Time is of the essence

I openly admit that my memory is pretty bad. I have trouble remembering what I ate for dinner yesterday, nevermind things from before the age of 12. However, I can vividly remember the day when my mother forgot to turn the clocks forward. I was probably about 8, and like any other Sunday my mother, sister and I headed to church to be there as it began at 10am. Needless to say when we arrived at what we thought was a little before 10, everyone was singing and looking at us like we were insane. We soon realized that we had forgot to turn our clocks and were actually arriving as Church ended. At least in this instance, besides suffering from slight embarassment, we didn't have the overhwhelming stress of being late. That has not been the case for me the past couple of days. The morning of my Great Barrier Reef dive, I was all set to get up at 6:30, for a 7:30 check-in at the boat. I double-checked my vodofone alarm, and went to sleep after a great day exploring Cairns. In the morning I woke up and looked at my wrist watch and read 7:30. How could this be happening!?! Apparently my vodofone wasn't set forward to the correct time. I did a mad dash downstairs at my hostel to see if someone could drive me to the harbor, and when I got there ran all the way down the pier to my boat in a bikini (thats all I had a chance to grab) waving my ticket. The nice gentlman from Colorado standing outside the boat told me that check-in was actually from 7:30 to 8:30 and that I was not late, but asked me to please go back to the main office and check-in properly, which I did, still in my bikini, but this time laughing with all the people who had just seen my half-naked body sprinting in the other direction. You would think that after this happening I would learn from my mistake, but no. The other morning I had a 6:45 am pick-up outside my hostel in Sydney to begin my 21 day Adventure Tour through the center of Australia. I had my alarm set for 6:15 (this is sounding familiar), but when I awoke and read my wrist watch (7:15). Holy crap. Not only did this tour cost me about $2,500 but if I missed it, I would miss my flight from Darwin to Singapore on March 31st. I ran downstairs in my underwear, and once I got the number for the tour company, begged them to come back and pick me up. Luckily the driver was nice enough to turn around and come get me (which NEVER happens.) I apologized for starting our relationship off on a bad foot, but assured him that he would grow to love me. Since then Squirtal (he refuses to tell me how he got that name) has grown to love his self appointed co-pilot.


Diving The Great Barrier Reef, was all that I hoped it would be, but certainly not what I expected. I always imagined the reef being right on the coast, fairly small, surrounded by crystal clear water and white sand beaches. I soon found out that the reef itself is hundreds of miles long, and that it takes a 2 hour boat ride to get there! When I always heard how tourists are destroying the reef I never fathomed how that was possible - but on the day I dove there must have been 200 people on my boat, and 25 other boats doing the exact same thing. Don't be fooled, this is a money making enterprise, shuttling out 4,000 poeple a day, at at least $200 a person, who kick, touch and step on the reef, I can see now how it is being destroyed at a price. Since the reef is so large, the "exclusive site" our boat stopped out was only for us. I liked my first dive so much that I booked two more 45 minute dives in the afternoon. The food was fantastic, the instructors were cute, the underwater scenery was beautiful, the sun was shining and the adrenaline was pumping. Some people weren't comfortable breathing underwater and couldn't go down, but this was made for me! I felt like Ariel from the Little Mermaid except I couldn't talk underwater, which was probably the most frustrating part for me, as I had a million things to say and jokes to make about everything (but I had to stop myself from laughing underwater which I learned the hard way floods water into your mask, and at 30ft below sea level that isn't fun!)


After all my travels, and adrenaline pumping activities, I was beginning to think I was fearless - white water rafting, bungey jumping, sky diving, caving, snorkelling - nothing has been too scary for me. BUT on my last day in Cairns I finally met my match and found something that scared the crap out of me - driving a scooter. Go ahead laugh, but they are scary!!! My friend Fraser and I rented these bright yellow beasts to drive outside of town to swimming holes, cliff jumping and rainforrests. They were heavy, akward, and since everytime I took my hand off the handle bar I rocked from side to side, I wasn't able to itch my face for long periods at a time, not to mention all the people driving by at 100mph flicking us off and screaming at us as we cruised along at granny-speed. Even with all these perrils, the trip out of town was amazing!


As I mentioned before, I began my 21 day Adventure Tour on Monday. We headed first to the capital of Australia, Canberra, which was kind of like a ghost town, but we did get to see the parliment buildings and a quick visit to the local mall. We stayed the night in the Alpine Village of Thredbo, and got up early in the morning to hike "The Roof of Australia" or better known as Mt Kosciuszko (the highest mountain in OZ.) It was only slightly raining at the bottom of the mountain but after we took the chairlift up the rain began, and it didn't stop. I quickly earned the nickname "G.I. Jane" because I stormed up the hill ready to get to the summit, and as I marched on I felt like Luitenant Dan from Forrest Gump, battling the elements, but much to my dismay, even though I got the farthest of anyone in my group, I had to turn around 2.5km from the top because the weather was unbearable. After I got feeling back in my fingers, and changed my soaking wet clothes, we headed along the Barry Way, an extremely windy road with spectacular views overlooking the Snowy River. We spent the night in the coastal town of Lakes Entrance, the gateway to the Gippsland Lakes and Australia's longest beach - Ninety Mile Beach. After an early morning rise (6:30am, which seems so much earlier now that I am unemployed) we headed to Australia's most southerly point, Wilsons Promontory National Park. We saw all sorts of Australian wildlife on our trip. We all swormed out of the car to take a picture of a large snake in the middle of the road, then turned the bus around and while driving past watched the snake be smooshed by an uncoming truck. We also saw (living) wombats, kangeroos, emu's and lots of other little creatures, as well as large granite rocks and beautiful coastal views. After a brief night in Melbourne tonight, tomorrow I get up early again to head along the Great Ocean Road and on to Adelaide.