Hey everyone! It's Tyler and Kay-Lin again, bringing you the latest update on our adventures from the Great Barrier Reef. After our final dive yesterday, we all became certified divers! Accquiriing our licenses included starting a 4 day course with Cairns Dive Center. Our instructor Lance had us watch instructional videos and even gave us homework, something most of us haven't done in a while! He and Mel, his assistant instructor, were really thoruogh in teaching us all the underwater technical skills that go along with scuba diving. At first some us were a little nervous about going underwater but once we got the hang of it, we were swimming around the pool like dolphins! After two days of training in the pool, we had a pretty intense boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. Our group was well prepared with sea-sickness pills but the other people on the boat were not so lucky. For two hours we were surrounded by people throwing up everywhere. It was defintiely a crazy experience. We were relieved to finally get to the Kangaroo Explorer, our liveaboard boat. Lance wasted no time in getting us into the ocean with our first open water dive. It was freaky while descending down into the murky water. At 15 meters down, we reached the sandy bottom where Lance had us practice our mask removal and regulator retrieval skills. We then swam around to look at the coral and abundant sea life. After returning to the boat, we had a 2 hour break before our next dive. The Kangaroo Explorer was on it's way to a new reef location when the waters got extremely choppy and we were violently tossed around the dining room. At 4 pm, we had our second dive of the day. The visibility was much better this time and everyone was more comfortable in the open water. Us two, Dawn and Reid even managed to go on a night dive! It was a little scary at first while jumping into the dark water but once we were below the surface everything seemed really calm and relaxing. The sea life at night is totally different from that during the day. There was a lot of red bass, cleaner shrimp, poisonous lionfish, a moray eel and a sting ray. It was definitly something we'll never forget. The whole group was pretty exhausted and collasped into their beds once we were done diving. At 5:30 am the next day, we were woken up by Mel screaming and banging on our doors. We forgot to mention that Lance and Mel are absolutely insane once they're out on the ocean, acting like two crazy kids! We had to suit up and get ready for our 6 am dive, which is when we saw a school of Maori Wrasse and even more lionfish. After that dive, we only needed one more dive to complete our certificatiions. On our final dive with our instructors we swam with a sea turtle and a sting ray! Shelby even had a sea cucumber attach itself to her hand. Don't worry parents, she's still fully intact. Before leaving the reef, we got to do one solo dive with our buddies. We got to rent an underwater camera and you can see the photos below. Shelby and Marissa even found a nemo, which apparently can change their sex in case the female is eaten or abandons her anemone.
Now that diving is over, we are trying to enjoy our last two days together. So this is our last post and we've loved sharing all our memories and experiences with you these past three months. Can you believe its over!? We can't wait to see you in a few days!
With lots of love to everyone,
-Kay-Lin, Tyler, Chelsea, Marissa, Reid, Elizabeth, Blake, and Shelby
