Swimmin' with da fishes

Ok, i've been a little slack in the writing, sorry, but it's been because I've had a visitor! Scott finangled his finals schedule so he could spend a week and half out here with me in Sydney. He had to spend most of the days during the week wandering the city without me, but last weekend we took an AMAZING trip out to the reef off the Whitsunday Islands.

We left Saturday afternoon from Sydney, and I learned that in the airport here if you check in at the self check-in and aren't checking any bags, you really don't get asked for ID... little scary. We also had all our toiletries and razors in our carry-ons -- imagine that! Those were the days... Anyway, we got up to Airlie Beach around dinner time Saturday night. We had to be at the bus stop at 7am Sunday morning to leave for our trip, and genius that I am, I forgot that my phone didn't switch back the hour time difference when we got to Airlie Beach; so, the next morning when we went to check out (at what was actually 6am), we were a little confused why the girl who works the front desk was lazily rubbing her eyes and questioning why we wanted to leave at that time. We figured it out about minute later. Hey, it's the only time i've been early to something in my life!:) To pass the hour we wandered down to the lagoon and actually watched a beautiful sunrise over the water and mountains (or maybe large hills?).

We got to the marina to board our boat and the VIP treatment began! It was pretty funny: we asked someone if we were in the right place to board for the "ReefSleep" and immediately we were escorted by our hostess, Heidi, to the front of the line of everyone else boarding the boat. While everyone else milled around, we were sat down and offered coffee and tea. Then Heidi informed us that we were being upgraded from the bunk room (it was cheaper) to the honeymoon suite! We about died laughing at that, but hey, we weren't turning it down! After a VERY rough hour on open water (I can proudly say I was the first of many onboard to puke into my little barf bag), we approached ReefWorld - a pontoon that's been anchored on Hardy Reef for the past 18 years. The water was relatively flat out by the reef because the coral blocked most of the currents (thank god!), so I managed to keep down food the rest of the trip.

The boat was incredible! There was a sundeck, picnic area, snorkel ramps, mini-store, underwater viewing chamber, kitchen, and sleeping quarters for the crew. There were only two sleeping rooms for guests (one with the bunks, one for the "honeymooners"). One of the more cool little toys out there were two "semi-submersibles". They looked like submarines, but never went below the surface. It was another way for people to get to see the reef, essentially. You go below deck and sit on the benches inside and look through the glass bottom while they drive the little sub around various parts of the reef -- getting very very close to it at times! There was also a platform below the boat for scuba divers that they could mechanically adjust the height of -- which of course they had to raise when i went down there because I couldn't touch the platform without the water going over my head.

As part of our VIP package, Scott and I got to do 2 dives! They have quite the set-up for intro diving. First, you learn all the scuba skills standing on the platform under the boat. Then they sit you on the edge of it underwater and you practice them again. Then you simply swim forward from there and grab onto the ropes directly in front of you which lead to a little underwater ropes course over to part of the reef. It was definitely a smart idea for people who'd never dove before! The videographer at this point was swimming around us, and just before he got a shot of me and scott waving to the camera, I noticed he'd written "Just Married" on his little underwater clipboard... Again, we laughed:) Back on our scuba ropes course, we got to hold starfish, sea cucumbers, and a few other reef creatures, then took pictures of "Nemo" in an anemone before retracing our rope path back up to the boat. There was a HUGE wrasse that is always swimming nearby and apparently the dive crew have adopted as a pet. We pet him a few times as he circled around us. Our guide actually held the fish's head between his hands and kissed it on the mouth! I think the crew need to take turns getting off the boat more often...

At 2:30 that afternoon, the boat we took out to ReefWorld started to head back to shore and Scott and I were literally the only two (plus all the crew) still out on the reef. The tide was low at this point, and the reef was sticking out of the water. (check out my ofoto pics to really see the difference!) To best describe, Hardy Reef is essentially a circle shaped reef, with the coral forming the outline of the circle and the middle just being water. So at low tide as the water level drops, all that water in the middle has to escape somehow. This is what Heidi and Tiff (the hostess-in-training) called "The Waterfalls". We took a ride about 1/4 way around the reef to see... they really were 3 channels where the coral separated and all that water from the middle could rush out of the middle of the reef, essentially creating a strong current and rapids. It was SWEET!

After that, Heidi and Tiff escorted us on a private snorkel tour out past the normal snorkel boundaries. We got an incredible view with the tide so low because we could get closer to some of the lower pieces of the reef wall (the "drop-off" in Finding Nemo), and these had some of the more unique and colorful corals. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to me at the time, the underwater camera i was using at this point was halfway filled with water... Fujifilm will be receiving a very upset note! But, as VIP treatment entails, Heidi simply handed us a new one when we got back to the pontoon. Still missing all those pictures, but at least we got a few more out of the deal.

Appetizers/dinner that night was just for me and scott and served at the picnic area staring right at the sunset... yeah, i was pretty much in heaven:) Not expecting too much from food cooked on a permanent pontoon, we were both shocked to see a huge plate of veggies, cheeses, and prawns, followed by steak (for scott) and fish (for me), salad, garlic bread, and pretty much open bar. Ridiculous. After dinner and sunset, Heidi put two big beanbag chairs in the viewing chamber and we all chilled and watched the fishes.

The next morning was our ride on the semi-submersible, followed by dive #2, and then a couple hours snorkeling. I decided that to avoid being cold and scraping myself on the coral during the snorkel i'd wear a stinger suit AND a wetsuit... not something people do when snorkeling and i looked utterly ridiculous:) The stinger suit was a bright blue, full-body piece of nylon that even covered my head and hands! on top of that was the short, black wetsuit. Scott called me a smurf :)

The way home wasn't nearly as rough as the way out there, and this time i did manage to keep everything down. (yey!) We got some gorgeous pictures of the Whitsunday Islands on the way back this time too! I haven't quite figured out how to post a link to my pics yet on this crazy blog thing, so if you haven't seen them yet, just shoot me an email and i'll send the link your way.

more updates to come soon... (sooner than 2 weeks, i promise)