Scuba Diving - the great Barrier Reef

The standard Aussie early morning and it's a staggered start as different members of our room head to their boat day trips, we leave and head to the boat. It's a big sailing yacht however there is now wind so we use the motor to take us out to the reef, on the way the supply snacks and every so often do briefings for the variety of activities to occur later including ours on how to use the scuba equipment, there are pretty much just two things to remember:
1- Keep breathing
2- Never hold your breath
About 2 ½ hours later we are at the first reef, first group to go so camera ready and strapped to arm, before having the instructor place the tank and goggles on us, always good to get the priorities right. We are led to the back before the small step of faith, we hold a rope around 1m underwater and go through the safety procedures and hand signals before he puts his thumbs down (go down?) I am loving it so can't wait to see the reef so give the OK and away we go. The instructor had us lock arms but within 5 minutes turned and held up a card saying let go and stay close, we agreed and we  started to roam free.
The fish were amazing and didn't seem bothered by us at all, happily drifting around or just going a little further into the reef out of our reach, even the reef itself was enticing some coral being sharp when others such as sponges so soft to touch as they waves in the currents.

The colours of them all were so great, unfortunately the water has created a blue hue on all the screen shots I have taken from the videos.
Back on the top then we sail to another spot and go for a second dive, this time it's a little longer and not quite so deep although the instructor has forgotten his watch telling him how much air is left so has to occasionally swim back to me and check my tank pressure. The second dive is equally amazing and goes by just as quickly as the first. We surface and jump back in the boat although before we head off I go for a quick snorkel while they call everyone back before we aim back to land all shattered from the swimming and many with sunburns to go with their day on a boat.

2 Days of flights

We Flew from Cairns at 9.30, fortunately with domestic flights the security is a little more lax so we zoom swiftly through. It's quite crazy to fly for the 4 hours and still be in the same country but there are some great views of the coastline, so I peer down and see magnetic island, unfortunately the cameras aren't aloud at this point and one of the flight attendants is standing a little close for me to sneak a photo.

We went into Sydney for a few hours to chill, find some food and be away from the airport, although it's not long before we head back. Sleeping overnight in the airport was pretty chilly, however did mean a pleasant sleep for a couple of hours on the 4 hour flight to Auckland.

Cairns

Coaches aren't liking us at the moment the journey was a little longer than planned but quite a lot more dangerous, a tropical storm came through on the journey up and the windscreen wipers decided to die so the coach continued however it slowed when a car came the other way as the headlights meant that the driver could see nothing at all. On arrival a minibus collected us and took us to Gilligans and where we were informed that we had arrived just in time for the free dinner. This was pretty much the same as Bilbo's 15minute chilli con carne however there was a large sweet chilli pot to cover the flavour. New flatmates seem nice and we are all up early to go on different boats in the morning, we are going with paradise passions.