Snorkeling on Lord Howe Island
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
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148
188
Trip End
Jun 28, 2009
Lord Howe Island,
New South Wales,
Australia
Monday, March 2, 2009
After lunch, we went out on a glass-bottom boat with Antony, whose family has lived here for five generations. Only about 300 people live on the island and only 400 people are allowed on at any one time. There is a tiny town (about four shops and a post office, plus a small school). After you turn 12, you have to go away to boarding school in Australia, at least a two hour flight away
Me on the boat
. That is what Antony did. Antony said that growing up here was great - you could surf and swim on the beach every day and it is so safe!Lord Howe is also a World Heritage Site because it is the southernmost coral reef so you can see lots of fish that you can't see anywhere else. And that is what we did - first we saw lots of fish and coral under the glass, then we stopped out in the harbor and went snorkeling. Even Tallulah put on a mask and snorkeled. It was amazing!!! Here are the fish that I saw, that I remember, because there were so many cool ones:
· Parrot fish, which are brightly colored
· Angel fish like Scar in Finding Nemo
· Lots of brightly colored ones
· Huge bright blue ones, called Bluefish
I probably saw at least 50 different kinds of fish!
And we saw Sea Turtles, which was amazing. Dad and I touched two of them when we were swimming this morning and we saw lots more on the boat. They are very cute and not afraid of humans, it seems.
The coral is all different colors - blue, neon green, yellow, purple, red - so many colors and it was fun to search for fish in the coral. I loved snorkeling!
Blue coral
When we finished snorkeling, we rode our bikes to Ned's Beach. Because the island is so small, they gave us bikes to ride everywhere. This is great because I have not been able to ride a bike in a very long time, since the Beaverkill, and I love riding bikes. At Ned's beach, you can feed giant fish of all kinds, like kingfish, parrot fish, and even sharks (but not the dangerous great white ones). One of the good things about Lord Howe Island is that there is nothing dangerous - no snakes, no dangerous insects, no great whites, no predators (there were no mammals here at all when the first explorers arrived - the island was uninhabited, just like in Nim's Island.) The fish come right up to you and even try to jump out of the water to get the food - some of them were bigger than me! These are called kingfish. Sometimes Whaler sharks even come up but they are not dangerous. It is not scary, though, and I even touched some of them.
Last night, after we had dinner with Mom's friend in Sydney, I really did not want to come here. Mainly I was tired of flying around. But after today, I am SOOO glad we came. It is a tropical paradise here!
