Townsville 'Reef HQ' Aquarium

Now that I wasn't going to dive, I decided to take an early ferry to Townsville to be able to visit an aquarium before catching a bus to my next destination in the afternoon. I've been to several aquariums around the world, but was still surprised about how much I liked this one. The displays were very good, and the fish and corals beautiful. Brrr, the sharks managed to freak me out even from the other side of the glass wall.


What's special about this aquarium is that they have a turtle hospital, where they help sick and damaged marine turtles back to health. I wasn't too impressed by the turtle talk given by a presenter who talked in that annoying nasal voice with a rising tone that makes every sentence sound like a question, very typical to girls on the east coast. This way of speaking really drives me up the wall. She was very proud of how international they were, having video conferences with, quote, "countries like Canada, America, the UK and Europe". Luckily, the presentation was short and we got to visit the hospital and see the turtles. They were in small, open-top containers, and swam to the surface to greet us. They were beautiful, and much cuter than land turtles. I especially liked the green sea turtle called Bonnie.