Bye bye Oz

(Just an update on the end of our time in OZ!)

Day 84

Diving!

We head to the reef fleet terminal for half seven, and check in for our all day, 3 dive, cruise on the coral sea. It takes a while to get going, but as soon as we're off we are briefed upstairs, given our kit, and it seems no time at all before we are at our first stop (Herman reef). We have opted to be guided on our dive (as we've never dived alone) and it is very very cool – beautiful coral growths everywhere and a multitude of all different kinds of fish, but we keep on holding up the group as we want to just stop and stare, it really is magnificent, and words aren't really enough to describe!

Because of our tendency to lag behind and want to explore the reef more intimately we decide that our next two dives will be all on our own! I hurriedly plan how deep we can go (with an excessive margin of caution it turns out, but I have no problem with that, id rather miscalculate on the healthy side, we were only one pressure group more cautious than the dive crew – and personally I think they overestimated our surface interval!) and then we're off – all on our own beneath the beautiful turquoise sea!

We spend some time revelling in our new found freedom – doing somersaults and so forth, and then spend our time getting up close and personal with the reef, swimming around mushroom shaped growths and finding the little fishies which like to hide! In the to dives I think the coolest thing I saw was a coral with fantastic blue spirals emerging from it. The were pretty small, around 2-4cm in length, and had a dark blue centre lightening as it got to the edges which were made up on tiny fronds. The best thing about them though was that if you waved at them, they popped back into the coral and hid! Magical little spirals!

Day 85

Not a lot to say about today, we shop for marks souvenirs so he is a happy bunny and just enjoy Cairns!

Day 86

Book our 'spaceship' for travel around NZ – feel very poor but relieved everything is now sorted!

Day 87

Spend the day packing – wrapping up marks didjeridoo nice and snug in bubble wrap and a sleeping bag and stuffing it inside a huge didjeridoo box the nice man in the didj shop sold us for $5 (bargain!).

Day 88

To the airport we go! Bubye Australia!

Our bags turn out to be well within the weight limit (something we were seriously worried about!) although they are both pushing 20 kg now!

Flights are good, connections made well within time, the only hold up is at biosecurity where they steal our tent, boots and didjs to wash, only they didn't clean our tent at all, and didn't even have the courtesy to pack it back up again! Humph!