Home at last!!!

On Saturday night, we went an area of Jacksonville called The Landings which was right by the river. It’s got lots of shops and restaurants and there was also a Jazz Festival going on so it was pretty lively! We found an Italian restaurant and ate there.

Sunday was spent chilling out and packing to go! Karen and Allysa took me to the airport and we said our goodbyes with a group hug (as only sisters/aunties/nieces can!). My first flight was to Philadelphia and there I had a 4 hour stop-over until my flight to London Heathrow. I wasn’t too impressed with the flight to London. The food was pretty naff and there were no individual screens on the backs of the seats :-( However, after dinner, I managed to get about 3 hours sleep.

We arrived in London at about 11am on Monday morning and I had to collect my luggage and check in for my flight to Edinburgh. I just about managed to stay awake until my flight was called but it was hard work! I arrived in Edinburgh at 3.30pm and Jon collected me from the airport – it was great to see him again!! When we got home, the cats pretty much ignored me until later that evening even though I fed them tuna – their way of saying how annoyed they were that I had been away so long ;-)

I have had an amazing time over the last 3 months! So many people have said how quickly it has gone but for me, it didn’t go too quickly or too slowly – a good pace! I am happy to be home now. I have lots of plans over the summer (many of which involve diving!) and it is lovely to be back with Jon, the pussies and all my friends and family!

Thanks so much to all of you who have followed my blog over these last 12 weeks and for all the lovely comments you have made! I hope you have enjoyed following my blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

I’m not quite sure how a blog should be finished but here goes……………………BYEEEE!!

So much rain…..

I had to get up at 3am on Tuesday morning to catch an early morning flight. I flew to Jacksonville via Chicago and only had a short stop-over there for a change! When I arrived in Jacksonville, I discovered I didn’t have my sister’s mobile phone number and I wasn’t sure where to meet her! I waited outside the terminal and Karen found me. It was absolutely pouring with rain, which is quite unusual for this time of year. Karen, Ilan (my brother-in-law), Allysa (my niece) and I had a chilled out evening in front of the television.

It was still pouring down with rain on Wednesday morning. Jason, a fellow volunteer at the White Shark Projects, was staying at a friend’s place about 40 mins drive from Jacksonville and we had organized to meet up here. He was going to cycle to Karen’s house but the weather was pretty bad so we went to pick him up. We spent the afternoon catching up and watched a couple DVD’s in the evening with a Chinese take-away for dinner.

It was still pouring with rain on Thursday :-( In the afternoon, Jas and I headed to the local cinema and, after lunch at the Steak ‘n’ Shake, we watched ‘Terminator Salvation’ which was really good! Later that evening, Karen and Ilan fired up the hot tub they have in their garden and we all chilled out in it :-)

Guess what? It was pouring down with rain on Friday morning!! We took Jas back to his friend’s house in the morning and then Karen and I went for a massage :-) We all went out to the cinema in the evening – though I went to see Star Trek (FANTASTIC!) and Karen, Ilan and Allysa went to see ‘Night at the Museum 2’. We all enjoyed our respective films!

Today, the weather has alternated between pouring rain and brilliant sunshine! Karen and I spent a few hours shopping and tonight, I am taking Karen and Ilan out for dinner – if we can ever decide what restaurant to go to………….

Mountains and sea :-)

We headed off on Friday morning to Lake Tahoe with Wesley in the back of the Jeep. Unfortunately, he was car sick about an hour into the trip and we had to stop to clean it up! The scenery on the way was absolutely stunning as we drove through the mountains and pine forests. We arrived in South Lake Tahoe and stopped off at a fabulous little coffee shop for soup, a sandwich and a cake – it was a great find.

Shannen and Paul showed me where they got married at a hotel just outside South Lake Tahoe and then we headed to the lakeside. We went for a short walk near the lake – poor Shannen had badly twisted her ankle last week and was finding it hard to walk very far. The lake itself and the surrounding mountains were beautiful. We headed back home and went out for a dinner at an Indian Restaurant which was really good.

We got up really early on Saturday morning to go to Monterey Bay for the day. The plan was to go to the aquarium in Monterey and spend the day there. We were then going to head to Monterey Airport where I would pick up a hire car and head to my friend Ian’s place in Paolo Alto for the night. I was going diving with Ian and his pal Neil on Sunday and then I would drive back to Sacramento on Monday morning.

However, Shannen’s ankle had swollen up really badly and she was having big problems walking :-( So I arranged to collect a car from Sacramento Airport and I headed off on a road trip on my own to Monterey. It was the first time I had ever driven in the USA so I was quite excited!

I arrived in Monterey and spent about 2 hours in the aquarium. It was pretty good! I had been told by Adrian, the marine biologist at the White Shark Projects, that Monterey Bay Aquarium had a white shark in captivity and it was the only aquarium who had managed to keep one. However, when I asked, I was told that they had had one but not anymore. I headed off to Paolo Alto and arrived in time for dinner with Ian and Neil. Ian is a friend from my dive club at home who happens to be working/studying here for a few months :-)

We headed down to Monterey at about 8.30am on Sunday morning and stopped of at a dive shop to collect cylinders for us all and a 7mm semi-dry suit for me. We then drove south towards Point Lobos State Reserve where we were going to dive. We stopped off in Carmel for a sandwich and a drink. Carmel is a very, very nice town and obviously very affluent!

We arrived at Point Lobos State Reserve and checked in with the ranger there. They limit the number of divers who can dive there and Ian had to buy permits for us about a month ago. We dived a site called Whaler’s Cove and there were quite a few other divers there too. There were giant kelp beds there and we swam in amongst the base of the kelp on the reef. It was really scenic and a lovely dive….but very cold! The water was about 9°C but we managed a 40 minute dive. However, Neil and I were both in semi-dry suits and so cold when we got out that we couldn’t warm ourselves up for a second dive! :-(

I got back to Sacramento this morning (Monday) and I will be packing up my stuff this evening and heading to Florida tomorrow for the last leg of my Big Adventure……

Sunny Sacramento

I had two very chilled out days in Palm Springs on Monday and Tuesday. It was a nice change to sit in front of a television and watch hours and hours of my favourite programs (CSI, Law and Order, NCIS – yes, I am sad ;-) !

On Wednesday morning, I packed my bags, said my goodbyes to Christopher, Srinu, Harry the dog and Pudding the cat and I headed to Palm Springs Airport. To my delight, there was free Wi-Fi there! I arrived in Sacramento Airport at about 1.30pm. I am staying in Sacramento with my friend Shannen (we used to work together a few years ago) but she had to work in Portland today and she wasn’t getting back until 10.30pm tonight. However, her daughter, Kelly, offered to pick me up from the airport at about 5pm so I settled down to wait for her. Luckily, Sacramento Airport also has free Wi-Fi so I was happy to play on the internet and read my book while I waited.

Kelly picked me up at about 5.30pm and took me to Shannen’s house. Shannen lives about 45 mins from the airport is a town just outside Sacramento called Lincoln and she has a beautiful house. Shannen’s husband, Paul, arrived soon after and the three of us (me, Paul and Kelly) we went out for dinner. I waited up for Shannen to get home and she arrived just after midnight – but we didn’t go to bed until after 1.30am as we were gossiping and drinking cups of tea!

We slept in yesterday morning and in the afternoon, Shannen had an appointment with her hairdresser. We arrived a bit early so we went to a nearby bar for a quick Margarita and persuaded the waiter to give us paper cups so we could take our drinks along to the hairdressers with us!! Ruth, Shannen’s hairdresser, was great fun and we were there for 3 hours! I asked if she could put some pink highlights in my hair but unfortunately, she didn’t have any pink hair dye :-(

After we had finished there, we went to a hotel bar for the evening to meet with some of Shannen’s friends and Shannen and I had a Cosmopolitan and a bite to eat and then Shannen and I headed off at about 9pm.

Our plans are to visit Lake Tahoe today (Friday) and we are off to Monterey Bay on Saturday :-)

Mountains and Joshua Trees

I had 2 Thursdays last week! I left Auckland at 7.15pm on Thursday 7th May and arrive in Los Angeles after a 12 hour flight at about 12pm – on Thursday 7th May! Crossing the International Dateline always makes life a bit more interesting :-)

I finally arrived in Palm Springs on Thursday evening. I am staying with my very good friend from Liverpool Polytechnic days, Christopher, and his partner, Srinu. They live in a beautiful house in Palm Springs. Palm Springs is a desert town surrounded on 3 sides by mountains. It’s really hot here with the daytime temperature reaching about 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C – phew!

I spent Friday getting over my jetlag and on Friday evening, we went out to dinner and then went to see ‘Evita’ at a theatre in Palm Springs – a belated birthday present from Christopher. It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed the play very much.

On Saturday, we headed to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway which is cable car up into the mountains. It takes about 10 mins to get to the top and the views are spectacular. There are plenty of paths up there and we spent about an hour walking about and taking in the scenery. It was much cooler up there too, much to my delight. In the evening, we went out for a Mexican meal in downtown Palm Springs and then we headed to a gay bar called Hunters. I have been to gay bars and nightclubs before with Christopher and this one was great fun! There was a guest appearance by an actor who had been on a US soap opera called ‘Days of Our Lives’ and had also been a Playgirl centerfold. Unfortunately, he looks better in his photo that in real life – isn’t that always the way ;-)

On Sunday, we headed out to Joshua Tree National park which is about a 45 min drive from Palm Springs. The area is the only place where Joshua Trees grow and the scenery was spectacular. As well as the Joshua Trees (which are part of the Yucca plant family), there were big red rock formations. We went for a walk to an old disused mill which had been built in 1930 and used until 1966 to process gold ore from mines in the area. When we got back to Palm Springs, we had tea at the International House of Pancakes aka IHOP. I had never been to this particular chain of fast food restaurants before but the food was quite good. We spent last night slobbing in front of the television, which we all enjoyed thoroughly!

Today, I have done nothing!! Christopher and Srinu are working so I have been pottering about in the house, playing on the internet and watching lots of television. I've quite enjoyed it!

BIG FUN in New Zealand!

It’s been a while since I have been able to update my blog as I have been soooooooooo busy having too much fun here in NZ!! My journey to Auckland last Thursday was pretty good – I was upgraded to Premier Travel Class (between cattle class and Business Class!) so I had a much more comfortable flight! I am staying here with ‘old’ diving friends, Mel and Jamie. However, Mel is back in the UK while I’m here looking after her Mum who has had an operation but Jamie has been a perfect host and has looked after me superbly!

It has been the first time I have been cold since I left the UK! We have had sunny days and very wet days this last week. Jamie had arranged 4 days diving for me – 2 days diving off the Coramandel Peninsula, a day at the Poor Knights Islands and a day on the ‘Rainbow Warrior’. What a star he is!!

On Friday afternoon, after having made sure I have all the kit I need, including a 7mm wet suit, we headed to the Coramandel Peninsula which is north east of Auckland. The drive up was lovely – I am very impressed with the NZ landscape and it reminds me very much of Scotland (which is what other had told me already). We arrived in a small town called Whitianga and met up with the group of Jamie’s friends we were diving with in the pub for a few drinks. We were staying in an apartment right on the seafront on the outskirts of Whitianga. When we got up on Saturday morning, there was a bit of heavy surf on the beach and sure enough, when we headed out on the boat, there was a big swell and quite a chop from a strong south-easterly wind. We arrived at a group of islands called the Mercury Islands and found a sort of sheltered spot at an island called the Maori Lady. We had a group discussion but as 4 people were pretty sea sick and it looked like the dive might be quite surgey, we decided to give it a miss and head back! By now, it had also started raining and it poured down all afternoon and evening! We spent a very pleasant afternoon playing cards and we spent Saturday night in the pub again, eating, drinking and playing pool, so it wasn’t a totally wasted day!

When we got up on Sunday morning, it was bright and sunny and the wind had died right down! We headed back out to the Mercury Islands again and though there was still a swell, there was no chop on the waves so it was quite an enjoyable trip out. We found a sheltered spot at Little Ohinau Island, anchored up and had 2 dives there. We dived a shallow rocky, kelpy reef which reminded me very much of diving at home – with a few additional sea creatures we don’t have such as stingrays, triggerfish and goatfish!

The water temperature was about 18ºC and I soon remembered me why I don’t dive in a 7mm wetsuit in the UK anymore! It wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be but I did get chilly and my calves cramped up at the end of each dive!

We headed back to Auckland and had a take-away curry for tea. I had been very surprised that we hadn’t had a curry on Saturday night but divers here don’t seem to go for curries on dive trips – weird!! (That comment may only really be understood by my diving pals so apologies to everyone else who is scratching their heads right now!).

Early on Monday morning (5.30am!), we headed north of Auckland to a place called Tutukaka where we headed out on a dive boat to the Poor Knights Islands. For those of you who don’t know, these were named by Captain James Cook who named them after Poor Knights Breakfast AKA eggy bread AKA French Toast. When we arrived there, a pod of huge bottlenosed dolphins came to play on our bow which was great! Our first dive was at a site called North Arch. There is a large arch in the rock which continues under the water. We dived along the wall to the arch, swam through it at about 20m and then back out again and back along the wall the same way we came. It was a beautiful site – lots of fish, anemones, a stingray, nudibranchs, moray eels and lots more. I lasted nearly an hour until my calves started cramping up again!

For the second dive, we moored up outside Rikoriko Cave, which is the biggest sea cave in the world! Before that, the boat went inside the cave, which is enormous and would have fitted another 3 or 4 boats in at the same time. We dropped into the water and swam a little way into the cave and back out again along the wall of the cave. It was a beautiful dive! There wasn’t as much marine life as the first dive but the geology was interesting and it was a really chilled out dive – the viz was incredible and looking back out from inside the cave was very…..I can’t really think of the right word but it was an amazing dive!

Unfortunately, the dive on the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ planned for Tuesday was cancelled as Jamie and I were the only 2 divers booked on the trip but Jamie suggested we go and dive a really nice shore dive about an hour from Auckland at Goat Island which is a marine park. So I spent the morning chilling out at the house and Jamie picked me up at about 1.30pm. We arrived at Goat Island, got kitted up and headed down to the shore. Goat Island is pretty big and actually too far for us to swim out to but we headed out in the general direction of the island. It was a shallow dive (the maximum depth we got was about 4m) but it was great fun! There were loads of really friendly fish and in particular a blue cod which even let me tickle it under the chin! We swam about amongst the small rocky reefs which were covered in weed and spent nearly an hour on the dive. I also found a nudibranch so I was very happy!

Yesterday, I was planning to head into Auckland city centre but I ended up phaffing about so much in the house that I didn’t get around to it! Jamie and I went out for a Thai meal last night - very tasty. Today is my last day here – I fly out at 7.15pm tonight. My plan was to head into Auckland this morning to have a look around the city centre and then pack this afternoon. But the weather is pretty crap so I’m staying around the local area for the day instead. I am heading to the USA for the next leg of my trip – so here’s hoping I don’t get swine flu!

Townsville ups and downs!

On Saturday, Freya, Kyle and I went to the Museum of Tropical Queensland. There were a couple of main exhibitions there – one was on dinosaurs, in particular, dinosaur eggs and another on the HMS Pandora, which was the ship sent to find the crew of the HMS Bounty after the mutiny. The HMS Pandora exhibition was particularly interesting. The ship found a few crew members on Tahiti but missed finding the others on Pitcairn. It sank on the Great Barrier Reef and the survivors (including the ship’s cat!) made it to Timor on small boats though some of them died when they got there.

We then went along The Strand which is Townsville’s seafront. There are lots of little beaches there and we went to one called Rockpool which is actually a sea water swimming pool made to look like a rock pool! In the evening, some of the guys’ friends came over and we had a bit of a house party! We played Ring of Fire (oh oh – more drinking games!) and I made the mistake of having a shot of tequila before we started! I stayed up til about 10pm and then left them to it!

Sunday was truly a day of rest!! Apart from going for a mooch around the shopping centre near the house, I did next to nothing!! We stayed in and watched a DVD in the evening and I got myself ready for diving on Monday!

I was very excited when the taxi came to pick me up at 6.15am on Monday morning!! I was being picked up at the dive shop in town by a minibus from the dive centre. We were taken to the harbour where the dive centre had a lock-up with all their kit. There were 5 of us and we got sorted out with kit and completed all the necessary paperwork and then headed off on the boat to Magnetic Island, just off Townsville, to collect 5 other divers. It took 2 ½ hours to get to the site of the SS Yongala, which sank in 1913 in a cyclone. We moored up to the bow mooring and got ready for our first dive. The first dive was a bit of a struggle for me as there was a lot of current on the wreck but we stayed near the bow area and tucked in close to the wreck slightly out of the current. The second dive after lunch was much better as the current had died right down and we swam about 2/3 of the length of the wreck and back again. The wreck was stunning and it was covered in corals. We saw eagle rays, turtles, sea snakes and so many fish of all shapes and sizes! The fish did not seem to care that we were there and swam very close to us! The wreck is on a sandy bottom so is an artificial reef which is why it is so well populated with marine life. It really was a fantastic dive site!

We had another night in with a DVD but I was really tired and went to bed early as I was up again early for another day’s diving……..BUT that didn’t happen :-( I woke up at about 3am feeling a bit sick. I hardly slept at all the rest of the night and at 6am, I woke Freya to ask her to cancel my taxi as I didn’t feel well – at which point I threw up! I spent the rest of the morning throwing up and, to put it delicately, sitting on the toilet!!! I spent all day in bed trying my best not to die, which is what I felt like doing! Freya and Kyle really looked after me and I don’t know what I would have done without them! I felt a bit better by the evening but didn’t get up at all. I managed to drink water and eat a slice of dry toast! I thought I might have got food poisoning from some chicken I ate on Monday night but Kyle also had some and he was fine so it must have just been a bug I caught somehow :-(

I woke up this morning feeling much better but I do feel like I have been through 10 rounds with Mohamed Ali!! I went to the dive shop to get my dive kit (which I had left there after diving on Monday!) and it’s now washed and drying in the back garden. I was very sad not to have dived Wheeler Reef yesterday. The rest of my day will be spent chilling out and packing – as I’m off to Auckland tomorrow!! We are going to the cinema tonight. I’m treating everyone in the house and we’re going to see the new X-Men film :-)