We are now both fully qualified entry level scuba divers, after successfully completing the last two days of our Open Water dive course out on the Great Barrier Reef.

We were picked up nice and early on Friday morning to make our way to the harbour where we would board the boat that would take us out onto the reef, but we were delayed for some time as Matt had managed to miss his departure point and we had to go back again to get him. When we eventually made it onto the boat is wasn't long before we set off and were back to learning mode again as we gathered around a table while Mike told us what we would be doing on the first dive.

Once we had reached the first dive location, we assembled at the back of the boat to buddy up and get our gear on, which proved much harder than when we were on the dry land of the poolside but after a few minutes of struggling we were all ready to go. We carried out the final checks on ourselves and our buddies to make sure that we had weights and air and everything was connected properly and then it was time to jump into the water.

Our first dive was a pretty easy one as we lowered ourselves down the mooring line and just spent the half hour swimming around looking at all the amazing fish and coral and also came face to face with a huge turtle that was eating coral out of Mike's hand. Once we had resurfaced we carried out the exercises that could be done on the surface of the water and then it was back onto the boat for lunch. It was here we learned why matt had been late for the pickup in the morning as he had forgotten that we were getting a light lunch on the boat and had been making sandwiches!!

On our second dive we had more exercises to complete under the water such as taking our masks off and getting them back on, and exchanging air supplies with our buddies and also our own second air supply. There wasn't so much time for free swimming around, but we did get to go snorkelling for a while afterwards while the second group were doing their dive.

After each dive we had to complete or dive log which showed our dive time, our bottom time and our maximum dive depth, which allows us to work out how long and how deep our next dive can be depended on the length of time between each dive.

For our second day on the reef yesterday, we had decided to hire a digital camera for our second day out on the reef to try to get some photos of all the colours under the water. We couldn't take it out with us on our first dive because we still had a lot of the exercises to complete including underwater navigation and our thirty second ascent without air. All the exercises were completed without any problems and it was a shame that we couldn't take the camera with us because we had another close encounter with a turtle as it went up for air and we also saw our first shark, albeit someway in the distance!

Our last dive was the first time we had to perform an unassisted descent but we all made it down to the ocean bed fairly quickly with only the last exercise to complete, which was the underwater floating. Our instructor Mike took some photographs of all of us while we hovered in the water before he made us pass one last test - kissing a sea cucumber to show that we were in touch with nature!!

We spent the rest of the dive swimming around taking photos of the giant clams and all the fish and coral until it was tie to surface again before we ran out of air. After the regulatory stop at five metres we were back on top of the water, where Mike told us all that we had passed and were now qualified.

As soon as we had climbed back aboard the boat and taken our gear off we all jumped straight back in the water with the camera to go snorkelling over the reef. This is where we got some of the best photographs as the wetsuits meant we floated on the water and with the snorkel gear on we could just lie flat with the camera under the water while the fish swam around us. We saw hundreds of fish of all different colours and parts of the reef were less than a metre under water and sometimes it was hard keep from banging into the coral and killing it. We spent almost an hour floating around taking photos of everything we could see and also managed to get a poor unsuspecting sole to get a photo of our group while we marooned ourselves on a sandbank in the middle of all the coral.

On the boat on the way back to Cairns Mike handed out our temporary pass certificates so that we can go diving again before our official ID cards arrived. We were all buzzing from the last two days and decided to celebrate with a shandy or two last night so after a quick shower and change of clothes we were ready to hit the town.

We went around to Julie's hostel for a few beverages before heading into town to meet Matt, Gemma, Nicole, Kim and some of the guys and girls from the other group. After some food and just a few more drinks the three of us went around to Pier to meet Lynsey (one of Jen's best friends' sister from back home) where she was working behind the bar. The bar was really cool (especially the ice chute above the bar that kept the ice cubes topped up) and it was good to be in a proper bar like the ones back home where we could actually enjoy a few drinks with some decent music and a few pool tables. We found a couple of stools along the back wall while Jen chatted to Lynsey, which was just as well because by the time we left an hour or so later we were swaying about a fair bit!

We met up with the rest of the group again in The Woolshed - a Cairns institution for the drunken backpacker consisting of little more than a couple of tables, a makeshift dance floor of more tabletops and benches and a bar. We spent several more hours drinking and dancing before the early hours came and we decided to brave the gauntlet of getting a taxi back to the campsite. We waited with Julie outside her hostel for about an hour until a taxi finally turned up and woke me from my nap on the curb side!

To say this morning was a struggle would be a bit of an understatement, but after dragging ourselves into town we did bump in to Gareth and a couple of his mates and Matt from the dive course. We are staying in Cairns for another week to enjoy the weather and keep searching for jobs before moving on down the coast again.