Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Scuba Diving Round 2


This last weekend I went and scuba dived again to finish up my license.  We had to do 4 total dives to get certified.  On Saturday, we got up early again, took the bus to the docks, and met Scott our instructor there.  We rode out to Keppel Island and got all of our stuff together, then headed back out to the reef.  It was another absolutely beautiful day to dive!  Sunny, warm and almost no current or waves, except on the 2nd dive.  On the first dive, we saw a couple small sting rays, and a huge sea snake, that had just had lunch, because you could see the bulge in his stomach from the fish.  I touched it, it was slimy...ick...haha.  What I didnt know until I got to the surface is that sea snakes, that one included, are one of the most poisonous snakes in the world...awesome! haha.  But I guess they are nice, and dont bite.  The second dive, as we were coming down, right below us, was 2 HUGE sting rays.  When I say huge I mean at least 10 feet long, and 5 feet wide.  At least.  It was crazy!  The second dive wasn't quite as enjoyable because of the strong current.  I had to work very hard to stay straight, so I used more air faster, so we didnt get to stay down as long.  But this reef was very cool.  It almost looked at if there were hundreds of spikes coming up.  It was crazy.  I'm sorry I dont have pictures, but the only guy who has an underwater camera is very protective of his pictures, so i havent gotten them.  But here are a few that I took on the boat ride back to the mainland.


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

My commerical!!

Here it is!!!  I am like 16 or 17 seconds in, then again at like 20 secs, but im hard to see....!!! I am very excited!!

I'M GOING TO SYDNEY!!

So a friend and I who are leaving right after the term, and not traveling after, decided we could not leave Australia without going to Sydney!  The flight was kind of expensive, but I know that I would regret not going if i didnt do it.  So we sucked it up and paid for it!  We leave next Thursday, and will stay 6 nights.  We are both super excited for the trip, and it will be a great way to end my Australia Adventure!  I will keep this updated with the thousands of pictures we take along the way!! So stay tuned!! :)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Scuba Diving!! :)

Well as most of you know I have been taking a PADI scuba course throughout the time I have been here.  We have had the book work done for a couple weeks now, but just havent gotten to actually go diving yet.  Well this weekend I finally got to!
Boat ride out to Great Keppel Island!

 My dive buddy for the day!

The first time, we just went out on to the beach in the shallow water, and practiced skills, like clearing your mask under water, and how to take your regulator out under water, and put it back it.  Stuff like that.


So after we did all those and got good at them, we went out on the reef.  The first dive was about 7 meters deep.  And for all you Americans, who havent had to learn the metric system, becuase when your in another country that is all they use, thats about 25 feet.  There were so many different fish, and coral.  It was very cool to see everything close up!  I also saw a sting ray, and some sea slugs.
Everyone!

 Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!!



 HELLO!!!

After we got up, we saw a dolphin at the surface about 75 meters from us or so.  We were really still in hopes that it would come closer, but it didnt :(.  We headed back to shore to fill up our tanks, to go out again!  This dive was around 12 meters or 40 feet.  I had a little trouble equalizing my ears, but i got it!  It is an entirely different world when you are 40 feet under the water! It is crazy!
Stingray!
 lots and lots of fish!!
 okay :)
 Peek-a-boo :)

But quite an amazing experience!! I cant wait until I get to do 2 more dives next weekend!  I will keep this updated! :)
photos by anders

Monday, September 12, 2011

Pink and Blue Sunsets :)

Just walked out of dinner, and saw a beautiful sunset.  So I thought I would share it with everyone else! It was breathtaking!


Monday, September 5, 2011

Canoeing and Kayaking Trip

For my Outdoor Pursuits class, we had a canoeing and kayaking camping trip this weekend.  Our teacher picked us up Sat morining, and we headed up to a camping resort thing about an hour and a half away.  It was a really pretty place in the woods, with cabins, and a creek.  We stayed in a little cabin.  It was made for only 6 people and we had 12 so we were all kind stuffed in there, but it wasnt so bad.   The first day we canoed.  2 people were in each canoe.  For the first couple hours we practiced some skill , how to steer, turn,stop, etc...  Then we went and ate lunch.  We cooked hot dogs and sausages in our cabin.  Then after we went back and took a trip down the creek in the canoe.  It was about 2km each way.  It was really beautiful, out in the middle of all the trees.


That night, we went to the restaurant that they had on the camping grounds.  There was live music, which was cool, because the guy singing had a iPad, and let us come up there and sing karaoke.  There was also an engagement party going on there, so needless to say we made it fun for them!! 

The only downfall about this trip was we had a little friend in out cabin.  I was laying in bed ready to fall asleep, and I hear something under my bed.  At first i didnt think anything of it, but then i heard it again, i look down, and i see a mouse/rat running into its hole, which is right under my bed.  I freak out to say the least.  I dont think it would have bothered me so much if it wasnt right under my bed.  I tried to forget about it, but i kept hearing it running around under my bed.  So I was paranoid the whole time that it was giong to get on my bed and attack me while i slept.  haha...i know...  So the whole night I held a flashlight in my hand and everytime i heard something i would turn in on a make sure it wasnt on me.  This mouse had some energy, becuase it kept running around hte room! I would hear it in one place then in anohter a second later.  I thought that there were at least like 4 mice!  Finally sometime in the night it was in a bag near someones head, which woke him up.  He found hte bag, and swipped it up, and ran it outside.  Thank goodness! because i dont know if I would have slept at all, if I kept hearing that stupid mouse all night!!  The next morning we got up, made breakfast, then headed to go kayaking.  Kayaking is only one person.  We learning a couple thing but most of the stuff we had learned the day before we used that day too.  We practiced a little bit on how to steer.  The little kayaks that we had were very hard to steer and keep straight, so it was kind of frustrating when you couldnt keep it going the direction that you wanted.  Needless to say i made a lot of circles....haha.  Then we took a trip the other way down the creek.  After a long day of canoeing my arms were very sore, and you had to use a lot of energy to keep the kayaking straight, so it was very tiring.  But after a while, i got the hang of it, and it was easier. 

Overall, the weekend was a blast!!!  I slept like a baby when I got back! It was a fun, but tiring weekend!   I am so glad I got to take this class, becuase I got to do so many things that I would not have gotten to do otherwise!!