food, fun group of people, lots of snorkelling and saw some amazing scenery.
Both David and I tried scuba diving for the first time. We went down to 8m. Wow. It's really hard to get used to the breathing and sometimes hard not to panic cause you're so far below the surface, but it's so cool to be able to just hang out down there and check everything out.
We made a stop on "White Haven" beach, which was absolutely gorgeous. The sand is totally white and it's something like 96% silica so people were polishing their silver rings and watch faces with it. Very soft.
Now we're back but we both still have our sea legs so nothing is very stable at the moment:o) Hopefully that will wear off before too long.

Now we're off on an overnight bus to Hervey Bay where we will go on a 4x4 camping trip for a few days on "Fraser Island". The pictures look beautiful so we're very much looking forward to that.

Interesting fact for you: Ginger pills are very good for motion sickness. Who knew?

Hopefully we'll have some new pics up for you shortly.