PHOTOS! Yeah

Well firstly here is an example of my underwater photography work. Had to take piccies as part of my Advanced PADI certification. For a first go, was proud of this one, as you can tell it is a fish and everything!


Here is the famous White Tipped Reef shark that I saw on my 2nd to last dive. I was about 1m in front of it, peeking over some coral. We felt that the divemaster should be the one to swim up next to it and take this piccie. Thanks Gaz!


Here I am under the water - proof that I have been diving for any non-believers out there.


And finally here I am happy after a good dive! Life is sweet

Shark!

Well I am not in the US yet, but wanted to update quickly re my last dive trips before I leave the island tonight (plus gives me the perfect excuse to have a final banana & coconut thick shake umm yummy).

OK so I went for my dives after blogging yesterday and on our first dive out in the afternoon we saw a shark. It was amazing. It was a white tipped reef shark (so not particularly dangerous, although this one was very large for a reef shark, so I wouldn't have wanted to piss it off). It was lying on a sandy patch between the coral obviously planning to have a bit of a siesta. Of course we turned up, got really close to it too (I was only about 1 metre away peeking at it from behind the coral). Gaz (one of the divemasters) managed to get some truly phenomenal photos of it, which I have copies off (plus I have copies of my own underwater photography attempts... some of them aren't half bad).

I really can't explain just how amazing it was to be so close to this shark. I could see its gills moving and its eyes watching us, to assess whether we were a threat. Think in the end it just decided we were a little annoying so swam to another spot to try and sleep (foiled by the fact that we followed the poor thing.. he is lucky that we only have a finite amount of air, so couldn't loiter around it for too long). I can't wait to show you all the photos. If I get a chance to I will try to put one of them up here.

After that I was just on a high. We had one final dive (saw the cutest little moray eel trying to look all macho - got a cool photo of it glaring at Gaz's fingers, which will give you an idea of just how diddy it was) , a blue starfish and of course lots of the beautiful reef fish that you get round here. No sign of Ed the Trigger Fish, which is a shame as I wanted to say goodbye to the great ugly thing. There is something quite sweet about having an aquatic stalker when you go diving. Obviously Ed never was told that Trigger fish aren't supposed to like divers. But he doesn't really look very bright.

After the dive I handed in all my knowledge review stuff for my Advanced open water certification, and I got my advanced certificate. Excellent! I am hoping that I will get the opportunity to dive when I am in the Galapagos. That would be so cool. All those giant turtles!

Fortunatley it was not final goodbye to the dive team as John (one of their regular divers) was celebrating his birthday in Whatever! bar & restaurant that night and I was invited. It was a really good night, lots of silly magic tricks, a huge but tasty sirloin steak and than back to dance at the banana court (was getting deja vu from the week before). Getting home afterwards proved more problematic as taxis just aren't a way of life here. Fortunately one of the local guys who helps out sometimes at the dive place, Matthew, made sure that I got home OK. Ended up back at his place chatting to his house mate Amber (who makes a mean cup of tea, just call me grandma) and his friend Wayne. So in the end it was 3am by the time I got home, following a very refreshing (it was breezy) trip on the back of a scooter.

Getting up to back this morning was hard, but it has been done! Now I am going to head in to town for a final look round, after popping in to see my diver friends for a final farewell, as promised drunkenly last night (I hate saying good bye, it is so sad). But I will be leaving Rarotonga determined to come back again. I may have been bere 23 days, but I could so easily have stayed so much longer. LA is going to come as a shock after the peace and quiet here.

Scubatastic

Well I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day on Rarotonga. I don't want to leave! Admittedly the house has been quiet since the boys all left but the Germans, Canadians and American that moved in are really sweet... if not quite as silly. So I have enjoyed some nice mellow evenings with them, watching DVDs or doing my SCUBA homework.

Following my last post I completed my Open Water Diver Qualification. Did a couple of fun dives, decided that since I was going to dive more anyway to sign up for the Advanced course and I completed that yesterday. I have 2 final fun dives this afternoon and that will be my Rarotongan SCUBA adventure over. But on the bright side, I am now qualified to dive up to 30m when I turn up at other dive sites around the world. That can't be a bad thing.

With the advanced SCUBA I did my deep dive to 30m (with game to check for effects of Nitrogen Narcosis, which is kind of like being drunk from the symptoms I have read about), an advanced navigation dive (at last a valid reason to use a compass), wreck dive (yeap that is what it says, I dived on a ship wreck), photography dive (umm yes, no surprise there I took photos) and a night dive (boy was it dark, but diving with a torch in the dark is very cool, trust me). I just need to hand in all my written review stuff this afternoon and I will be officially an advanced PADI diver. Yeah!

That kind of sums up what i have been up to. I think my tan may actually be fading due to the amount of time I have been spending in the water here. But I don't care! Can't believe that it is my last two dives this afternoon. It will be weird saying goodbye to everybody at Pacific Divers. Unfortunately you can't dive on the same day that you fly so tomorrow (as I fly at 11.15pm in the evening) I will be pottering around town, packing and generally winding down for my departure.

However, it will be cool to get to LA and see the Negretes. Plus my Mum and Maggie arrive on Saturday which will be wonderful, can't wait to see them. So the adventure continues. California and Ecuador still to go before I head home and knuckle down to working again. Assuming that I can find a job quickly (NatWest Visa would greatly appreciate my finding a job promptly... hehe)

Will update you from the US of A...

Crazy Aunt Steph

Well my official new title is Crazy Aunt Steph, as that is what the cheeky sods that I share a house with here like to call me. OK so 3 of them are 19 yrs old, doesn't mean they have to make me feel quite so ancient!

Not that I am really complaining, as I have been laughing so hard over the past week or so, it has been fantastic. Vara's has really turned in to our little home, with evenings spent listening to music and talking utter rubbish. Sadly the 19 yr old contingent (Ollie, Ali and Jon) all left yesterday for LA, so me and Rhys (other household stalwart) are pining for them just a little bit! As is Ariki, our crazy puppy (he is 8 months old and likes to chew on things, particularly feet). The New Zealand girls all left yesterday too to stay with family nearer town and Rhys is off tonight, with the 2 remaining guys off tomorrow, so I am officially being abandoned by everyone. I don't like it!

Oh well, sure that we will have a whole new influx of people today and tomorrow, just hope that they are as fun. Feel like my Vara's family have all left me! Travelling is great, but saying goodbye to people officially sucks!

But on the bright side I have lots of great memories, particularly at the official send off on Wednesday night, dancing at Banana Court to some truly great cheese, while drinking vodka cranberry and melting from the heat.

Plus there is of course my diving. I have been doing my PADI and following 2 dives tomorrow will be a qualified diver. I love it! Rhys learnt with me too and he is officially hooked. While Ali and Ollie did their advanced while they were here, so we were a little diving family. I might try and squeeze my advanced course in before i leave, but it really depends if the lovely folk at Pacific Divers can fit that in. It really is addictive this diving lark though. Excellent! Plus it is so cheap here, it is incredible. Can't even feel guilty about spending too much money. It is a win win situation.

I get the feeling that the rest of my time here is just going to fly by between diving sessions etc. I am optimistic that some more cool people will be arriving to hang out with. But if not, I can get back to my books. Haven't got much reading in recently, as was too busy laughing. Good exercise laughing, you should all try it.

Well I am going to sign out now as don't really have that much more to tell you. I can confirm that I am so relaxed now, it is amazing that I can still function. While I look forward to seeing you all back home, I hope that you won't be offended if I admit to the fact that I really don't want to come home yet. But I still have a good 5 weeks to go, maybe the home sickness will have kicked in by that point.

Love to all

Island life

Well rather than detail my day to day life (which would get very repetitive) here is a general feeling of my time on Rarotonga.

I get up late normally, generally because I have not quite got in synch with the time difference and can't get to sleep at night. It is like being back home on the weekends. If it is sunny I get up, eat some breakfast, drink some juice, shower, dress and walk round to the lagoon to lounge in the sun, read my book, listen to music and swim when I just get too hot to stay lying there. After that I head back, usually checking e-mails en route and saying hi to those of you that have e-mailed me (Al Williams on his latin american trip is sounding increasingly more spanish with each e-mail)

If it is cloudy or rainy, I usually get the bus in to town, have a spot of lunch, go to the internet places there that are much faster and sort out what I still need to sort out. So far I have booked my return flight to Ecuador, my Galapagos trip, confirmed the date of my flight home to London, updated my CV and started looking around re work. Pretty productive really.

For those of you that want to know, I will be back in London on the morning of Saturday 8th July. No doubt feeling kind of bleary and jetlagged but that is the official "end of travels, welcome back to reality" date. Not sure how I feel about that! : )

Anyway, I have gone off on a tangent. Back to Island life. My evening generally involve sitting around chatting to my house mates, listening to the sea crashing just outside the house, teasing the dog with tidbits of food, and watching the occasional DVD. I did go out for an Island night last Thursday, with local dancing, music, lots of vodka and oranges, a typical Rarotongan meal etc. That was good fun, despite my finding myself surrounded by some very sweet but dour looking Europeans. The guys from my house were on a different table, but I soon ran over to them to have a healthy dose of silliness (can you believe that the Europeans were unmoved by ABBA, the Sugarbabes.... all those silly "who cares how daft you look just throw yourself around the dance floor like you just don't care" tunes).

There is talk with my current contingent of housemates, of having a house bbq some time this week. That should be a good laugh, we'll try and get the lovely Vara in to the party spirit. The old American couple should be in their element, as the husband loves to expound on things bless him (life before computers, the 5th scouts jamberie in Holland in the 1930s, being able to walk the streets without fear in his day etc...). He doesn't mean any harm at all and is very knowledgeable, but it can be difficult to extract yourself when he gets started. I don't think I have heard his wife speak at all, although she is very smiley. The Brit boys in our house keep threatening to bring up politics. I think if that happens I am just going to make a run for it and hide until the conversation (or series of lectures) is over. Still he is very nice about the 1930s Polish scouts, so I am fond of him. Just wish that he had a volume and pause switch for when you need a bit of a break.

What can I say, they are all a nice bunch of people covering a very great age range (18-80+), it makes for some funny moments.

Well that is my island life update. Right now I am going to see some nice diving people about how much it would cost to get my PADI here. Hope that it is reasonable, as, if for no other reason, it can't be hot and sticky under the water surely! Umm cool water and no really dangerous sharks in the area (Hammerheads aren't that evil right - not like the White, Tiger and Bull sharks). Bring it on

Ground hog day

Well the 3rd May the first time round involved a lot of time in airports and on airplanes, leading to my arriving in Rarotonga the day before I left.

Second time round was much better. As I had a room to myself (a bit of an extravagance, but as I am here for 23 nights I just wanted to have my own space) I actually got to unpack my stuff, and really settle in. I slept through to 10am, which was a good lie in for me, before heading for the 3km walk to the main beach house on Muri beach. I officially checked in and didn't waste any time before hitting the beach..

How lovely it was to laze around, reading a book and splashing in to the lagoon every time that I needed to cool down. The water is so clear you can see all the fish swim past in the distance, and it is so still because of the distant reefs that break the waves further out, you feel like you are swimming in a giant, exotic pool.

Ummmm heaven for my lazy, sun drenched bones

As the afternoon wore on I decided to pop in the little shops along the way to buy some food for dinner. I had had plans of trying to make a stir fry but Rarotonga is not a mecca for stir fry ingredients (unlike you want an onion, potato and paw paw stir fry) and I settled for pasta and sauce. Rarotonga does not offer a great variety of vegetables as while anything that is grown on the island is cheap and readily available, anything that has to be flown in from New Zealand, is more on the expensive side (4.5 for a small packet of cherry tomatoes, but boy did they taste good!). I have adjusted my expectations food wise accordingly and am living on a steady diet of pasta or noodles (well I did manage to make a pretty good chilli last night if I say so myself).

When I made it back to Ariki (the house I am staying in, has an overgrown puppy there of the same name, likes to try and chew my fingers) I found that my housemates had got out a dvd. So once I was full of pasta I settled on the sofa to giggle along to American Pie the Wedding. Silly but satisfying.

So that was the 3rd May second time round. Not sure when I will have a chance to do the same day back to back again, but I did enjoy the novelty of it.

Sydney and Good bye Australia

Firstly just to let you know that all photos of Adelaide and Sydney can be found on sophiehenry.com - Sophie has put lots of my stuff up in a folder called Steph's photos. There is also a separate Sydney folder, although some of the pictures of Guy, Ann and Thomas are in my folder too. Enjoy!

Now back to Sydney. As I left off Guy and Thomas had come to pick me and Sophie up at the airport. It was amazing to see my Big Brother after all this time. Can't believe that it has been 10 years, and we have all promised each other that it won't be another 10 years before we see each other again.

It was great to catch up and go back to Guy & Ann's for a spot of lunch and a good catch up. Both Sophie & I felt at home straight away. After lunch we went to Manly beach and looked at the market (so many pretty things! hard to resist), wandered down to the beach and had a lovely dinner (yummy mussels). After that, being a Sunday night, it was back home with Thomas off to bed past his bedtime and us chatting away until late (actually that is a general theme for our 3 nights at the Congertons, lots of talking untl far too late for the poor Guy who had to work the next day).

Monday, Sophie & I headed in to town. Felt weird to be on a bus heading in to a city but we recovered. We had great fun going round the shops (ok I admit it, I did spend a little money, I couldn't help myself) before going to Doyles for a lovely seafood lunch overlooking the harbour. Sophie & I managed to track down some pressies for Guy, Ann and Thomas, and felt like we had accomplished something when we found ourselves sat on a bus in rush hour for what felt like hours. These are the things that I do not miss about cities!

That evening we had a lovely meal of steak and salad, with the good wine flowing and a lot of chatting (as I said that was the theme for our trip). I can't explain how great it was to have so much time to catch up with Guy & Ann.

Tuesday was much the same with a later start but a bit of a potter in town, a catch up on the old e-mails before going back for spaghetti bolognaise and more lovely wine at Casa Congerton. Can't believe that it was our last night! I was going to be saying goodbye to Guy, Ann and Sophie in the morning (with Sophie heading to Thailand while i headed to the Cook Islands).

Guy, bless him, was up at 5.30am to make sure I was awake. A quick shower, some last minute packing and a mug of tea later and it was time to head to the airport. I said goodbye to Ann & Sophie at the house (as Sophie's flight wasn't until late afternoon), hoped in the car and Guy drove me all the way to the airport (good thing about a really early flight, he could do that before work, was still above and beyond the call of duty though). Trying not to get too emotional and promising that I would be back before too long, I headed off for my first flight to Auckland before getting connecting flight to Rarotonga.

So the 3rd May I left Australia, briefly dipped in to New Zealand before flying to a small Polynesian island called Rarotonga, only 32 km round and in the middle of the Pacific. I crossed the date line and arrived in Rarotonga on the evening of 2nd May (weird to think that at that time on the 2nd May the first time round, I was eating spaghetti at Guy & Ann's house).

Adelaide and Sydney

Well I am now in Rarotonga and am still playing catch up (while perspiring heavily, boy is it hot here!). So I need to tie up my time in Australia before I move on to how things are here in luscious Rarotonga.

When I left off I was leaving Cairns to go to Adelaide and vist my many cousins there. The journey was uneventful and I was met at the airport by my cousin Emma and her gorgeous little boy Ambrose (the most beautiful eye lashes you have ever seen on a boy, he is a complete sweetheart). Emma drove us round to her mum's , my cousin Helen's place where I met lots of my other cousins. I am proud to say that I now know the name of all 9 of Helen's lovely kids. I really do have the nicest cousins.

Don't want to go in to huge detail, for those non family members reading this, but everyone was well. I had a lovely meal round at cousin Paul's and met his 3 adorable children too (mum if you came out here, you would be in kiddie heaven!). Susana had made a lovely meal and it was lovely to relax, laugh at Paul & her brother Tim being attacked by little Michael & Ben and see the finale of the Australia's biggest loser. What can I say, it was addictive TV.

The next day Emma, little Ambrose and I went to the Gorge Wildlife park, where I fed kangaroos and wallabies (they are so cute) and finally got to hold a koala (having seen a wild one in the trees the night before when I went for a walk with Emma & Anna). A lovely relaxing evening at Helen's followed, with me actually attempting to turn up one of the legs on Simon's school trousers (umm wonder if that is still holding, sewing was never my strong point, but it was fun trying!). We ended the night with me and some of the girls curled up on sofas watching the Count of Monte Cristo

The next morning Helen kindly gave me a lift across town to the house of my friend Sian, her husband Russell and her 3 week old baby Patric. My trip to Adelaide was all about kids and babies. It was lovely to catch up with her and she seemed really well, for those of you that know her. Finally having recovered from the birth.

That evening, my last in Adelaide, I was treated to trip to Barnacle Bills for little Ben's 3rd birthday party. I met all of Susanna's family, who were lovely. Paul dropped me back at Helen's and we all ended up chatting until 1am. Lots of reminiscing about the family.

The next morning Paul drove me to the airport and I was off to Sydney where I was rejoining Sophie and seeing Guy for the first time in about 10 years.

Of course, I will not be able to finish off the Sydney element as once again I am running out of time on this computer (story of my life at the moment). So that will have to follow shortly. Suffice it to say it was amazing to see Guy when he met me at the Airport and meet his son, the lovely and I can't believe already 6 year old Thomas. He drove us back to his place in North Ryde where I saw Ann. I just wanted to hug them all and not let go! But details of that will follow in my next update, as my time is now fflashing red.

Cairns onwards

Hi me again and as usual up against it time wise, so I will update as much as I can before I get kicked off PC.

Well I am now in Sydney but am still playing catch up on the old blog front. Umm might need to just start editing myself more and get you all up to date on my adventures, given this is now my last day in Australia (sob, sob, love it here, don't want to leave).

When I left off Sophie & I had been dropped off in Cairns after white water rafting. We were staying at a hostel called Bohemia and by the time we got there we were exhausted (didn't realise how much the day of rafting had taken out of us). We just went for a bite to eat round the corner from the hostel before going back to collapse and sleep like the dead in our hostel. Shame as we met some nice people who wanted to chat etc.. but we just couldn't do it, we needed to sleep and didn't have an ounce of energy left to be sociable.

The next morning was an early start as we were picked up for our Cape Tribulation trip. What a beautiful part of the world. We went on a boat on the Daintree river and saw some big crocodiles (wouldn't want to annoy those creatures, they are huge and deadly), we were taken in to the rainforest, which was awesome and than taken in to where we were staying in Cape Tribulation. Our hostel/resort there was a place called Ferntrees. Peter Pans had messed up and we weren't booked in the same dorms. Unfortunately the hostel was full so they couldn't put us together. As it was Sophie's birthday the next day we decided to upgrade and be put in our own cabin (as this place has proper nice accommodation, not just dorms) so that we could be together to see in her birthday. It was worth every penny (and to be honest wasn't THAT much more given how lovely the accommodation was). Our cabin had 4 beds in it, a wonderful bathroom, a porch and was right in the rainforest. It was heaven!

We went for a wander to get a spot of lunch and found a place called Dragonfly just round the corner from our cabin. It was lovely there and they didn't massages so we booked in to have a massage in later that afternoon. Best thing we could have done. Delphina was a miracle worker. We both floated our of our respective massages feeling like new people. Plus had dinner at Dragonfly afterwards, as when we find somewhere we like, we can get very compulsive about going there (had lunch there the next day too before we left for Cairns.... what can I say it was a beautiful spot and the food was lush).

So other than a bit of pottering around we didn't visit that much in Cape Tribulation. It was just such a lovely spot to calmly wander round and enjoy the scenery. We were picked up by our bus and taken back to Cairns going to visit a gauge and Port Douglas on the way back. It was great. Back in Cairns, I sorted out my luggage as I was flying to Adelaide early the next morning.

Sophie and I worked to the Cairns Esplanade for dinner and celebrated her birthday in style in a restaurant called Splash. I ate the best oysters that I have ever tasted followed by lobster. Sophie decided to splash out (pardon the pun) and bought us a bottle of champagne to have with our meal. It was heaven!

Right Adelaide and Sydney to follow us the running out of time thing is flashing at me on my computer now. Love to all and next update will come from Raratonga. Blimey