I arrived at the Byron Bay Dive Center at about 7:30am and met Garth, who was going to be my guide for the dive at the Julian Rocks Marine Reserve. He gave me all the gear I was going to need and we spent about 45 minutes in the pool doing the "scuba lesson" part of the trip. I don't have a diving certificate, I was doing an "introductory" dive, which means that you are led around by a guide through the Reserve, rather than being able to explore yourself. I was fine with that. I'm not a big fan of being submerged in water. We finished my lesson, and headed out to the Rocks.

I had done another one of these introductory dives in the Great Barrier Reef back in '97, and I remember not liking being under water back then. Nothing has changed. We got to the Reserve, I got in the water and Garth showed me to the mooring line, which was basically a rope that I was supossed to use to pull myself down to the bottom of the ocean. We only went down about 12 meters, and I really had to concentrate on not panicking. Aside from that, the dive was great, there were fish everywhere, and I did get to see a grey nurse shark. It was only a small male one, but it was still about 8 feet long. Adults can grow up to 15 feet. I had an underwater camera, but of course the pictures don't do it justice. The shark was not within the 3-5 feet required to get a picture with the camera, but a few that came out reasonably clear were the ones of porcupine fish, spotted wobbegong shark, blue groper and some other ones that I don't know the names for. I was down there for about 45 minutes in total, and then we headed back to shore and I began my drive up to Noosa, where I was planning to spend the night.

On the way up to Noosa, I stopped into the Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin!! Although I'd rather see animals in the wild, I thought it might be my only chance to see a koala that isn't sleeping. I pulled into the parking lot around 4pm and noticed it was pretty empty and that most of the people were leaving the zoo. I saw the sign saying that the zoo closes at 4:30pm. Shoot. I really wanted to see the koalas, but I didn't want to pay the $27 entry fee for only half an hour of zoo time. So, (don't tell anyone) in a brief moment of deviance I snuck in the exit. It was remarkably easy. No one even saw me, and I rushed straight for the koalas. I found them and watched them until the park closed, there were koalas AND koala babies! Very Cute! The zoo was very well organized, and there were fenced in venues set up all over the place where they do shows with the animals. Too bad I didn't get there earlier.