The Great Barrier Reef & Queensland
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on earth, a 1,400-mile mosaic of coral that runs the length of the Queensland coast and the only living thing visible from space. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and for most travelers it is the single image that draws them to Australia in the first place. Out on the water the scale is hard to take in: ribbon reefs, coral cays and turquoise lagoons stretch beyond the horizon in every direction, and beneath the surface lies a world of color and life unlike anywhere else on the planet.
The magic, of course, is below the waterline. Slip on a mask and you drop into a garden of coral in a hundred shapes and shades, alive with movement. Green sea turtles glide past at arm's length, reef sharks patrol the deeper channels, rays drift over the sand, and thousands of fish in every imaginable color school around the coral heads. You do not need to be a diver to see it; a good snorkel over a shallow reef puts the whole spectacle right beneath you, and certified divers can drop deeper into the canyons and swim-throughs of the outer reef.
We reach the reef in a few different ways, and we match the approach to the trip. From Cairns or the relaxed town of Port Douglas, fast boats run out to the outer reef for a day among the coral, or a few nights on an island in the Whitsundays puts you steps from the water and within reach of the famous swirl of white sand at Whitehaven Beach. For a view no boat can give you, a scenic flight lifts off over the reef and reveals the perfect natural shape of Heart Reef from above, a fitting finale to a day on one of the wonders of the world.
