Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef system and is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). If you are like me then when you see those numbers it is pretty hard to imagine the exact magnitude of that area, but gosh it seems big. To give you a little perspective to think about this my dear readers. The state I was born in, Wisconsin, which most of you know, has an area of approximately 169,639 km (65,498 sq mi)Meaning that the reef is more than twice the size of Wisconsin. Pretty darn big. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms.
This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. These polyps secrete calcium carbonate which becomes what we think of as coral, that skeletal type substance. Over time coral grows quite large and needless to say (yet I am saying it) the environment around them grows with them which also makes the reef one of the most active places for aqautic life.
The Great Barrier reef, being enormous, supports an enormous diversity of life, which is why every year hordes of people flock to the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia which is just near where we happened to land.
I guess "happened to land" isn't exactly accurate. It didn't just happen by accident, Jetstar chose it for us. You see Jetstar is a budget airline and hence they service places where lots of people go or places where they want lots of people to go like Cairns, former or latter if you like.
We flew into Cairns from Narita airport and spent 4 days in the region. Sometime was spent relaxing and some riding a train into the nearby village of Kuranda, but the main day was the one we spent on the reef, or rather on Franklin Island. We had booked into a tour that would take us to Franklin Island, just a bit off the coast. Here there would be lots of coral and beaches to be enjoyed. The island is actually part of many along the coast. Often, after long periods of time the coral grows, the sands shift and bang! In the blink of the Geological eye an island/cay is formed. The tour company did a good job in getting us there nicely and servicing us with lunch. They even provided a very good quiche for the vegetarians! They also provided guided snorkeling and a guided island walk. Both were good. The seed pod seen in Aya's hands above, for example, was pointed out by our guide. It's designed to float and thereby get to other island where the tree can sprout. Nature is so good at that! Our guide seemed very well versed in his job and he pointed out many things that I found intriguing.
The downside to this magical adventure is that at the time there was a cyclone south of our location in Queensland and so the water was not clear. Snorkeling was a bust, to see the reef at all you had to dive down about 2 meters. However, on the leeward side of the island we did see some sea turtles poking about among schools of fish, so that was cool and really we just had a good day swimming about and enjoying the pristine beach. At the end of the day we returned satisfied and I, because of my snow white skin, returned back to Cairns burned a shade more red.