Magnetic Island- The home of Australias Full Moon parties. This is where i came to learn how to Scuba Dive and obtain my Open Water Diver certification. A small island, we stayed at Base. I went ahead of the girls to start my course, they followed the day after. After a 4hr wait at the bus stop as the bus was delayed i was on my way! It took 4days for my dive training to be complete, 2days of theory and pool work and then the 2others spent doing 4 dives out in the ocean. I was put in Dive Camp, basically a tent with a camp bed in away from any noise so i could get rested. I decided after the first night i didnt feel comfortable being in there by myself so upgraded to the girls dorm. That first night in the tent was where i saw my first Possum!! Do not keep food in tents, they will find a way in!

Learning how to breathe underwater was a very strange experience, the first time in the pool my lungs hurt a tad and i panicked a bit. We were made to do skills underwater(clear our mask, remove our mask and replace it, same with the Regulator(mouth piece)). As we were doing these skills we had to kneel at the bottom of the pool, i kept floating around and couldnt keep still to a point where the instructor had to hold me down whilst they tied another weight on me! A tad embarassing! I got 100% on my test, with some help from the instructor!! The four dives we had in the sea were pretty bad visibility wise which was a shame, but still got to feed fish 10metres underwater with them coming right up to your nose! As its part of the Great Barrier Reef the coral was amazing. It was surprisingly exhausting learning to dive, i hadnt felt so drained in a while. I soon recovered afterwards ready for the Full moon party on the Friday!

As they were fully booked they put us in our own private room with ocean view which was sweet! They were very strict about not bringing your own alcohol in, but as we had to buy tickets to the event and they'd pushed prices up we took the chance. Only later when we were having our pre party did they send the alcohol police round to confiscate it!! But ah ha they missed a bottle of vodka, hurrah. An average night, nothing compared to Thailands full moon though. The day after,very hungover, we trapsed it back onto the mainland and got our coach to Cairns. Half the people on the coach were hungover and sleeping untill i woke up to the breaks screeching and a terrible noise. A jeep had lost control on the road and had crashed into us leaving us dented and with the windows cracked. It seemed like it took us ages to gain control and stop, with the coach veering off the road. Katie had grabbed my arm and we just looked at each other in horror. A terrifying experience, we were all fine just shaken up. The family in the jeep were taken to hospital. After a few hours a replacement coach came to pick us up, needless to say, nobody slept for the rest of the journey!