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Blue Pearl Bay
藍珠灣
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
到碼頭的接駁車
Great Barrier Reef, copyright belongs to Jonathan Dunder
Whitsundays islands is one of the group islands among the nine hundreds islands in the Great Barrier Reef, the most famous island in the Whitsundays islands is the Hamliton island, the Queensland Tourism provided high salary to the winner of "The Best Job In The World" attracting over 30,000 competitors from over 200 countries. One of the competitors who is from Taiwan was the only one chosen by an on-line vote in the 16 finalist. It's a pity that a guy from UK was appointed as the new caretaker of the island.
聖靈群島是大堡礁九百多座島裡的島群之一，聖靈群島中最著名的島就屬漢米爾頓島了，澳洲昆士蘭旅遊局籍由徵求該島的島主，並且提供非常優渥的薪資，吸引了來自世界各地兩百多個國家、三萬多的位參賽者報名參加。台灣的參選人也是唯一一位透過線上投票的方式進入最後的階段，可惜的是，最後由一位來自英國的人士獲得勝利成為島主。
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Hamilton island
漢米爾頓島
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
即將乘坐的快艇
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
快艇內部
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
快艇內部
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
快艇內部
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
登陸用的小艇
Cairns isn't the only start point to visit the Great Barrier Reef which is one of the World Heritage. Another popular point is Airlie Beach, choose this place as your start point, you can head to the Whitsundays islands which is composed of 74 islands. Most of the islands are kept raw without development (Only a small parts of the islands are developed such as Daydream island, Hamilton island, Hayman island)
想要觀賞世界遺產之一的大堡礁，除了從凱因斯出發之外，艾利海灘也是一個熱門的出發點，從這裡可以前往聖靈群島，一個由七十四座島嶼所形成的島群。大部份的島嶼都維持其原始的風貌，沒有人為的開發（少數被開發過的，如白日夢島、漢米爾頓島、海曼島）。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
同行的成員（我是唯一的亞洲人）
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
航行中
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
船上的儀表板
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
船上的儀表板
The tour I joined this time started from Airlie Beach to the north-west part of the Hayman island called Blue Pearl Bay by a racing yacht about two hour sail. The Blue Pearl Bay is a small bay with lots of small gravel instead of sand, it's really uncomfortable to walk on the bay barefoot. The time I visited there was on the end of May, it was entering the winter. Even though the sun was strong, after snorkelling, the light wind made you wet body feel cold. The diving instructor told us, it would be your turn to enjoy the diving after those certified people finished. Before their finish, what I could do was snorkelling in shallow waters around the bay. Honestly speaking, maybe the ecosystem here is very complete and protected, you could see lots of corals, a shoal of fish via only snorkelling. It was cold snorkelling on the water surface, was the same back to the bay blown by the wind. But it goes without saying, this is a wonderful place for snorkelling and diving due to the calm of the water.
這一次我跟的團就是從艾利海灘搭乘兩個小時左右的船前往海曼島西北角的藍珠灣，小小的一個海灣，上面並非沙灘而是有許多的小碎石子，沒穿脫鞋走起路來真的挺難過的。時間正值五月底，已經快進入冬天。雖然太陽很強，但浮潛完，濕透的身體，微風徐徐吹來，還蠻冷的。潛水指導員說，等那些有潛水執照的人潛完，再換我們這一批參加導潛的人下水。在這之前，我只能一個人在岸邊浮潛，說真的，或許是這裡的珊瑚礁生態非常的完整，即使是浮潛所看的珊瑚、魚群數量也為數不少。在水面上漂一漂覺得冷，上岸又有風，上岸也不是、下水也不是。不過水面倒是非常的平靜，是個浮潛、深潛的好地方。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
著粉紅色上衣的是船長
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
中間那個女生是我們的潛水指導員
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
聖靈島群之一的小島以及美麗的海水顏色
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
途中遇到的船
Most of our tour members chose snorkelling, around five or six certified people chose diving. There was only another people like me without certification chose introductory diving. Before introductory diving, the instructor taught us some basic skills for diving, how to breath and how to release the pressure, honestly speaking, I didn't understand some of the proper noun of diving. Before entering the water, I asked the instructor to teach me the skills again, it's a little dangerous to dive, after all. If you could release or adjust the pressure well, it might damage your lung. Under the water, the instructor held two diver's hand without certification on both sides, she not only had to lead us to enjoy the beautiful world under the water but also to observer if anything wrong with us. She'd taught us some gestures so as to reflect the abnormal condition once we meet beforehand. The diving took us around twenty minutes, as the time went by in the water, I was getting cold, my ear felt a little weird due to the pressure, I hoped I could leave the water as quick as possible. I recalled the process we were under the water, it was not very deep, only about one or two meters. The instructor specifically reminded us don't touch the corals, the action might hurt them. In fact, when we snorkelled on the shallow area, sometimes we might stand on them or kick them.
今天這一團，絕大多數的人還是選擇浮潛，大約只有五、六位有執照的人選擇深潛，像我一樣沒執照選擇導潛的人，除了我，還有另一位。導潛之前，教練都會教我們一些基本的換氣、釋壓方式，說真的，有些專有的英文名字聽不是很懂，下水前，我還特別要教練再教我一次，畢竟深潛是有危險性的，壓力如果沒有調整好，可能會導致肺部功能受損。下水後，教練左右手各牽著一位成員，除了拉著我們欣賞水底世界外，還要隨時觀察我們的情況，在這之前就有教我們幾種手勢，有什麼異常，在水裡就能派上用場。整個深潛的過程大概二十多分鐘吧， 越游越冷，巴不得能快點上岸，耳朵也因為壓力的關係覺得怪怪的。事後想一想，我們並沒有潛的非常深，大約只有一、二公尺而已。教練也特別提醒不要去碰觸珊瑚，怕會傷害到她們。其實在浮潛時，因為是位於較淺的地區，有時不小心腳還會踢到她們呢。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
生死狀？
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
有潛水執照的人準備下水
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
乘坐登陸小艇準備上岸
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
乘坐登陸小艇準備上岸
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
乘坐登陸小艇準備上岸
After getting back on the boat, the instructor told me, for the first diving, my performance during diving was great, stayed calm. I didn't think so in mind, I'm the only one knows what my thought is after all. I don't know whether her words was from her deep heart or not, but most the western people should speak straight instead of saying something good in order to please you.
回到船上後，教練告訴我，以一個第一次潛水的人來說，我表現的很好，很冷靜。我心理有點不以為然就是了，畢竟心理的想法只有我自己清楚。也不知道她這樣說是不是只是說好聽話而已，外國人講會應該都很直吧。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
藍珠灣
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
藍珠灣
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
People were snorkelling
Maybe we didn't dive deep enough, I felt that the views were almost the same no matter it was diving or snorkelling, both views were amazing, but you have to pay extra money around AUD $60 so as to dive. Anyway, it was a totally different experience to dive in the water, in Taiwan you aren't allow to dive without certification. Due to the heavy weight of the scuba tank, we have to wear it in the water, the floating power from the water can sustain the tank. We attached some lead weights on our diving suite in order to dive into the water easily. Besides, there is a button on your diving suite to adjust the floating power. If you wanna get back to the water surface, just press the button, you would float up immediately.
不知道是不是潛的不夠深的關係，我覺得在藍珠灣，深潛和浮潛所看到的景色都差不多，都蠻美的，但是深潛就要另外花裝備的租賃費用，將近兩千台幣。不過深潛倒是一個不同的體驗，在台灣沒有執照，是不能夠下水玩深潛的。氧氣桶因為過於沈重，需要在水中穿著，靠著水的浮力將它撐起。潛水衣上會掛上鉛塊，用來抵消浮力以方便潛入水中。另外潛水衣上也有一組按鈕讓你調整潛水衣的浮力，要上岸時，只要按鈕一按，就會往上浮起。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
結束深潛的伙伴
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
結束深潛的伙伴
The cruise corp. I joined providing two kinds of cruises. I'm not used to sleeping overnight on the boat, that makes me feel unsafe, so I chose a one-day cruise. Most of the time in tour spent on cruising. The tour including cruising, snorkelling, diving and buffet lunch costs about AUD $271. It's not cheap at all, but worth doing.
出海行程有兩天和一天的，我不習慣在船上過夜，讓人很沒安全感，所以選擇了一天的行程，當天來回，有超過一半的時間都是在海上行走。這樣的行程，出海、浮潛、深潛加上中餐，花了約七、八千元台幣（$271）。一點都不便宜但絕對值得。
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
回程
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
回程
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
笑容很美的船員，可惜沒照到沒戴墨鏡的時候
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| From 20090523_BluePearlBay |
The Great Barrier Reef composed of 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres, the world's largest living structure and an extremely fragile ecosystem listed in World Heritage. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. Tourism on the Great Barrier Reef is concentrated in the Whitsundays and Cairns.大堡礁含蓋的區域長達二千六百公里，區域內多到九百多座島嶼，它是世界上最大的生命體系而且極度的脆弱，目前已被列為世界遺產之一。大堡礁位於 Coral Sea，澳洲昆士蘭省東北方的海岸。前往參觀大堡礁的遊客主要都集中在凱因斯和聖靈群島。
Hamilton Island Airport is the only airport in the Whitsunday Islands that is big enough to cater for larger commercial aircraft. Hamilton Island is also catered for by several ferry services, which can only carry passengers. The island is on long term lease from the Commonwealth Government by the Oatley family. The Oatleys own and run Hamilton Island Enterprises which operates the majority of accommodation and businesses on the island.漢米爾頓島機場是聖靈群島中的唯一的一座，機場的大小足以容納大型商業客機。島上也提供載客服務的渡輪。目前該島是由 Oatley 家族長期租賃，島上有他們經營的旅社以及商業相關的活動。
More pictures took by Maxi Ragamuffin
Videos:
Whitsunday islands - Whiteheaven Beach/Daydream island/Hook island/Long island from omgmin on Vimeo.
This video is not recorded by me, the copyright belongs to omgmin
借用不認識的網友 omgmin 所拍的聖靈島群的影片
We met dolphin on the way back
回程時遇到海豚
On the yacht
船上錄影
Ref:
1. Wiki
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_job_in_the_world
- http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009澳洲大堡礁哈密頓島管理員甄選活動
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef
2. "Welcome to the Whitsundays, the definitive guide - where to STAY, where to GO, where to DO, 18th edition"
3. MAXI, Ragamuffin official website
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