Great Barrier Reef

The final day at Hamilton Island was a beaut: the sun shown all day with nary a hint of rain. And that was good timing, because the last day was the excursion day where conference attendees were free to spend the day seeing the sights. Most of the conference (myself included) decided to take a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef.

It was a bit nerve wracking for me, as I'd decided to take an introductory scuba diving lesson. This could possibly be the scariest thing I've ever done--in the swimming pool before we went down to the reef I was pretty sure that I was going to cough or sneeze or somehow lose my respirator and drown. Once we were down on the reef all those feelings faded. It is a unique experience being down in the water without the natural time limit of holding your breath. Moving among the fish (who clearly had seen us before and weren't threatened in the least) was like flying through a fantasy landscape. Being with the "never dived before" group meant that there were four of us and one instructor.

I was pretty sure that I was the only one scared half out of his mind, but found out later that another member of my group was actually hyperventilating in the swimming pool from nervousness. Unfortunately, the instructor had to take him back ten minutes earlier because he had run through more of the oxygen in his tank.

I'm glad I got the full experience, back on dry land it seems as scary as before, and I'm pretty sure I'll go through full training before I head back underwater again.

The boat returned to Hamilton Island around 5:00, giving time to find a nice spot to watch the sunset. I stumbled across the "Hamilton Island Observatory" and a bunch of vacationers waiting for the colors to show. They even had a mobile snack and drink bar set up. Ah, the tropics.