It's almost 8 p.m. here on Friday night (5 a.m. Thursday in Texas). I woke up this morning to rain, which did not bode well for my snorkeling trip. Got on the huge boat, which started out smooth but then eventually hit rain and really choppy waters and started bouncing and rocking back left and right. It was not a pleasant ride once the workers had to stand by with cups of ice and kept on dispensing out new seasick bags.
When we finally arrived at the pontoon (basically a floating station on the reef), I got my snorkel gear and full-body suit (which I shrugged off at first since the woman said was it for sun protection, but then she added, "... and jellyfish" so I helped myself to one). Visibility unfortunately was not that great. I bought a waterproof 35 mm camera to use, but I have no idea how the pictures will turn out.
I had problems with my mask leaking, so I kept on inhaling salt water so I couldn't swim as far as I wanted to. I got annoyed when I was turning around in the water and thought that someone's flipper was in my face, but then it turned out to be a giant fish! I did manage to choke it up and follow this single reef for a bit. Then I raised my head out of the water and panicked because I couldn't see the boat. But then it turns out I was about 90 degrees off from where I thought I was. I guess that's why they suggested having "snorkel buddies"!
Finally I got out of the water and lay out on the sun deck to dry, and wouldn't you know it, the sun came out and the water turned to sapphire blue. By then I was too exhausted to go back in, so I figured I'd lay out in the sun and get the last feelings of warm weather while I can because it'll definitely be gone once I fly to New Zealand.
While laying out, this woman came up to me because she noticed that I was traveling alone. We started talking about solo trips and she told me she was taking a 10-day trip with her daughter and then we both started talking about the things we had to do when going alone (i.e. keeping a journal or else go crazy from the lack of talking). I spent about 15 minutes talking to her before she went to sit down, and then her daughter who was my age started complaining to me about how her mom kept needing to "make friends" while traveling, but then of course she wound up talking a lot to me about what she would do if she was going alone and how it was hard to plan long trips with friends around our age because people didn't have the money or time for vacations like that.
So overall, the snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, but I enjoyed just relaxing for a bit and having random conversations with strangers - people you would never talk to if you were back home.
Tomorrow morning I'm flying out to Sydney (at 5:45 a.m.!), and then hanging out at the airport until my flight to Auckland. Just booked a room at City Lodge in Auckland. I might hoard up some cheesy Australian souvenirs at the airport. I was looking at these change purses the other day and picked up a bag which I thought was made of leather, but I looked more closely and it turned out to be kangaroo scrotum. So yes, y'all will be getting some mighty interesting souvenirs!
Here's a parting pic of Bondi Beach in Sydney, and probably one of the most popular cars here.
