Well, hello once again family and friends! We have returned this afternoon from our 3 days living on a ship on the Great Barrier Reef and we are not only now certified divers but we have had probably one of the most significant experiences of our lives. Before we give you an update of the last 5 days here's a few facts about the reef that will either give you a better appreciation for it's splendour or at the very least be useful for a pub quiz. Maybe:

• The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world
• The reef is made up of 3000 individual reefs and 900 islands
• The reef stretches for over 2600km
• It's size covers an area of 344,000km
• The Great Barrier Reef is home to 30 species of whale, dolphins and porpoises, 6 species of sea turtle, 200 species of birds, 5000 species of mollusc, 17 species of sea snake, 400 species of coral and 1,500 different species of fish
• It is listed as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world

Wednesday 2nd May

The previous night the manager of the caravan park had come up to us as we were sitting having a few drinks and was extremely rude to us because apparently we had placed our tent in a non camping area, even though we were told by one of his members of staff that we could place the tent there. So in the morning we went into the reception area to complain about his attitute and he came in as were complaining about him and incredibly he still continued to be obnoxious claiming that because we'd paid $20 we could do whatever we want. We told him to shove his caravan park up his butt and got a refund and then packed away the tent. We then left the car outside the park and got picked up at 9 o'clock for our first day of our diving course. The first day involved signing lots of paper work and going through the first 3 chapters of the theory work in a class room. Our instructors were Nick 'Frodo' Turner and Rainer Tikka, who were both brilliant at their jobs, some of the most professional people we have ever met. We then had to go into the training pool and prove that we could swim 200 metres and also that we could swim in one place for 10 minutes. We then donned some snorkling gear and did some skin diving to prove that we could dive to the bottom of the pool. It was then time to learn how to do Scuba equipment preperation, donning and adjustment and then we went into the pool for the first time breathing through the scuba regulator underwater. It was a strange experience to be underwater breathing at first but after a few minutes it started to feel more comfortable. We then learnt how to perform some skills like clearing our masks underwater and taking out our regulators and finding them again underwater. We then got out of the pool to have some lunch and also to have a medical test to prove that we were fit enough to go diving. Needless to say we passed thankfully! The end of the day involved a bit more class work and then back to our new caravan park, Cairns Villa, at around 5 o'clock. We spent the evening catching up again with Mads and Maria who had also moved caravan parks to escape Bail Fawlty and also completing some homework that we had been given to do.

Thursday 3rd May 2007

We had to get up early today as we were picked up at 7:25am from Cairnsville Caravan Park. 'Frodo' (Nick, our instructor) took us straight to the classroom, where watched a few DVDs on diving techniques and rules. As we'd been up until late with Mad and Maria last night both of us struggled to keep our eyes open (as did the rest of the class) luckily Frodo would step up to the front of the class and start after the end of each DVD with a loud sentence, making us all jolt back out of zombie mode. After a few hours we all got our equipment on and headed to the training pool, where we learned how to descend to 5 metres and how to equilize our ears. The first time we went to the bottom of the pool I freaked out and wanted to come to the surface again but Frodo's patience worked magic and within no time at all I was sitting on the bottom of the pool with the rest of the class. Darren didn't have any fears and took to diving like a fish to water. After two hours of practising techniques, such as neutral buoyancing (allowing you to float in one place to study the fish properly at the Reef), taking our masks off (to give us confidence to put our mask on should it ping off in the water) and giving our second source of air to our 'buddy' (in case they should run out of air whilst in the deep). The lessons were fun and the method of teaching was excellent. It felt really good to be learning something new. After a couple of hours we went back inside the classroom to carry out a written examination (multiple answers). We both passed and we left the Learning Centre feeling proud of ourselves. We spent the evening with Mads and Maria. Mads has a really expensive camera and we looked through his photos, which put ours to shame. His look like they belong in a gallery! They have a laptop with them and use 'Photoshop' to tweek their photos before sending them home. We stayed up laughing and talking until the wee hours again and then crashed and burned, knowing that we had to be up in the morning at 5:30am to take the tent down, before being picked up 7am, for our 3 day liveaboard diving experience on the Great Barrier Reef.

Friday 4th May

We got picked up in the morning from Cairns Villa at 6:30 in the morning with all our necessary clothes and equipment for our 3 days living aboard the boat on the reef. We were driven to the harbour, where we boarded the boat Sunkist that would be taking us to the larger boat anchored at one of the reefs. The 2 hour journey out to the reef was pretty choppy, which left Kerry feeling pretty seasick but she managed to keep her breakfast in and we were soon jumping ship across to the bigger boat called Kangeroo Explorer. Thankfully this boat is a catamaran, meaning it's far more stable in the water. We checked into our little cabin, which would be home for the next 3 days and it even had it's own en-suite! At 1 p.m. we did a snorkel swim out to Moore Reef, which was actually fairly tough to swim through the water as the wind was against us. We then swam back to the boat and donned the full scuba gear including wet suits and took our first giant stride off the end of the boat into the deep blue. Our first dive was 12 metres deep and as Kerry was quite nervous, Frodo buddied us up together and out us behind him as we decended down into the water. It was a strange feeling decending for the first time in the open water but the dive was successful and we got to stroke a sea cucumber, saw a huge Maori Wrasse and we also some Nemo Clown Fish, who are actually pretty terratorial it turns out! After 30 mins we ascended back to the surface and headed back to the boat to fill out our dive logs for the first time. The ship then moved to a different reef called Briggs Reef Fish Bowl. Our second dive of the day involved decending down to 8.5 metres and performing some of the skills that we had learnt in the swimming pool including mask clearing, regulator swapping and also showed that we knew how to rescue a buddy diver who had run out of air, not that should EVER happen! On this dive the coral was really colourful and we saw some beautiful colured fish. This dive lasted slightly longer and we exited the water after 40 mins. We then spent the night on the top deck having a few drinks with everyone and having a laugh playing drinking games but made our excuses for bed before things got too crazy!

Saturday 5th May 2007

We woke up today with rather sore heads at the set time of 5:30am, to prepare for the first dive of the day which always commences at 6am. The early dive seems to be the instructors' favourite of the day as it is a magical time when some fish are going to sleep and others are waking up. The chance of seeing sharks is far greater at this time as well, as they are usually still awake before the sun has risen too much. We managed to get a proper wetsuit each today, instead of freezing in the ripped, poor excuses for stinger suits. It took us less time to check the equipment and we were ready by just gone 6am. The team took it in turns to do a 'giant stride' into the abundance and the temperature of the water was initially freezing. Today was our turn to descend to the maximum depth that Open Water divers are allowed to go to- 18 metres. We released the air from our BC's (Buoyancy Control, basically life preservers) and dropped slowly in toward the corals, which were a stunning array of purples, blues, greens, yellows and even golds. Once at 18 metres we stayed close to eachother before ascending to an area at 8metres, where we could be tested on equilizing our ears and buoyancy control. I was having difficulty staying at a great depth and kept floating towards the surface. I kept pushing down into the water with my odd fins (one blue and one yellow-my feet are so dinky that they had to improvise!) A few times my head popped out of the ocean's mass and I thought that I was doing something wrong. It turned out that I need more weight on my weight belt to keep me below the surface, which was due to the wetsuit having a greater positive buoyancy than a stinger suit. I was told that the next dive I did would be with 6kgs on my belt. Below the waters today we saw many fish including the wrasse, angel fish and similar and smaller looking fish called butterfly fish. We returned to the surface after 30 minutes and had an hour and a half break before our second dive. Weighed down and ready to go we plunged into the water, this time by doing a forward roll and waited for Frodo to give the all clear to descend. This was our fourth dive, which meant that we had to be at our best as we were being examined for the PADI course. The most important things to remember are keeping close to your 'buddy', mine conveniently being Darren, remembering to NEVER hold your breath underwater and remaining at a stable depth level throughout the dive. We were also filmed during this dive and were given instructions to to some silly tasks such as pretending to drink a can of beer and put a pair of sunglasses on. Needless to say that we both looked silly on the film when we watched it afterwards. The team even had to take off our fins and have a race on the ocean's floor, which felt bizarre as it was barely possible to move in a running motion, let alone with speed. There were times that I felt like I was going to drown, especially when we had to take off our masks, revealing our noses, as you get the urge to breathe in through your nose once its exposed. Darren and I were also asked to kiss underwater, a feat which is quite challenging. When watching the DVD it was clear that the kiss didn't carry the passion of Brad and Angelina but was fun all the same. At times you would get an overwhelming felling of serenity. The huge schools of fish would swish around your body and you felt at peace. I felt both privaleged and humbled to be swimming with the beautiful fish and corals in their home. After the dive Frodo stated that we had all passed, so were now certified Open Water Divers, which means that from on we can do a dive, anywhere in the world, as long as we don't go deeper than 18 metres. Excellent!!!! At 2:30pm most of our team left, as they had only paid for 2 days on the boat and we waved them goodbye as they set sail on the choppy 'Sunkist' boat we had travelled on to get to Kangaroo Explorer. At 4pm we went for our third dive of the day, our first one as certified divers! I was buddied up with Darren and an Aussie called Ryan, who is only 20 but is so mature that I thought he was our age. We had the best dive EVER and descended to 12.5 metres. We spent 48 minutes swimming around and we managed to spot a sea turtle, which was laying by the coral. We all took turns to scratch it's shell, which to them feels like tiggling. It was blissfully aware of what we were doing and was happy to receive in the attention, much as a dog would. We then watched as it fell asleep on the coral. It was an incredibly humbling experience. I seriously thought that the experience we had at Coral Bay, on the West Coast wouldn't be beaten but I was proved wrong. Spending time with the turtle made it worth every cent of the $700 each we paid to be there. We also saw many weird and wonderful fish, including batfish, angel fish, parrot fish and trigger fish (which are my favourite as their faces take up half of their body so they look like clowns. After the third dive we spent time talking to Ryan until 8:30pm, when we had our first and only night dive. I was really apprehensive about this dive as it means not only overcoming the claustrophic feeling of being way below sea level, but it also means that you have to navigate by the light of a torch each. It isn't a secret that I'm not too fond of he dark, so this was my toughest challenge yet Darren was excited and fearless, as usual. (One of these days I might discover that he is capable of feeling fear?!). When we dived into the deep my first reaction was to look down and see what I could see without the torch. The answer was 'not very much at all'. We swam in our pairs and used the circumference of the light to see lots of red bass, snappers and even an Eppelette Shark, which was colourful and thankfully timid! We also spotted a lobster, its green eyes reflecting up from in between some coral. The visibilty was so poor that I didn't like this dive as much and was quite relieved to get back to the boat. I certainly wouldn't take up night diving on a regular basis, especially when sharks can be lurking in the shadows. We spent the evening talking with Ryan and enjoying a well deserved can of VB (Victoria Bitter, a cheap Aussie lager). Ryan's a very nice guy and we're hoping to stay in touch with him as he's made us laugh more than anyone else on the boat.

Sunday 6th May

This morning we were up again at 5:30 (too early!) and did our first dive at 6 o'clock in the morning. It's a good time to go in the water early as the fish are waking up and coming out for the breakfast so things are pretty busy down there. It felt good to be a certified diver now and to be able to go out by ourselves into the water so Kerry and I buddied up with Ryan and all 3 of us decended down, reaching 18 metres (60 ft) down a section called 'The Wall' and we then gradually came up to a shallower depth, seeing some really beautiful fish and coral on the way including parrot fish, triggerfish, bat fish and also lots of different colours of damsel fish. We only spent 23 minuts on this dive as the 18 metre depth meant that we used our air supply up quicker. The second dive of the day was at 8 o'clock, and on this dive we only went down to 15 metres and saw some smooth flute mouth fish, lots of colurful coral and even a fish 'car wash' where wrasses were cleaning other fish on top of the coral. After 31 minutes we came out of the water and rested ourselves while the boat moved back to Moore Reef. Ryan sat out the last dive of the day as he had a bad headache so Kerry and I buddied up with an American girl called Merissa and we had an amazing dive seeing lots of Nemo Clownfish and another sea turtle! We swam along with it awhile before it disappeared off into the blue. After 39 mins we headed back to the boat to reflect on one of the most incredible experiences of our lives, while we waited for the Sunkist to come and pick us up. Tomorrow we are going to look around Cairns again before heading off in the afternoon to pastures new! We will endeavour to keep you all updated with our next adventures soon!