Great Barrier Reef

[D-man]

Hi there, I am planning a liveaboard from Cairns i early november. I checked out the Down Under Dive homepage and everyting looks nice. BUT, has anybody been on one of their liveaboards and how did you experience it?

I have been on ProDives 3 day cruise before and i was pretty satisfied but I would like to dive on different reefs this time!

Any other suggestions are also welcome!!
Greetings to all
D-man

 

[cdiver2]

I did the Diversity live aboard to the Coral sea and GBR the day after I returned from PNG. While in PNG I was told "you should have done the live aboard first" . This I found to be true, out of all three places I rated them 1/ PNG 2/ Coral sea 3/GBR.

 

[D-man]

Thanks for the info...but i was more wondering if somebody had been on "Down Under Diving"s liveaboard...
By the way, is there a big differens between the coral sea and the GBR...there seems to be a huge price difference but is it worthed???

 

[cdiver2]

Thanks for the info...but i was more wondering if somebody had been on "Down Under Diving"s liveaboard...
By the way, is there a big differens between the coral sea and the GBR...there seems to be a huge price difference but is it worthed???

CS is all deep wall diving, GBR was a lot of reefs. If you want to see sharks Osprey reef in the CS there are tons of them, but given the option I would still do PNG 1st

 

[jnylaw]

Is the diving in Coral Sea advanced or suitable for beginners?
Anyone has experience in Cod Hole?

 

[cdiver2]

Is the diving in Coral Sea advanced or suitable for beginners?
Anyone has experience in Cod Hole?

On the live aboard that I did everyone but my wife and I were beginners, there were no problems but all there dives were led by a DM.
Cod hole.......very disappointed one large cod and one small one that the large one would chase of whenever it got near the divers. I would not pay to do this dive again.










Again if your going that far pay a little extra and do PNG, a couple of pics to wet your appetite.

 

[jnylaw]

How can I get from Sydney to PNG??

My schedule to Cairns is arriving on Sat and leaving on Fri. All the liveabroads to
CS I've seen so far leave on Thurs or Fri. Those that go to Cod Hole leave on Monday.
I am very eager to see sharks and big fish. But I have to figure some boats that will
go to CS on Monday.

 

[cdiver2]

There are daily flights to PNG from Cairns. The place I went to is called Walindi Plantation on the Island of New Britain. Flights Cairns to Port Moresby about 1- 1 1/2 hrs Port Moresby to New Britain 1- 1 1/2 hrs.
There are also two liveaboards from Walindi.
To make travel arrangements DiversionOz are a very good Co. A couple of links to help
http://www.walindi.com/walindidivesites.html
http://www.australia-dive.com/en/index.html

 

[caymaniac]

Hi there, I am planning a liveaboard from Cairns i early november. I checked out the Down Under Dive homepage and everyting looks nice. BUT, has anybody been on one of their liveaboards and how did you experience it?

I have been on ProDives 3 day cruise before and i was pretty satisfied but I would like to dive on different reefs this time!

Any other suggestions are also welcome!!
Greetings to all
D-man

Pro-dive and Quicksilver team up with the "Diversity", like CD said the Coral Sea is better. We took the 4 night trip out to Osprey and Lizard Island then in to the Ribbons. We enjoyed our trip immensely.
From what I hear some trips are better than others. It was very calm when we were on our trip, the whales were awesome, and flashlight fish, the sharks, and plenty of featherstars.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[jnylaw]

I am going Cairns in mid Dec. How's the currents like in GBR or PNG at that time?

Thanks for all the info and beautiful pix!!