What can i say. It was amazing. Just got back from a 3 day tour of the reef (the far north). Managed to fit in 12 dives in that time and it was amazing. We saw so much. the first day was by far the best, firstly we went to cod hole to feed the cod (see pictures), pretty cool however then we dived this place called the lighthouse (a masive monolyth under the sea, they call it a bommie), as we decended (deepest was about 25m) the first thing we saw was a massive turtle, this was to set the tone of the dive. We must have seen maybe 3 or 4 turtles, a massive ray (bigger than me i rekon), sharks and to cap it all off when we surficed we found that a pod of maybe 6 - 12 wales had found us (the estimate varies wildly). we got straight into the boat and got our scuba gear off (it's illegal to scuba with them), snorkals on and straight back in the water. We must have been in for an hour (could have been 2 or 3, time just flew), it is a mad experience. The wales are as interested in us as we are in them, at one point they were so close i swear you could touch them. They swim slowly up to you and look you right in the eye, to show that they are friendly they will show you there belly (like a dog i suppose), just an amazing thing. Nic even managed to see them breeching (jumping out of the water), i missed this as i was kipping (the dangers of a good kip hey). Luckily we've got loads of photos and vids to bore you with when we get home. after that we did loads of dives, the best of the rest was a night dive. Nic managed to get vertigo (because you don't know which way is up in the pitch black, that combinded with weightlessness is a might strange) but despite that it was amazing. Sharks pick up on animals in distress, so as nic was a bit freaked out the honed in on her, a bit scary but we got some amazing views, one even circled us and came back to bump into nics fin (we're bigger than them so they don't attack, mind you saying that this one was actually 2m so it's bigger than us), it was a truly scary/amazing thing. By the way we were fine so Mum, Dad, grandma, grandad, rach,Mazza, shazza, kj and Joe don't worry, it was safe. I suppose i shoul dtell you about the boat, you can fit aboku 25 people on it (including staff), it's a catamaran and had it's own chef. The food was amazing and not at all fishy (loads of meat, even a roast dinner with mint sauce, great). Not too much else to say. We're back now and a little woozy, we havent got our land legs yet so you feel like your moving all the time (strange). We're in Arily beach at the moment (to sail the whit sundays, you'd have thought that we'd have had enough of boats, but we're gluttens for punishment), then of to fraser island for 2 nights camping under the stars with the dingos. will update the site with photos of our sailing trip when we get back, i bought a fancy digital camera (underwater) hench the underwater shots. Having an amazing time mail you soon matt (and nic)