Jump to content

Aussies LVII


Stubby

Recommended Posts

Dear ladies and gents of Aussieland,

I'll be heading your way there next month. I have work stuff in Cairns for a week in July (6-13 July), then Sydney (3 days) for merrymaking. If any of you are in Cairns/ Sydney around those dates, I would love to meet you. So far, Ski is the only Aussie boarder I've met. Please help erase the bad impression. :)

I kid! Ski was lovely. He bit my hand though and patted my hair. (Ski, I'll visit you soon!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, you're OK with the Hoop snakes?

I don't know who that is, and I don't care to find out.

I'm starting to think I need to visit Australia before I head to the next gig. Is it true that koalas can crush coconuts between their paws? (also a friend is getting married there in two years, and your ilk are possibly the coolest national collective on the board)

...

Don't tell Canada.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somewhere near Melbourne. There may be a farm involved. There was talk of freshly butchered meat. Honestly, the prospect of fresh steak is almost enough to make me go. The wedding, the scuba diving, the board folks, the weather, the beaches, the fauna...those are just the baked potato and cole slaw. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somewhere near Melbourne. There may be a farm involved. There was talk of freshly butchered meat. Honestly, the prospect of fresh steak is almost enough to make me go. The wedding, the scuba diving, the board folks, the weather, the beaches, the fauna...those are just the baked potato and cole slaw. :D

I doubt they will do fresh steak. If its for a function like a wedding its more likely to be a pig or a lamb on a spit with rolls, butter and gravy.

There are a bunch of Melbourne boarders that will likely be keen for a meet when you get there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt they will do fresh steak. If its for a function like a wedding its more likely to be a pig or a lamb on a spit with rolls, butter and gravy.

There are a bunch of Melbourne boarders that will likely be keen for a meet when you get there.

Oh. My. God. My mouth is watering already, and the wedding's not for another year or something insane like that.

I wish I could come meet up sooner, but there's no way I'd be able to afford two trips in two years, plus a likely obligatory trip home in that time. School is too expensive. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dear ladies and gents of Aussieland,

I'll be heading your way there next month. I have work stuff in Cairns for a week in July (6-13 July), then Sydney (3 days) for merrymaking. If any of you are in Cairns/ Sydney around those dates, I would love to meet you. So far, Ski is the only Aussie boarder I've met. Please help erase the bad impression. :)

I kid! Ski was lovely. He bit my hand though and patted my hair. (Ski, I'll visit you soon!)

The Aussies were great to me EB. So great, that I even poke my head into thier thread from time to time to see what these crazy bastards are up to.

As a side note, if you get some free time in Cairns, and I dunno if you are certified or not, but you can dive on the Great Barrier Reef from there. Even if you are not certified you could do an .'adventure dive' or a snorkeling trip. I am certified but I opted for snorkeling (kinda regret not diving), but even snorkeling was a great experience. The reef is so close to the surface in some places tht you really don't need to dive to experience it.

Sydney's a blast too. Beautiful city. As far as the 'this is really nice' factor goes, it blows any major American city I've been to away. Has everything and is just super well maintained. I kept trying to think of an American city that its like, but its its own thing. Cool place

Link to comment
Share on other sites

S John, where have you dived? I hear about diving in AUS, but no one ever seems to rank it highly, compared to island places like Malaysia, Indonesia, Micronesia, etc. The only thing I've heard for certain is that it's way more expensive to dive in AUS than in those other places.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LL,

It depends on where you dive. Great Barrier Reef is fantastic, but there are lots of red tape as its a very sensitive area (World Heritage location). You need to get training before they allow you to dive, etc. Also, tourists, or normal populace in general, aren't the most knwoledgable about corals, so alot of time you see people trying to touch things, and there are corals that are known to die off if touched, as the oil from your skin can be very damaging to them. And there are many highly sensitive corals in the reef.

I think there are some other nice location around Australia for diving, but they don't tend to be as popular. I believe Paxter mentioned a nice place in Western Australia, but I forget the name. Plus, those areas tend to be expensive, and the dollar being what it is, it can put a lot of people off. Which is probably why Aussies just go to the beach and laze around under the sun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see. Don't worry, I'm not some stupid jag that steps on corals and grabs pieces for souvenirs. I can't stand those people. I saw someone walking through some low corals once and began wishing decompression sickness upon them.

How much red tape is there? I've dived at Sipadan, where we had to apply for permits about a week in advance and then wait, hoping to be allowed in. I enjoy diving anywhere, I've just often wondered if the GBR is a fluffed reputation reputation, or actually, truly, really stunning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortuantely, I haven't been to the Reef. So can't help you there, but everyone who went there was floored by the colors displayed on the Reef.

I am not sure about the permit thing either. But digging around the internet, this seems to be a decent site:

- Cost of scuba diving: http://www.divinginaustralia.com.au/scuba/costs.asp

- The certification process: http://www.divinginaustralia.com.au/scuba/certification.asp

The website also has diving locations around Australia. Hopefully someone who has done diving can help with regards to waiting times after the certification process (if there are any).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LL I've only done maybe 6 or 7 dives. Most all of them were in Thailand but I did 2 in Indonesia as well. IMO, the snorkeling I did on the GBR was better than anything I saw in either of those places as far as reefs go. It was seriously stunning.

That said, these tour boats that go out with 30 people on them probably don't even take you to the best places. And if they do they kind of guage currents / weather, etc and probably have like 12 possible sites they could go to on a given day... so who knows if they normally go to the same places I went to. We went to 3 sites, and the first 2 were pretty 'meh' to me. But the last one... the last one was fucking awesome. It was at the end of the day and I was tired so I almost didn't even feel like putting the stinger suit on and going into the water. But, I did, and man, that place was kick ass. The reef was so close and the colors were amazing. You wouldn't have needed to dive there. In fact, the best reef I saw during the day you wouldnt have even been able to dive it becuase was so shallow.

But again, take that for what its worth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...