Check that off the list!

So we have been in Sydney for a little over a week. We have found a place to live, moved in, checked out the neighbourhood, de-cockroached our new flat, gone to the beach, got
our diving liscences, toured the uni, the city and the harbours, gotten sunburned.....


A pretty succcessful I week I do believe.


A little more detail? Ok. Kristine and I found a completely furnished flat - completely furnished. I mean beds, couches, tv, plates, forks, hangers, everything. We bought the necessities and bug killer, as the roaches just loved a vacated place. They are mostly gone now. Don't be too grossed out, they are apparently very difficult to avoid here. It never gets cold enough to kill them off. But we are living on the second floor of a terrace house that is over 100 years old. It is in the oldest part of Sydney called the Rocks - its the first place settled here. Very cool. The Harbour Bridge runs nearly overhead, which is pretty neat. And we can see the Opera House in the distance. You can see water from the front window, as well as the back windows, as we are on Millers Point, the little jetty of land that seperates Darling Harbour from Circular Quay (the harbour the Opera House is in). We completely lucked out with this accomodation. Pretty much unheard of so we have not one single complaint. Even the obloxiously loud boat horns have found their place.

This is a view from the front windowThis is looking towards Darling Harbour at the side of our building (back is to the Opera House)Because we found ourselves in Sydney for a decent amount of time, we decided to take our PADI Open Water Divers Liscence! So now all three of us (and Anders from Denmark) are now certified Scuba Divers! Don't we look amazing in our gear. Its alot lighter once you're in the water! So now, when we head up to the Great Barrier reef we can independently dive up to 18m. Not that we will go by ourselves - definately will go with a guide. Lets just say we all have something underwater that we are not a fan of. Kristine doesn't like her sharks. Kev isn't a fan of sea urchins and I still hyperventilate a little around sea weed forests. The water up north will be a lot clearer than what we learned to dive in. We dove at Bare Island, where the visibility was only 2-3m. So basically you follow the flippers of the person infront of you. The vis up north will be about 10m which will be so amazing!This is where we dove at. Its called Bare Island, and was actually used in Mission Impossible 2. Its a navy base built into the rock of the island. Pretty cool looking. Our first to dives we did on the right side of the bridge, the second day we dove on the left side. The second day was definately better - we were able to swim with schools of fish, rock fish, nearly landed on a sting ray and saw some Rock Shark eggs. Very cool and slightly terrifying, but very very cool. So we've been in Sydney for just over a week, and as our Australian record shows, thats about as long as we stay anywhere for a continuous period. So we're heading north tomorrow, to the hot hot hot Great Barrier Reef (kind weird to be going north to the hotter weather!). We train it to Brisbane tomorrow, stay there for a few days, then hopefully make our way to Fraser Island, further north to Noosa and Rockhampton and Airlie Beach, followed by some sailing and diving around the Whitsundays! Then back down to Byron Bay before heading back to Sydney and started school....right school. That is why I'm here....

You can also now leave messages on my blog, I believe. Kev changed the settings. You can also check out his blog, he has some amazing pictures too! chubey.blogspot.com

Hope all is going great back at home! It was good to talk to the fam on Saturday - miss you all! And a big shout out to Uncle Gregg, who is now as healthy as every!!!! So happy for you!

Cheers all and can't wait to hear from you! Keep me posted!