Diving at the Great Barrier Reef

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On our honeymoon, over 3 years ago now, we did an introductory  scuba dive in St. Lucia just to see what we thought of scuba diving and we loved it and have been planning to get certified ever since.  Our trip to Australia provided the perfect opportunity to gain this certification and visit the Great Barrier Reef at the same time.

We arrived in Cairns on Friday, January 5th and our class started bright and early Saturday morning.  The first two days were spent in the classroom and training pool at the Cairns Dive Center facility with the instructor, Ruthy (British) and the one other student, Michell (pronounced Michael - he's Swedish).  We watched videos and then talked through different concepts you need to understand for scuba and then also tested out the basics in the training pool.  In the evenings we even had to study the dive manual they gave us for the course!  The morning of the third day we had to take a test to ensure we'd passed our classroom training before we could proceed to the open water dives out on the reef.

The remainder of our trip was spent aboard the Kangaroo Explorer (KE) - a liveaboard boat - and was approximately a 2 hour boat ride out from Cairns.  We would spend the next 4 days and 3 nights aboard the KE along with a rotating group of other divers/snorkellers.   The boat itself could host up to 40 individuals on board.  We had a private double room en suite that was on the main level along with the dining room.  There were more bedrooms on the floors above and below us and on the top deck was a library and sun deck.  The back of the boat was dedicated to all the diving and snorkeling to be had.

Each morning we woke around 5:30AM to prepare for our 6:00AM dive.  But the reefs were amazing at this time of the morning - they really did look like that first scene out of Finding Nemo when Marlin was taking Nemo to school.  There were fish everywhere, sharks and rays still sleeping on the bottom of the ocean, and colorful coral that was still waking up with the sunrise.  Our dives were sometimes up to almost 100 feet deep and depending on how deep we went (and how long Chris's air would last) were sometimes as long as 40 minutes each!

Our days varied to an extent, but only in such that we chose additional dives to do at either 8AM, 11AM, 1PM, 4PM, or a night dive at 7PM.  By the end of the trip we had completed 13 dives and 2 snorkeling trips at all times of the day - including the night dive (which for the record was NOT April's favorite).  We always buddied up together on our dives, but were occasionally joined by other divers.  In fact we even got to do a few dives entirely on our own!

It's impossible to list all the animals seen over the last few days during all our dives because there were so many everywhere (and many we probably don't even know the name to still).  Our favorites however are very easy to remember.  Chris's favorite were the sea turtles which are really rare and it was even cooler that these were close enough for us to pet them on the backs of their shell.  Didn't bother them a bit.  All the "Nemos" were quite cute, along with Butterfly fish, Angel fish, Parrot fish, Flutefish, crabs, and Starfish.  April had an interesting experience with a suckerfish during one of our training dives when it was desperately trying to find a spot on her lower half on which to attach itself - luckily the wetsuit we wore during the dives kept her well protected.  We both enjoyed seeing all the barracuda, sting rays, and reef sharks - these were the obvious predators in the water but none of them posed us any danger during our dives.

However, there was one animal that posed a significant danger to April surprisingly enough and it was an innocent looking little Triggerfish.  During our 8AM dive on the last day of our trip, we were out diving on our own, swimming along the reef, enjoying the views and any new animals we might spot, when we rounded a corner and came upon a Triggerfish swimming alone near the bottom - not unusual in and of itself.  Chris swam by the fish with no incident.  April however must have looked like a predator to the trigger fish (or the eggs underneath it) because when she tried to swim past the fish it immediately came after her.  Not once, but twice!  This was a fish ready to bite and maim April to its own demise and was sufficiently aggressive to freak April out in 30 feet of water!  Fortunately for all parties involved, the Triggerfish decided that April was not actually out to steal his/her eggs and let her swim on.  She continued to look for and avoid these fish for the remainder of our dives for fear of getting attacked again!

The whole point of us going out to the Great Barrier Reef (other than actually seeing the reef) was to get our scuba certification and we have certainly done that.  We walked off the boat as certified Advanced Adventure Dive Specialists with SSI certification.  We also walked off with new memories and adventures to talk off, along with new friends from all over the world.

Our time in Australia is officially over now as we leave for New Zealand in a few short hours.  We have absolutely adored this beautiful country with good food, nice people, and fantastic experiences to be had.  Definitely on our list for a return trip in the future.