Friday, November 17, 2006

Finally getting wet again...the Rainbow Warrior


Hello all...well my beautiful lady and I finally bit the bullet and went for a dive weekend here in New Zealand...now after having dived in Tuvalu in 30 degree celcius water we were a little scared of diving here. We went to a dive shop called "Performance Divers" and met the main guy there, Kev. He assured us that the water was warming up and that they had an upcoming trip to dive the Rainbow Warrior...for those that don't know, this was a Greenpeace protest ship that was sunk in Auckland harbour by the French Secret Service with the murder of a crew member in the explosion...it was later refloated and towed to the Bay of Islands and sunk again as an artifical reef.

Well we were both excited and Kev was a very friendly and accomodating host so we booked a space for the weekend.

We drove up to Matauri Bay where we would be staying in a caravan on the friday night after work and arrived about 10pm. We were sharing the caravan with another couple who arrived at the same time, and we all proceeded to our digs and opened a few cans of beer to celebrate meeting new friends. As it was pitch black we had no idea of what the bay looked like.

Morning arrived and we were greeted by a beautiful day and flat calm waters. There is a few pictures here of the bay. We were to go on the first dive to a place called Truelove which is some pinnacles coming out of about 30 metres. I rolled off the boat first and when I hit the water I almost jumped back in. 14 bloody degrees...............oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I smiled and Judith and told her it was ok....she had a dubious look on her face but rolled in anyway...The cold took her breath away and she began panting a bit...I asked if she wanted to continue the dive and she said ok...the site was beautiful but I could see that Judith was feeling the cold so we called it quits after just 15 minutes...she was very cold when we got back in the boat...she kept saying "I want a bloody drysuit if you think I'm going to get back in that water"...or words to that effect...

Needless to say she didn't dive the second dive which was on the Rainbow Warrior...I was bloody freezing but I wanted to dive the ship...I went down with a trainee Dive Master but she wasn't keen on going into the wreck so I didn't get to explore too much...

That night we had fresh crayfish, fish and a heap of meat on the BBQ...a few drinks may have been had as well as a few bottles of red wine...

Following day we got up a bit late and saw the first dive go out...the next dive was to be back on the Rainbow Warrior so Judith told Kev that she was going to dive it no matter what...so out we go and we got to spend 15 minutes on the wreck...Judith loved it and even though she was blue when we got back she was happy...the sealife on the wreck is amazing.

Well since then I have spoken to Kev again and it looks like I may be teaching on the weekends or just helping out the other instructors...Judith will also be DM'ing for the shop....her eyes light up when she sees her dive gear out and ready...can't wait to get back in the water...the dry suit is still under negotiation...I think I may be able to get a Plasma TV if she gets the dry suit....hehehehe

Catch you all later and keep sending the emails

Rob and Judith

posted by Rob&Judith @ 12:06 AM 0 comments

Friday, November 03, 2006

She runs and runs...


Well as with life there is always something changing in our lives...

Judith came and asked me a few months back if I would be keen in running the Auckland Marathon....so those of you that know me well would have known that I jumped at the offer and bolted from the room pleading a sore leg and various other ailments...apparently some of Judith's workmates were going to run it...my beautiful lady downloaded the training schedule from the official Adidas website and started to train....those that know Judith know that her and early mornings do not mix well...she pushed through the pain and continued to train...about a month into training all her mates from work pulled out so she was a little worried she may not run.

Occassionally my wonderful lady would wake me at some ungodly hour of the morning on my only day off during the week and tell me WE had to train...I did my duty and ran one 3km lap and then headed for home to make breakfast for her when she finished her 5 laps...all in all I am very proud of my lady and the effort she put into her training while at the same time giving up smoking...yes there were a few testy weeks there at the start where I considered trading her for something less volatile...hehehehe...glad I didn't.

On the morning of the marathon of which Judith was running the half marathon (21.1km) we got up at 3:30am to head to the start point...the only people on the streets were drunk or wearing running gear...I miss being drunk at that hour...

Judith's goal was to beat the 2 hour mark for the half marathon and when the hooter sounded she was of with about 8000 other crazy people. I dutifully headed for the closest coffee house and then caught the ferry to catch up with our mate Niall, who was our support team, and watch the girl cross the finish line.

! hour 59 minutes and 16 seconds after she crossed the start line my beautiful but very tired lady crossed the finish line to the shouts of both Niall and I...she looked very happy to have finished and very sweaty...not too much of the hugging until she showered...hehehe

We all left the finish area after about half an hour and had breakfast at Soul...all the staff were coming up to ask Judith how she did and to say how proud they were of her...no one there was as proud as me to see her set a goal and achieve the results she did...

Dad called her as did everyone else and congratulated her...she seems to have this running bug now and is still training 3-4 times a week...

Rob and Judith

posted by Rob&Judith @ 7:38 PM 0 comments