Bucket Lists and Big Sheep

     Easter Weekend.  A huge deal here down under.  A four-day public holiday.  Nothing open, except for occasional restaurants that want to pay their staff hefty wages for working weekends AND holiday pay.  So, there’s no one in the offices, most of the work is wrapped up and what isn’t needs the in-country people to be engaged with us to work through issues.  So here we have our quandary.  US people don’t have days off for the Friday and the Monday, but can’t do much.  So … what to do?  Thursday night we started pursuing one of my bucket list items.

     Now mind you, this is Thursday night before the four-day Easter weekend in which in entire continent takes a holiday and schools start a two-week break.  Chances of finding cheap accommodations, airfare, or anything like that would be very slim.  My goal: The Great Barrier Reef.  There’s a tour company that offers a day of snorkeling the Reef, then a night out on a pontoon under the stars 40 nautical miles from shore, more snorkeling and diving in the morning and then back into shore around noon with meals included.  With my heart set on that and those in my small group of two others, someone looked at airfare into the Whitsunday area.  Flying into Hamilton Island was $1,600 roundtrip.  Welp, there goes that bucket list item for this trip.

     Not one to give up so easily, I took the proverbial reins of the ipad and told the others to continue their wine and beer drinking whilst I worked some 1s and 0s magic (maybe).  A relatively quick look at a couple other locations to fly into (and after closing the 87 apps the person had open on their iPad) had me looking at round trip flights for $208 USD, car rental for $72 USD and a two-hour drive from Mackay to Airlie Beach where we needed to be.  Doable?  Hell, yeah.

     One of the group wanted to book the flight and car right then, but I wanted to wait on the dive/snorkel availability first.  So, in the morning, she was going to call at 8am and check the availability on the ReefSleep tour.  Well, sadly, that was a bust, all sold out for Friday night.  However, there was a day trip available that was $80 USD cheaper.  I’d miss out on seeing some incredible star gazing, but still get the major reason I wanted to go.  So, we all dove in… see what I did there?  5:00 PM flight to Mackay, on the ground by 6:30 got dinner, and we were at the hotel around 9:30, just before the downpour of the hour.

     The next morning, I was awash with excitement.  It would be a two and a half hour fast boat ride to Knuckle Reef.  During the ride we met two interesting guys (from Orange County no less!) who are working on a movie that is being filmed at Gold Coast.  I can’t say much here on the interwebs, but I will tell you all in person when I see you. ;)  Needless to say, it’s a big movie.  They’re off for a week or two as well and getting some diving in at the Reef.  There was a gaggle of college students from all over the States studying at the University of Brisbane.  It was neat to chat with all of them.

     So, I really didn’t “dive” the Reef in the sense of using SCUBA equipment.  However, using the term “dive” in the sense of swimming under water, then I dove the Great Barrier Reef.  I spent as much time under the water looking around as I could.  I didn’t have cash to fork over for the dive lesson/equipment rental/etc.  Instead, I spent about five hours swimming around the Reef.  A very moving experience to say the least.

Sunset in Airlie Beach.

     One of the tenets I try to live by is that I would rather regret doing something than regret not doing something.  I have no regrets at all other than it was a bit expensive to do the trip.  It will be something I cherish for as long as I can remember.  The cost of the trip will fade from   The fact that I was swimming with lion, trigger, parrot, angel, damsel, and all sorts of other fish, interacting with giant clams, looking at some pretty bright colored coral in places, and in general seeing one of seven natural wonders of the world, I was humbled by the whole experience.
memory.

     The next day, we had to travel back to Mackay and fly back to Brisbane since I had a flight from Brisbane on Monday morning to Sydney.  So we decided to see the beaches down there.  It was Easter Sunday.  Here is what my Easter Sunday looked like:

Me at Blacks Beach, Mackay.

Eimeo Beach.  Crowded, eh?

     I’m writing this from my new digs in Bondi Beach.  My apartment is 3-4 minutes’ walk from dozens of restaurants and shops.  Another couple minutes brings you right to Bondi Beach.

     The words to a song have been running through my head since I landed here that some of you may know:  “Here we are in New South Wales.  Shearing sheep as big as whales…”.  Well, signing off from New South Wales:  cheers!