Our second day on the Great Barrier Reef was with Passions of Paradise where you were able to dive, snorkel and sail. Compared to yesterday the boat was a lot smaller with a third of the people on board. We headed to Paradise reef in the morning which has exclusive mooring just for Passions so there are no crowds as we snorkelled on one of the outer Reefs. With depths of up to 25 metres along the edge, water clarity is good and the area is host to many exciting fish species including Wally, our resident Maori wrasse.

After lunch we headed to Michaelmas Cay Island which is a National Park, world-famous bird sanctuary with a beautiful sandy beach, providing a rare opportunity to snorkel straight off the beach in protected, calm waters. Sea turtles are common and I have been told that you are likely to see giant trevally and small black tip reef sharks but I saw bat fish and hundreds of species of colourful reef fish.

On the return journey the marine biologist on board gave is some information about the reef and endangered species that inhabit it. I thoroughly enjoyed our two days exploring down under.