After much deliberation we both decided to do a 4 day open water scuba diving course with Deep Sea Divers Den. It cost $475 including $30 in taxes, plus an extra $60 for a medical. We spent two days at the training centre. Each day was split into half a day in the pool and half a day in the classroom; and two days out on the reef - four training dives and one fun dive (on our own with a buddy). There were 8 people in our group and this huge Canadian guy was useless... He kept kicking from his knees so hard that his fins kept coming off. The instructor, Dan, was getting really annoyed with him because he never listened. The group couldn't stop laughing. When we first did the 5 point ascend in the pool I couldn't get up! I had too many weights on... Everyone kept laughing but I couldn't do it so Dan had to drag me up. James was in stitches! James and I were definately the naughty ones in the group... Pulling each others masks off, blowing the alternate air source in each others faces, and inflating each others BCDs whilst we were under the water. Well we had a long wait while ever the Canadian, Damion, was doing something. Out on the reef we saw alot of fishes and had a picture took with Nemo, but we didn't see any turtles, stingrays or sharks! All of our group had paid to move onto the liveaboard boat after the first day at sea. So on the last day it was just James and I plus this guy who was in another group the previous day. Dan took just us three for the third and fourth dive and he said that he has never had such a perfect group... We are certified scuba diving stars to18metres! We also had the added bonus of great weather the two days we were out on the boat!

The Esplanade in Cairns running along the sea shore, has a huge lagoon which is open all day and night. It looks lovely in the evening with the trees and pool lit up. We enjoyed an evening watching the light fading and the boats returning to the harbour.

We had a nightmare trying to book some form of transport to get down the east coast... Everyone is trying to get to Sydney for Christmas. We eventually booked the Greyhound bus to Melbourne (hop on and off bus). So hopefully my next instalment will be about Airlie Beach and sailing around the Whitsundays.