Australia Minke Whale Group Trip June 2025
June 23 - June 30 , 2025
Stunning Reefs & Corals
Whale Encounters
Group Trip
Off the Beaten Track
Why Join This Trip- Inclusions & Exclusions
- Trip Type
- Trip Overview
- Accommodations
- Photo Gallery
- About the Trip Leader
- How to Get There
- Payment Schedule
Why join this Trip?
MV Spoilsport Premium Cabin
Air Conditioning (AC)En Suite BathroomCamera RoomNitroxDouble Occupancy
$4,775p/p
MV Spoilsport Standard Cabin
Air Conditioning (AC)En Suite BathroomCamera RoomNitroxDouble Occupancy
$4,360p/p
MV Spoilsport Club Cabin
Air Conditioning (AC)En Suite BathroomCamera RoomNitroxDouble Occupancy
$3,910p/p
MV Spoilsport Budget Cabin
Air Conditioning (AC)En Suite BathroomCamera RoomNitroxDouble Occupancy
$3,390p/p
OptionalLand Extensions
Inclusions
Exclusions
Trip type
Group Trip
Led by an experienced Bluewater trip leader who will manage the trip logistics and ensure your needs are met throughout. While this trip is designed to optimize your photography opportunities, it is not led by one of our photo instructors and so meaningful photography advice from your trip leader should not be expected.
Read more about the trip
Trip Overview
Trip Overview
Embark on the 7 Night Ultimate Minke Whale Expedition for an extraordinary underwater adventure. This unique journey combines a 4-night Fly Dive Minke expedition with a 3-night Fly Dive Minke experience, ensuring maximum in-water interactions with the world's only known minke whale aggregation sites. Guests will explore the diverse marine life of the Ribbon Reefs, with highlights including encounters with diver-sized potato cod at the Cod Hole and the opportunity to swim with dwarf minke whales at Lighthouse Bommie. The expedition also includes exploration of vibrant dive sites such as Pixie Pinnacle and Dynamite Pass. With a high success rate of 98% in minke whale encounters since 1996, this Mike Ball expedition promises a remarkable underwater experience.
Sample Itinerary
- Monday: (3 dives)
- Check in at the office (3 Abbott St, Cairns) between 6.30 and 7am.
- 7. 15 am: Transfer to Cairns Airport
- 8.00 am: Board a light aircraft for a low level flight over the reef to Lizard Island (flight time approx. 1 hour).
- Board Spoilsport mid-morning where you will be served drinks and snacks while our Trip Director gives you a welcome briefing.
- Time to organise any rental equipment and put your dive gear together on the dive deck.
- 12.45 pm: Dive brief and dive
- 2.00 pm: Lunch
- 3.45 pm: Dive brief and dive
- 4.45 pm: Afternoon tea
- 6.00 pm: Dive brief and night dive
- 8:00 pm: Dinner
- Tuesday: (4 dives + night dive)
- This is a sample of a typical day, however exact times may vary to optimise the prevailing weather conditions on the day.
- 6.30 am: Wake up call, light breakfast available in dining room
- 7:00 am: Dive brief & diving commences
- 9.00 am: Full cooked breakfast
- 10.30 am: Dive brief & diving. Open decks accommodate 1-2 dives either am or pm.
- 2.00 pm: Lunch
- 3.30 pm: Dive brief & diving
- 4:30 pm: Afternoon tea
- 6:30 pm: Night dive brief & dive
- 8:00 pm: Dinner
- Wednesday: (4 dives)
- As per above. Exit last dive 5pm
- As the sun sets we pour the champagne, lay out the nibbles and get ready for an Aussie BBQ party night. Dont forget to wear your loudest tropical shirt or dress and sing along to music played by our talented crew.
- Spoilsport cruises back to Cairns overnight.
- Thursday:
- 8.00 am: Guests disembark in Cairns
- Free day to explore the city
- 5:30pm: Check back for boarding. (Have dinner before checking in as champagne and light snacks are served this day.)
- Friday: (4 dives + night dive)
- 6.30 am: Wake up call, light breakfast available in dining room
- 7:00 am: Dive brief & diving commences
- 9.00 am: Full cooked breakfast
- 10.30 am: Dive briefing & dive. Open decks accommodate 1-2 dives either am or pm
- 2.00 pm: Lunch
- 3.30 pm: Dive brief & diving
- 4:30 pm: Afternoon tea
- 6:30 pm: Night dive brief & dive
- 8:00 pm: Dinner
- Saturday: (4 dives + night dive)
- As per above
- Sunday: (4 dives)
- As per above. Exit last dive by 5 pm.
- As the sun sets we pour the champagne, lay out the nibbles and get ready for an Aussie BBQ party night. Dont forget to wear your loudest tropical shirt or dress and sing along to music played by our talented crew.
- Moor off Lizard Island.
- Monday:
- 7.00 am: Light breakfast
- 8:00 am: Disembark Spoilsport. Our crew will walk you to the airport on Lizard Island.
- 9.30 am: Board a light aircraft for a low level flight over the reef back to Cairns (flight time approx. 1 hour).
- 11:45 am: Land Cairns and courtesy transfer to inner Cairns city hotels, the airport or our office where we can store your luggage until 5pm if you have a later flight.
- Important:
- We recommend that you allow 24 hours between your last dive and your onward flight (all diving is finished by 5pm Sunday).
Accommodations
About The MV Spoilsport
MV Spoilsport is purpose-built for Mike Ball Dive Expeditions to provide divers with a new level of comfort and convenience. With a total of 14 cabins catering to a maximum of 28 guests, the liveaboard provides a range of accommodation options, including 4 Premium, 4 Standard, 4 Club, and 2 Budget Cabins. Each cabin, designed for comfort and convenience, features amenities such as en-suite bathrooms (excluding Budget Cabins) and air conditioning. Read more about MV Spoilsport here.
About the Trip Leader
Tim Yeo
Tim grew up in tiny Singapore, where driving for more than an hour meant you would need a passport. Traveling was always his passion, but Tim became addicted to dive travel soon after he got scuba certified in Malaysia. As his diving addiction grew, Tim eventually became a Staff Instructor with PADI and an Instructor Trainer with SDI. After getting his instructor certification, Tim spent time teaching scuba in Malaysia and Vietnam.
Tim serves as General Manager and COO at Bluewater Travel and is the company's most seasoned trip leader. With a portfolio of leading over 30 group trips, his extensive expertise encompasses a variety of popular dive destinations such as the Galapagos, Raja Ampat, French Polynesia, Fiji, the Red Sea, Palau, Maldives, among others. His travels have taken him across all seven continents and allowed him to dive in all five oceans—the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic.
How to Get There
Flight Information
Guests should arrive into Cairns Airport (CNS) and take a taxi to the Mike Ball Office (3 Abbott St, Cairns) to check-in for the trip no later than 7am on 23 June. We suggest arriving the day before (22 June) and staying overnight at a local hotel to rest before the expedition starts.
Disembarkation is at 8am on June 30. Guests will fly from Lizard Island back to Cairns and can expect to arrive in Cairns at 11:45am. Transfers will be provided to Cairns Airport or an inner-city hotel. Guests with a same-day flight can store their luggage at the Mike Ball Office until 5pm. Note that diving will finish no later than 5pm on Jun 29 so please take this into consideration when booking your outbound flight.
Charter Flight Information
- This itinerary includes light aircraft flights from Cairns to Lizard Island out on the Great Barrier Reef to meet the boat on embarkation day, and back from Lizard island to Cairns on disembarkation day. Light aircraft flights have the following baggage weight limitations per person:
- 1 checked bag maximim 55lbs (25kg) AND
- 1 carry-on bag maximum 5.5lbs (3kg) OR
- 1 professional photo/video housed system maximum 22lbs (10kg)
Flight Package
Our group trips attract guests from all over the globe and many of our customers prefer to book their own flights to take advantage of mileage points or credit card discounts. For these reasons, flights are not included in our group trip packages.
However, we are more than happy to work with you to find the best travel itinerary for your trip and will gladly give suggestions and advice, even if you make the final booking. We will check through your travel reservations at any time to ensure they fit with the trip schedule and can give recommendations on transit hotels and day tours where needed.
If you would like us to book flights and transit hotels for domestic and/or international travel on your behalf, we are also happy to arrange this. Please be advised that there is a ticketing fee for this service.
Contact Us for more information.
Payment Schedule
- Deposit: $800 to book your spot
- Payment 2: $1,000 due 1 June 2024
- Balance: due 1 February 2025
Australia Minke Whale Group Trip June 2025
Book now and experience adventure
LATEST TRIP REPORTS & ARTICLES
Stories Beneath The Waves
All Trip Reports
by Jenny Hanna
