This fellow here is one of my new friends here on the island. It's a large white parrot with some yellow feathers on the back of his head. I believe it is a Cokatoo. anyway. when I had lunch the other day it landed on a branch a couple of meters away. It was clearly interested in the food I was having. after a minute or two it landed on the hand railing and kept eyeballing me. I almost expected it to say "Polly wants a cracker" or something like that. You're not supposed to feed the local animals here (and that would include the australians as well), but I did anyway. The bird almot followed me into my appartment after I gave it some bread.


  This is a couple of the people I work with, and I must say that they have given me a warm welcome. the crew consists of about 12-15 people and they come from all over australia. there's even a couple from new zealand. and we also got two japanese instructors. Anyway…
I have a couple of more photos I want to post, but I have to run off to "work". today I am taking a couple of trained divers on a guided dive.

Today I have had my first day off since I got here, and it has been quite hectic so far. I am having a great time here on Hammo, as the locals call it, and I definetly believe I could get used to this. A new skipper started working here on the same day I got here, and we have hit it off really well so far. He's got 
some amazing stories about all the different jobs he has had, like the time when he worked on a crocodile farm. I know that the favorite past-time of alot of Aussie's is to bullshit the foreigners, so I try to shave off a little from his stories. And since he's a skipper he sure knows how to talk like a pirate. He often times talks like a pirate to the customers. hehe..
"Ay.. can't see thro the storm, captain. the wind be as fickle as a woman, aaarhh"

I think we will have alot of fun together on this island.

Saturday
 Landed at around noon. I was sent out on the reef in less than an hour and was a snorkel guide with eight customers. we snorkled for about an hour at Chalkies Beech before we went over to White Haven Beach for some cricket, snacks and sunbathing.

Sunday
aSunday morning started in the pool at one of the hotels here. I helped Sara out with a discover scuba diving course. in the afternoon I repeated the same snorkel trip I had on saturday. this time we saw a pretty large turtle. not to mention all the hundreds of tropical fish. it is a custom here to feed them with fish food. just a little to keep them interested. there's this school of sargent majors that go crazy whenever shake the bottle of fish food. figure that. 

Monday
Started the morning in the pool with Codi, and this time we had eight people on the Discover Scuba course. after the pool session finished we went back to the shop again. The resortees (people living at the resort) went out for the open water dive in the afternoon. I got the rest of the day off. went out for drinks with the rest of the staff at H2OSportz.

Tuesday
This morning I started at 0715 because we did a full day trip out to Bait Reef , and it was fantastic. my job on board was to be the snorkel guide. stay in the water with the guests and assist them with whatever they need. I also functioned as a general helping hand on board. the other crew members pretty much tells me what to do. the task I was given was everything from making lunch in the early morning, packing gear, welcoming guests upon arrival, doing the dishes on board, filling out the Risk Managment Assessment form etc.
The snorkling was fantastic. we saw sharks, cleaning stations, cute little nemo's, a huge Napoleon Wrasse named Wally and many more cool things. The boat itself , The Reef Viewer, is a 70 fot dive boat with the capasity of about 40 passangers.

Wedensday
Another full day trip. this time to Chalkies Beach, White Haven Beach and then to Tounge Point. it was another awesome day. Met a couple of interesting guests, among them a couple of teenage boys. a couple of dive stories
and some juggling later I had my own little fan club. after the day was over I washed down the boat and went for dinner. 
Steve and I met some girls from the boat at one of the local bars later that night. they wanted to take us out for drinks, but they didn't drink anything themselves. Steve and I made sure they didn't slip something in our drinks. 
After a late night pool game I went home (yes. alone, you dirty bastards). I got thursday off, and was offered to join the full day trip for some diving. free of charge off course. 

Thursday.
woke up at about eight, called the shop and told them I wasn't doing the diving and went back to sleep. got out of bed at about eleven. ran around the apartment and did all the things I hadn't done. like the dishes, my laundry, put up a poster etc. 

All in all it has been a pretty intense week so far, and it is probably not going to calm down either. tomorrow I am going out to Bait Reef again, and the boat is fully booked. I am looking forward to it.

I am trying to upload pictures but the thingie won't work today. I'll try again later…

My new adress down here is:

Klas M. Sundelin
c/o H2O Sportz P/L
P.O. Box 19
Hamilton Island 4808
Australia

I arrived here on Hamilton Island saturday afternoon at around noon. The boss at H20Sportz , Marie, came and picked me up at the airport. this island is really tiny so the majority of the people here drive around in little golf buggies. She brought me down to the shop and introduced me to a couple of people, before driving me to my new home. The staff accommodation is located up on the hillside and is basically just an alright room. It's got two beds, a small kitchen sink, refridgerator, freezer, microwave, AC, and there's also a fan in the ceiling. oh yeah, I've also got a TV and a VCR.

Marie only let me drop my gear off before returning me to the shop. I was put in a boat with Scott, one of the skippers, and eight guests all booked in for a afternoon snorkel trip. We went to Hazelwood island and did a little snorkling there, before we went to Whitehaven Beach for some snacks. we returned to the harbour at about five in the afternoon. 

Saturday evening Steve, a new skipper from Perth, showed me around a bit and we went to the local bar for some drinks. There are about 1000 employees on the island, so there's a lot of things going on at any given time. we had an early night, since showing up hung over on our first day would not be very good.

Sunday morning I met another instructor , Sara from scottland, and I assisted her in the pool with a Discover Scuba Diving course. Discover Scuba is really nothing else than the first Open Water dive from the Open Water Course. first a bit of theory, then a pool session, and then they go on a dive on the reef in the afternoon. This course had only two students, which was good. After they finished up, Sara and I had a free snorkel session where people could borrow mask, snorkel and fins and play around in the pool.

Sunday afternoon we went out to Hazelwood island again with a different crowd for a little snorkling. this time Codi tagged along. I did my Instructors Exam with him and he's also the one that landed me this job. He showed the guests all the good spots, and we even found a turtle. no sea monkeys though….

Monday morning started in the pool again with a fresh crowd eager to do some diving. Codi and I did the pool session for another Discover Scuba course and afterwards we had the free snorkel session again. The kids really love playing around with us. especially the kids with fat lazy parents who don't take proper care of them. and I just love throwing a couple of kids around in the pool.

After lunch Steve and I was supposed to go out with the big boat to do the open water diving, but Marie had booked it all out. but no worries, we'll get to go next time. tomorrow we're going out to Bait Reef for some excellent diving with a couple of certified divers.

I could get used to this life……

🙂

My brother Björn has a real knack for finding insects, geckos and spiders. give him a flashlight and he will find them in no time. Here's a few pictures of spiders he has found not so far from his house here in Adelaide.

This first one is the Redback spider. it is supposedly the australian relative of the black widow. 
But Björns true favorite spider is not this one or the black housespider I posted earlier.
His favorite is the Huntsman.

He says it's because it has a very nice and soft fur. 😛

Anyways…
Saturday morning I'm flying off to Hamilton Island to start working at the dive center. I am really looking forward to it , but I am at the same time anxious and have about a million butterflies in my stomach. I'll let you all know more about it all in a few days.

oh.. another thing. wedensday night someone thought that I was canadian again. and the guy was actually half canadian, half australian! Imagine that. I think I'm just gonna start saying that I am from Canada. hehe…

Our dad worked on a farm here in Australia in 1973, and he has told us lots of
stories from his time down here. He has always wanted to come back and see what
the farm looks like, and now we had the opportunity. After the impressions from
the trip to Kangaroo Island had settled, we decided to take the car for a
roadtrip.

Dad worked outside the little village of Burraga not so far from Bathurst (about
200 km west of Sydney, and Saturday morning we got in the car and hit the
highway. Unfortunatly Björn had to stay at home and work on a school assignment.

we spent saturday and sunday in the car traveling towards east. at first we went
over Adelaide hills, before crossing endless plains. The road was flat, straight
and not very interesting really. The longest completely straight part we
measured was about 19 km long. when we got closer to Bathurs the landscape
changed into a more hilly area. after two long days of driving we had reached
the blue mountains.

we arrived Bathurst sunday afternoon and found a motel for
the night. We then followed the map south to the old farm dad worked at. on our
way down there we saw a couple of 'roos (yes.. australian for kangaroos), and a
few rabbits. We actually saw plenty of 'roos along the highway but they were all
dead. The roadtrains, and that's what they really are, kill plenty off kangaroo
every night.

anyway.. I'm loosing track of the story here. We found the little village of
Burraga and stopped and asked at the local store where the farm was. the old
lady knew very well which farm it was, and where the former manager was living
now. he had quit the job many years ago and was now living in Bathurst. we got
the directions to the farm and off we went. after about 18 km we found the farm.

It was really interesting to see the old man. he remembered lots of little things that
had happened, told us how the landscape had changed and so forth. I wonder if I
will behave in the same way 40 years from now.

"This was the place where the Divers basement was located. over here is the spot
your dad threw up after too much beer, and this is the spot where my buddies
tore off my underwear. aren't you proud of your dad?" hehe…

the sun was about to set so we got back to the hotel. Because this area is
situated up in the blue mountains about 1000 meters above sea level it was quite
cool at night.
Monday morning we went down to the farm again and got some more pictures. we
also saw how the farmers used dogs to herd their sheep around. One man and two
dogs had total control over a couple of hundred sheep. pretty amazing stuff
really.
at noon we started on our return journey. not much to tell you about and tuesday
afternoon we arrived in Adelaide again. during this trip we traveled almost 2800 km. 
Here is the route we followed.

Oh yeah thats right. In a small town we saw this local guy and his car. I'm pretty sure he was what we 
in Notodden refer to as "Råner". hehe..

In 1973 my dad worked on a sheep farm outside of Bathurst. He h 

This entry is dedicated to my trusty travel companion, Reisefanten. He was
given to me from Sivert and Margrethe so that I would be all alone during my
travels. They were worried that I wouldn't have anyone to play Rose with, but
thanks to Reisefanten I don't have to worry about that any more.

He studied alot about australia on the plane down here, and he sure has helped
me out a couple of times. For instance he joined Frank and myself when we played
Rose over the internet last week. But he was a very gready player and got a
majority of the cards.

Tuesday to thursday we went to Kangaroo Island together with Björn, Tomas and dad.
Kangaroo Island was one of the first areas where people settled in South
Australia, mainly by sealers. you can find more info Here.

After lunch we went down to a beach and went for a swim. Reisefanten decided to work on
his tan, and stayed on land. can't really blame him, cause he's still all pink,
even after an entire month. Too bad the sun was setting. he only got a couple of minutes before
it disappeared behind a hill.

Wedensday morning we went and had a look at a colony of fur seals. It was
pretty cool to see them in real life. we obviously had to bring our own
"Hakapik", because they didn't have any at the fur seal center. Reisefanten wanted to cuddle the seals, but I 
wouldn't let him. they are dangerous you know.

After that we went fishing and that was alot of fun. I haven't fished for ages,
and this was Reisefantens first fishing trip. He was really enjoying himself,
but I am sure you can tell that from the picture. 

This photo was taken on a lookout called Prosperity Hill and we experienced an
amazing sunset up there.

That night Reisefanten had a bad dream but I was able to confort him with a
lullaby. he fell asleep after a little while and slept the rest of the night.

We also did a small scuba dive Tomas and I, but Reisefanten couldn't join us since he haven't got a certificate(yet). the diving was pretty good, and I was expecting to see great whites at any moment. No shark for the entire 40 minutes we spent under water. after the dive the people at the dive shop said that they had only seen them three times the last 30 years or so. One shark actually circled around a dive course once. what a way to learn diving. hehe… oh well. until next time  folks…

Oh yeah. I need to play around with the coding to improve the layout of the page. maybe later.

This entry is dedicated to my trusty travel companion, Reistefanten. He was given to me from Sivert and Margrethe so that I w

In about 25 minutes we will drive down to Kangaroo Island. It is a three day trip, and I will therefore not be able to post any entries here until friday.  

have a nice week.

The spider on the picture is a Black Housespider, and one of my brothers favorite spiders. they are pretty easy to find, but they are mostly harmless. unless you are bitten off course.

Yesterday the four (out of five) present members of Sundelins Gentlemens Club
went up to the Cleveland Wildlife Park. It is located about 12 km east of
Adelaide up in the hills. Because it is located at higher altitude and outside
the city, the temperature was alot cooler than what we have down in Adelaide.
The temperature was approximately 15 degrees and quite comfortable.
The park is surrounded by an eucalyptus forest and many of the animals inside
the park also inhabit the forest around it. check out
http://www.parks.sa.gov.au/cleland/index.htm
for more info.

In the park you actually get to feed and pet koalas, kangaroos, and emus.
pretty cool stuff I must say. But I must admit that the size of the emus
intimidated me a little. I am not sure that I 50 kg chicken with a very limited
brain is something you should let walk around with people.
enjoy the photos.

A couple of days ago the phone rang, and it was the owner of a dive center up on Hamilton Island. it is part of the Whitsunday Islands and is located outside of Airlie Beach. Anyway… he was calling me to see if I was still looking for a job as a diving instructor. I was very glad to get the offer, but at the same time I had second thoughts.

The dive center,H2Osportz, is located in a small place, and there are not many other options around. Originally I planned to go
Cairns and work there, because up there you have more than several dozen different dive shops, charters, centers and tour operators.

After I did some thinking I decided to accept the offer, but I am a little reluctant to celebrate just yet because we haven't written any contract yet. But it sure does seem promising. I am a happy camper now.

Tomorrow we will go to Jacobs Creek and test some wines. that will be good. remind me to not drive the car afterwards.