Tsunami, tsunami, came washing over me

First things first...there was a tsunami scare down the East Coast of Australia while we were sailing in the Whitsundays! Apparently we were in a safe place because the Great Barrier Reef would have swallowed the impact of a wave, but it was still pretty scarey to imagine the size of the thing that could have been heading our way. After a few hours of fearing for the Reef and the rest of the East Coast (including our flights out!) the warning was called off, to a chorus of relieved and jokingly disappointed sighs. The trip was really good despite some torrential rain on the first day, strong winds and it being too dangerous for us to sail to Whitehaven Beach (one of the top 5 beaches in the world thanks to its bright white 100% silica sand, palm trees and irresistably aquamarine water). Greg (skipper) too kus instead to a bushwalk trail, where we licked the bum of an ant that tasted like lime (it's an aboriginal thing!), and to 3 different snorkelling spots over the 3 days. The first thing we saw was a reef shark! Followed by lots of big and beautiful fish and coral. We had to wear some very unflattering full body stinger suits and it's a good job because Candi saw some jellies floating by! Life on the boat was good fun too. We made lots of friends, Greg and Shane (the crew) were kind and funny, Shane was a fantastic cook going so far as to make a spontaneous pudding for Geerta's birthday, an iPod played some wicked tunes all day long and we had all 3 sails up on the way back to Airlie Beach (meaning tiltage, speed and getting very wet!). We all met again in the evening for some drinks and dancing. It's a shame the Airlie accommodation wasn't quite up to scratch. Our dorm was ridden with mice and smelled like it too, and the mouse free rooms were all full!

We're in Cairns now, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, which brings me to the second most important thing...we swam with a Sea Turtle yesterday and I found Nemos! The turtle was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and to swim around with it within touching distance for about 10 minutes was so peaceful and incredible. It didn't seem to mind the peopke at all, in fact I think it was quite enjoying the attention! Naturally I lingered over the Nemos for a while too, but we had 5 hours snorkelling time between two spots so there was plenty of time for more - a white tipped reef shark, puffer fish, sea cucumbers, angel fish, wrasse, parrot fish, rainbow fish. You name it it was there! The water was crystla clear even to a depth of 10 metres so the coral looked great too. There was fun to be had on the boat again - we made friends with an English couple, had a BBQ lunch and afternoon wine, cheese and biscuits, played Uno with the crew and were entertained to hysterics by Elvis, a crew member who joked around all day and played his guitar and sang with us on the the way back.

Well that's all from Oz as we're flying to New Zealand in a couple of days to start 4 weeks of scaring the crap out of ourselves and discovering the landscapes hobbit stylee. Happy Easter to you all!