Well I'm now a certified diver, woo hoo! But I very nearly wasn't.  The first day of my 5 day course was in the pool here in Cairns and I can honestly say I hated it. I felt an overwhelming sense of panic being in the water with all this stuff on me and have no idea how I didn't just stand up. At the end of the first day you can get your money back if you don't like it so I was pretty convinced that was what I was going to do. However the instructor talked me into staying, though I was relatively easy to convince.  And day 2 went a lot better, I started to feel like I was going to drown at least!  So I passed the classroom and pool sessions but then I had to repeat the skills at the bottom of the ocean on a 3 day trip out to the reef.

 We were all picked up at 6am to head to the boat so that after the 3 hour trip we still had plenty of time to dive.  The trip out to the reef was horrible, the boat was pitching all over the place, several people were sick.  It calmed a little as we approached the reef but we still had to set our gear up while being thrown all over the place.  I had spent the 3 hour trip freaking out about going in to the water and by the time we were ready to go I was ill, both with seasickness and complete panic.  As soon as I jumped into the water I totally freaked out and had to get back out.  Leaving the rest of my class to complete the dive.  I was so upset about it all that I spent the rest of the day being totally miserable. I managed to go for a snorkel and it made me realise that I was being a bit daft but by then the class were already 2 dives ahead of me so I couldn't catch up.   Fortunately I had some really great instructors and while the rest of the class had been certified and went for dives by themselves they took me down and I was able to complete the 4 dives I needed to do.

 I still can't believe that I managed to do it. I'm definitely happier when I get down there, jumping into a choppy sea with waves crashing over you is a bit scary.  I did start to really enjoy the diving though and I reckon I'll probably do it again, which is quite a surprise even to me!

Only 1 more full day left in Oz, crazy huh?! Flight to New Zealand is on Monday. Hope my ears have sorted themselves out by then, I can't hear a thing after all that diving.