Quickies

Issue # 123, 2012

Welcome to our Spring issue of Quickies,

keeping you posted with some of our latest news and happenings.

Awards, awesome whale sightings, Ukuleles on the Reef and even taking Australia’s most famous horse racing trophy on a scuba dive - it’s certainly been an exciting and busy time for the Quicksilver Group!

There’s been celebrations for the Pro Dive Cairns team on being awarded PADI’s “Excellence in Diver Training” for the Asia Pacific Region, and reinforcing our commitment to providing the best facilities and customer service, one of our 57 seater coaches has just returned, sparkling and ready for service following a $75,000 refurbishment.

We’ve had a wonderful whale season with frequent sightings of humpbacks and minkes on our daily reef cruises and even rare whale shark encounters as extra special treats for some lucky passengers. With glorious warm days, Spring is definitely in the air! And that means the unique annual event of mass coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef is on the horizon. Once again our dive and snorkel vessel Silverswift will be offering Night Dives to experience this natural phenomenon. And with the forthcoming Total Solar Eclipse in November happening on the Great Barrier Reef, where else in the world would you rather be?!

Enjoy a break with our latest Quickies!

With warm tropical wishes from the Quicksilver Group Crew.

WHAT'S NEW

When Two Aussie Icons Meet � The Melbourne Cup goes for a dive on the Great Barrier Reef!

Melbourne Cup On Great Barrier Reef

It was certainly a unique sight to see Australia’s most famous trophy go for a scuba dive! As part of the official Emirates Melbourne Cup tour in the lead up to the “Race that stops the Nation”, Quicksilver was very pleased to be able to assist with this year’s tour to our region bringing two great Australian icons together – The Great Barrier Reef and The Melbourne Cup. In a first, the Cup went for a scuba dive at Agincourt Reef on Saturday 11 August in a specially designed underwater case. Quicksilver Dive Instructor Luke Saunders had the honour of taking the Cup on an underwater tour of the Reef. » Read More

PRO DIVE CAIRNS awarded for training excellence

Pro Dive Cairns Training

Congratulations to the Pro Dive Cairns team on winning the 2012 PADI award for “Excellence in Diver Training” for the whole Asia Pacific Region.

On presenting the award Drew Richardson, President and Chief Operating Officer of PADI Worldwide, said, “I want to offer my personal congratulations to Pro Dive Cairns on the outstanding achievement of another PADI award for quality diver training. Everybody at PADI Worldwide stands in awe and amazement and applaud your fantastic efforts year after year.”

Since commencing operations in 1983 Pro Dive Cairns has now certified more than 130,000 PADI students and has received numerous PADI awards for quality training.

Coral Spawning Night Dives with Silverswift

Coral Spawning Night Dive

It's been described as "sex on the reef" and Silverswift will once again be conducting Coral Spawning Night Dives for certified divers to experience this unique natural annual phenomenon, dates to be confirmed. » Read More

Awesome whale sightings

Whale SightingsWe’ve had a fabulous whale season this year providing a great bonus for our passengers and crew alike with frequent sightings and many of the gentle giants putting on awesome acrobatic displays too!

Passengers aboard Quicksilver’s Outer Reef cruise were thrilled to see this humpback breaching out of the water and putting on a breathtaking display with photos thanks to Jesse Oberholzer of Indepth Video and Photography.

And it’s not just the humpbacks who have been thrilling our passengers. The Minke Whales have been as inquisitive as ever and Silversonic passengers have been able to enjoy special encounters of a whale kind! Silversonic has one of the few permits from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority that allows our guests to swim with dwarf minke whales if encountered – a truly unforgettable experience!

» See the Photos!

And Whale Sharks too!

Whale Shark

Check out these amazing encounters with whale sharks experienced by Pro Dive Cairns’ liveaboard dive trip guests recently and also with Silversonic our dive and snorkel vessel at Agincourt Reef. The whale shark is harmless to people and sightings in the Great Barrier Reef have become more frequent in recent years.

According to our Reef Biosearch marine biologists, whale sharks are certainly one of the top shelf viewing experiences on the Great Barrier Reef. These animals grow to over 15m long and are encountered at the ocean surface around plankton blooms. They open up their mouths (up to 2m wide!), and use gill rakers to strain the water as they cruise along the surface. Interestingly, they have over 300 small teeth, but don’t use them!

» See the Photos!

"An Awesome Class Trip to Green Island"

Green Island Resort

12 year old Elizabeth was declared a “hero” by her classmates on winning the “awesome” prize of a class trip to Green Island. As the winner of our annual “Squid Squad Competition” Elizabeth correctly answered a fun and educational word puzzle about Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef and in doing so won a class trip for her Year 7 classmates and teachers at Our Lady Help of Christians School. The competition, run in conjunction with the Cairns Posts’ “Post Ed Newspapers in Education” attracted over 200 entries from local school students.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful trip report and perspective from the young students..

Dear Great Adventures team

We had so much fun on our Green Island class trip. We really appreciate your generous prize and are so happy we won! On the trip over, we had fun on the top deck of the boat. It was windy and felt like a rollercoaster. The view was spectacular.

On arrival, Josh’s hat was blown off into the water. Thankfully that was the only thing that went overboard that day.

The glass bottom boats were really great. We saw turtles, corals, sharks, schools of fish and sea cucumbers. The seagulls didn’t like some of us and poohed on some of our boys! Our boat driver, Andrew, even played ‘dodgem boats’ with the other glass bottom boat for us. :)

We went for a walk around the island after morning tea and saw lots of coral and cuttlefish. The water looked beautiful and we really wanted to go swimming.  The water was nice and refreshing and we spent hours swimming both in the ocean and in the pool. We had swimming races and played Marco Polo in the pool even though it was pretty cold. The lifeguard did have to ask us to get off the rest stations in the ocean – oops!

We had a great time burying each other in the sand on the beach. This made for some great photos! Although we are still getting the sand out of our hair, ears and mouths. :)
Lots of us enjoyed huge icecreams, hot chips and buying souvenirs from the gift shops.

The trip home was a lot quieter because we were all pretty tired – some of us even had a nap. It was still pretty exciting though because we saw some whales breaching in the ocean. WOW!

7C had an awesome trip to Green Island and we thank you very much!!! It was definitely a day we won’t forget in hurry.

We hope we can come back soon!!
From 7C at Our Lady Help of Christians School, Earlville.
XOXO

Total Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse 2012

Get your solar spectacles ready! Total solar eclipses happen about every 18 months somewhere on the planet and the next one just happens to be in our part of the world on 14 November 2012.  In fact, Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef will be one of the best places to witness the event as the sun is completely blocked out by the moon. You can also experience the Eclipse with an early morning sail on Wavedancer from Port Douglas.

Pro Dive Cairns will also be offering a unique liveaboard experience combined with this special event for some spectacular scuba diving on Australia's Great Barrier Reef for an exciting 2 Day 1 Night, 7 Dive Liveaboard experience.

The last total eclipse in North Queensland was in 1847!

For more information Contact [email protected]

Green Island Resort's delicious new dinner menu

Dinner Menu

House guests at Green Island Resort are in for some delicious and tempting new taste sensations! The Executive Chef and his talented team have produced a wonderful new dinner menu.
Click here to view the new menu!

Fancy a sunset massage on a tropical island?

Island sunset massage

Green Island Resort guests can now experience a divine sunset massage overlooking the beach with Arumi Day Spa. At this stage, this service will only be available on Saturday evenings exclusive for house guests. Early bookings are essential. www.arumi.com.au

 

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EVENTS

Great Adventures Green Island Ocean Swim

Great Adventures Green Island Ocean Swim

On your marks, get set� Our annual Great Adventures Green Island Ocean Swim, now in its 7th year, is set for a big splash on Sunday 16 September. There's still a little time to get your swimmers out and into training for the 1.5km and 3km swims!

More information at www.green-island.com.au/oceanswim.htm

Ukuleles on Low Isles

Ukuleles on Low Isles

It was an extra treat for passengers travelling to Low Isles on July 5 with the sweet sounds of the ukulele strumming in the air! As part of the Cairns Ukulele Festival, guests were able to enjoy wonderful performances by renowned ukulele artists Derick Sebastian from Hawaii and Manitoba Hal from Canada.

Great Adventures Green Island Family Day - Fun in the Sun!

Family Fun Day

Blue skies and sunshine set the scene for a fantastic day on Green Island for Great Adventures annual Green Island Family Fun Day on Sunday 24 June, a wonderful community event featuring a day of activities designed specifically for Cairns families and visitors alike to enjoy together, as well as being a great fundraising day for local charities. Through our charity beach volleyball game, we were pleased to raise nearly $1700 for YAPS (Young Animal Protection Society) and Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre – two very deserving local animal welfare groups.

BIO BITS

Whale Sharks

As the largest fish in the sea, reaching lengths of 12 metres (40 feet) or more, whale sharks have an enormous menu from which to choose. Fortunately for most sea-dwellers—and us!—their favorite meal is plankton such as krill, crab larvae and jelly fish, which they scoop up with their colossal gaping mouths while swimming close to the water’s surface. The whale shark’s flattened head sports a blunt snout above its mouth with short barbels protruding from its nostrils. Its back and sides are gray to brown with white spots among pale vertical and horizontal stripes, and its belly is white. Its two dorsal fins are set rearward on its body, which ends in a large dual-lobbed caudal fin (or tail).

Preferring warm waters, whale sharks populate all tropical seas. Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish. The whale shark species is rare and prior to the mid 1980s there had been less than 350 confirmed reports of Whale Sharks world-wide They are currently listed as a vulnerable species.

Check out this spectacular video thanks to Shane "Sharky" Down of Silversonic. Still photos thanks to Pro Dive Cairns.

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THE ZOO

We'd like to introduce you to�


Kavrine Mok
We're pleased to introduce you to Kavrine, our new China Sales Manager.

Kavrine can be contacted on (61 7) 4052 7851 or [email protected]



Kavrine

 

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POSTCARDS

Postcard.... to Silverswift

Silverswift PostcardHi - Just wanted to drop you a few lines about our fantastic trip to Flynn Reef from Cairns on August the 10th. My oldest son and I did 3 dives at Flynn´s Reef, and my youngest son did an introductory dive. My daughter and wife snorkelled on the same reef. We were very pleased with the service on board the vessel! The divemaster, Simon, had everything under control when he showed us around the reef…..Thanks again for a fantastic trip. I will definitely recommend Silverswift to fellow divers in Bergen/Norway! You guys are true professionals!

Cheers
Gunnar

QUICKBITS


  • 10 lucky prize winners of Sizzler Thailand's fabulous competition to win trips to Australia, along with 12 media representatives, had a wonderful time experiencing the Great Barrier Reef with Great Adventures and Scuba Doo too.
  • New Silver Series Dive and Snorkel Adventures website launched. With some great new features, up-to-date information and informative dive site maps, check out Silver Series new site www.silverseries.com.au
  • Swapping horses and race courses for the reef and seahorses! We were pleased to showcase the Great Barrier Reef to Melbourne Cup winning jockey, Damien Oliver on his recent visit to Port Douglas. Damien and his family enjoyed a day on the reef with his family to find Nemo and a few seahorses too!
  • Japanese internet travel information site, Four Travel, has ranked beautiful Green Island in the Top 10 beaches for travel destinations this summer season.. And we would have to agree!
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