G'day.

I arrived in Cairns, Queensland a few days ago.  I've been adjusting and settling in before my volunteer program starts tomorrow.  Glad I took everyone's advice to start out in the North, where the tropical conditions help negate that it’s winter here.  At the moment, I think one of my harder challenges is adjusting to vehicles driving on the other side of the road.  It's far too ingrained in me to drive/bike/walk on the right.

Last night, I attended a Reef Teach presentation which is designed to enhance your experience at the Great Barrier Reef ("With Learning Comes Appreciation").  Hopefully, I will now know where to look and be able to identify the things that can kill me (it is Australia, after all).  Here are some other fun facts I learned:

- All aNEMOnefish are born males.  The largest fish living on an anemone is the female.  Should something happen to her, the next biggest fish becomes the female (transformation takes between 10-14 days).  In general, fish species who switch gender do the opposite (start as females and switch to males).

- When not in water (at very low tides), coral produces its own sunscreen, which is equivalent to SPF 90.

- Parrotfish prepare for sleep by creating a snot/mucus bubble cocoon that protects them from debris.

Because my layover was in Auckland, New Zealand, we flew straight over to Brisbane and then north along the coast of Queensland up to Cairns.  This path took us directly over the Great Barrier Reef.  I was too captivated to take photos.  However, I did manage to take this photo of a break in the early morning fog when leaving NZ.  If it weren’t for the fog slightly delaying our departure, I would have only had seen NZ in darkness.  NZ, I shall return.