One of the most amazing days of our lives.....

I'm having much difficulty even putting words on the paper for what we experience today.  We wanted to do a helicopter ride over the reef to take pictures and then I found a place that would take us to a deserted sandy cay in the great barrier reef where we'd stop for about 2 hours to snorkel and have lunch.  We decided to do this and we are so glad we did it.

Michael, our pilot, picked us up at the hotel and took us to the airfield, where he went through the safety talk.  He was amazing and funny and we loved that Glenn and I both had great cameras, as he is into photography also.  We donned our lifevests since we'd be over water most of the time and got settled into the helicopter.  Neither of us have ever been in a helicopter and I have to say, I LOVED IT!!!

After take off, we head over the sugar cane farms to the coast

 4 mile beach by our hotel:

 Manta Ray--huge!

 Lower Isles where we were yesterday:

 6 humpback whales playing together:

The very dark marks on this coral are turtles:

 Gorgeous reef!!

Our private sandy cay for the afternoon:

 About to touch down on the cay:

Glenn enjoying the day

We went snorkeling around the cay right away--the water was warm so no wetsuits were needed!

While we were snorkeling, Michael set up an amazing lunch for us. He had some beer and wine ready for us too--this is the life!!!

Goodbye Sandy Cay!

 We saw a lone humpback on our way back--he loved hanging out on his back!

 Where the reef meets the rainforest....

 Daintree Rainforest

 The inlet at Port Douglas

We didn't want to leave or end the day!

Happy Fliers!

Touchdown!  Back to reality