What a delay...

Sorry guys, it's been a busy times the past couple of days. I had to study up for some pretty important exams for my DM course, which I finally finished today, and passed! Excellent, eh?! So, now I'm more than halfway there to completeing this course, which just feels great! I can't believe I've taken myself here, and done what I've done, pretty surreal, but feels absolutely amazing.

For the past couple of days, I've been hanging out with some Canadians and been having a blast with them, playing some hacky sack, frisbee, and volleyball. And yesterday we were going to go and hunt ourselves some muscles, but upon arriving to the beach and scoping out the waves, we all decided to do a tactical retreat (read: chickened out). Mainly because the waves were breaking exactly over the point of where the muscles were, and we didn't feel that the food in exchange for our lives just wasn't worth it. So instead, we went back to the campsite, got some cash, and went to the local pub/restaurant to have ourselves a good feed (kiwi for meal) and drank some beers with some of the other backpackers at the camp. Ended up being a good night, a bit expensive, but well worth it. :D

Also, Rob, my meat contact here in Tuts took me for a ride into the local bays just to show me around, and wow! The houses that are there are just amazing! They're the most beautiful houses ever! Right by the beach side, over looking the ocean, modern designs, and even old school ones that I prefer even more. I'm going to make it a mission to go out there one day with my camera and take some good snap shots, eh? Try and take some HDR photos for you guys, and then you'll really shit a brick!

Speaking of which, I was part of a lamb slaughter that happened around the campsite. Okay, let me rephrase that, I personally didn't take part in any actual slaughtering, I was just there documenting the whole event. Rob was the one who told me about it, and said that it would be okay if I came by and watched. It was a pretty weird feeling mind you, standing there, taking snap shots of an old farmer gutting and skinning the sheep. Not exactly the most touristy thing to do, but interesting either which way.

And on that note! Talk about doing random, non-touristy activities, I went up to Paihia to hang out with Cam due to all the dives being cancelled on account of 3-4m swells out at sea. So I went up north and got setup into a caravan at Cam's parents campsite and while I wasn't studying, I was given a job opportunity which can earn me some big bucks later on in the summer and even in Sweden. It was to scrub the hull of boats sitting in the marina. Yup, you read that right, I was scrubbing the bottom of boats for the better part of a half a day (until Cam hurt himself), I was snorkelling, and Cam was under the boat in his scuba gear. The visibility was about...10cm, so that was an experience all in itself. But yeah, upon surfacing after our 2nd boat, Cam wanted to show me the inside of an oyster that you could pick up in the marina (not edible though, because they filter too many chemicals and toxins) and borrowed my knife to open it up. You can see where this is going, I bet. Anyway, ends up with the knife piecing through the shell of the oyster and cutting Cams pinky finger - bad. We start packing our gear together, throw it in the car, and start hauling ass to his parents place. And on route, we started to joke about how we would diplomatically explain to the other customers that we had to end the work because of stupidity. The best we could think of was something along the lines of: Due to unlikely events, the following planned dives had to be aborted because a diver was injured in the line of duty. We never got to say that though, which was a real bummer. When we got to his house, and showed his dad the cut, the first thing his dad said was "Holyshit Cam!" with a look of "You bloody idiot". He went off the hospital to get it checked out, because it was pretty deep cut apparently, and I had to go back to the marina, and talk to the final customer that we would have to return later on when we had fully capable divers. I then went back and took one of the best showers I've taken in a long time, then did some studying while I was waiting for Cam to return. After about an hour or so, Cam finally got back, and had too big bandages on his left hand. The knife had cut more than his pinky, it had cut the ring finger too (it was double bladed knife as you might of guessed already), and the doctors reckoned he was only a few milimeters from severing his nerve and big blood vessel too. So all he got was some butterfly bandaids, which really bummed him out, because he wanted to get stitches for the first time in his life. All is well now with him though, we went out that following night, and got to meet some of his friends, and then met some Swedes outside of the bar too. And two of them gave me one of the weirdest compliments ever (so far), they both thought I had really nice teeth compared to other people from Stockholm. Yeah, didn't really know what to say to that, so I just smiled, and said thank you. Cam felt I should of asked them if they wanted to lick them (wink wink), but yeah, no go on that comment.

Hmm...yeah, a lot of fun down here guys, I really recommend it.

Also, finally slept in my tent for the first time last night, it was pretty nice, a lot cooler than sleeping in the cabin which is just rediculously hot at night. I slept on a Therm-a-rest matress for the first time in my life, which was...yeah. I slept a bit, but I'm going to need to get accustomed to it. And there's more space in my tent that what I anticipated, which is great, because I can sleep with all my belongins in there at the same time which is really practical for later on in my trip. Going to send some stuff home soon though, like my diving books, and stuff like that, and some clothes too, I have way too many, now that I bought clothes and what not.

Phew guys, I'm running news to tell - NO! I remembered something really important! I'm going to be celebrating Xmas with Dalal and will be heading down to Gisborne for New Year. And it's a pretty good chance I'll be meeting the Canadians down there too, which would be pretty sweet. My goal with that spot is to try to be on the most Eastern part, and be one of the first people in the whole world to see the first sunrise for the new year. I think it'll be awesome! It's okay, don't be jealous...trying think of a reason...nevermind, be jealous :P Just kidding guys! Wish you were here so we could do this together, would be pretty sweet.

Aight guys, catch you later, take it easy, cause you know I am!


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