It’s been quite a while since my last blog. Even though I don’t travel as much as I used to, there’s still so much happening and changing in my life, sometimes like by the minute. Guppy and I have been staying in this small town called Tutukaka on the east coast about 30 minutes from Whangarei. I have a nice job here at Dive Tutukaka, a diving company that goes out to the Poor Knights every day. I am studying to get my dive masters and for a skipper’s license. I just have to wait until I am 18 to do the exams. For the time being, I am working as crew on the boats and doing whatever I can just trying to get as much time behind the wheel as possible. I have been up here a couple weeks now and really enjoying it. By now, Maritime School back in Auckland has started. I decided not to attend school after all. Living in a big city like Auckland and doing the same thing in the same place every day didn’t seem very exciting. So I decided that I would take another route toward getting my skippers license for the kind of boats I want to sail. I find this way far more exciting! It also gives me some spare time to make new travel plans. I miss the sea, the islands, and being out on sea with Guppy so much. I am in love with New Zealand but I don’t think I’ve reached the point yet where I could imagine settling in forever. But I do know this is the country I will always come back to and call home. Guppy wants to sail out again and explore more of this fascinating world, so as her skipper I will do my best to make new dreams into many more adventures for us. At the moment, I’m just working hard to earn some money to maintain poor 35 year old Guppy. In addition to working at Dive Tutukaka, I also do presentations from time to time–it’s always fun and I get a lot of very nice reactions. Last weekend, I gave myself some free time and went racing on a Steward 34 with two other crew. We had a lovely sail, and beat the boats that we really wanted to beat ;). Other days I have off from work, I either work on Guppy or go for little road trip adventures around the northern part of this lovely country in my car.

Laura