Green Island was awesome. I swam with a sting ray and loved every minute of it. If only that was my day job.

Cod Hole

For the huge potato cod! These guys are massive slow moving things something like a cross between a pig, a fish and a lizard? weighing up to 150kgs! People have been attracting them here with food for years and they come in at regular times in between the coral bommies and the rest of the colourful life of the Great Barrier Reef.

Awesome experience

I stayed on a yacht moored by the reef, having flown out from the Whitsunday Islands by Air Whitsunday on a small seaplane. Expensive option, but the best way to see the reef, and in splendid isolation.

Australia's GREAT Barrier Reef

What ever you're looking for from a dive you will find it somewhere on the Barrier Reef. It's such a vast area that you can find your own space to investigate and spend weeks just poking around a variety of dives. Personally I enjoy swimming amongst the strange coloured coral formations and there are lots of places where you can go without much kit or even snorkel and still see an amazing array of marine life. The main problem is the tourists, but then they're mostly around a few spots and if you beg borrow of steal a boat you can find your own tourist free patch. Port Douglas has lost a bit of it's charms because of it's popularily with tourists, but if you go in the off season (and it's still be warm don't worry!) you can avoid the crowds and the worst of the dodgy tourist markets. It's touristy but worth doing - go on one of the glass bottomed boats around Green Island, it'sll spur you on to get your diving quals if you haven't already. So get a boat get some gear, find a quiet patch and be careful where you put your feet - this is an animals home remember and coral is living.

More diving spots on The Great Barrier Reef

The most famous sites to dive the reef are the Ribbon Reefs, Dynamite Pass, Pixi Pinnacles and Cod Hole, though Great Detached Reef and Mantis Reef, known for their sharks, manta rays and green turtles, are also great sites.

The Northern Reefs have the greatest diversity of marine life, but you can dive and snorkel all over. Milne Reef offers vertical walls, Thretford Reef offers sand cay, walls, coral gardens and small caves and Michaelmas Cay is home to huge numbers of fish and a breeding ground for sea birds.

The Great Barrier Reef supports 10,000 different species of sponge, 350 species of coral and 1,500 types of fish. There is literally something for everyone.