Last night there was an australian BBQ at my hostel. For 10 dollars we got all we could eat. and then some. they served us kangaroo, crocodile, and then the world famous australian sausage. They claimed that that sausage had won a german sausage competition, but the german backpackers didn't agree. "deze zauzagez aah not betteh than ze german onez."

The kangaroo was dark red, and reminded me of deer steak or something like that. the crocodile had white meat, and event though it wasn't the best meat I've had its still meat. and meat is good…mm…..fresh meat….
And I must hand it to the australians about the sausage. it was really great.

After the dinner the guy in charge, Gabriel, pulled out some Didgeridoos. they are basically a stick hollowed out by termites. the aboriginal people of australia used to play them. He then randomly selected four people from the crowd, and I was off course one of them.  I always end up getting picket out to do stuff like that. Gabriel gave us all a crash course in playing the instrument and then we had to perform. in front of 50 people or something. that wasn't really too bad, even though I sucked (not literally) at it.

I got some pictures, but for some odd reason I can't get them online. maybe I'll have to mail someone back home or something.

today I'm on the bus down to Air and tomorrow I'll dive The Yongala. supposedly the best wreck in Australia. after that I will be going down to Airly Beach for my instructors exam on saturday and sunday. I'm really looking forward to that.  after I'm certified I will start looking for work. You will know when I've got a job.

Oh yeah.. another thing. the temperature here in Cairns is about 35 degrees and it is humid like hell. but I'm slowly adjusting.

my bus is leaving in 15 minutes so I've got to go now. later….

Alright. I did mess up my spelling and grammer in the last entry I made, and a few of you buggers out there were very kind and pointed the errors out to me. I'll try to improve guys.

I spent thursday getting to know downtown Cairns a little bit, and I got to know some of the people at my hostel. Cairns seems to be a town very much oriented towards backpackers and tourists in general. there's a company organising tours on every street corner, and there are lots of hostels and gift shops all over the place. Not to mention dive centers. They are truly all over the place. I think I saw at least ten dive centers thursday afternoon. late in the afternoon my hostel informed me that there was going to be a liveaboard out to the Great Barrier Reef friday morning. There was only one available spot left, and when I found out that there was a 75 dollar discount I decided to go. I am not regretting that even for a second. Even though I did't sleep for more than 2,5 hours I woke up before my alarm went off at about 05:30 friday morning. It was probably because of the jet lag as well as general exitement.

The tour operator, ProDive, came and picked me up and off we went. After a short stop by the dive shop we headed for the harbor and boarded the boat that we were going to live on for two and a half day. Compared to the other dive boats this was a rather small one and could "only" accomodate about 35 people. The larger ones can handle five times that amount. pretty crazy if you ask me.

we left the harbour area and started to eat breakfast. During the breakfast we were introduced to the crew, the routines on board, and we were also divided into different cabins. The crew consisted mainly of young instructors from England, New Zealand, and Australia. the other passengers were from all over europe and there were also a couple of americans. One of them actually started diving in 1969. pretty cool guy. His favorite underwater activity was spearfishing. no wonder he was such a cool guy. 🙂

during this trip I got 11 dives, and that might seem like an outragous figure. especially because we normally only do 2 dives pr day back home. The diving was very strict and organised however. there was two guys at the surface at all times, and there were also one or two instructors in the water. We were given maximum depths and maximum dive times, and we had to sign ourselves in and out of the water every time. the day started with the deepest dive to a maximum 18 meters, and the last two dives of the day were shallower than 12 meters, often times not deeper than 9-10 meters. 

The reef was great. I could probably have written page up and page down about all the cool stuff we saw. but that would probably be boring to some of you and the rest of you will just hate me if I tell you how great it was. so I'll just cut it down to a minimum.

We went to three different reefs and saw lots of cool organisms of all sorts. White tip reef sharks, blue spotted stingrays, butterfly fish, damsel fish, clown fish (yep… that would be Nemo), unicorn fish, lobsters, giant clams, turtles and a bunch of other cool fish. One of the coolest sightings was a Giant Moray Eel at a cleaner station during the middle of the day. normally they only come out at night, but this was was getting cleaned up a bit. there were cleaner shrimp going in and out of its mouth and some tiny fish were picking parasites on its skin. pretty neat stuff. 

We just got back on shore just a couple of hours ago and tonight there's going to be a big party organised by the dive center. it will be tons of fun. I will hopefully be aquainted with the Australian beer, and maybe the australians will get to know Rose tonight. who knows…. hehe… 

oh yeah. another thing. all the australians say :no worries, mate!" all the freaking time. they are hilarious. 

I will see if I'm able to post some pictures tomorrow when I'm hung over. 

later…  

After too many hours I am finally in Australia. It's really dawning on me now how big an adventure this is. I tried to update the blog when I had 6 hours in Hong Kong, but something happened. I wrote a whole lot about the flights, the stay in Hong Kong, and also a fun part about chinese people. But since it all disappeared on me maybe it was for the better. anyways… I have previously traveled long trip four times, and every single time I have lost my bags on the way. Well… I have not done it but the airline did. I was therefore quite amazed when my backpack emerged after 15 minutes. credits to Cathay Pacific.

anyways… I am fine, I got my luggage, and I have fund a nice to live. no worries, mate!

tomorrow I will walk around the different dive centers and see what job my winning smile , my certificates, and last but least my superfit body will get me. :-p

later…

Today is the big day. In an hour or two I will start my trip to Australia. The first part of it will be a general warm-up, which I have been traveling lots of times before. First I will take the bus into Oslo and I will hook up with Vegard for lunch. The flight for London is scheduled to leave at 17:10, and will probably reach London within about two hours. In Heathrow I will change flights and get on a plane to Hong Kong, and from there I will get on another plane to Cairns, Australia. Can't really say I'm too exited about two flights lasting more than 12 hours EACH. I will have lots of time to read books, and watch films I guess.

I actually slept quite good last night. Usually I will have some problems with that the night before a long trip, but this time I was calm. Kind of strange really. this is the first trip where I don't know how long I will stay, exactly where I will go and so on. But thats alright. It will be an great adventure and I'm looking forward to it. Its a win-win situation as I see it. If I'm able to get myself a job within the diving industry, that would be great. I would love it, and would be able to support myself and be able to do some more traveling. If, on the other hand, I'm not able to get a job, I will have to settle with some amazing world class diving. what a bummer that will be.

Can't really say that I will miss the wet and cold climate of Trondheim too much. Last I heard it was a staggering 29 degrees in the water off the coast of Cairns. The water in Trondheim was about 6 degrees last week.

I will try to update the blog as I go and I think I might have as much as five hours between flights in Hong Kong. so we'll see.

See ya'll down under!

K

Alright. there will be some changes here. first of all I will update the damn thing alot more often. secondly, I will write in english. Blame it on the canadians. you know who you are.

To make a long story short this is what has happened the last 6 months. I have quit the university and dropped out of my master degree. I found out a little late that it was not for me. A friend of mine started to ask me some questions about it and I suddenly realized that my advisor had been a real prick, and did contribute to the choice I made. oh well… 'nuff said about that.
One of my brothers, Björn, is studying to become a nurse in Adelaide, Australia. Last year my dad promised that he would pay my ticket to australia so we could go and visit Björn. Since I have been dreaming about diving in the tropics and maybe even work at a dive center, this was a really great opportunity for me. I have a brand spanking new passport, a working holiday visa, and a bunch of diving certificates, so I'm all good to go.
Last week I also broke up with my girlfriend. actually it might be more accurate to say "we broke up", than " I broke up", because it was more a common agreement than anything else. She finished her masters degree and got a nice job up north. She moved there about a month ago, so I haven't seen her in a while. since the relationship haven't really been the best the last couple of months and we're now not even living in the same city, this was the most logical thing to do. It's sad, but necessary I'm afraid.
I have quit my job, and moved out of my appartment in Trondheim, so now I guess home is where my rump rests (to paraphrase Pumba in The Lion King).

anyways… back to Australia. I'm leaving norway on monday (that would be the fifth of march), and will land in Cairns. The first week or so I will try to get some contacts, do some diving, and maybe do an Oxygen Provider course. I will need that later to get a job. Then I will sign up for the exam for the Padi Instructor. I will be able to do that in Airly Beach a short busride south of Cairns about the 16th to the 18th of march. After that I will be all set to get a job as a Padi Diving Instructor. It's gonna be great! this is something I have been wanting to do for several years, and I know that if I don't do it now I will always regret it. So I'm off!

The last week in Trondheim was fantastic. alot of friends came and said goodbye, and a friend even posted a video on YouTube. I was actually very moved by that. he spent a lot of time and effort to make that film, and I have never been given something like that before. thanks alot, mate (yep… practicing my Aussie english).
Click

 to see the video.