Friday 20th february

On our last day at Mission Beach it was very hot and sunny so we just chilled out in the pool all day, read and played scrabble. We got to Cairns at about 7.30pm and were picked up by our hostel (Travellers Oasis). They gave us quite a few vouchers for cheap meals which will be good. Our room was very nice, although we miss TV and the hostel is very nice and modern looking. We went on a big mission that night to try and find a fast food place but after walking around for ages we couldn't find one so we went to Coles and bought some snacky food.
On Wednesday we had a walk around the town. Didn't get any shopping done but found many a souvenir shop. We had a chat at our hostels reception about reef tours and in the end we decided on one called "Seastar" and we could do it on Friday. It was offering a free introductory scuba dive, which was good. That night we went to a nic Indian Restaurant for Helen belated birthday meal. The food was very nice and it was a lovely treat.
On Thurday we went for another wander around town and had a look at the night market as well. We also hired an underwater digital camera for out reef trip. That night we went to a 2hour talk called "Reef Teach". It was a presentation showing all the animals and coral we might encounter at the reef and explaines which were dangerous and which we cvould handle. It was an interesting and funny talk and we were both glad we went to it.
Today we got up early at 6.45am after very little sleep. We waited for the tranfer bus and got talking to 2 people who were coming too, a nice lady from Sydney an exchange student from Germany who was staying with her. We got to the boat at about 8am and had tea, coffee and a muffin. The boar was full of American students on a uni trip with their professor (henry) from an archeology course, they were also going to Japan and South Korea, all of which counted as their mid terms credits!
We first went to Michaelmas Cay, which took about an hour and a bit. On the was a dive instructor gave u the basics of how to scuba dive, (hand signals, cleaning eqipment etc). The weather was sunny, but with a little breeze, and not too choppy. At Michaelmas Cay we were split into groups and we went on a snorkel tour. It was pretty cool, saw some pretty fish and lots of coral. We got to hold a black sea cucumber and our guide was pretty good at diving down and pointing things out. The visibility was incredibly clear and you could sea quite far. After about 25 minutes of bobbing about and swallowing sea water, Helen started to feel very sick (despite having had a tablet earlier) so decided to go back to the boat for a rest. Chris finished the snorkel tour and the guide found a nemo for us before we went back to the boat. It was now our turn for the scuba dive, so we got into gear but we were in seperate groups so Chris and his group got in the water first. Helen still felt very ill and decided not to dive so sat on the front of the boat. Chris group consisted of 4 people and the instructor. They went through the safety procedures first and one of the people got a bit freaked out and decided she didn't want to do it either. The 3 of them and the instructor headed off under water, sowly decending and swam around the reef. Chris says it was good to get up close to the fish and coral. In an oopen space between the coral, the guide showed them how to do flips and turns etc. which was fun. Swimming around the fish were closer deeper down and Chris recognised most of them from last nights talk. He also took some good photos. The dive lasted for about half an hour, then they got back on the boat and we all had a nice hot and cold buffet lunch.
We then went about 20mins to Hastings Reef. Helen still felt a little bit queasy so sat on the boat for a while, whilst Chris went off on a snorkel tour. After that he went on a 2nd dive for $45 and Helen felt well enough to do a bit of snorkelling on her own. This reef was a lot bigger and better. It was quite shallow around the boat only 1meter below surface in some places, but got deeper further out. There were a lot more fish at this site and Helen even saw a reef Shark, (not dangerous). We could see tiny white jellyfish but we were wearing our stinger suits! Chris's dive group was sometimes swimming through valleys of coral. He found another nemo fish and took some amazing pics of it. We were both very impressed by the giant clams and massive table corals. The fish were incredible and Chris loved getting up close to the massive schools of litte fish. After all the diving and snorkelling was over we were all back on the boat and were given tea, coffee, fruit and cakes. The boast ride back to Cairns was quite long and we were both very tired. We went straight to the camera shop and got out pictures onto a CD (they put 50 professional photoes on it too) and we were impressed by out pics.
That evening we were very tired so went to the local bar (Green Ant Cafina) for some cheap Meican grub, and had an early night.