Mission Australia 2013 - Day 06

Cairns – Green Island & Great Barrier Reef in SW Pacific Ocean

Today was going to be one of the milestone days on which I had targeted to add another adventure sport to my career check list – Scuba Diving! As planned, all of us got ready in time for breaky, got picked up by the Bus & joined the queue for check-in to the huge Boat. We had this kind of experience at Bali already and so I knew I would struggle with the smelly lunch offered soon after. As soon as we reached Green Island, I was hunted down by the Dive Instructor & given a briefing with my dive partner. Even after my insistence, Neha had refused to dive, because she would have to do it without me while I took care of Ayana. Once aboard the boat after snorkeling for sometime on Green Island, I was once again hunted down – this time – by the co-Pilot of GBR Helicopter. 

Green Island

SW Pacific

Cheers to a Fabulous Dive

As soon as the time to dive in came closer, I struggled hard to keep my nervousness in check. I came very close to giving up when my Guide offered me a full refund if I did not go inside the water. But I decided I had waited too long to do it – I was not going to give up. And once I went inside with my Guide & Dive Partner also named ‘Ankit’; it all came naturally to me. I felt very comfortable touching the giant soft fishes as they swam by. The coral reef was more beautiful than I had seen so often in the movies & documentaries. I wish I had more time so that I could spend a week diving in more far-off areas.

Aboard the Glass Bottom Boat

Next destination - Uluru - Ayer's Rock

Launchpad for the GBR Helicopter

Kind of those Islands they show on Australia Tourism ads

Ayana's wail stopped only on Landing 

Post Lunch, we had just enough time to squeeze in the Glass Bottom Boat ride which was a second grade experience to diving but I wanted Neha & Ayana to take a look underwater nonetheless. One thing found my interest on the upper deck – a bunch of boards with the distances to various destinations around the world. We had just been asked to put on the noise-reducer headphones inside the Helicopter when Ayana started to wail. Her wailing only eased when we landed at Cairns Helipad on the other side of the Lagoon.

Daily Aerobics at Dusk

The Lagoon

Ayana found her own PC

Since I wanted to get pictures of my dive, I asked Neha to wait for me at the Lagoon where a large number of general public was practicing water-aerobics. An eventful day came to end as we strolled towards Ibis getting mentally ready for the desert that we were about to go to the next day.