Well people...I can honestly say I have just had the best 3-days of my life - EVER! Being in Cairns for almost 2 weeks, i took the executive decision after a wicked snorkel trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to sign up to get my Scuba diving certification. After seeking out the 'budget' option I was then (quite easily) convinced to upgrade to the best possible course in Cairns!!! But hey, for the difference of less than 100 quid, and a much betetr experience, why not! Its only money!

After 2 days in the swimming pool learning all the skills and hand gestures underwater, practising emergency procedures, running out of air and all that jazz, as well as some theory work we had to do - we were prepared and ready to head out to the Great Barrier Reef to do some REAL diving!

After a 6am start and on the water by 7am, we were geared up and ready for our first open-water dive by 10am. We basically had 4 open-water dives to do with our instructor Sam before we became certified and able to go out by ourselves. First dive opened up a whole new world - literally!! From the minute you submerge and begin to descend to the bottom of the ocean, everything changes! Weightlessness takes over, everything slows down (apart from your breathing which takes a bit more work) and all you can hear is your own bubbles! As we got to the bottom (8m) we weren't made to do any skills, we simply got to swim around and enjoy the experience! What was the first thing we saw - turtles!!! Wicked! All kinds of things were down there, crazy bright fish of all shapes and sizes and Blue-spotted Lagoon Stingrays.

On our next 3 dives we had to practice our skills that we learnt in the pool and then finally on our last dive as learners we were set challenges - depth challenge and air challenge. No-one was allowed to go more than 15.8m and we had to alert our instructor when we got to 120bar in air. In our group just me and Michaela, my buddy, managed to get the depth challenge to which we were awarded with a Snickers - not too great - but we also avoided a spoonful of Marmite which was the punishment!!! After this we were official certified Scuba Steve's!!!

Certified and only half way through the day, we had our first free dive in the afternoon and as soon as we submerged we saw our first shark! Luckily I had a camera so got photos of it and dared to get as close as possible - i was sat next to a shark on the ocean floor about 2m away from it! Obviously not your Great White (you dont get them on the GBR - too warm) but a White-tip Reef shark (see photos). Onwards we swam through Mickey Mouse reef and saw all-sorts of crazy little creatures and corals including not clownfish (Nemo) but closely-related anenomefish (see photos) then we found triggerfish, puffers and Napolean Wrasse fish which grow up to 2.5m and have big fat lips!

On our 2nd night on the boat, we were then treated to a night dive! Not just any night dive - we were also going through a nice little storm! A bit apprehensive about the whole thing, we jumped in and took our first look underwater at night-time - it looked like a feeding frenzy! 100's of blue and yellow damselfish about 30cm swimming around as though on too many cans of red bull! Descending to the bottom, all was quiet and calm again - the storm is barely recognisable once down a few metres! No skills luckily, just a leisurely swim to see what we could find. To be honest we didnt see too much apart from a huge yellow jellyfish which just missed my buddy after i pushed her down away from it! It was cool bein down there at night, a very strange experience but lets just say i prefer day dives! On the ascent back up to do our 5m safety stop, i spotted something - a shark!!! Swimming right by us! As i turned to get the others attention, they were already heading back up. I saw one other torch circling it which means someone else saw it (one of the other girls).

Our last day was an early start - 5:30am! In the water by 6am! Apparently they assure us this is the best time to see fish and turtles as they're feeding. So off we go and sure enough we found another turtle munching on the coral. I got real close to him and took a pic right in his face (see photo) then passed the cam to Michaela and I put an arm around the big fellow! I was hugging a turtle on the bottom of the ocean!!!!! I couldnt beleive it. What passed through my head right then..."ahhh...i wonder what everyone's doin at home right now?" We then had (including this one) 3 dives to do in 5 hours! It was hard work, diving-eating-diving-eating-diving and...eating again! Thats what else we did on the boat - ate...a lot!

Over the 3 days we completed 9 dives, 5 as certified divers and had the most amazing time of my life! I think ive got the bug now cos im already looking at where i can next go diving! Im itching to get back underwater again! Well Perth here I come i guess - the Nigaloo Reef is meant to be awesome!!! Im there!