in planning our australian adventure, i came upon a company called FantaSea, that runs tours to the Great Barrier Reef. they have a giant pontoon called "ReefWorld" that is moored out near one of the coral cays. they have a snorkeling area, a diving area, an underwater viewing spot, and a semi-sub boat that goes out for tours - oh! and a waterslide. needless to say, i was really excited to go there. originally we wanted to stay there overnight (yes, you can do that!), but they weren't available the night that we could stay. so we settled on just visiting for the day.
anyways, i didn't mention this in my previous blog, but i emailed FantaSea two days before to confirm our reservation, and i received an email saying that they were chartered on the day i thought was my reservation, and that they had be scheduled for the following day. of course, i received that email late in our last night in darwin, and we were traveling ALL DAY the next day, with no cell phone reception or internet service. we tried to use a pay phone in one of the towns we drove through, but for some reason, our phone card wouldn't let us call FantaSea. so, we were headed to airlie beach, with no reservation for the next day, and no idea what to do.
so we woke up early to call FantaSea to make SURE they couldn't accomodate us. after complaining to the customer service agent, she offered me a complementary ferry to Hamilton Island, a resort in the Whitsunday Islands, and the main hub for FantaSea tours. but, she said that anything we wanted to do from there (e.g., snorkel, take a boat tour) would cost extra. i hung up with her to discuss our options with sarah-mae.
approximately one minute later, the customer service woman (nikkia) called me back and said that she could accomodate us on a "yellow sub tour" for the day. the "yellow sub tour" included the ferry to Hamilton Island, a jet boat out to small Bali Hai Island, a semi-sub trip, and snorkeling - it sounded great, so i accepted! we got ready for a day on the reef and headed to the bus stop.
the bus took us to the marina, where we checked in for our tour. nikkia gave us our tickets and little FantaSea bags with water and hats. we hopped on the ferry and enjoyed the short ride over to Hamilton Island.
on the ferry, in our stylish hats
(we didn't really wear them)
Hamilton Island is a resort island, and we had a bit of time to kill before our "yellow sub tour," so we walked through the shops at the water's edge, and had some lunch. before we knew it, it was time to get on our jet boat and take our tour. the ride out to Bali Hai was incredible - the sun, the wind, the beautiful scenery - it was heaven! we pulled up to the yellow semi-sub and loaded into it for a ride through the reef. we saw a lot of coral and fish, and even a turtle! it felt like i was on a real-life version of the old submarine ride at disneyland - ha ha!
our yellow semi-sub
a pic of the coral from the semi-sub
after our time in the semi-sub, we got to get out of the boat and see the fish a little closer. it was my first time snorkeling in a long time, and i've never been good at snorkeling, so i was a little nervous. sarah was super patient while i got more comfortable under water, and we snorkeled until the tour guides rode by on their lookout boat to let us know that time was up. we were the last ones in the boat! we jetted back to Hamilton Island, and had just enough time to enjoy an ice cream sundae before getting back on the ferry to airlie beach. on the ferry back, we got to see a marvelous sunset!
after taking the bus back to our hostel, we headed into town for dinner. although sarah-mae said she didn't want pizza or pasta, we ended up at mangrove jack's, a woodfire pizza place that her tour book said was the best place in town. dinner was fantastic - i am glad she was willing to go back on her no-pizza decision. yum-o!
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