E-mail to Family January 10th 2010


I have to wake up at 7 to get ready to go to the airport. The bus for us is coming at 745 and the flight is at 10 am. Then get Brisbaine at about 12 and then an hour drive to Bond.
The Great Barrier Reef was AMAZING! I went scuba diving because they have a program where the instructors will take uncertified people down for a little while. I LOVED it. Got to see some Nemo's. We wore these blue wetsuits that made us look like huge smerfs but they protected us from the sum and jellyfish which are really prominent this time of year in Queensland and I didn't get stung yey! I felt like a penguin walking around on the deck trying to get over to where we jumped off from and me feet are sore from trying to flap them in the water the right way. You can tell dad that it was a big 90 ft. boat and I got to drive it for a little bit. Make him jealous :-). Since it was torrential down-pouring for about 12 hours strait yesterday and today the water was not as clear as apparently it can be but it is still the clearest water that I have ever swam in regardless. Also it ended up being a nice sunny day so I was happy for that. After the dive we went snorkeling and I felt like I drank about half the ocean. The water kept coming in the tube and I didn't like that part to much. I rented an underwater camera and it was completely worth it. I got some really great pictures and since I had so idea what type of fish I was looking at, I got a card that described all the species of fish in the Reef. I got to take it so I will give that to dad when I get home. Where we stopped was an bird sanctuary and a lot of people laid on the beach but I was to interested chasing fish around the reef to take there picture that I never made it to the beach. Dad would have really liked today with all the fish and the boat. I'm not sure what to call it but I'm sure that he would be able to tell me. I did have a motor and a sail though. There were these strange net things that people sat on and got waves crashed on them on the boat ride out there. I sat on them on the way back where I met a very nice New Zealand couple. The are 3 and 5 years older than me and just got engaged over here on vacation. I really liked talking to them and getting to know them. I learned a lot from them too. For example "choice" means cool and in New Zealand when you are coming off a buzz from alcohol it is "naked". I couldn't figure out what he said the first time lol. I think one of the biggest differences that we talked about was the schooling system. We had discussed it a little bit with Australean but here you can not go to college and get a good job. The woman that I met was out of school since she was 16 and had a good job. Also what would be a Community colleges to us are not looked down upon here. They are the specialized in certain trades which are valued by the job market which then makes the Universities are very highly looked upon. They also graduate high school when you are about 17. I got their information(like Granddad would have wanted) and maybe I can go visit them if I ever get to New Zealand. I am trying to put up pictures at the moment but they are on facebook so you might want to head up to Cort's if you can.
I will probably be on for about another hour. I hope that you get online so I can talk to you.