Lady Elliot Island: Part 2

As much fun as the lagoon was, Mike and I were eager to snorkel in some deeper water in hopes of finding turtles or manta rays. We were able to get Lydia and Isaac into the kid's club, where they learned about whales, walked around the entire island (we did it the day before and it took us an hour) and played ping pong.

And the younger two were watched by a sitter for 2 hours.  They colored and played on this playground.

It was the most expensive two hour date we've ever had, but also the most amazing!!! Here are a few things we saw. Aside from hundreds of brightly colored fish, here were my favorites. Two yellow trumpetfish, about 3 feet long.

A leopard shark! It was just hanging out on the bottom and was so pretty!

This Maori wrasse was huge!

The tasseled wobbegong shark was a rare find and looked so cool as it shimmied along the bottom.

Groupers are enormous!

We saw turtles! They looked so... cuddly in an odd turtle sort of way. I guess in comparison to everything else in the ocean they could be cuddly. (Sorry, no pictures) And then there were manta rays! (Photo courtesy of our snorkel instructor.) My dream was fulfilled!  We saw 3 manta rays! I was so in heaven! The best moment was when one swam towards us and I got to see his face (if you can really call it a face) before he swam away again. Magical!  These creatures are absolutely magnificent! They were a good 12 feet across! Huge! I was so happy!

The last day we took the family on the glass bottom boat. The kids had so much fun! We saw turtles and a giant parrot fish and tons of other fish. They let us do some snorkeling off the boat, but Lydia was the only one of the kids who wanted to. Here's Mike helping her get on her fins.

Off they go!


I was happy to stay with the other kids and look at the fish through the bottom of the boat.

The snorkelers had quite the visitor! A dolphin! Here are a few pictures the instructor took.

The dolphin came to say hi to us on the boat too! (Of course, I could never capture him until he was already going back in the water.) He gave us quite a good show. Isaac counted 17 surfacings.



What's that fish? Oh, it's Daddy!

Here's one happy, albeit freezing, snorkeler Lydia! Who got to swim with a dolphin no less! What an experience for her!

The captain let Isaac drive the boat back to shore.

One last foray into the water at mid tide with periscopes before getting our traveling clothes on.

Unfortunately, our adventure in paradise had to come to an end, but we received a lovely parting gift. The most stunning rainbow against a dark grey sky! This picture really doesn't do it any justice. Just moments after that the rain came down in torrents.

There is a bucket of umbrellas in the main hall for such moments. Clever!

Luckily, the rain stopped just before our flight in the tiny plane. Goodbye Lady Elliot Island! Thank you for the trip of a lifetime!