The number one thing on my must-see list was the Great Barrier Reef. To be honest, it was a little overwhelming to figure out how to ensure we saw the best spots while getting the best bang for our buck. The GBR is humongous and very far from the coast. There are several towns offering many trips of varying lengths to the reef. It’s a lot to sort through. Using travel guides loaned by our friends in Sydney, we read that it’s recommended to visit the GBR on a live-aboard ship. We also saw that the Whitsunday Islands were recommended for their beauty and sailing around them is very popular. Will did a quick search with that knowledge and found a sailboat, Anaconda III, that does a 3 day tour out of Airlie Beach. It seemed to be a good fit for what we were looking for but it did not fit into our budget. We took several days searching other options without any luck then weighed the pros and cons. Ultimately, we decided it was worth the extra expense to ensure we enjoyed the GBR. We started calling the trip a belated anniversary present to ourselves.

We were greeted at the ship, Anaconda III, by a friendly crew of 7 and 30 other passengers. Most passengers were backpackers from Europe (mostly Germany but Belgium and Canada as well). There were two Aussies on holiday. Also, several were enjoying a weekend trip during their time studying abroad in Australia – a nice couple from Denmark and a large group of Americans. With a total of nine, it was the largest group of Americans we’ve seen in months! But the group of 21 year olds were more like a reality show about sorority girls living on a boat than a home comfort.