Survey all finished for May / June, so finished up last night - has been an enjoyable 50 days at sea, with everything we set out to do - acheived and happy people all round, so early this morning I headed to the airport to fly to Cairo via Bahrain, good flight all round, once in Cairo I proceeded to the customs area to complete Visa etc, got a taxi to the hotel , I staying in a part of town called El Dokki, which is about 5 minutes from the Nile and close to many attractions. currenlty a much cooler [View Full Entry]

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so got back from 27 days at sea for 2 days in Muskat, was able to catchup on a few things, spent yesterday checking out Nizwa , the fort and the souk , then headed into the mountains to visit a small village, live is very different in Oman and the history of this place is facinating, to many photo's to upload for now, but will update the blog again when I return from sea (mid june). The Taxi's just arrived to take us to the wharf, so best be off to do some more fishing!!!! [View Full Entry]

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The last couple of days have seen us trawl up more marine life to analyse, quite a few technical problems, with a bit of gear, so have been kept busy with a few more challenging problems - the heat and humidy play funny games with electronics. Photos are of samples caught, lots of electric rays, sardines, various tropical fish , a few sea eels. The sunsets and sunrises are unlike anything I've ever seen before, as for getting sunburnt over here - it just doesn't happen with the haze in the air (from dust and sand) still very warm (32-35 degress [View Full Entry]

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So have almost been at sea a week, completed a number of trawls , a huge range of exciting marine life to sample and sort, as we get closer to the Yemem boarder, more and more unlit fishing boats appear on the radar - so far no fishing boats have thrown rocks at us or opened fire on us - the closest has been a bunch shaking there fists and screening some arabic at the top of there lungs. The crew are all great to work with - nothings a problem, all the routines on the trawl deck , foredeck go [View Full Entry]

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Some Photos of things I've seen. [View Full Entry]

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Had a fantastic couple of days in Dubai, visited many places, the skidubai centre rocked - kind of trippy that it's in the middle of a shopping mall!!! checked out the rest of the City - everything is on the largest scale you can imagine, an amazing place, I could and now have the option to live there, being able to Dive or Ski any day of the year is quite appealing!!! did a dunes safari which took me close the the Dubai Oman Boarder, had a fantastic time around the Dunes, quite entertaining - had to tow the other truck [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Dubai @ 2.30am local time, the benifit of being an NZ citizen made it easy to pass thru customs and obtain a 60 Visa for UAE. Slept in today then have just had a look around Dubai - off to a local indian place for dinner, plenty of Ex-Pats here, lots to see and do - everything is just on a massive scale. The three star hotel I'm staying in has 6 night clubs attached, rooms are big and confortable, the exchange rate is good comming from NZ. Will spend a bit more time tommorrow checking out the sights, [View Full Entry]

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Had af fantastic day checking out Singapore, so much culture, so much to see and do - the public transport is fantastic, easy to get around. Today after going for a nice refreshing swim in the hotels pool, I proceded to head to little india, as I got within several streets I started to smell the might fine spicy smells of indian food, little india consists of several streets of shops a temple and a large food area / market - will upload photo's in the next couple of days - but certainly one to add to the list if you've [View Full Entry]

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Had a good flight over with Singapore Airlines - had a young scottish couple, Dave and Maggie who had just spent 3 weeks in NZ and loved it! 10 hour flight, plenty of clear skies some good views out the window. a modest 32 degress, very humid outside, compared to an ice cold 9 degrees when I arrived in chch this morning!! It's a busy place with lots going on, lots of traffic and as always interesting signs that I find somewhat amusing... Off to Little India , China Town and the Zoo tommorrow. [View Full Entry]

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So have my bags packed , said my goodbyes to NZ am of to Christchurch today then to Singapore this evening. See you in 3.5months NZ! [View Full Entry]

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