Back in the DK!

So, back in Denmark at last. Had a great couple of weeks with my parents. We were in Hervey Bay (well... duh), Airlie Beach (loooooooong drive from Hervey Bay), Cairns (just as long from Airlie Beach to Cairns as from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach) and then Sydney (flew from Cairns, too long to drive).

Seen lots of stuff, done lots of things. Still wondering whether I should upload pictures or not, I'm not sure yet.

Flew home this sunday/monday. One 10 hour flight, one 11 hour flight, and one 30min flight, plus a couple of hours of waiting between the flights. Two very long days. Traveled home with Jesper and his family, as my family had some other tickets so we wouldn't be flying together. The first flight (10h, Sydney-Bangkok), we were seated pretty far apart, but we had personal screens so we watched movies all the way. Second flight (11h, Bangkok-Copenhagen), we were seated next to each other, but we had no personal screen and no way to watch movies. Was a REALLY long flight, even though we slept some of the way.

The last flight (30min Copenhagen-Aarhus)was kinda lame... flying for 30min after two massive flights is kinda weird. What was even weirder, was that everybody was suddenly talking Danish again! That's gonna take a while to get used to. Was kinda confused when the stewardess talked to me in Danish. Still not used to people talking Danish in the streets either. Sounds funny.

Oh, and it's bloody cold! I'm freezing constantly, and the heat never reaches my room :(
Gonna have to figure something out...

So, now that I'm home, I need new stuff. I need a new desk, I need a new computer, I need a new chair and I need somewhere to put all my books (I have a lot of books. A LOT!) Gonna be quite a challenge. Now if My room had just been 5sqm larger...
I'll manage though, gonna be... interesting.
Having trouble with the computer as well. The price of most of the hardware has gone up (and some of it has somehow disappeared from the site I was gonna order it at), so I'm gonna wait till after Christmas, and hope for a sale or something. Some new stuff will be out soon anyway, that might drop prices as well.

Anyway, till next time /wave

Gold Coast Part 3 and Cairns!

Sorry 'bout the delay everybody (if you're still reading it^^). So time for all the pictures I have from Gold Coast!

I was too lazy to compress them all, so they're all full size.











Now, that's not ALL the pictures I have from Gold Coast, but only the ones I decided to upload, it does take a while to upload pictures after all...
The very last picture, was also taken in Gold Coast. Unfortunately, my budget was almost in red, so I couldn't really afford to rent the outfits, which is why I'm not in the picture. I regret that now... oh well

So, the 4th of December, my birthday! About time I turned 18. Great day. Went for a cruise to Michaelmas Cay, which is a small... well, not really an island, just a bunch of sand, grass and birds in the middle of the ocean.'

Went with a ship called Ocean Spirit I (or maybe II, I forgot). Michaelmas Cay is a part of Great Barrier Reef, so naturally we'd be going snorkeling and scuba diving! I had forgotten both my PADI license AND my logbook, but I had a talk with one of the guides/Dive Masters, and he agreed on letting me dive without my license, for the certified diver price (a certified dive, with equipment and guide costs 65$ for the first dive, $100 for the second, $110 for an introduction dive).

Apparently I was the only certified diver who was going scuba diving (the other guy got too seasick :P), so I had the guide all to myself, yay! Her name was Lani. Not sure where she was from, except somewhere in Asia. She didn't look particular Japanese or Chinese. Saw lots of stuff, and it's gotta be my best dive so far, probably also because it wasn't a big group this time.

Spent 45 minutes on around 7-10m. Took about 210 pictures. Not all of them are good, but some are great, if I may say so myself^^

Anyway, it was a great day. We're leaving Cairns for Sydney tomorrow (really looking forward to it). Been doing lots of other stuff in Cairns. Awesome stuff like the Michaelmas Cay and Tully River Rafting (for 5 hours yesterday), and less interesting stuff like Kuranda Skyrail (started out with a sloooow train ride, then a couple of hours in a village, then almost 2 hours on a skilift thingie over the rainforest).

Sydney's gonna be great though^^
And today... 1 week till I'm back in Denmark! Can't wait.
Till next time, see ya /wave!

Gold Coast Part 2

Thought I'd better get this updated again. Won't be long till I leave Hervey Bay after all. Only two more school days left.

Right. There isn't actually a lot to tell from the rest of the trip. We didn't do THAT much besides staying on the beach. There was Wet'n'Wild one day, and Dreamworld/White Water World the very last day. In between that... beach, relaxing and stuff like that. To be honest, I forgot which days most of it happened. It doesn't really matter, though, as long as I still actually remember what happened.

So, we went to Wet'n'Wild. It is, as the name suggests, a waterworld. Actually the biggest I've ever been to. We took the bus at around 8 o'clock or something (maybe even 7) as we wanted to be there in time. They opened up at 10, but there's always A LOT of people in those places.

The bus ride took... an hour or so, I think. Probably a little less, always hard to tell the time when you haven't got a watch. I think the busdriver was pretty mad at us. Almost all of us (I think we were 15) paid with $20 notes. Actually, the busdriver can refuse to let you on, if you don't have correct fare. But yea, all of us got on the bus anyway.

When we got to Wet'n'Wild, there was a huge line, just as expected. We had to wait outside the shaded area and DAMN it was warm. Not even the faintest breeze. We waited for an hour or so. The line actually moved pretty fast. As soon as we got in, we got a locker, locked away everything but our boardies(had to wear something) and we ran to the first ride.

We tried every single ride in the park. We stayed there until the park closed at 17. Lots of stuff to do actually, but the food was pretty damn expensive. We weren't allowed to bring our own food in there, so we were forced to buy the stuff the sold in there. All fastfood of course. They did have some sandwiches, but that was mainly those vacuum wrapped sandwiches that probably wasn't all that much healthier.

Out of the park again, it was starting to get dark, and there was actually a lot of wind. We waited for the bus to come. And waited, and waited some more. When it finally showed up... it drove right past us. There were a lot of people waiting outside Wet'n'Wild.

We called the bus central several times (so did all of the different groups waiting outside the park). They couldn't tell us why he hadn't stopped, they wouldn't send us any taxis (like they would have back in Denmark, I might add). Someone mentioned going to MovieWorld, which was about 1km further ahead.

Went there, waited for the bus (another half an hour). MovieWorld looked AWESOME! We kinda regretted that we didn't go there (still do).

We weren't home till about 20, as far as I remember.

Another day, back at the resort, we played volleyball. A lot of volleyball actually. It was damn warm in the sun. But fun! We sucked at it, but it was fun anyway.

That's it for another couple of days at Goldcoast. Will be making one update with all the pictures from Goldcoast, instead of adding them separately.
Until next time, see ya /wave

Gold Coast

Finally. Been busy and lazy lately. Been looking up stuff 'bout fitness and stuff. Seems like I've become a fitness freak D: Oh well. The Goldcoast will probably only last for a couple of updates. Not an update for each day. Can't be bothered to do that, as there isn't much to tell anyway.

I forgot when exactly we left (the day that is, the time was around 10, from Centro), but I know that it was at the end of the month (September). So, started out with bus from Centro in Hervey Bay. From Hervey Bay to the train station in Maryborough. Waited there for about half an hour, and then we were off to... some... place... that I actually forgot the name of... it had a metro station though! Not that it helps at all...

Anyway, in the Metro, Niklas and I went for one cabin, and then noticed all the others had gone to another. And... apparently it took quite a long time for them to notice we were actually gone. Thought we might've gotten off early.

Had to stand up the entire ride, as there wasn't enough seats, and you had to get up to make room for parents with kids, elders and pregnant women. Everybody does that in Australia. People hardly do that in Denmark...
Once we reached the end of our trip, we got of the metro (naturally...), and found out, that this wasn't our final destination.

The place we were gonna be living had a courtesy bus which we were told would come pick us up. Unfortunately, the place we got off the metro was one of the places, they didn't pick people up from. So we had to wait for a bus to show up, pay the $2.90 for the ride. We went all the way to Surfers Paradise where we could finally be picked up and go to the resort.

The courtesy bus was small. Really small, so it had to come twice. I was in the second group, which meant I was one of the last persons to check in (actually I was the last...). I got the key to the same a partment as Bas and Maria. And it seems that the 4th person in that apartment had already moved somewhere else. So I decided I would to. Wouldn't be any fun living in that place, with just those two. Would be... weird.

Instead I moved in with Morten, Emil Oxbøll, Kasper Madsen og Jens. It turned out that Johan and Mark would pretty much be living with us as well (they didn't actually pay for a room, as they were planning on sleeping in the car. That lasted one day, then they slept on the couch). There was always people from other rooms in our room. It was fun!
Didn't do much for the rest of that day, just went for some breakfast for the next day, and just kinda checked out the area.

The next day... we went to the beach! Of course! You have to go to the beach at Surfers Paradise when you're in Goldcoast. We spend quite a while there. Also went off the beach and into the streets to check out the surroundings. Pretty much all we did the entire day.

Until next time, take care! /wave

Graduation!

So, today was graduation day. It was just a formal graduation for my class, as we will actually still be going to school until November 27th. We just graduated with the other Year 12 students anyway. Took a loooooooooooong time. Didn't get home til 21.30. Lots of diplomas, certificates, speeches and awards. I was the only non-Australian to win an award! The Carol Charles Award!





They called my name, I walked up on stage, posed a bit (^^) took the plate/award thingie and went back to my seat. Now... if there had been an award for most applause... I'd have won that as well, thanks to my classmates^^

We'll be getting our grades next week, I believe. Still have a few assessments left. So far I'm the only one who's completely done with Mathematics, which includes the optional worksheets, yay!
ITAC assessment for Thursday, had it postponed, as Johnathan realized that we had a lot to do. So... Chemistry Oral tomorrow (if we get through the people leftover from last Friday, that we didn't have time to do), English Presentation sometime this week. Maths test Monday, Marine Studies test Monday, ITAC test Tuesday... maybe some other stuff I forgot. Unless I'm far behind on the ITAC assessment tomorrow, I'll post the first Goldcoast update.

See ya /wave

Delays...

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. Been insanely busy with homework and assessments and stuff... updates should be coming soon, provided I have time. If not this weekend, then the beginning of next week.
Sorry
/wave

Whitsundays Part 4, the last one!

Actually, this part takes place over two days, but the last part would've been pretty short, so instead, I'm merging them.

So, no drinking the night before, as we were going scuba diving again today. We were going on a "3 Island Cruise" with a ship/boat called Voyager. The three islands we were going to; Hook Island, White Haven Beach and Daydream Island, in that order. Not exactly up early, around 8 o'clock. Breakfast, and off (by bus) to the Shuttle Harbour where our boat awaited us.

As we boarded, we noticed that some of the people on the boat were the same that had been on the last cruise we had been on (the one to the pontoon). The divemasters/instructors were the same, which meant that we'd be diving with those guys again, yay!

The Voyager wasn't as big as the last one we'd been on, but there was still a fair amount of people on it. We stopped shortly at Daydream Island to pick up some more people, still plenty of room on the boat though.



Took us a couple of hours to reach the first island, Hook Island. While we sailed, us with PADI certificate signed up for a dive. Only $55 this time, or maybe it was even cheaper... (damn it! My budget was on my laptop, and is now lost...) anyway, it was a lot cheaper than at the pontoon.

We were briefed, and told what we could expect. The water would be murkier than at Knuckle Reef, we wouldn't go as far down as at Knuckle Reef. This time we'd be in bigger groups, only two groups. Six persons in each, with 2 instructors/divemasters in each. We were told that as we swam out, it would get deeper very quickly, and if we got out too far, we'd be pulled straight to the bottom, due to currents. And at the bottom... sharks! And not lame Wobbegong Sharks, no, Tiger Sharks! Probably the most aggressive sharks in the world, and they're pretty huge. If we got within 5m of them, they were likely to attack. And guess what the visibility was that day...? 5m!

We were taught the signals if a tiger shark was spotted. It was exciting and scary as hell at the same time (but mostly exciting). They told us that if we were (un?)lucky we'd see tiger sharks, but that it wasn't very likely, as they were further out than we were.

I was in the second team to go out, so I didn't really have to hurry when we got to Hook Island. I did anyway. Watched the other get their gear on. When they swam off, I went snorkeling with some of the others. The first team were gone for around 45 minutes. A little longer than we are usually gone. Normally it's around half an hour, as we haven't got much air left by then.

And then it was our turn! The water was warm, much warmer than in Hervey Bay, so we didn't actually have to wear wetsuits. They didn't actually have any full-body suits. They didn't have one that actually fit Thore (guy from my class), so he swam in his t-shirt. This time, Niklas was my buddy. And that actually went a lot better than with Mathis, as we managed to keep an eye on each other the entire time.

Anyway, off we went. And the water really was quite a bit murkier than at Knuckle Reef. There was still a lot of corals though. Not a lot of fish, but that was most likely because they managed to swim away before we got close to them. There was a pretty strong current as well, so it took a little effort to stay on course. I was always either in the front of the group, or in the middle. Usually in the front, with Niklas either beside me, or slightly in front.

It was a great dive, alas, no tiger sharks :( We did see a sea turtle though, hiding amongst the corals on on the bottom. I got pretty annoyed with Birk ('nother guy from my class) by the way... he kept signaling stuff to me, and pushing me out of his way. He was behind me. For the record, it's the guy in the backs responsibility to NOT hit the guy on front, and to not be hit by the fins of the guy in front. The person in front has no idea what's behind him, therefore he can't help it, if somebody is hit by his fins, unless he does it on purpose of course...

Anyway, we got up after 45-50min as well. We all had lots of air left though. Seems I finally got my breathing under control as well. About time:P
Unfortunately there's no pictures from the dive. The water was simply too murky. The camera wouldn't have been able to show anything, due to the particles in the water. It was fairly easy to see, but the camera... no.

After the dive, it was straight back to the Voyager, and off to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is a beach (surprise!) made completely of silica, which means that it's very heat resistant. It barely gets warm at all, and the sand was an incredibly white colour! Best beach I've been on.



There was a photographer on the Voyager as well, just as there had been on one the Knuckle Reef cruise. She took a lot of pictures of our group. Particular the group of boys I was in. There were some pretty good pictures among them, but unfortunately they were expensive. Very expensive. And we couldn't even get discount if we bought all the pictures of us... oh well. We had to make do with the pictures the other people from our class had taken.



On Whitehaven Beach we pretty much just chilled on the beach or messed around in the water. And posed for pictures of course. I think we were on Whitehaven Beach for one and a half hour or so. Possibly more. There was not shadow whatsoever on the beach. No shops either. No pier. The ships actually sailed in so far that they hit the beach, and then we would walk off.



After Whitehaven, Daydream Island. Daydream Island pretty much consists of a huge resort. Lots of souvenir stores, fastfood, restaurants, pools. There was jetski and stuff as well. And a huge artificial reef thingie. Spent the time on Daydream either in the pool, or at the pool.


Then back to Club Croc, and relax/drink for the rest of day.

The last day of Whitsunday, we went sea-kayaking. Not much to say about that day really. I was on the early team, so I wouldn't have to sit on the sea around noon, with the sun frying me. That meant I had to get up around 6 o'clock. Wasn't so bad actually. Patrick was my kayak buddy. And we actually managed pretty well, as long as I kept saying one-two. We sailed to a small island (pretty much just a huge rock), waited there a while, and then went back again. There was a lot of waves, and the tide was coming, and it was hard to steer. I was sitting in the back, so I had to steer. We managed pretty well though, and were pretty fast. If we didn't have to wait for the others, we would've been up long before they got back.

I forgot my hat at the place we went kayaking... I told Jesper to bring it back home, when he went. He was on the second team. He found my hat and brought it back to me :D
The rest of the day went pretty much like the other days.

The next day, it was time to go home again. By bus. Another 12 hour ride. Very tiring, but we got home, had a couple of days off (probably some of the most boring days of my life...) and then it was off to Goldcoast.

So, next update will be about the Goldcoast! See ya then /wave