Diving into it!

Beth and I are going on holiday to Australia next month!  We decided to take advantage of the Easter and Ching Ming Festival holidays running together this year, giving us a 5 day weekend.  IN total our 9 day vacation will only 'cost' us 4 vacation days which is a plus.  Originally we'd thought about heading to Sydney, Hunter Wine Valley and North Queensland, but after going through the options it was clear what we really wanted was more than a few days on the beach.  Even though Sydney is something to see, sometimes time away from the big cities is most preferred.  Specifically, we'll be going to Cairns, the most common jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef.  I think Beth mentioned in an earlier blog post, how we went snorkeling in Hawaii and had a great time.  We loved the idea of going snorkeling at the reef, as we're told there are lots of unique creatures to see that only live in that area.

In thinking about how visiting the reef may be a once in a lifetime opportunity, we decided to take our experience to the next level and try scuba diving!  In order to be fully prepared and not have to spend any holiday time in a classroom, we took a scuba course this past weekend which involved coursework, tests and scuba dives in a swimming pool only 3 metres deep.

Scuba diving it turns out is much more complex and a bit more stressful than we probably thought, but it is also lots of fun! In the middle of our first dive, I remember wondering whether I was going to be able to handle this for real once in open water.  I had trouble - a few times t ook water into my mouth when removing and reinserting my regulator (breathing device); I had to come up to the top to remove excess water.  However, by the end of the day, I felt like a natural and am looking forward to diving in the open water in Cairns! Hopefully, we'll find a way to get a water proof camera down there to take pictures!

Honestly, scuba diving isn't something I ever thought I would be interested in, but can totally see this being something we get into and look to do when we go on holiday.  Apparently there are lots of good places to dive in Southeast Asia.  One exception to that is Hong Kong -- not too many places with good visibility here due to the pollution, I'm sure.

We'll keep you posted on our adventures!