Tsulu Beach Bunkhouse and Apartments Pacific Harbour

... since the accident and gave us another brand new van. However this was going to be goodbye for a week for me as I was heading back to Sydney.
Return to Sydney
I arrived in Sydney to surprise the Irish guys (for the second time) to a warm welcome, and the next week passed in much the same way as my first week in Sydney; much to quickly. I even managed to fit in a 12 km jog along Bondi Beach which should impress Mark!

Auckland and leaving NZ
A week ...

... was 120, so we stuck with our original accomodations.

The shark dive was unreal, leaving it very hard to describe. To put it simply, there were about 15 divers, 5 feeders (guides), 4 bins of dead fish, no cages, and 100's of sharks. From small reef sharks to massive bull sharks there were 6 different kinds that we observed. In 2 instances I was 3 feet away from a 4 meter bull shark with its jaws wide open getting ready to take some bait. Truly a ...

Bula! So I finally made it to Fiji! It was so so sad leaving the Cooks as I had such an amazing time there. So amazing in fact that I decided I needed one last night out so went out until 2am then straight to the airport for a 3.30am flight - not the cleverest idea I've ever had as I don't think I've ever felt rougher on a flight! Got to Auckland to find the transit gates closed but then got led through some ...

... with 10 kg of lead around your waist. On the surface, I give the 'out of air' signal to Dr T. He does not see it. Half out of the water it is difficult to see signs. I grab him and say:' hold me: I have no air in my BCD.' On which the Tomcat says: 'you can inflate it manually. ' Huuuuuuuuh? I just finned up from 5 meters with 20 kg on my back and you think I have breath left to blow up my BCD? Too much conversation, so I hold on to him ...

... bait), do not make any sudden moves, ... . We go down to 30 meters and sit down. The first dive they feed 200 kg of fish. The second 500 kg. The feeders are professionals: do not try this at home. They also wear gauntlets. And they are not feeding more than 10 minutes in a row. One mistake can be fatal. Next to the sharks, there are 1 million fish: giant trevally, surgeon, damsel, giant (and I mean giant) grouper but we came for the SHARKS: they ...

... heard about: http://www.uprisingbeachresort.com/ It is on the same road, 1 km further and we do like it there. We take a Bura (=hut on the beach) for 80$ local (=40 Euro) per night. We stay for 2 nights. We drive back to town. It is described to be THE place to be in the south but it looks quiet sleepy to us. The happy hour in one of the bars starts at 16h but ... the bar closes at 16h! There is a ...

... in the bed, still. Now, back to what I was saying, we were not wanting to leave (and to be honest, we still kind of don't) but, after all of our little experiences...including Brandt's own personal experience (he will write about that one), and all the different bugs, weird critter noises, and the blood sucking mosquitoes (sometimes I think they like bug lotion), we're ready to finally go home and (sorta) get back to the real world. The clean ...

... up and down a ridge, we arrived at the wide river and the longboat which had carried out lunch and more sedentary members upstream - roughly four hours after we'd set off. After eating lunch by the river, we all grabbed a tube (big rubber ring) and lay back to float downstream. This should have been great after our morning of extreme heat and exertion (despite our driver joking that the murky river had been the setting for 'Anaconda') but ...

The following day was the one where my sailing really seemed to all come together. Watching me and the little mistakes that I kept making, Jim succeeded in explaining the mechanics of sailing in terms that I could understand. Finally I could recognise when I was too close to the wind on a close haul. I could feel the wind changing as we passed islands on a broad reach, and reacted in time to prevent us losing speed. I sailed through passes, learning to stay closer to the reef on the ...