September 22, 2011

Day 8: Melbourne Aquarium – Melbourne, Victoria – I did the SHARK WALK!!

Rebecca Saw

I’m missing Australia terribly.
Like I said, it’s been a while since I have been out of the country. I wish I could just drop everything now & hop onto the next plane to somewhere bizarre & foreign.
And then proceed to do something bizarre & foreign! Perhaps something along the lines of eating exotic animals/plants, fly a plane, jump off a cliff?
I don’t know. You tell me!

Thinking back, one of the more bizarre activity I had experienced when I was in Aussie was the Shark Walk at the Melbourne Aquarium. It was an exhilarating & tremendously heady feeling, walking on the “ocean” floor, with sharks, sting rays & turtle gracefully gliding past you within inches from your body!

Yes, with that astronaut -like helmet too! I was suited up in a proper wetsuit, and the astronaut helmet itself was nearly 20kgs. It was fitted onto my neck by a machine, and the cables attached to the helmet were only released when I was underwater. Yup, the water bouyancy made sure it won’t break my neck!

It all started here…

The Shark Walk program started from the back of the spectacular 2.2 million litres Oceanarium. We were ushered pass the viewing galleries & taken to the “operations” area at the back where we were suited up & met our “tour guide” for the walk.

A 30 mins brief by an experienced dive instructor was compulsory. I was literally shaking with excitement for the dive as she babbled on about do & don’t and bla blaa bllaaa … Hehe.

Then the walk itself was monitored & supervised by another diver who joined us underwater, ensuring our safety at all times. I wish I have more pictures to share, but since we were in the Oceanarium we couldn’t take any pictures of ourselves, and could only rely on my kind guide to snap some shots of us.

This is the “operations/back-end” area of the Oceanarium, and we enter the Oceanarium by going into these blue tanks.

Below: Me about to enter the Oceanarium, where halfway down the stairs, I will be fitted with the helmet.

Another shot with our dive instructor & Wilson.

The Shark Walker Experience in a nutshell:
The new Shark Walker experience at Melbourne Aquarium offers visitors the chance to walk underwater, stepping into the 2.2 million litre Oceanarium, while breathing naturally with a custom-made Shark Walker helmet.

The 45 minute tour doesn’t require any previous dive experience or training, only bathers, towel and a lot of courage!

So yea! I did it!!
And yes, there were stingrays, sharks, turtles & fishes swimming all around me!

Coming out from our little adventure in the Oceanarium, we took a leisure walk around the aquarium. As you can imagine, it was nothing as thrilling like my shark walk. Looking at the sea life through the glass paled in comparison to having these same fishes swimming around you!

Well, now I know how divers feel. I think I should get a diving license soon!

Another amazing attraction here at the Melbourne Aquarium is the Antarctica World. It is one of the 4 exciting and entertaining worlds here. Marvel as the majestic King & cheeky Gentoo penguins play in the pool and slide across the snow-covered ice.