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
Whitsundays Part 4, the last one!
Whitsundays Part 3!
(This update was planned for last Friday, however, due to internet problems, I lost half of what I wrote, didn't feel like starting over again so soon, and decided to do homework instead)
Yay, time for part 3! Two more updates for Whitsundays after this (or maybe only one, it depends). And then Goldcoast! Wonder if I even have time to do these posts... I guess I have to update more often, only have 30 days till I leave Hervey Bay, and I wanna be done before that.
The third day in Airlie Beach. Luckily we didn't have to get up that early that day. Think we got up around 8 for breakfast (they had awesome breakfast at the hotel), and then left. Today was jetski/speedboat/para-sailing! Was looking forward to all of that, but para-sailing the most. Unfortunately... I barely have any pictures from that day... oh well. Been asking the others, but only a few brought their cameras that day.
We actually had to walk pretty far to get to the pier, where we'd be doing the above mentioned stuff, but it didn't matter. The weather was nice, and not too warm. Some thought so, though, they forgot to bring shoes that day, and quickly regretted that. I believe everybody has tried walking on asphalt or the like, on a warm day? It hurts like hell, if it's in the sun.
Time went pretty fast, though, and soon we reached a hotel, went inside, through the hotel, out the other side, and onto the pier right outside. At the end of the pier was... a shed, I think. Apparently that place had won some kind of award for extreme sport, for 3 years in a row. Personally I don't find any of the above stuff extreme...
Anyway, were were split into four groups. One group of 7, and three groups of 8. I was in the group of 7. We were to be the first group on the jetski. The instructor gave us a short briefing, telling us what to do and what not to do, in case we fell off or the jetski tipped and stuff like that. Nothing important.
The jetski were for two persons, so unfortunately we couldn't get one each. One guy from our group got one all to himself though... I was with Anders Papsø (Papsoe for the non-Danish:P). Nice guy. Knows quite a bit about cars and computers. He started out in front, I sat behind him and held on to some handles in the seat. It didn't take me long to realize, that holding those handles was a bad idea...
I don't know if any of you have ever been on a jetski before, but they're pretty darn fast and the ocean isn't exactly flat. So... as soon as we got out of the harbour, where we could speed up, I almost fell off. I tried to hold on as much as possible, and tried to get in touch with Anders. Unfortunately it's pretty hard to hear anything the guy in the back says, when you're in front and doing full speed. Finally I made him stop, so I could grab a hold on him instead. I was still thrown around in the backseat, but at least I had a better hold, and if I fell off, so would he, and then the jetski would stop.
Luckily, I didn't fall off (!), nobody actually did, which was quite disappointing...
Just before we went out on the jetski, another group had gone out in the speedboat (it's just what it sounds like, a boat that goes fast (really fast)), but when we came back, they weren't back yet.
And they didn't come back for a loooooooong time. It seems that the boat had broken down, so they were stuck out there and had to get help. The help: the jetski instructor! On a jetski. He pulled the boat back on that little thing... I'm surprised he could actually do it, even if they are pretty powerful. It took a long time though, and after that they had to fix it (obviously), before another team could get a ride.
We waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually people got pretty tired of waiting. It was a damn hot day, so some guy decided they'd jump off the pier (we pretended we didn't see the huge "NO JUMPING OFF THE PIER" sign...). I didn't jump, even though I wish I had. At last the boat was fixed, and we could get a ride.
It wasn't for nothing they called it a "speedboat". That thing was bloody fast. Nothing more to say about that, really...
So, as mentioned we should have been parasailing that day as well. But, the boat they used for that was broken. It had broken down yesterday, and they hadn't been able to fix it. So instead of all three things, we only did the two. He told us we'd get some of our money back, I haven't seen any of that money yet though...
Most of us left after that. There was still a group on the speedboat, but we might as well go. We went to the centre of Airlie Beach. Got some food, checked out souvenir shops, clothes, lots of shops. Jesper finally bought some sunglasses (been pinching other people's sunglasses, and complaining he couldn't find any that fit him), and Lars and I bought a has(!), not the same hat of course, but in the same shop. RipCurl. Then, we took a taxi back to the hotel (got a taxi-bon from Vicky, so it was free), and just chilled for the rest of the day.
(I told you there wasn't a lot of pictures...)
Next update should be sometime this week, as I kinda failed last time...
Until next time, see ya /wave!
P.S. 24 days till I leave Hervey Bay, 40 days till I'm back in Denmark and... 30 days till my 18th birthday!!!
Pictures!
Yus! Picture time. The pictures are from what I've told about so far (except the bus trip). Just click the pictures for bigger versions.
Whitsunday Islands part 2
Figured it didn't make any sense to keep naming the posts after the dates when that's not what they're about...
Anyway, unfortunately no pictures today, as I promised. For some reason I can't upload pictures, so I'll be adding the pictures tomorrow, sorry guys.
So, last update was Friday and Saturday, naturally this update will be... Sunday! (/cheer)
Anyway, our first morning at the hotel. We didn't know exactly when breakfast is on, so we got up at 6.00, to get to breakfast at 6.30 (we found out the next day, that we didn't have to get up that early... breakfast ended at 9.00 or something).
Anyway, after breakfast we had a little while to get ready for todays trip: Knuckle Reef Lagoon!
All right... so there are a FEW pictures, but none I took. All from Cruise Whitsundays own website
No, I wasn't in the helicopter (they didn't actually have any out there that day), and no... the food didn't actually look that good... oh well, that was to be expected. Anyway, the place looked absolutely awesome, in the brochures AND in real life.
Back on track. We left from the hotel around 8 or so, I think. Been so long I can't remember anything anymore... horrible. At the habour, we waited for 15 minutes or so, till we could all board the boat, Cruise Whitsundays (great name, eh...?) The boat was pretty big, but there were a lot of people on it. The people on the boat (or ferry... maybe?) were the only people that were gonna be on the pontoon.
As soon as we started sailing, some guy gave us a short briefing. It was pretty funny. I forgot why, but he made a lot of jokes about Irish people. He was Irish himself, I think. It was fun anyway. He told us, that after the briefing, the dive-masters would come around and talk to the people who wanted to do scuba diving at the reef. The prices, $100 for a certified dive, $50 for second dive, and $110 for an introduction dive, which required no previous scuba diving experience. All ten of us, who had a certificate, wanted to dive of course. So, we filled out the forms, paid the $100, and went upstairs to get briefed.
The dive-masters were all pretty cool, probably around... 25 years or so. At least that's what they looked like. There were other people who wanted to dive as well, but we were split into groups of three, so only one group got with a non-Dane. I was with Mathis and Patrick. We had heard from our scuba diver instructor, that the visibility could be up to 40m+. Unfortunately, the day before, it had been very windy, so the visibility was only around 15m. Pretty disappointing really... the dive was great anyway!
We were told, that we had to be the first in the water, but everybody else was told the same:P We were pretty fast in the water though. Onto the pontoon as fast as possible, get a wetsuit on, get to the gear, and they pretty much put the gear on you, damn it was fast. Then down a staircase under the pontoon, get with your group, and time to swim off. The water was great, except for the relatively low visibility. There were a lot of corals everywhere. They weren't as colourful as what you see on TV, but we didn't bring any light down there, and the water was, as mentioned before, a little murky. We went down to about 15m, I think and we stayed down for around 45minutes. I had enough air for another 15minutes, but we had to get up anyway. Apparently Birk, another guy from the class, had run completely out of air... and blamed it on him having to keep and eye on the rest of his group all the time...
Anyway, I have a lot of pictures from the dive, that I got from Patrick, who brought a camera. They're pretty okay, I guess, but due to the particles floating in the water, he couldn't use the flash without getting even murkier pictures. Oh well. The rest of the time on the pontoon was spent relaxing, snorkeling, riding the water-slide, going on trips in the semi-sub and the glass bottom boats.
I would loved to have gone snorkeling, but after the dive, I had some problems with my ears. They were kinda hurting, like when you can't equalize properly. I'm guessing it was because of my little accident (or walkabout, as most classmates might call it:P). We were floating above some corals, looking at him picking stuff up, and handing it to us. I had established neutral buoyancy (I floated, did not have to keep swimming to get up or down), but suddenly, without touching the BCD or my weights, I began rising to the surface. Pretty quickly even (which can be pretty dangerous). I tried emptying the BCD, but it didn't slow me down enough, so my head broke the surface of the water. Having emptied the BCD, I got down again pretty quickly as well (though I filled it up a bit on the day down, to avoid going too fast), which can also be dangerous! I think that's what might've caused my ears to hurt... I spend most of the remainder of the day on the top of the boat, just talking with people. Was pretty damn warm that day, so I tried to find a place in the shade, though that was pretty hard...
We were back at the harbour at around 5-5.30, I believe, so back at the hotel, we had a little time in the pool/spa, and then time for dinner again. I got pasta again... people cheated... and sorbet for desert again! Oh well...
So, with no scuba diving the day after, I could drink without the risk of dying the day after... just beer, though it was kinda expensive. Oh well, it was good. VB is now my 2nd favourite beer!
Until next time (tomorrow...) see ya /wave!
Whitsundays Part 1
Well, guess I'd better start doing those Whitsunday/Goldcoast updates. I still don't have my pictures, but the ones are I have, are pretty similar to those most of you will be able to see on Facebook. I'm starting to forget some of the details, so I'm writing it all down, before I forget it.
Whitsunday Holiday, part 1
We left Friday 18th September, at 20.30 (I think), from TAFE. All 27 students, 1 teacher, her husband, her son and the bus driver, so 31 people total. We probably didn't leave till around 20.50, took time for everybody to show up, get the bus packed, check that everybody was there and such. Finally we got going... we had a 10-11h ride ahead of us.
Fortunately for everybody, there was a TV in the bus, and a DVD player. We had been told that beforehand, so some people had brought DVD's. There were actually some pretty nice ones between them. The one most people wanted to watch, though, was Mama Mia! I had never seen the movie before, and ABBA music is decent, I guess. The movie was okay as well, but not really my kind of movie. I forgot what other movies we watched... it's not really important either:P
Our first stop was in North Rockhampton, or maybe just Rockhampton, at around 01.00. Don't think I slept much before that, maybe a couple of minutes. Even though I had two seats to myself, they weren't exactly comfortable... I always forget to bring a pillow. I've gotta learn sometime... anyway, I guess bus rides are supposed to be like that, at least when it comes to school trips.
The bus was pretty cold as well, so it was actually nice to get out of the bus in Rockhampton. It was much warmer outside, than it was inside the bus. Of course, I had also forgotten to bring a jacket. I asked the bus driver to turn up the heat, and he did. It didn't help much though, was still pretty cold where I sat. The stop in Rockhampton was 30minutes, so we only had time to go to the bathroom, buy some stuff in shop and have a breather outside, before it was back on the road again.
I've already forgotten where the next stop was, but I think it was about 04.00. The place we stopped this time was a lot smaller, and the bathroom a lot smellier. Think we stayed there for... 20minutes or so. My head was a little fuzzy, I was pretty damn sleepy, cold, and my back hurt. The rest of the way to Airlie Beach, I kinda just... dozed off every now and then, and woke up again almost immediatly, which made me even more tired.
We finally reached Airlie Beach at around 08.00 or so. We couldn't get into the hotel that early, so the bus driver (he's called Mike btw) took us a little further, down to the shops and such, so we could get some breakfest. Most of us ate at a little cafe. I bought a yoghurt and a cappuccino... tasted great. We spent a little while at the cafe, just chatting, and waiting for the bus to go back to the hotel.
Once we got back to the hotel, we dumped our luggage in a room, and jumped in the pool/spa. We spend the time, until we could get our rooms, in the pool. When we got our rooms (I lived with Jesper and Magnus), we threw our stuff inside, and went back to the pools. Spend most of the day there, until dinner time. 3 times dinner at the hotel was included in the price we paid before we came, and the first night was one of them. Main court: pasta (the pasta was horrible) or Steak. We couldn't choose what we wanted. Everybody wanted steaks, and nobody would admit that they had even voted for the pasta... lame. The desert was nice though. Sorbet or mud cake (I never got to taste the mud cake... greedy basterds eating it 3 times in a row). The sorbet was great.
I don't remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I don't think we did much. I know we didn't drink (some did, but I didn't), 'cause we were going to a huge pontoon the day after, and some of us were going scuba diving.
So, that's the end of the first part. The second part will come pretty soon, so stay tuned!
Oh btw, GW guys, I'll try to get online as soon as possible. If I can't, I'll have Jonas or my brother do it. My computer isn't gonna get fixed, I'm currently using Dulcie's (my homestay) laptop, and tomorrow in school, I'm gonna talk to Angie about lending a TAFE PC. They don't usually lend them out, but they might make an exception this time.
See ya /wave