7 September 2005 (Day 2)

We awoke with the sun shining into our room. We’re going diving today on the Great Barrier Reef! At about 8:45am we headed off down to the dive shop. We arrived at 9am on the dot and were sorted out with wetsuits – shorties (although Daniel’s had long sleeves). We went to the bakery and Daniel got a sausage roll and chocolate milk to assist with breakfast!
Whilst waiting for the boat to be boarded at 9:30am, we saw a skink! Daniel pulled out his camera and took a few pictures of it – it’s always a good day when you see a skink!
The boat headed off and we were getting our diving brief (the boat also took out snorkellers) when the boat slowed and someone said ‘Whales’. We all filed out of the cabin and went to the upper deck to see a pod of five humpback whales – it’s always a good day when you see whales!
We did the dive brief and then sat upstairs for the remaining hour or so for the trip out to Bait Reef.
On the top of the water Daniel saw something that looked like a rope – it wasn’t! It was an olive banded sea snake and a bit later, a brown sea snake – it’s always a good day when you see snakes!
After seeing the snakes, Daniel said “Now all we have to see is some dolphins!”. A few minutes before heading down to gear up, a dolphin jumped out of the water to the port side. It came closer and closer to the boat and then disappeared, but a dolphin was seen nonetheless – it’s always a good day when you see dolphins!
We geared up and headed down to the dingy that would drop the divers off at the ‘Group of Four’ at the southern end of the ‘Stepping Stones’ bommies.
On the way out Daniel stuck his mask in the water to clear it. He pulled it back in and the snorkel had disappeared. We had travelled too far to try and find it and not being absolutely necessary, it was left to a watery grave.
We did a reverse roll into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef and almost immediately we saw a huge Giant Trevally. We descended to our maximum allowable depth of 18 metres and swam around the bommie. There were heaps and heaps of Golden Damsels and other fish that we’re yet to identify. There was a swim through that was really cool. Daniel used his torch to look into the crevices. We surfaced some distance out from the boat. Without a snorkel, Daniel swam backwards for a while until the dingy came back again, this time with a rope on the back to give everyone a tow!
We had lunch provided on the boat – chicken, bread rolls, salads and a meat platter. Shortly after lunch we were told to suit up again as we were diving off the back of the boat.
We went down to 14 metres this time, saw more fish, such as – Tussled Wobbegong, a nudibranch, a HUGE Humphead Maori Wrasse under the boat which was later joined by a Giant Trevally – and it was a giant at around 1.5 metres – Blue Spotted Ray, Foxface and a black and white fish which we think is a Humbug.
The two hour trip back to Hamilton Island was uneventful, except for seeing two turtles – one surfacing for air – it’s always a good day when you see a turtle!

We went straight to the dive shop and Daniel bought another snorkel – they’re not cheap! We went back to the hotel and had a chat with the guy who we checked in with – Aaron. Aaron is getting married in November, so we had a chat about the experience with him. He’s getting married here on the Island.We headed up to our room and had the champagne that the resort has given us and ate cheese and dip. Helen is now snoring away on the bed and Daniel is going to have noodles for dinner.