Sunday July 16th - Home Sweet Home

Posted on July 16th, 2006 by Alvin and Jen.
Categories: Australia Trip.

We made it home….today is the longest Sunday of my life.  :) So - we sadly left Lizard Island on Saturday.  We were on a smaller plane - only a 4 seater - but the plane was actually much nicer than the one we have flown out on.  It was a beautiful flight - as we had a bird’s eye view of a lot of the reef as we were flying back to Cairns.  

I did leave Lizard Island with my first injury of the trip - which I failed to mention in my previous posts.  On our second day of diving we were coming through a narrow opening of coral and I scraped my arm on some fire coral.  Ouch is all I can say.  Although it wasn’t as bad as they tell you - it was not a lot of fun.  But - it did not stop me from continuing to dive!  Thankfully it is healing nicely.  Also - I failed to mention, the one and only downfall of Lizard Island were the mosquitoes and sand flies.  Oh my gosh - I have been bitten soooo badly - that my legs look as if I am a contestant on Survivor.  Not only do I have this huge fire coral scrape on my left arm, but then my legs are a horrible mess.  I have bruises all over my legs from climbing in and out of the ladder while diving - and bumping it in the waves.  But my legs are covered in welts from insect bites….But - it was well, well, worth it. We got back to the Mainland and picked up our plethora of luggage and headed to the Kewarra Beach Resort for our last night in Australia.  We were driven to this smallish resort on Kewarra Beach - one of the private beaches in Cairns.  The hotel was very tropical feeling - and was a bit “kitschy”.  But - it was interesting, none the less.  We checked in and realized we had a 6am flight the next morning, which meant a 4:45am departure from the hotel - ugh.  So we basically put our stuff in our room, went back and had a quick snack and then took a walk down to the beach - for our last view of the Australian surf.  (more…)

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Friday July 14th - Our final dive in the reef

Posted on July 14th, 2006 by Alvin and Jen.
Categories: Australia Trip.

G’day folks -

 Today was our last dive in the Great Barrier Reef - so a sad day it is.  The past couple of days have been more than amazing.  Words cannot even describe what a wonderful time our experience on this Island has been.

On Wed after our dive, lunch and 90 minute massage, Alvin and I went back to our room, changed into our swim suits and then literally walked down the pathway from our room to the beach and snorkeled.  As we were getting in there was a sting ray, and coral and a ton of fish within feet of the shore.  We were actually laughing because there was another family which had just arrived (we call them “Florida” - since they are from Florida) and they were wearing wet suits and complaining that the water was too cold.  Alvin and I were snorkling in just our bathing suits…wimps!

So snorkling was amazing, dinner was spectacular as well and then we had another wonderful day of diving yesterday.  We did two dives yesterday - one place called stepping stones and then the world famous “cod hole”.  It is hard to describe how amazing both dive sites were.  Totally crystal clear water, unbelievable scenery.  It was literally like we were diving in an aquarium.  Of course, “Florida” happened to be on our boat yesterday, along with some other folks.  We met a really cool woman named Mary Ruth from London (originally from Atlanta) and we had a great time with her, swapping stories and complaining and making jokes about “Florida”. 

Ok - side note - Cynthia - no - I did not hug the shark.  HOWEVER - I would have if they let me.  You cannot even imagine how excited I was in the water when we saw the first one…i was swimming towards it and was stopped….I got as close as I could to all three of them (there were actually three not two).  They all knew how much I wanted to see sharks (both the staff and then other divers) so everyone was quite excited for me.

So after our dives both Alvin and I had spa treatments, then rushed to the room to get ready for dinner - as it was cocktail hour at the bar with other guests and staff.  We met up with Mary Ruth and her husband and ended up sharing dinner and several bottles of wine and after dinner drinks with them.  It was a great evening.

We were up bright and early this morning for our last dive.  We went back to the same dive site in the inner reef and it was totally different.  The vis wasn’t as good as the day before but it didn’t matter.  We swam through a clam forest as it is called - where there are a ton, ton of giant clams.  And you can swim up to them and get them to close  - very, very cool.

After our dive we had a great lunch and then headed out for another snorkel.  Was such a great time.  I had to cut out early for my spa treatment, which I just finished and how Alvin is having a treatment.  Tonight will be the last dinner on the island…and will be a sad evening indeed.

They are going to have to drag us kicking and screaming from this island!!!  We head into Cairns tomorrow, will spend the night there and then head home on Sunday….hard to believe the Australian adventure is almost over.

Will try to update tomorrow if there are any changes…otherwise will update when we get home.

Love to all and will see you on the other side!

Jen 

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Thursday June 13th - Brief Update

Posted on July 13th, 2006 by Alvin and Jen.
Categories: Australia Trip.

There is a long line for the computer and I have a spa treatment in 5 mins so this will be short.

 Still in paradise here.  Went on two dives today - unbelievable.  They were able to add a computer and depth gauge to our equipment so malfunction taken care of.  The two dives were the best dives I have ever done…..crystal clear water - 80 feet vis, and we saw TWO sharks while diving….I was so damn excited.  Plus these HUGE potato cod - about as big as Emma.  Then on the way back we stopped and fed these HUGE nurse sharks and a huge grouper.  totally amazing

Oh and Alvin and I snorkeled yesterday afternoon right off the beach and saw several rays and an octopus…so damn cool

Will write more when I can must head to spa and have people giving me the evil eye for the computer.

Jen

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Wednesday July 12th - Our first dive in the Great Barrier Reef

Posted on July 12th, 2006 by Alvin and Jen.
Categories: Australia Trip.

How you going???  That seems to be the Aussie way of saying how are you.

All is good in the world here.  We had a wonderful evening last night even though we had rain most of the evening and all night long.  Dinner was fabulous - a 4 course meal on the deck - overlooking the ocean.  What is so wonderful about this resort is there is hardly anyone here - there are only 40 rooms - with a max of 80 guests and with only 60 employees, that means there are at most 140 people on this entire Island. 

After dinner we sauntered back to our villa and hit the sack pretty early as we had an early morning today.  We were up bright and early and the sun was actually out when we woke up.  We had a fabulous breakfast and then headed down to get ready for our first scuba dive.  We got suited up for wetsuits and found that we were the only ones who would be scuba diving on the boat today!  woo hoo - there was a couple from NY who were going to Snorkel - but Alvin and I, and the dive master were the only ones diving….how fabulous.

The thirty minute boat ride was not bad at all - Alvin and I chatted with the crew and played with the underwater camera during the dive out.  Also - we are going to be soooo spoiled after this trip.  We are used to having to set up our own gear, then hike down to get through the surf and swim out before we dive.  Today - the crew set up our gear for us, and all you need to do is stand there while they put your gear on for you and help you get in the water - how fabulous is that!!!!

We were in the water and from the surface, you could see to the bottom - a complete luxury for us!  Then problem number 1 - our stupid dive computers(which we drug across the world) were not reading the air level of our tanks - and you cannot dive if you do not know how much air you have in your tank.  So that really sucked - but whatever - once we were under the surface - Oh My Gosh!!!!  It was AMAZING, SPECTACULAR, GORGEOUS, I could go on and on and on.  It really was amazing.  You could see forever, and the coral is gorgeous, with giant clams and fish EVERYWHERE, was more than I ever could have imagined.

 It was hard to pull us out of the water, but we were out of air and had to head back.  We got back and headed up for the 3 course lunch (yummy) and then just finished with a 90 minute massage - I am telling you - life does not get any better than this!

Alvin is at the bar getting me a cocktail and then we are headed down to the beach.  It is between 24-25 Celcius today (around 80ish) with 93% humidity - so it is hot and humid. Tomorrow we do the outer reef dive, and I have been guaranteed to see at least 1 shark - woooo hoo!  So excited. 

 There is a line for the computer so I need to cut this short.  Hope everyone is well and will touch base again when I am able.

 Love to all -

Jen

PS - due to all the computer issues we have not been able to upload any pictures - so sorry - we will load them as soon as we get back!

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Tuesday June 11th - Our arrival on Lizard Island

Posted on July 11th, 2006 by Alvin and Jen.
Categories: Australia Trip.

I think I have died and gone to heaven.

 But let me start with the beginning of the day first.  Alvin and I got up bright and early so we could head into town to do some shopping before our 12pm pickup to head to the airport for our flight onto Lizard Island.  We said our goodbye’s to Tym, Bec and Kyle and then headed to the lobby to wait for the bus to take us into downtown Port Douglas.  We waited and waited, and no bus showed up - so we opted to hire a cab to take us there directly.  It was like 4 times the price - but got us there much quicker, so was worth it.

 We spend a couple of hours doing our last minute shopping for Lizard Island (I decided I needed more resort wear - and I was getting tired of the same t-shirts).  So we quickly bought a few things, stopped and shared a couple of meat pies and then caught our return taxi back to the resort. 

We had about twenty minutes to squeeze the new purchases into the suitcase and head down for our transport to the airport.  We were picked up in a beautiful new car and watched a DVD on the Great Barrier Reef for our hour long drive back to the Cairns airport.  The weather here has been intermintent - extremely humid with tropical storms brewing.  Has been warm with slight showers on and off - which only makes the humidity worse.

We checked in for our small charter flight to the Island and had to remove 10k of stuff from our luggage, as we were over the weight limit for our baggage.  It was comical, Alvin and I opening bags to see what we could leave behind - but we finally made the weight limit and then headed up to wait for our flight.  Our pilot showed up and did the short life vest demo in the waiting area, then the 5 of us  - well 6 including the pilot - headed out to board the small plane.

Next thing we were off on the journey.  The plane was small, not quite as small as the plane we took into the Okavengo Delta in Africa - but the second smallest plane I have ever been on!  The flight was pretty good - was only about an hour long.  Was quite cloudy for most of the flight as we were flying through a storm - which meant for a bumpy ride.  The last 10 minutes of the flight we were surrounded in clouds - did not help my comfort level when even the pilot could see nothing other than white.

We finally came out fo the clouds and were headed to the landing strip on Lizard Island.  It is so, so beautiful here.  The island is surrounded in white sandy beaches with a ton of foliage surrounding each beach.  It was breathtaking.  We were greeted when we landed by an employee to escorted us to a transport vehicle, handed us cool orange infused towels to freshen up with, and then drove us to the visitor center.

We sat down to two glasses of Australian sparkling wine and a plate of “nibbles” while we settled in.  We sat there looking at the ocean, listening to the palms around us in the breeze, and then listening to the tropical sound of warm rain on the roof above us.  It really is paradise.  After we settled,  we were escorted to our Anchor Bay Suite.  The room is wonderful.  We have a view of the ocean, with a pathway right down to the beach.  We have a wonderful veranda with two chairs looking out on the Ocean - plus there was a bottle of Sparkling Wine waiting for us. 

After we settled in we found we were booked into a Spa package!!!  So we had spa treatments included with our room.  ROCK ON!!!! So, first things first, we went down and scheduled our dives for the next three days. We are doing an inner reef dive tomorrow, an outer reef dive on Thu and then another inner reef dive on Fri.  I am SO excited.

We then headed up to the spa to schedule our treatments.  Alvin is currently getting a facial and we have treatments scheduled the next three days.  Will be a wonderful, wonderful end to this spectacular vacation.

We head up to dinner around 7ish for our dinner on the deck overlooking the reef around us - does life get any better???

 I am sitting in the visitor center where there is a line for the one computer to use - so I will have to end this now.  I will update again when I can! 

 My love to all -

Jen

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