Diving the Great Barrier Reef is always fun but when the conditions are just perfect there are few places to witness such majesty

After years of diving, a day on the Reef can sometimes seem a bit ho-hum as you start taking the natural beauty for granted. But then there are days you get wet that absolutely blow you away.

Days that shock you into remembering why diving is a drug, why you twitch and fidget on the boat out to the Reef on a flat, blue day, why you still believe the money you threw at getting your licence was the best you ever spent.

I recently had one of those experiences on board Tusa Dive’s new boat T5.

In fact, I will go as far as to say that it was the best day’s diving of my life and I spent the trip home on the vessel, between several celebratory ales, trying to catalogue everything I had seen and urge myself to lock it away in the spongiest, thirstiest part of my brain so I would never forget it.

Tusa prides itself on being the diver’s company. That is not to say that snorkellers and first timers are not welcomed, the opposite in fact, but Tusa’s set up is geared towards those who crave diving.

And as we sat in the lounge of the slick new T5 and were informed that conditions were clear enough to get us to Miln Reef for the day’s diving those in the know all pumped their fists and cheered.

It is renowned as the premier dive site on a day trip from Cairns and you could see the excitement of everyone on board that we were heading there.

Anticipation only mounted as we pulled up to the first site, Three Sisters, and peeked over the side to check out visibility conditions.

I pretty much drooled over the edge of the boat at the sight of the crystal blue below.

People were hurrying and scurrying around the dive deck pulling on gear as quickly as they could. Everyone was smiling from ear to ear and remarking on just how “bloody good” it looked.

Even our dive guide for the day was giddy and telling us even though he dives every day he was buzzing to get in there today because it just looked so perfect.

I am getting a buzz right now just tapping away at the keyboard and remembering how much I wanted to get in that water. Once I jumped in and sank a few feet below I was in heaven.

Almost 30m visibility, as good as anything I have seen, and we dropped straight down on top of a bombie, one of three that make up the name of the dive site, and were immediately swallowed by schools of fish.

I literally giggled my way through the first dive like a kid in a lolly shop. Everything I love about diving, everything I ever wanted to see was right in front of me.

When we came up after the first dive the dive deck was already awash with excited voices explaining what they’d seen.

Our second dive though topped everything. Being just six of us on guided dives, the crew ferried us over to the other side of the site in a rubber ducky and dropped us over the side into a marine wonderland.

I saw my first Spanish dancer, a glorious nudibranch that looks like a small piece of silk flapping in the wind as it swims. I saw a huge ambling turtle a couple of metres to my right, moray eels, rays and every beautiful fish the Reef homes, from tiny clown fish to schooling barracuda.

Stunned and in awe we cruised home on the new high-speed diving vessel vowing once again to try and dive every weekend in the hope of discovering another day just like this one.

There is nothing like it.

WHO: Tusa Dive
WHERE: Cnr The Esplanade and Shield streets.
DETAILS: +61 7 4047 9100, http://www.tusadive.com/ or info@tusadive.com
HOW MUCH: Snorkelling $145 (adult), $90 (child); introductory dives $210 (one dive), $255 (two dives); certified divers $175 (two dives, tanks and weights), $205 (two dives, full gear).

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