The Great Barrier Reef

I made it out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was really amazing to see all the coral and fishes and everything. And now I'm a certified adventure diver, which means I can dive anywhere in the world up to 30m and can do night dives.

The conditions weren't the greatest, but as Mischa, our instructor said, now that we're used to bad conditions, we can handle most anything.

Also they made a movie of the trip which should get to mum in a few months (hopefully).

I was hoping to see a shark, but we couldn't find one.

Hi Mum!

Some really funky coral

Some pretty fishes

These Yellow Tail Fusiliers like to hang out around the boat waiting for someone to drop some food over the side.


This purple fish liked to follow me around.


A really grumpy looking Green Turtle.


Just scratching his belly.


Time to go up for some air...


See ya later!


A school of fish.


Pretty coral...


And yes, I found Nemo!

I also saw a Stingray laying on the bottom and a few Giant Clams, but those pics didn't come out very well. And I saw a huge Sea Turtle, but that was on the night dive, so the camera was useless.

Now that I'm certified I'll be diving more and at different sites, so I'm sure I'll see a lot more cool stuff.

Whitsundays

Finally got the photos from the Whitsundays developed. It was a good trip, although it rained quite a bit and we only got a good wind on the last day. Still, we had enough wind to sail everyday and on the last day we got her up to 16 knots.

Our boat, the good ship "Broomstick"


Plot a course


Sails up!


Rain up ahead.


Whitehaven beach


The sand is apparently silica

Too bad it was a rainy day

Also did some snorkeling


I saw fisheys!


and coral!


and more fisheys!



This boat is called "The Card". Our captain challenged their captain to a race.


They were ahead of us for a while


But then we did a perfect jibe and got around them. Broomstick wins it!

It was really a lot of fun hope to do some more sailing when I get the chance.

Fraser Island

Fraser island was really great. Only saw one dingo, and he was just wandering around a parking lot so that doesn't really count. But I saw some stingrays, some sharks (small ones), turtles and some whales.

The sand dunes were really cool and the lakes were cool and refreshing.

Here are some photos:

Our trusty 4WD. Pretty fun cruising down the beach.

My group. Yeah, it was just me and eight girls. It was a really tough trip ;)



The first lake. The sand dune goes right down into the lake.


The dunes were pretty steep.


Shipwreck of the Maheno.


I thought it was pretty cool.


Indian Head.


You can look down and see turtles, stingrays and sharks from here. You can't see them in the pics, but they are there.


Champagne Pool. The waves splash over the rocks and trickles down like champagne.


Warning about dingos stealing your children.


My girls at Eli Creek.

Tomorrow I'm going sailing around the whitsunday islands. Hopefully I'll have some pics of that by the end of the week.

Oh and here is a pic of the dog at the last place I was at:

That's Nelson getting ready to catch a ball. One of the few times I've seen him do any thing other than eat.