Diving 101: Pt. 5

 
Not sure what this thing is. It looked very pretty but the decent pictures of it were ruined... 

Diving 101: Pt. 4

 
A sea cucumber, again the awesome photo of me molesting it didn't come out. Gutted. 

Diving 101: Pt. 3

 
A puffer fish, cool you say. Except the picture of the thing puffing up didn't come out. Bah. 

Diving 101: Pt. 2

 
Unfortunately due to a camera malfunction only five of fifty underwater photographs came out. Instead of sharks, turtles and lionfish I give you... One blurry photo of some kind of fish. 

Diving 101

  

Driving in Rarotonga

 
Everything in the Cook Islands is very laid back. On Rarotonga there is only one road (seriously) and the speed limit is 25 mph. If you need a lift then just stick your thumb out, it never takes more than a couple of minutes for someone to stop... 

Muri Beach: Pt. 3

 
Could be worse I guess... 

Muri Motu

 
Muri Beach is unique on Rarotonga as being the only part of the lagoon where there are Motu. These are three little islands situated in the lagoon which you can swim (or even walk) out to... 

Merry Christmas! (Have some man-tits).

 
My gift to you... 

Sunset

 
Oh, did I mention the sunsets? 

Jurassic Park

 
Rarotonga manages to combine sandy white beaches, a massive lagoon and a mountainous interior covered in rainforest. The overall effect is incredible and means that one day you can be sunbathing on the beach and only minutes later you can be in hiking through dense rainforest. 

Divemaster?

 
Never leave your camera with this guy on the surface when you are diving. Jason was our divemaster (leading the dives and crewing the diveboat) and despite being massively competent was a complete nutcase. Hilarious... 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

 
Dave emerges from The Deep... 

Dive Rarotonga

 
These are the guys that we were diving with pretty much every day. A thoroughly nice group of people and great fun to dive with. Plus, Jason found us some sharks so he rules... 

The Guy and Dave Show

  

Um...

  

View From the Top

 
This is what we had to wake up to every morning. I've seen worse... 

Muri Beach: Pt.2

  

Muri Beach

  

Merry Christmas from the Cook Islands

 
Christmas day in the Cook Islands. I spent most of the day sunbathing on the beach and swimming in Muri Lagoon. Absolutely beautiful and really quite hard to leave after ten days in paradise. This is one of those places that absolutely everyone must visit once in their lives. 

The Last Supper

 
With the original badboys of CP34 now being spread over three CPs it has come to the point where some of us are going home whilst others are staying in N.Z. for a couple more months. With Luke, Allan and Matt all leaving for the U.K. in early January we took the opportunity for one final night out whilst we were all still together. It was a great night for all involved, especially once Jimbo got into the spirit of things and started ballroom dancing in The Bank with Sarah From The Tower. Hilarious. 

Twinstar Love: Pt. 2

 
Having passed my end of SE Phase flight test i've now been let loose with one of these. Basically bigger, faster and a whole lot more expensive. Roughly £500,000 once all the gizmos are paid for so i'm trying not to break anything with my gigantor uncoordination. It's a whole lot of fun to fly but it is a whole step up from anything i've flown before. Most noticeably it has two engines (Mercedes A Class 1.7 diesels for those of you so inclined). It is the first aircraft of it's type to operate using diesel engines and as such it has a couple of quirks. Best of the bunch though is the fact that unlike most aircraft if this one has a total electrical failure then both engines stop and you fall out of the sky. Great... 

Twinstar Love

 
Voila! The cockpit of the DA-42 Twinstar. Absolutely no idea what anything does. Excellent.