em and stacey's housewarming...seems like ages ago...
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
diving with sharks!
still have all my limbs! wonderful weekend up at port stephens...the first day we had two boat dives right off in the morning (6 am wake ups! woot!)...within the first hour of boating we saw a pod of about 20 dolphins, who flew alongside our boat for quite a while. they were soooo close and so amazing, it was awesome. i've seen more cool things in the wild here in australia in the period of four months than i have my entire life...i love it. then, we did our first dive, saw some cool sponges, fed some wrasse (a huge friendly fish that can be found almost anywhere in australia) a sea urchin, came up for lunch (which i passed on, except for the soup, cause i was QUITE motion sick), then went for another dive. saw SHARKS. didn't poke them. came out alive.
sadly, no pictures...hopefully i can get some pics off one of the guys who had an underwater camera, but i couldn't spend the money to buy one (20 bucks for the camera and then 15 for the developing!)....however, i've posted two pics of a couple animals i saw...(grey nurse sharks and pufferfish), courtesy of the internet. the waves were so strong i thought that i was going to get pushed into a shark, but i managed to hold onto the plants with a tight grip, so it was all good. they really came quite close and would stare at you. luckily i was fighting off bouts of nausea, so i wasn't focusing too much on getting eaten. btw, i found out that if you throw up underwater, the sharks won't eat you.
then, we headed back to our place and chilled and ate lots of food. complained a lot about having to put our wet wetsuits back on (not as bad as you'd think). that night, went on a night dive....it was exactly how i had pictured scuba diving to be like in the beginning. you go down, and it's a pitch black abyss, except for whatever your torch lights up. the colours are awesome, and there are so many different animals out at night. we saw octupi, cuttlefish, tons of fish, and cool things that glow in the dark if you poke them lots. and THEN, near the end of the dive, our divemaster indicated for us to follow him, and we could see him poking something behind a rock, and then he brought his hands up and there was a BLOWFISH. i yelling something into my reg cause i was so excited (funny enough, everyone else seemed to have heard me underwater), and then we played with it. it was so ridiculous, the poor guy can't do ANYTHING after it blows up....his little fins and tail are completely useless. soo, you can put him upsidedown, you can push him up and down, you can spin him in little circles and there is nothing he can do but bob around....it was awesome. it was bigger than the picture i have posted, about 20inches in circumference probably, and it was the highlight of my trip...i'm addicted to night dives now.
the next day we woke up early again and did a shore dive in halifax park, and it was gorgeous. i wasn't going to do the dive cause my ears were bothering me, but i popped a few sudafed and all was good. we went to about 25 m and saw moray eels (don't touch them), rock cod (stonefish...don't step on them), numb ray (don't go near them, they have electric shock), and we even got to play with an octopus....we managed to get it out from under its rock and he was wrapping his legs around our hands and everything...they are STRONG buggers....our dive master had to brace himself on the rock so that he didn't get pulled under the rock (and beaked...octupus have beaks that are quite sharp). it was wonderful, and when we came up it was even sunny (it had been raining all the previous day), and perfect. i encourage everyone to get their dive certificate....so cool.
p.s. happy mothers day!
sadly, no pictures...hopefully i can get some pics off one of the guys who had an underwater camera, but i couldn't spend the money to buy one (20 bucks for the camera and then 15 for the developing!)....however, i've posted two pics of a couple animals i saw...(grey nurse sharks and pufferfish), courtesy of the internet. the waves were so strong i thought that i was going to get pushed into a shark, but i managed to hold onto the plants with a tight grip, so it was all good. they really came quite close and would stare at you. luckily i was fighting off bouts of nausea, so i wasn't focusing too much on getting eaten. btw, i found out that if you throw up underwater, the sharks won't eat you.
then, we headed back to our place and chilled and ate lots of food. complained a lot about having to put our wet wetsuits back on (not as bad as you'd think). that night, went on a night dive....it was exactly how i had pictured scuba diving to be like in the beginning. you go down, and it's a pitch black abyss, except for whatever your torch lights up. the colours are awesome, and there are so many different animals out at night. we saw octupi, cuttlefish, tons of fish, and cool things that glow in the dark if you poke them lots. and THEN, near the end of the dive, our divemaster indicated for us to follow him, and we could see him poking something behind a rock, and then he brought his hands up and there was a BLOWFISH. i yelling something into my reg cause i was so excited (funny enough, everyone else seemed to have heard me underwater), and then we played with it. it was so ridiculous, the poor guy can't do ANYTHING after it blows up....his little fins and tail are completely useless. soo, you can put him upsidedown, you can push him up and down, you can spin him in little circles and there is nothing he can do but bob around....it was awesome. it was bigger than the picture i have posted, about 20inches in circumference probably, and it was the highlight of my trip...i'm addicted to night dives now.
the next day we woke up early again and did a shore dive in halifax park, and it was gorgeous. i wasn't going to do the dive cause my ears were bothering me, but i popped a few sudafed and all was good. we went to about 25 m and saw moray eels (don't touch them), rock cod (stonefish...don't step on them), numb ray (don't go near them, they have electric shock), and we even got to play with an octopus....we managed to get it out from under its rock and he was wrapping his legs around our hands and everything...they are STRONG buggers....our dive master had to brace himself on the rock so that he didn't get pulled under the rock (and beaked...octupus have beaks that are quite sharp). it was wonderful, and when we came up it was even sunny (it had been raining all the previous day), and perfect. i encourage everyone to get their dive certificate....so cool.
p.s. happy mothers day!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
snoooooow!
so i was chiselling off the ice in my freezer today, and it reminded me of home, which led me to thinking about how i miss people, which led me to thinking about how i haven't been keeping in touch, which led me to feeling overwhelmed cause there are way too many people i want to talk to right now, which led me to realize that i should keep my blog up to date....for you, and for myself.
so, here i go....what have i been doing this past month? well, i never finished off my last story of my roadtrip..after melbourne we went to adelaide, and then through the outback to get back to sydney. it was an awesome trip. slept under the stars on the last night (in our cars), it was wonderful. we set up a camp stove and ate under the stars, laid out our towels and relaxed...the next day we woke up and got out of the cars...and found a dismembered kangaroo arm, right where I was sitting....hahahahaha. teaches us to set up camp in the dark. it was the highlight of my trip :D
i'm not even going to attempt to summarize the last month. all you need to know was that it was great, and this month is well on its way to being great also.
last weekend i played at a vball tourny in newcastle, which was awesome, except that i finally bought knee pads and they apparently don't work, cause my knee has a massive bruise going from the middle of my calf up to the middle of my quad. so, i've given up the skirts and shorts for a while cause people will ask if my boyfriend beats me. this weekend, i will be going DIVING WITH SHARKS. how cool is that? i will definitely write a more interesting blog on monday, complete with pictures and everything. i promise. unless i lose my arms (just kidding dad).
cheers,
kim
quotes of the week: "don't touch me like i'm drunk", "we should all learn how to speak dolphin", "excuse me, i don't know how to use this stapler, could you help me?", " 'why didn't you do anything for the long weekend?'....'because i had a baby last week' 'oh....you must be......tired'", "kim, stop hiding behind me, i'm smaller than you!", "muffin top"
so, here i go....what have i been doing this past month? well, i never finished off my last story of my roadtrip..after melbourne we went to adelaide, and then through the outback to get back to sydney. it was an awesome trip. slept under the stars on the last night (in our cars), it was wonderful. we set up a camp stove and ate under the stars, laid out our towels and relaxed...the next day we woke up and got out of the cars...and found a dismembered kangaroo arm, right where I was sitting....hahahahaha. teaches us to set up camp in the dark. it was the highlight of my trip :D
i'm not even going to attempt to summarize the last month. all you need to know was that it was great, and this month is well on its way to being great also.
last weekend i played at a vball tourny in newcastle, which was awesome, except that i finally bought knee pads and they apparently don't work, cause my knee has a massive bruise going from the middle of my calf up to the middle of my quad. so, i've given up the skirts and shorts for a while cause people will ask if my boyfriend beats me. this weekend, i will be going DIVING WITH SHARKS. how cool is that? i will definitely write a more interesting blog on monday, complete with pictures and everything. i promise. unless i lose my arms (just kidding dad).
cheers,
kim
quotes of the week: "don't touch me like i'm drunk", "we should all learn how to speak dolphin", "excuse me, i don't know how to use this stapler, could you help me?", " 'why didn't you do anything for the long weekend?'....'because i had a baby last week' 'oh....you must be......tired'", "kim, stop hiding behind me, i'm smaller than you!", "muffin top"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
