What an awesome day we've had on the reef! We were up painfully early, 5:30am, in order to get over to the jetty in time. Our boat was Ocean Spirit II, which had set us back $100 each for the day (40pounds). It was a big catamaran, and we found a spot on the deck to sunbathe for the hour and a half to get to the reef.

The first stop was Oyster Reef, about 40miles offshore. We were doing an introductory scuba dive, which is something Ive been looking forward to ever since I first snorkelled back on Koh Phi Phi. We had half an hour of verbal Instruction from Dave, a Steve Irwin type and all-round nice guy. We were just told the basics: about pressure, what to do if you lose your mouthpiece or run out of air (not, as I thought would be appopriate, panic) and not to ascend too quickly lest you get the bends or rip open your lungs.

We were then sat on the edge of the boat and kitted out eith everything, and when it was time, Katie went first and plopped into the water, then me.

First we had to decend 5 metres and hold onto a bar connected to the boat. Katie went first , and with hand signals which we learnt communicated with Dave that her ears hurt at 5 metres so he brought her upto 3 metres to equalise, then went down again. They did a few skills of emptying the mask of water underwater! Yes, underwater, and loosing the air mouth piece and entering it back into the mouth, removing the water from it. She done these fine, and then it was my turn. The first few minutes weren't fun; I wouldn't say i was scared, but it's a really strange situation to be in, not needing to go up for air, but having to suck it in constantly, and feeling thoroughly disoriented. I always get bad ears and sinuses when going to the bottom of a pool, and I was in quite a bit of pain now. Dave had shown us how to equalise our ears though which helped a little, but i will have pain in my ears for a couple of days after no doubt.

The Japanese couple that came in our group gave up at this stage. One couldn't breathe?? And the other couldn't equalise their ears. So it was just the two of us that set off with Dave to explore this amazing underwater world.

I had wondered if diving could be that much better than snorkelling. Well, unequivacably, it is, far better. The maximum depth we went to was about 10metres, but it made such a difference to be able to swim along the bottom of the banks of coral 7-8metres high, and to look into all the crevices, anemones and so forth, as opposed to simply looking down on them. Our first encounter was seeing a stingray emerge from under the sand infront of us and swim away, and then we saw a giant clam which Dave led us too and we sat on the sea-bed feeling this clam, and watching it close on our hands. Was totally amazing. It was all set up well for beginners as their was everything you could possibly want to see, we even had to pose for pictures by anemones containing clownfish (nemos). After a good twenty minutes of exploring it was time to get out. We had seen many gorgeous fish including parrotfish and a stingray, clownfish, and timy fish that look like neon tetras. We both loved every minute of it. We were offeref the chance to go on another dive later for an extra little fee, which we happily agreed to. 

After a brief snorkel where i somehow managed to lose my snorkel(!) it was time for a feast of a lunch. They had laid out trays or roast chicken, prawns, pasta, potato and leaf salads and a big platter of fruits, which all went down a treat. By the time we had finished we were at our second destination, Upolu Cay.

The scene was sublime, a small pure sand island of dazzling whiteness, surrounded by shallow seas of the lightest tourqouise which extended 100m or so in all directions, before gradually darkening. Sadly though, we weren't to spend more than 5 minuts there. Ten of us hopped into a lottle dingy and jetted off to a nearby reef system.

This time we went in the proper wat: Sitting on the edge of the boat and faling in backwards. For some reason the expected Great White failed to materialise and swallow me, so we were off. I had a problem with my mask though, and had to surface to replace it s the seal was broken. After that we swam down to the ocean floor, following our Japanese guide -Dave was with another group. Our new guy wasn't so good though, the dive was excellent. The highlight was a huge Wrasse or Potato cod, not sure which , that was about 5ft long. We had much more freedom too. On the first guide Dave held onto my arm and held Katies' hand, but now we were all swimming on our own.

This caused a few problems though. I think the hardest thing about diving is the lack of manovuerability. You aren't able to just spin around like you would when just in trunks. say. You have to kick all the time and steer with your body-you're not supposed to use your arms. I was very aware of the coral and trying not to crash into it, but I just felt weighed down and clumsy. You need to practise swimming in all the gear to get used to it, and we hadn't had that opportunity.

Too soon it was time to get out. We spent 5 minutes basking in the warm waters of the cay, and then had to get back to the boat. On the journey back we were served cake and sparkling wine, which was much appreciated. For just $100 we'd had a great day and been well looked after.

We got back in about 5p, and went to the shop that we had rented an underwater camera from. this Turned out to be a good decision as the camera was excellent and we snapped 180photos plus 10mins or so of video. Included with the price was a DVD woth everything on, which we have had a look at and we are realy pleased with.