Great Barrier Reef

Our big trip incase you hadn't realised was indeed to the Great Barrier Reef. We decided to go crazy and try an introductory dive instead of just snorkelling. I think it's safe to say I won't find the words to describe how amazing this was, but I shall try and show with the pictures.

We were on a pretty big boat with lots of people, a mix of snorkelling, intro dive and advanced diving. After all the paper work was filled in, who knew how much was needed just to dive?!?, we were giving our kit which included some very attractive wetsuits.

Whilst waiting for our group turn to dive, we had a little snorkle. Was pretty cool but compaired to what was coming up the pictures aren't really even worth showing. But I will, just for you guys.

Before we knew it, it was time for our dive. We were in a group of 4 with 1 instructor and an extra guy for safety. We suited up and got all our equipment done, as we've not had any proper lessons or padi training this was all checked and double checked by the guys on the boats. They then picked us up and moved us over to the edge of the boat. Which was a lot harder than it sounds, these oxygen tanks are heavy and there in no graceful way of moving at all.

As it was our first dive ever for the 4 of us, no cameras were allowed as we had to do lots of safety checked underwater to start with. We did get some professional pictures taken, which look pretty epic. Just a disclaimer this guy had a 10k underwater camera, mine is not that advanced and the pics are not the same kind of quality. But I'm still pretty please with mine, but back to the first dive.

Now the next set of pictures need a little explaining, you can't smile when you have the mouth piece in. This means as the camera man put it, you tend to look pretty dopey/stoned looking in most underwater pics. Now that has all been explained on to the next ones.

We got the chance to do a 2nd dive and we jumped at it and this time we were allowed our cameras. We managed to get to the edge of the boat and were ready to go when Nik overbalanced and went down like a turtle on her back. Being the good friend I am I took a (bad) picture and laughed along with everyone else. I would like to add if I'd tried to help I would have gone down as well!!!

And we were in and snapping to our hearts content.

Now this one is the best picture of the shark we saw. It's not great but 1/3 from the left side in the middle, thats the little guy. Bonus points if you find him, let me know in the comments below.

So there you have it, our day on the reef. Was amazing, and I hope I've managed to share just a little of it with you.