Wednesday, July 31, 2013
This will be the shortest post in terms of having the fewest photos to share with all of you, and that is because the adults took a full day trip (8:00am-4:30pm) to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef. What about the kids you are probably wondering?? Well, Ann Ming researched
nanny and
babysitting services before our trip, and had booked a nanny to come to our apartment in the Cairns Aquarius to watch Ro Ro and Zaydee for the whole day!
Going to the Great Barrier Reef is an absolute must-do, especially for people like James and I who enjoy DVD's like Planet Earth and LIFE. We would have liked to go more than one day, but it would be too much to leave Ro Ro and Zaydee for a full day again. So we settled for one, fabulous, incredible, unforgettable diving day!
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| Pretty big boat, with an inside cabin that had about 10 tables and could sit at least 50 people. |
To prepare for our diving trip, which includes a 90 minute each-way really really rough boat ride from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef islands, we took whatever motion sickness medicine we needed. I had a patch behind my ear the night before, took Dramamine an hour before our trip, and took another Zofran when we started moving on the boat... because it was ROCKY, like occasional catch-air footsteps as you hold on tightly to furniture and try to move from one place to another. Just thinking about the boat is making me nauseated right now. Not kidding.
Fortunately, the medicine worked!!! And it was not a miserable ride for any of us - yippee (well, not the 4 of us at least...). We chose to go with
Tusa Dive, and would definitely recommend them!
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| They served some breakfast pastries with hot chocolate or coffee in the morning, and we had a cold lunch (meats, cheeses, salad, bread, chips) at noontime. |
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| The back of the boat, where you jump into the water! |
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| Equipment area where you get your COLD wetsuits on and put on all your gear. BRRRR!!! |
On our 90 min. boat ride to and from the Great Barrier Reef, we were able to see whales a couple of times! There is a restriction for boats to get too close to the whales, so it was hard to capture the whales clearly by camera, but in person, it was pretty incredible to see them splashing around!!!
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| Do you see them??? |
During the boat ride, we were separated into certified and non-certified divers. Ann Ming and Kevin are already certified divers, so they went upstairs and had their orientation there. James and I have never dived before, so we stayed downstairs for an introductory dive orientation. Basically for the introductory dive, you learn everything you need to know to go diving, (like clearing your ears... a lot!), except you have to pass a skills test in the water first before they let you actually go diving, i.e. clearing your mask underwater, finding your breathing apparatus if it falls out, and how to clear your breathing apparatus if water gets inside. Then during your dives, you are accompanied by a certified instructor in a ratio of 1:3 or 1:4, which is great.
Another difference between certified and non-certified divers was that James and I were able to do 2 dives, whereas Ann Ming and Kevin could do 3 dives. The boat also stopped in 2 different locations so you could get a different view.
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| Kevin and Ann Ming all geared up! |
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| James and Grace all geared up! |
The equipment they gave us was great. You could tell because the masks wouldn't leak or get fogged up at all, the wet suits were warm and thick, and we had booties we wore in addition to the fins, which helped to keep us warm. The instruction was very clear too. Even though there are a lot of nerves before the dive, since it is a small ratio of divers to instructors, they go at your pace and really make you feel comfortable by using all sorts of hand gestures underwater, constantly checking your air gauge for you, guiding you at all times, etc. For me, personally, I found using my regular yoga breath (Ujjayi) helped me not only stay calm underwater, but also I was able to save a lot of oxygen in the tank and dive longer.
You know how you go to any attraction, like Disneyland, or a zoo, and they always take your picture so that you'll maybe buy it later? Well, this is one of those occasions where buying a few pictures was SO worth it, otherwise, we would've never had a photo to capture the memory of diving underwater!!! So worth it.
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| James took a photo first - they gave us those license plates to hold underwater. |
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| Up close to the Real Nemo and the Sea Anemone! |
We didn't see any sharks (whew!) but we did get to swim alongside a green sea turtle, with literally just blue water everywhere around us. Just like those DVDs! We saw lots of fish, and actually the coral was amazing to see because of all the different colors and sea animals!
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| Ann Ming and Kevin diving together. |
After our full-day adventure, we returned home to relieve the nanny. Of course Ro Ro and Zaydee were thrilled to see us, but it was pretty much bedtime. We fed them some Pho and tucked them to bed =)
Because of this diving experience, James and I are planning to get our full diving certification! It was so clear underwater, and we found it so peaceful and beautiful. Truly memorable...
