WhitFUNdays Day 6: Under the Sea

I think today was one of my favourite days of the holiday.

Another early start this morning - our bus picked us up at 7:10 and took us down to the marina where we hopped on a boat that took us all the way out to the Great Barrier Reef. On the way out there a lot of the staff members were chatting to us (probably because we were playing Uno), and somehow we all got convinced to go scuba diving. Even me, with all my various fears of wide open spaces and the ocean and being underwater!

When we got out to the reef most of the others went snorkelling, but Lucky and I decided to go on the glass bottom boat which took us out along the reef with a marine biologist telling us awesome facts about all the fish and coral. We had an early lunch (there was an amazing buffet) because our scuba dive was at about 1:00, so after we'd eaten we went down to the dive area to get all suited up. By sheer luck I was the first person kitted out with a tank so I ended up being the first one in the water - probably a good thing but at the time I was terrified!

The instructors were really great and calmed us all down and made sure we were all comfortable - we went out in pairs with an instructor and they took us around and took us deeper or shallower depending on how we were going. I was with Praveen and both of us had a few problems to start with but once we got going it was amazing. It was so weird being under water and being able to breath air, and there were so many amazing fish everywhere. I'm not sure if I'll ever do it again, but I definitely do not regret trying scuba diving!

After the dive we mostly just chilled out until it was time to go - Phoebe and I did some sun baking and a lot of post-dive photos were taken. On the way back to the mainland we were joined by one of the staff members who'd been chatting to us on the way out, and he told us all sorts of cool things about fish because he's a marine biologist. I have to say, the company we booked with was amazing, especially today - the staff were so friendly, we got provided with a lot of food and all the activities were really fun and well organised. I would highly recommend them to anyone hitting up the Whitsundays!

We said goodbye to Wazzy, Praveen and Lucky at Hamilton Island and continued on to Airlie by ourselves. Luckily we had leftovers from last night so we didn't have to think about cooking or finding somewhere to eat - we were totally exhausted and poor Phoebe is sick, so we once again ended up on the sofa watching a kids movie (this time Kung Fu Panda) before having an early night.

I'm so, so embarrassed that I got my finger in this photo (yes I am studying photography next year). I did crop it when I put it on Facebook but I decided to leave it as it is here. Anyway, this is Wazzy, Phoebe, Julia and Praveen all suited up and ready to go snorkelling. What a good look...