Hey all,

I have had a fantastic last few days! The weather's been beautiful- Sun shining, birds singing, mosquitos biting.

Saturday 23rd Feb -The day of our Greet Barrier Reef Tour

The boys and I got a taxi at 7am to the marina to Ocean Spirit Cruises. The boats are massive, and there was loads of middle aged people milling around our cruise boat- until they all got sent to a different one. So that was the first bonus- there was 18 people on a cruise boat meant for 60 people! We had tea and biscuits on arrival, sunbathed on the deck, walked to the back of the boat to take pictures and the captain tapped on his window and called me up to the cabin- and said i could take pictures from there. It was great, he pulled down the cabin cover and I was sat a couple metres higher taking pictures. Captain Jeff was originally from Liverpool but had been in Oz 10 years- he was 40 maybe?

Anyway within half an hour i put the sail out and got offers of a job on the dinner cruises.

We stopped at Oyster Reef to snorkel ( I had a life jacket on). We got in and looked down. The ocean is absolutely amazing. I saw all the types of fishes you could ever imagine. Rainbow coloured/large/small/fat/flat- everything. Even saw a jelly fish. The boys saw turtles and a shark. The captain radio'd lazy Zach (the deck hand) to come pick me up in his speed boat and drop me off at a reef further away- the current was coming back to the boat anyway but no body else was at this reef (oh yes i got special treatment the whole day). The fishes were literally swimming around my flippers! I felt like Ariel!

It was nice because the crew knew i couldnt swim so kept an eye on me to check i was ok. And Zach drove his boat quite near me the whole time.

Back on the boat was the best buffet you could ever imagine! I took a picture coz it was so nice. There were fresh water prawns- the big ones- and they were the nicest prawns I have ever tasted, caught fresh that morning. There were also chicken legs, pasta,potato salads, all types of fresh vegs- cucumber/tomatoes.. bread, hams and the best fruit.. watermelons, kiwi's, strawberries, bananas.. and more besides. After the second reef we had chocolate and vanilla cake (MMMM) and the boat engineer confused me and asked how my carrot cake was- and i was like- carrot cake? he never actually said that but he told the whole ship and its wife that i thought the chocolate cake was carrot cake and the chef scolded me!

After that i sat in the Captains' drive area - not sure what its called?- pit ? anyway, there and after a while, he said I COULD DRIVE THE BOAT!! And i did! For most of the way home! At one point i was steering home in zig zags and i probably added half an hour to the journey but it was so hard keeping it at 110. But then i got the hang of it. Needless to say the boys were jealous! haha.

And also got two free glasses of champagne! By the end of the day I had chatted to all the crew and had given them each a kiss on the cheek on the way back to the marina.

And that night, we went to P.J O'Briens (an irish bar in the centre). The Irish boys wanted to watch Ireland play Scotland in the rugby at 2.45am so we were there all night. It was Coyote night and I won the Coyote dance contest on the bar. It had 4 heats- but the other girls were rubbish. I didnt even know what the prize was when i entered but when i won i got told it was $120 worth of drinks vouchers at P.J's! Pretty cool considering I just wanted to dance!

The weather has been great past few days but I think the rain is coming back.

Speak soon

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