First dive for 8 months and the first dive on our Australian adventure.Tested for the first time, my new BCD which was excellent.Swam out from the beach with less than a metre vis.Group surfaced as we lost each other immediately and my mask kept fogging up.Getting pretty fed up with the dive before we swam further out and the vis went up to around 2 metres.I ended up losing everybody and was performing my 60 second search before my ascent when I hovered over a sandy patch where 5 large (2 metre) Port Jackson Sharks where resting.Awesome.Hung around watching them for a while wishing I had a camera before encountering two different species of Wobbegong Sharks which made the whole dive excellent after a ropey beginning.

Second dive of the day after a cold and wet surface interval on the beach.Used my new hood which definitely kept me warmer.My mask stayed clear and my buoyancy was better which made for a comfortable, enjoyable dive.Vis still wasn't great but better than this morning.Saw more Wobbegong Sharks which are awesome.Also spotted a Coral Cod.Good dive.

Took a speed boat ride out to the outer ocean just outside the mouth of Sydney Harbour.Really looking forward to this dive as the practical side of my PADI Shark Awareness Certification.Also dived used Nitrox. The intention was to see Grey Nurse Sharks as well as listening out for Whale calling.What happened couldn't have been more opposite to a nice dive.For some reason I felt extremely seasick for the first time ever.Upon entering the water, the instructor disappeared immediately before me and my buddy realised that the visibility was actually 1 metre at the max.Descended down to 29 metres with less than a metre vis.Felt very claustrophobic and just kept eyes on my buddy.Saw absolutely nothing!Cold as well.Worst dive I've done to date.Actually quite nervous.

Not particularly keen to do this second dive of the day after an horrendous experience on the first dive.Still felt really sea sick for no apparent reason so thought diving would be a better alternative to sitting on the boat.Went back into the harbour which reduced the swell.Descended onto a severely broken up wreck and started shivering after 5 minutes.The visibility was still about 2 metres and shivered uncontrollably for the rest of the dive.Failed to see any marine life and finished off a pretty unenjoyable days diving unfortunately.

My first dive on the Great Barrier Reef aboard a three day Liveaboard with Pro Dive Cairns.Really felt the warmer waters here compared to Sydney.Dived Nitrox.First dive was really getting to grips with having no guide and having to use a compass to navigate which I was to continually struggle with throughout the three days.Didn't see a great deal of marine life on this dive apart from some huge Sea Cucumbers but the visibility and water warmth was good so feeling optimistic.

Great second dive of the day.Continued to use compass which didn't go well.Had to surface twice to get a boat visual.Encountered a sleeping White Tipped Reef Shark which was amazing.Swam off when it heard our bubbles but settled back down elsewhere which we also observed.Nice.Saw two good sized Green Turtles and watched one surface to take a breath which was cool.Also swam around a large variety of soft and hard Corals and the ubiquitous Sea Cucumbers.

Third dive of the day.A pretty shallow, relaxed dive and used torch to pick out some nice corals.Saw various species of Sweetlips and a few large Coral Cods.My navigation was better.

First Night dive of our live aboard.This was actually a guided dive which I felt more comfortable about.Caught a glimpse of the tail of a Grey Reef Shark before it disappeared into the black.

Morning dive on the second day of the Liveaboard.Using compass reference we swam to site and saw a blue spotted Ribbontail ray.Also encountered two large Green turtles' large, but mostly hidden Lobster,a huge Star fish and Trigger Fish.Lots of brain coral on this site.

Descended beside a steep wall where I caught a two or three second glimpse of a large 2.5 metre Guitar Fish with remoras.Amazing.Borrow a camera for this dive (Canon G7).Got some shots of Titan Trigger fish and Giant clams.Also saw a Sergeant Major Fish before descending onto a shallow reef and performing our safety stop while exploring the reef.Nice dive.Navigation was ok.

Awesome dive.At the beginning of the dive while swimming around a Bomby I came face to face with a White Tipped Reef Shark.Amazing. Also encountered four separate Green turtles, a gigantic Grouper,Mauri Wrasse and a large Batfish.Swam through and around various Bomby's before making our ascension.Upon surfacing, the boat was shouting to us as there was a Minky Whale sighting.We proceeded to hang onto the rope and observe a Minky whale swimming under and around us.Absolutely amazing once in a life time experience.Breath taking!!

Second night dive of the Liveaboard although this was totally unguided.Jumped in with a 1.5 metre Grey Reef Shark about a metre below Charlotte (my buddy)...Awesome.Descended down into the black and thought we didn't really move from the bottom of the boat.Encountered two Green turtles resting under a overhang.Ascended to where we thought the boat was only to be about 500 yards in front of the boat on the other side.Scary.

Up at 05:00 am for our first dive of the day.Still dark on entry saw used a torch before the sun came out.Circumnavigated a large bomb before seeing a Green Turtle feeding and a couple of large Bumper fish.My navigation was a lot better.Encountered a semi large Baracuda hovering just below our boat.

Used compass to head to a bobby next to the one we dived earlier that morning.Circumnavigated Bomby and saw some Clown fish,3 fairly large Barracuda and a large Green Turtle.Fairly shallow dive with a bit of current so just hovered around various little bobby's checking out the variety of hard and soft corals.Nice relaxing dive.

Last dive of our Liveaboard adventure.Nice shallow dive around various Bomby's.Noticed two Blue Spotted Ribbontail rays, an enormous 3 metre Wrasse,a massive ( 2 metre ) spotted Coral Cod and a Green Turtle.Towards the end of the dive, the sun came out which was awesome on the corals.

After the disastrous attempts in Sydney I was still very keen to swim with Grey Nurse Sharks and this dive promised that possibility.After a 5 minute speed boat trip out to the Rock,I learnt the night before that White sharks have been filmed on this exact site I was diving.I was also the first one kitted up and the only one bobbing about on the surface which concerned me.After descending, the murky visibility improved as the dive progressed before I had my first ever Grey Nurse Shark encounter.Amazing.Saw 4 in total about 2.5 metres in length.One came up behind me while I was watching another one but I remained calm and it just starred at me.Also saw 6 Wobbegong Sharks and a huge 2 metre Cod.Amazing dive I'll rank as one of my best.Upon entering back in the boat, two whales surfaced about ten metres away from our boat which topped the whole experience off perfectly.

Moving from Byron Bay and the Gold Coast,we were now on the Sunshine Coast and decided to dive the ex-HMAS Brisbane wreck.Having descended using the line because of quite strong current, it became immediately obvious that the water was cold.I had no hood as it got stolen in Byron Bay which didn't help.The first dive as normal was to circumnavigate the ship which was huge.I also dropped down from the deck level to swim through the bottom of the boat next to the rudder which was pretty cool.not a great deal of marine life but seeing the wreck was awesome.Huge and in good tact.

Second dive of the Ex-HMAS Brisbane wreck.The surface interval was very cold and windy and warmed up wth soup and tea.This time we penetrated the wreck with our dive guide who had actually worked on the ship when it was functioning.Amazing.The compartment were relatively tight with low ceilings and narrow doorways.Swam into the captains quarters and the missile storage room which was cool.Also saw the completely intact missile launch control panel.There were also lots of nice soft corals growing inside with sightings of Clown Fish.While ascending I also encountered a bioluminescent jelly fish which was a first.Cold but an unforgettable dive.