Busy day today and an early start. At 8am we boarded the Compass cruise boat and set sail for the Outer Great Barrier reef.the journey took about 2hours,but was happily filled with talks on the reef,on snorkelling and scuba diving,and lazing in the sun on deck. Our first stop we all got changed into the very fetching wetsuits,flippers and mask provided and swam out about 80m to the reef. i ended up swimming out with one of th crew members of the boat,which was great as she knew all about the reef and all the different specis of fish and coral.it was like a different world when you put your head under the water,and everything was so close.We saw hundreds of fish,in all shapes,sizes and colours,i got to hold a sea cucumber(veeeery slimy....),and a bright blue star fish(photos will arrive soon)and we saw a shark too!!apparently very lucky to see,the white tip reef shark is the only shark found near the reef and at about 1-2m long, only eats fish....phew!At our second stop we saw turtles and even got close enough to feed them!very exciting. Once I'd returned from the cruise I had half an hour before I was picked up for the night zoo.After a yummy aussie bbq accompanied by some traditional oz songs on guitar,we were taken on our tour around the zoo. We saw possums,toads,birds,the worlds most venemous snakes(!!),crocodiles(particularly impressive was a huge croc which our guide was in the pen with poking...!photos to follow....)we even got to hold and stroke koalas and then feed kangaroos,and stroke a wombat.Finally we headed back to base for a drink and some traditional aussie singing and dancing.a fantastic day! Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx