Day 5. Rarotonga. Into the blue.

It's been two years since the Smiths last enjoyed any diving, so we'd been looking forward to today massively. Wend, being a bit of a mermaid on the quiet, was particularly keen to get back beneath the waves and had done loads of research on what we might encounter in this part of the Pacific. Sharks and Rays a distinct possibility she reckoned with a remote chance of spotting some Whales if we were really lucky.

There's a small outfit called Pacific Divers a short stroll from the guest house so we opted to go with them - a wise choice methinks, as they turned out to be a friendly, professional and extremely knowledgeable bunch, with the inside track on all the island's best dive sights.

I buddied with Wend while Katrin teamed up with Sandy the (not ungorgeous) Dive Master. I'd never been diving from such a small boat before and must admit to being apprehensive when we saw how choppy the sea was, not through any fear of drowning- we were never further than 500 metres from the shore - but because of my messy penchant for sea-sickness.

Once we were under the water however, it was absolutely fine, and a real buzz to be down among the fish and coral after so long. The two dives were good without being mindblowing.

First up was a wreck dive which, if truth be told, was more of a mooch around something that might have been a boat half a century ago. Those years on the ocean floor had obviously taken their toll though and what was left of the vessel had disintergrated into something a lot less interesting.

Our second dive was more varied in terms of marine life with lots of Parrot, Angel, Butter and Trigger fish going about their business.

Undoubted highlight of the day was coming across a small but perfectly formed hawksbill turtle. He turned out to be an incredibly nosey little bugger, swimming right up to our group for a good five minutes before becoming turtley bored with the situation.

Sorry, couldn't resist that.