We did book in advance. Seems to me there are plenty of operators so you could probably find something when you're there too, but I was paranoid that with only 1 week to work with that I was going to find that they were all booked or something. I had heard about this Quicksilver through ANZA travel, we booked our flights from Sydney to Cairns through ANZA and booked the two boat trips through them.
Anyhow that might be worth looking into, they're in Kensington, they might have info/brochures on other companies too. I do sort of regret not having done a liveaboard trip, although my wife wasn't too keen on that and we were sort of on a shoestring budget, so I guess it wasn't really an option, but boy do I want to go spend a few days out on the reef. I guess one ought probably think about getting their dive ticket done first though.. Ok, I think I know what my 2008 New Years Resolution is.
Anyone want to come take diving lessons with me??
I can't seem to find a webpage for ANZA but here's something I did find for them:
http://www.profilecanada.com/company...Ltd_Calgary_AB