26-29 August 2011: Faro, Portugal

Going away for the long weekend was a welcome relief from the British summer (which hadn't happened this year) and the fact that there was plenty of surf, sun and sand made it even better!

Myself and Nicole stayed in a wonderful villa in Alberferie which is 35mins from Faro airport.  It has a swimming pool and balcony overlooking the main beach - which is all but a 10min walk down to.  There were plenty of Brits around, but also lots of Portuguese and mainland Europeans. 

We flew out of Gatwick at 6am and by 10am (Portuguese time) we were by the poolside with sangria!  During the next 3 days we rotated between the old town, the beach and poolside.  At night there were plenty of pubs/clubs open and lots of cheap cocktails (€3 for a cocktail) and alcohol.  The food was yummy and generally cheap and there was the added benefit of lots of eye-candy around on the beach. 

What more could we ask for!  Have a look at the photos as they say everything....

Overlooking the main beach

Myself and Nicole enjoying a a sunset cruise

Cocktails galore!

Our accommodation!

Old town of Albeferie, Faro

The main beach is behind me

A church in Albeferie

Eating again! But the seafood was so delicious!

6 Dec 2009-16 Jan 2010: New Zealand

Wellington
I flew from the UK and landed into Auckland airport knowing I was home....I got greeted very warmly by the immigration officer! Once I was in Wellington I also knew I was home as on day 1 I felt my first earthquake!

Mum and Dad were in good spirits and the first week was spent catching up with friends in Wellington and getting over jet lag (which wasn't too bad). I did have to wait 3 days before I saw the sunshine...and it wasn't exactly very warm either! But home is home!

Waitomo
I hired a car for most of my stay in NZ - much easier and lots more freedom with a car. My first trip was to Waitomo Caves where I did a 5-hr tubing and abseiling trip into the caves. Absolutely fantastic experience (as long as you aren't claustophobic) and as there were only 2 of us we got to do far more than most trips. The water in the caves was actually slightly warmer than I imagined, but we were still in a full wetsuit.

Raglan
The next port of call was a quaint little town called Raglan (east coast of the North Island). I was there for one thing only...surfing. I was staying at the Karioi Lodge just by Mana Bay (where the left break is the most consistent in the southern hemisphere). The weather was generally sunny and I had 6 days of surfing. Very exhausting but so much fun and lots of people to talk to at the lodge. The waves were not as big or rough as Croyde Bay (Devon), but consistently good. I would definitely go back there for more surfing as it is such a nice spot.

Xmas week
I went back down to Wellington for Xmas week (but it was one hell of a drive...8hrs solid). My brother Jason and his wife Caroline had also arrived from the UK so half the Lind family were together.

Xmas day was typically NZ style...get up, unwrap pressies, have a hot lunch, afternoon snooze, and then a light dinner. Lots of champers, chocolates and rich food! But we would have it no other way!

Whakatane
Jason, Caroline and I stayed in Wellington for a few more days before heading up to Whakatane (near to Tauranga). It was a long day....8hrs driving....but the hire car was top of the range and was so comfortable to drive (and very easy to put the speed on). We also managed to get up there in time for the sunset which was very beautiful.

Thornton Holiday Park was packed full with people, but we weren't camping, we had a cabin. This is very typical way New Zealanders spend their holidays...and we were only a few minutes walk from the beach which was long and largely undeveloped. Lots of people were there to fish...but we were there for for some R&R and fun.

One day we headed to Rotorua where we did a white water rafting trip down Kaituna Falls. It is a 7m waterfall which the raft (and hopefully everyone) rafts down. The trip was very well organised, very professional and a lot of fun. We then went to Polynesian Spa for a well earned rest in very, very hot spring water!

The rest of the time in Whakatane was spent relaxing, checking out Whakatane, going to Ohope Beach (beautiful), and just not doing much. We ended up in Whakatane for New Year's Eve and I can't say it was kicking off like it would in London, but enough that we had a good time.

Picton
On 2 January 2010, I flew down to Nelson and Jason and Caroline flew back to the UK via Phuket. I then had 7 days of R&R which involved walking, canoeing, reading and not doing very much. I was staying at Portage Hotel (backpacker part) so I would usually start the day with a latte on the balcony and then decide what I was going to do for the rest of the day. The weather was fab, so I also working hard on my tan.

Wellington
And so my 6-week trip was coming to an end...the last week was spent in Wellington saying goodbye to friends and family and generally trying to savour the last few days of freedom!

The trip was everything I hoped it would be and it was so good catching up with friends and particularly family. I was also lucky with the weather so the whole trip was something that I will remember for a long while (well...at least until my next trip to Austria skiing in March!).

More photos....

24 Dec-3 January 2008 – Lanzarote, Canary Islands

The three of us decided that a good way to celebrate Xmas and the New Year was to surf in the Canary Islands…yes it is winter, but it had to be warmer than the UK!

We flew in on Xmas Eve to a small sleeping town called Famara – on the north coast of Lanzarote – the best surfing location on the island (and far enough way from Port del Carmen)!

I flew in with Sera (my travelling buddy from Morocco and good friend), and we were picked up by her pal Marcel who flew in earlier than us. He hired a car, did the shopping and generally potted around until we got there. As it was Xmas Day the following day, we did the shopping on the basis that nothing was going to be open – I am glad we did as nothing was open!

Xmas Day was spent not doing much. Lanzarote is a very windy island so sunbathing on the beach is not always the ideal thing. It wasn’t particularly warm on Xmas Day and the wind was blowing – and without a balcony we had no option but to eat and drink the day away. Saying that we did manage to do a BBQ meal for dinner – albeit cooked on the pavement outside the apartment! Thanks to Marcel for getting an early flight so he could go food shopping while the shops were open...otherwise we would have starved!

The next day was my first day of surf school (Surf School Lanzarote)! I had booked for 5 days of surf school, Sera for 2 days and Marcel none as he had been surfing since he was 8 years old. The day would start at 10.30am, do a warm up, and hit the water until 1pm when we got lunch. There would normally be a talk about things such as surf board design, rips, waves etc over lunch, before heading back into the water until 4pm. I found the first few days exhausting as my muscles got used to the workout and I got a bit more proficient on the surfboard. It also didn’t help that I had picked up the cold that was going around London (even the surf instructors were struck down with it).

By the end of the course I was on a hardboard vs. a softboard (more buoyant, larger and easier to learn on), and was standing up on most waves I caught. Surfing is lots of fun and you get such a blast when you get a good wave, stand up quickly, feel completely balanced standing on the board and you surf the whole way into the beach without falling off! It is tiring though, and all three of us were in bed around 9.30pm most nights.

We did pluck up the energy to celebrate New Years in Famara at a little bar called ‘Lenny’s’. About 20 of us were there celebrating and after demolishing a wide range of alcohol, Sera, Marcel and myself called it a night at about 2.30am. We had thought about spending the night in Port del Carmen – but I am glad we stayed put as our apartment was a block up from the bar (ie stumbling distance)!

The weather over the 10 days was sunny, but the more the wind blew, the colder it was (we were wearing a 3m full wetsuit so it could have been much colder). Thankfully the surf was pretty good on most of the days – though some days were better than others. And I have come back with a tan – if anything to cover the many bruises I picked up! On top of that, I nearly broke my big toe, my sinuses became blocked up, I had the cold the whole way through, and my fingertips / palms were shredded after hauling the beginner softboard to and from the beach over the first few days.

But I am not complaining – I had a fab time away with Sera and Marcel, I learnt lots about surfing (and improved my surfing lots), and was glad to be somewhere warm for Xmas/New Year. And we even did a bit of site seeing on the island with the hire car we had.

28-30 September 2007 - Devon, England (surfing)

Myself, and friends Sera and Tina decided to do a learn-to-surf weekend down in Croyde, North Devon (which came with all the 'oh my god, you're crazy, you'll freeze' ringing in our ears). Come 5pm Friday afternoon I was rearing to get out of London and head towards the coast, but getting there was another matter entirely.

After 7 hours we did eventually got to Croyde, but that was after idling for about 1.5hrs after an accident on the motorway. Half an hour later we passed another accident but this time we got through pretty quickly. It did mean we couldn't enjoy the scenery as it was about 12.30am when we got to our rented cottage 'Chapel Farm Guest House'.

I had looked up the weather forecast and it 'promised' sunshine and a very 'warm' 18 degrees. Unfortunately it didn't quite turn out that way and it was a bit grey and overcast when we got up the next morning.

After breakfast we turned up at the surfing school and got kitted out in wetsuits and booties. We then got a lesson in the sandpit which showed us the necessary basics to standing up on a surfboard. Pretty easy on land....not so easy on the water! We had booked lessons for the whole weekend, which meant 2hrs in the morning and afternoon on both the Saturday and Sunday.

Amazingly the water was warm and with a 7mm full wetsuit on, we were all pretty toasty while (trying to) surfing the waves. It really wasn't as easy as it appears, and I have a new found respect for surfers as it is a hard workout and by the end of the first lesson on Sat morning we were all feeling pretty tired. You literally have to heave yourself onto the surfboard, start paddling like crazy to catch the wave, push yourself up to a standing position and then try to stay on! Then you have to drag yourself back out into the surf, avoid other surfers and crashing waves, and do it all over again...and again...and again.

For us beginners, we also had to deal with swallowing water, having water rushing up our noses when doing a nose dive because your weight is in the wrong position, and also the constant face plants and belly flops when you fall off the board. All the instructors were patient and I can still hear their 'paddle faster' screams as we were trying to catch the waves! They are all surfers themselves and know what they are talking about. The school we went through has a 1:6 ratio, so we all got individual attention which helps a lot.

As part of the surfing package we got lunch includes which was delicious. In fact, I would go back to Croyde for just the food as all the meals we got over the weekend were really tasty and reasonably priced.

After the Saturday afternoon lesson, we were so tired that we headed back to our cottage, had showers, a wine or beer, and dragged ourselves out for dinner. It didn't help that Croyde was packed and the restaurants/bars were packed (all 3 of them), but we eventually sat down for a meal and then dragged ourselves back to the cottage and ended up going to bed...very early....(far too embarrassed to say what time!)

The next day we woke up with very achy muscles and wondered how on earth we were going to surf that morning. It was slightly colder as well and still grey and overcast. We warmed up pretty quickly after literally dragging on wet wetsuits inch by inch...very ungraceful getting into them and out of them, and very unforgiving on the figure! But we got there in the end and headed towards the beach for a lesson...this time the three of us had an instructor to ourselves. We were all able to catch the waves and get up on the board so we were improving...gradually! That afternoon we had another lesson but the water was much more flat and we were getting cold towards the end.

We had such a great time in Croyde (which is a lovely little village), and I would recommend surfing to anyone...it's such a buzz when you catch the wave and manage to stand up and stay up. If you do go to Croyde, the Surfing Croyde Bay surfing school is a great school to go through. We may well have been bitten by the 'surfing bug' as myself and Sera are already trying to organise a surfing week in Portugal over Xmas and New Year!