Guns and Gears..

My brother and I went to a resort on Hamilton Island on Australia's Gold Coast. It turned out there was money from a bequeath that was gathering interest in a New Zealand bank account, and a higher power (Mom) told us to spend it. So we've been using it on great things like scuba diving, go-cart racing and shooting some very large guns. It's like an episode of Top Gear at Club Med.

The shooting range was our first stop. Eric had never shot anything before so he had a shaky start on the .22 pistol. But he quickly found his mark when we moved up to the 9 mm Glock, and he excelled on the .44 magnum aka the "Dirty Harry Gun" or the "Hand Cannon." (I got a bullseye with my first shot on the .44, but the monsterous force of the gun was so jarring that I couldn't stop twitching for any of my remaining attempts.)

Next we went to the go-cart track, and let me just say that the carts were much, much more powerful than the last ones I tried back in 1987 at Splash 'n Putt Park in Traytown, Newfoundland. These supercharged rockets were able to build up enough speed for sideways skids. I did one and hit a rather solid wall. Still, I managed to beat Eric, who crashed into a woman.

These were only minor thrills, though, compared with our dive on the Great Barrier Reef. We saw clown fish. We saw a little fish riding on the back of a great big fish. We saw a shark! Words fail me in trying to describe the experience. Eric put it best when he said that if he drew his last breath and still had $300 in the bank, he'd be very disappointed if he hadn't gone on the dive that day.

We still have a few days of luxury living left, which means there's time for a few more Top Gear challenges. We have an idea for one at the driving range that involves a blindfold and a stopwatch!