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A quick g'day and g'bye...
Dec. 6th, 2003 09:08 pmI'm in Cairns at the moment. About to leave in another seven hours. (why do I keep updating right before I leave a place?) Dana was dropped off at the airport by the manager of the hotel we stayed at, who has been FANTASTICALLY NICE to us. She found me a backpackers to take my stuff while I went with Dana to the airport. She took pictures of us on her cell phone to keep, kept hugging us, just taking care of us left and right.
Was on a live-aboard ship diving for the past three days, and I have to say, I'm spoiled for life on diving. I got 11 dives in, including two night dives, one deep dive, and two dives with cameras (three if you count Dana's dive with a camera), and I am now Advanced Open Water Certified. It only cost A$70 more than I was paying for the ship anyway, which is ridiculously cheap for a PADI course. Glen, a kiwi, was our instructor (Dana and I both got Adv Open Water certification), and he was incredibly cool. Dana and I were joking around today doing absolutely credible Kiwi accents because we'd been listening to Glen intently for three days.
Right, so Great Barrier Reef is something that should be on everyone's Top Ten Things To Do Before I Die list. Absolutely incredible diving, especially for a threatened ecosystem. What DIDN'T I see? Sheesh. More white tip reef sharks than I could count, many just lying on the bottom, which is cool as in its own right, but to see those beauties swimming...duuuuuude. Speaking of surfer talk, saw turtles! And have decided that the "Finding Nemo" characterization of turtles is totally accurate. I got a decent photo of one I swam along with, which Dana said was really cool to watch, too. They're a tad skittish, but like if they can see you and you don't come up from behind them, they'll just swim next to you, tooootally chill, man.
Heaps of schooling fish, butterfly and angel fish of all colors. Moorish Idol (Gill from Finding Nemo), Moray Eels (swam by a hole in a bommie, did a double take, and returned to see one hanging out, also very cool with me poking my nose in for a pic), Sea Jellies--okay, ouch, got stung by some stingers on one dive, nothing too serious, but ignored pricks because I assumed it was nothing--tad more uncomfortable later, but better than the guy who got a Box Jellyfish tentacle wrapped around his thumb, which then swelled up huge-like; I saw one in the water not far from me, too, luckily avoided it.
Clownfish! Yay clownfish! Black and white, GBR clownies, and the proper ones, the Nemo ones. They are the cutest...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....I mean, really! Very, very cute. It's fun to watch them play in the anemones.
Rays---ooooooh, I'm a terrible photographer and it shows. Every picture I took has the subject way off to one side (if it's in the picture at all). I needed to use up film at one point because the dive was ending, and I decided this lone anemone in a barren sandy place was interesting enough to finish with. Okay, so I go to the anemone. There's a ray buried lightly under the sand right next to it. You can tell I didn't really mean to photograph it (tho I noticed it before I snapped the pic) because it's centered in the picture. Ha ha. When we got back to land, I won third place in the photo contest among the live aboard divers. Got a free shooter at the bar for it, too :) Will endeavor to scan in the best photos only so as to pretend that I didn't have a crap load of useless out of focus ones....
Ooh, saw a cuttlefish, it's like an octopus, only with smaller arms. Coral, and lots of things that are likewise cool. Heh heh heh, have underwater obsession now. Am looking for more diving to be done in Fiji. May skip like the actual island part to spend as much time underwater as possible. There are actually like "unlimited dive passes" with rental gear included for like $600 Fiji dollars or whatever they are--that's only $300 American!!! I'm soooooooo diving forever and ever. I hear it's as good as the GBR....sweeeeeeeet as!!!!
Am exhausted and must get up at 4:30 am QLD time (stupid Queensland, not being on every other state's time!). Tomorrow, as one in the afternoon PROPER time (thank you NSW), I'm out of Australia. This is sooooo hard. Dana leaves, now I'm leaving. I'll need to do a LOT of diving to compensate.
Talk to you guys somewhere in another time zone and place...
Cheers, even if I'm not very cheery. To my NY buds, man, I'm gonna be glad to see you guys, though!
Was on a live-aboard ship diving for the past three days, and I have to say, I'm spoiled for life on diving. I got 11 dives in, including two night dives, one deep dive, and two dives with cameras (three if you count Dana's dive with a camera), and I am now Advanced Open Water Certified. It only cost A$70 more than I was paying for the ship anyway, which is ridiculously cheap for a PADI course. Glen, a kiwi, was our instructor (Dana and I both got Adv Open Water certification), and he was incredibly cool. Dana and I were joking around today doing absolutely credible Kiwi accents because we'd been listening to Glen intently for three days.
Right, so Great Barrier Reef is something that should be on everyone's Top Ten Things To Do Before I Die list. Absolutely incredible diving, especially for a threatened ecosystem. What DIDN'T I see? Sheesh. More white tip reef sharks than I could count, many just lying on the bottom, which is cool as in its own right, but to see those beauties swimming...duuuuuude. Speaking of surfer talk, saw turtles! And have decided that the "Finding Nemo" characterization of turtles is totally accurate. I got a decent photo of one I swam along with, which Dana said was really cool to watch, too. They're a tad skittish, but like if they can see you and you don't come up from behind them, they'll just swim next to you, tooootally chill, man.
Heaps of schooling fish, butterfly and angel fish of all colors. Moorish Idol (Gill from Finding Nemo), Moray Eels (swam by a hole in a bommie, did a double take, and returned to see one hanging out, also very cool with me poking my nose in for a pic), Sea Jellies--okay, ouch, got stung by some stingers on one dive, nothing too serious, but ignored pricks because I assumed it was nothing--tad more uncomfortable later, but better than the guy who got a Box Jellyfish tentacle wrapped around his thumb, which then swelled up huge-like; I saw one in the water not far from me, too, luckily avoided it.
Clownfish! Yay clownfish! Black and white, GBR clownies, and the proper ones, the Nemo ones. They are the cutest...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....I mean, really! Very, very cute. It's fun to watch them play in the anemones.
Rays---ooooooh, I'm a terrible photographer and it shows. Every picture I took has the subject way off to one side (if it's in the picture at all). I needed to use up film at one point because the dive was ending, and I decided this lone anemone in a barren sandy place was interesting enough to finish with. Okay, so I go to the anemone. There's a ray buried lightly under the sand right next to it. You can tell I didn't really mean to photograph it (tho I noticed it before I snapped the pic) because it's centered in the picture. Ha ha. When we got back to land, I won third place in the photo contest among the live aboard divers. Got a free shooter at the bar for it, too :) Will endeavor to scan in the best photos only so as to pretend that I didn't have a crap load of useless out of focus ones....
Ooh, saw a cuttlefish, it's like an octopus, only with smaller arms. Coral, and lots of things that are likewise cool. Heh heh heh, have underwater obsession now. Am looking for more diving to be done in Fiji. May skip like the actual island part to spend as much time underwater as possible. There are actually like "unlimited dive passes" with rental gear included for like $600 Fiji dollars or whatever they are--that's only $300 American!!! I'm soooooooo diving forever and ever. I hear it's as good as the GBR....sweeeeeeeet as!!!!
Am exhausted and must get up at 4:30 am QLD time (stupid Queensland, not being on every other state's time!). Tomorrow, as one in the afternoon PROPER time (thank you NSW), I'm out of Australia. This is sooooo hard. Dana leaves, now I'm leaving. I'll need to do a LOT of diving to compensate.
Talk to you guys somewhere in another time zone and place...
Cheers, even if I'm not very cheery. To my NY buds, man, I'm gonna be glad to see you guys, though!
