Monday, April 6, 2009
Skydiving pictures uploaded
Go now and marvel at what 250km/h ram airspeed does to my chubby cheeks.
Friday, April 3, 2009
The ground hates me, it keeps moving.
Kelly wins. She was the first to get skydiving. Unfortunately I don't have that picture I promised because the CD is in my bag, which is somewhere in the bowls of Cairns International at the moment. I'll post some pics when I'm back in Sydney tonight.
So....Mike Ball, holy hell what an amazing trip. There were about 22 divers and about 12 crew, and the crew's entire job was to make you feel like god for a week. I'll tell you all about it when I get home because it's to hard to explain everything in text. To hold you over here are 2 of my favourite pictures from the trip, and that's all you're getting until I touch down in Toronto.
So....Mike Ball, holy hell what an amazing trip. There were about 22 divers and about 12 crew, and the crew's entire job was to make you feel like god for a week. I'll tell you all about it when I get home because it's to hard to explain everything in text. To hold you over here are 2 of my favourite pictures from the trip, and that's all you're getting until I touch down in Toronto.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
14,000
Alright, contest time again. The title of this blog entry is a clue to something I did today. First one to guess what I did get to be the first person to tell me what an idiot I am when I show everyone the DVD. If nobody gets it when I get back from the reef I'll post a picture.
So, Contiki is over, and it was great as usual. I did a reef day trip on apparently the worst possible day. As soon as we got on the vessel they told is it was extremely rough on the reef due to a high tide a gale force wind warnings. In fact, if the wind were any stronger they would not have gone out that day. This obviously made for one hell of a 2 hour boat ride. Thankfully I took the seasick medication and was fine, pretty much everyone else wasn't. That gives me a bigger confidence boost for the weeklong expedition starting tomorrow.
I did some really fun stuff on the Contiki including - White Water Rafting, Ziplining through the Daintree rainforest canopy, Sandboarding, and the mystery thing today. Not to mention knocking back unheard of amounts of alcohol. (Buy 6 drinks, get a free T-Shirt, dangerous promotion when it's 2-for-1 happy hour, mmmmm 12 drinks in 2 hours) Oh, and all the cool people I met.
Anyhow, that's all for now - I can't upload any pictures because I can't get to the tower on this machine, but check back later and I'll see what I can get done.
So, Contiki is over, and it was great as usual. I did a reef day trip on apparently the worst possible day. As soon as we got on the vessel they told is it was extremely rough on the reef due to a high tide a gale force wind warnings. In fact, if the wind were any stronger they would not have gone out that day. This obviously made for one hell of a 2 hour boat ride. Thankfully I took the seasick medication and was fine, pretty much everyone else wasn't. That gives me a bigger confidence boost for the weeklong expedition starting tomorrow.
I did some really fun stuff on the Contiki including - White Water Rafting, Ziplining through the Daintree rainforest canopy, Sandboarding, and the mystery thing today. Not to mention knocking back unheard of amounts of alcohol. (Buy 6 drinks, get a free T-Shirt, dangerous promotion when it's 2-for-1 happy hour, mmmmm 12 drinks in 2 hours) Oh, and all the cool people I met.
Anyhow, that's all for now - I can't upload any pictures because I can't get to the tower on this machine, but check back later and I'll see what I can get done.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Midway Point
Half way through the adventures, things are great.
Contiki started off a bit slow because we started by going to most of the places that I've already been to so it was a bit boring. Once we got past surfers paradise though it doews nothing bt impress. The eas coast is beautiful.
We're on lovely Long Island (where the long island iced tea is 6 shots of alcohol and a squirt of coke) in the stunning Whitsunday islands. It's a tropical wonderland here. We spent the whole day yesterday aboard the 85 ft. sailboat Camira cruising through the islands, and good news, no seasickness! We were on board from 9-5 and I felt perfectly fine for the whole time, which is a great boost to my confidence about the upcoming Mike Ball journey.
No pictures yet - but I do have some good ones to show off, you'll just have to wait until I get back home to see them.
Contiki started off a bit slow because we started by going to most of the places that I've already been to so it was a bit boring. Once we got past surfers paradise though it doews nothing bt impress. The eas coast is beautiful.
We're on lovely Long Island (where the long island iced tea is 6 shots of alcohol and a squirt of coke) in the stunning Whitsunday islands. It's a tropical wonderland here. We spent the whole day yesterday aboard the 85 ft. sailboat Camira cruising through the islands, and good news, no seasickness! We were on board from 9-5 and I felt perfectly fine for the whole time, which is a great boost to my confidence about the upcoming Mike Ball journey.
No pictures yet - but I do have some good ones to show off, you'll just have to wait until I get back home to see them.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Advancing
Well, I have a new rating as Advanced Open Water Diver - which increases my maximum depth limit to 30 metres/100 feet.
Doing the course brought up a small concern I have about the upcoming travels. We were on a boat and did 2 dives on Sunday, one at North Head (the entrance to Sydney Harbour from the ocean) and one about 2km off Manly Beach in the ocean. I was mildly seasick while the boat was not in motion due to the large surge. Now, I wasn't physically ill but my stomach was quite upset and while changing over my tanks I was on the edge of losing it.
Now, this may also be due to the fact that I had only had a piece of banana bread to eat that day, which was most likely making my stomach hurt more out of hunger than seasickness. I was on a dive boat at North Head last month - and while my stomach hurt I was able to eat a burger on the boat without becoming sick - even though my stomach hurt even then.
So I'm a bit concerned about spending 7 days on a boat in the ocean. Now, the boat we were on was only for about 12 people, about 20 feet long, if that. Spoilsport (the Mike Ball vessel) is 100 ft. long, with a double hull and is 3 floors tall. That and the fact that the great barrier reef probably shelters boats from the major surge out in open ocean is convincing me that it is not nearly going to be as bad as things were on the weekend.
That, and whenever I get nervous about getting on board I read this, and all of a sudden I tell myself that no matter what I'm going to suck it up and just do it. Not to mention seeing pictures of just how big Spoilsport is makes me feel better as well. Compared to this, which is the vessel we were on over the weekend.
P.S. I've already gone out and stocked up on the Australian version of Gravol. And I'm considering getting some ginger pills to go with it. (Ginger is the only non-pharmaceutical remedy that worked to cure motion sickness on Mythbusters)
Doing the course brought up a small concern I have about the upcoming travels. We were on a boat and did 2 dives on Sunday, one at North Head (the entrance to Sydney Harbour from the ocean) and one about 2km off Manly Beach in the ocean. I was mildly seasick while the boat was not in motion due to the large surge. Now, I wasn't physically ill but my stomach was quite upset and while changing over my tanks I was on the edge of losing it.
Now, this may also be due to the fact that I had only had a piece of banana bread to eat that day, which was most likely making my stomach hurt more out of hunger than seasickness. I was on a dive boat at North Head last month - and while my stomach hurt I was able to eat a burger on the boat without becoming sick - even though my stomach hurt even then.
So I'm a bit concerned about spending 7 days on a boat in the ocean. Now, the boat we were on was only for about 12 people, about 20 feet long, if that. Spoilsport (the Mike Ball vessel) is 100 ft. long, with a double hull and is 3 floors tall. That and the fact that the great barrier reef probably shelters boats from the major surge out in open ocean is convincing me that it is not nearly going to be as bad as things were on the weekend.
That, and whenever I get nervous about getting on board I read this, and all of a sudden I tell myself that no matter what I'm going to suck it up and just do it. Not to mention seeing pictures of just how big Spoilsport is makes me feel better as well. Compared to this, which is the vessel we were on over the weekend.
P.S. I've already gone out and stocked up on the Australian version of Gravol. And I'm considering getting some ginger pills to go with it. (Ginger is the only non-pharmaceutical remedy that worked to cure motion sickness on Mythbusters)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The Excitement Builds!
I'm officially done work, and am starting the dive course tonight in Manly.
I can't believe it's already time to start moving around the country again. I can't wait until Monday when I head south, and the inevitability that comes with "South = Colder?" that I'm not used to at home.
The thing I'm probably most looking forward to is diving in a place called the Cod Hole. I heard about it on a travel show here and thought it was in some far off remote location I'd probably never go to. Then I signed up on this Mike Ball trip in the Great Barrier Reef and find it's one of the places we go.
Why am I excited? Well, it's home to a species of fish known as Potato Cod (Impressive, n'est pas?). These fish are the size of, if not bigger than people, are very curious and not afraid to swim right up to you, and swim along while you're diving. Being eye to eye with a fish the size of me is going to be a great experience!
I can't believe it's already time to start moving around the country again. I can't wait until Monday when I head south, and the inevitability that comes with "South = Colder?" that I'm not used to at home.
The thing I'm probably most looking forward to is diving in a place called the Cod Hole. I heard about it on a travel show here and thought it was in some far off remote location I'd probably never go to. Then I signed up on this Mike Ball trip in the Great Barrier Reef and find it's one of the places we go.
Why am I excited? Well, it's home to a species of fish known as Potato Cod (Impressive, n'est pas?). These fish are the size of, if not bigger than people, are very curious and not afraid to swim right up to you, and swim along while you're diving. Being eye to eye with a fish the size of me is going to be a great experience!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Finalization
I've thrown some research behind Cairns, and have decided on what I want to do.
The Mike Ball Expeditions 7-day Coral Safari (itinerary / map). It's bloody expensive coming in at just over $3000, but I think it will be well worth the investment. It includes all food, beverages, fees, transport, food, fuel, air, etc. The only extras would be if I wanted to rent a camera for a day.
On the topic of expense - this is probably why I've left myself $3000 sitting in my bank account at home. My rough calculations estimate that after paying for this trip, I will have about $5000 AUD to cover any costs incurred while travelling. Which should be plenty of cash to survive 16 days on a bus + the last few weeks of living and working here.
I'm also refusing to touch my taxes and superannuation (pension) until I leave so that I will be able to afford paying tax in Canada on the money I've earned. As of my last paycheque I've paid $1622 in tax, of which I get a percentage back, and $849.77 in superannuation, of which I get all of it back.
The Mike Ball Expeditions 7-day Coral Safari (itinerary / map). It's bloody expensive coming in at just over $3000, but I think it will be well worth the investment. It includes all food, beverages, fees, transport, food, fuel, air, etc. The only extras would be if I wanted to rent a camera for a day.
On the topic of expense - this is probably why I've left myself $3000 sitting in my bank account at home. My rough calculations estimate that after paying for this trip, I will have about $5000 AUD to cover any costs incurred while travelling. Which should be plenty of cash to survive 16 days on a bus + the last few weeks of living and working here.
I'm also refusing to touch my taxes and superannuation (pension) until I leave so that I will be able to afford paying tax in Canada on the money I've earned. As of my last paycheque I've paid $1622 in tax, of which I get a percentage back, and $849.77 in superannuation, of which I get all of it back.
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