Heeelooooo!!

I got severely burnt yesterday after falling asleep in the sun. Stooopid Australian sun!! =) I look so funny tho, like Ive got a weird geisha make-up on. My tummie is redder that red, with a little white mark where my belly piercing was. Haha!! Don't worry. I have photos!! I'm pumping pain killer cos even the feel of fabric against my scorched skin is killing. So it's safe to say it's been an interesting Xmas. LOL

Did some shopping for new years today and scored two great tops. Ive got a date for new years. Hihi. I think this might be my first new years eve date. EVER!! ROFL! The plan so far is I'm going sailing then partying. Ba we'll see, dunno how much more time I should spend in the sun...

Tried to go to the gym and work out again. But my muscles just wasn't with me today and the whole scorched skin thing is really energy draining. But I tried and must have been there for at least 30 min. But I'll go back tomorrow and to it properly. =) There's this PT there who made my work out schedule, and it helps having someone over my shoulder to get me to perform better. I'll be bringing this new work out with me home to continue. Its harsh. It's hard. It's the best!

Gonna go try get a free backpacker meal now.

xoxox to ya all!!!

Ive just spent 2 hours in the gym and feeling very good about myself!

Xmas was great, once again spent by a pool! Lots of sea food and heaps of good company, just by a beach with palm trees and a cooling breeze.

Must admit Ive been slightly lazy the last week or so, but come on!! Its my holiday!!! =D But Im back into it now, got the physics books waiting back home on the boat for me.

As of a few days ago I now live on a house boat in the same marina I did before and that is just so awesome. Since Duyfken is out of the water Ive been living with a friend of mine about 20 min walk from the marina. But living in the marina is what Ive always done the whole time I was in Cairns last time so this makes it feel just like home. I'll take some photos for you guys. =)

It's mid through my holidays now, so two weeks to go. The first week went really, really slow. That was great. This past week's just gone so quickly Im almost panicin to go home so soon. But a good mate of mine is coming back to Cairns on the 31st and I cant wait!!! Got to see her breifly before she flew to Tassie the SAME day as I landed.

Im off to get some food now, compleatly ran out and had to improvise breckie this morning.

Hope you all had an awesome xmas back home.

xxoo

Kezzie

My bike is reassembled again!!

Yesterday I went to the Duyfken office to say hi and to retrieve my bike in storage. They’ve been nice enough to keep it for me! =)

It’s now my means of transport. It wasn’t until this morning when I got on it to ride to the slip way where the ship is, that I fully realized how out of shape I am. But later that afternoon I was feeling the groove again!!

So, for the training updates:

Yesterday:
Walked for 2 hours!!

Today:
Rode my bike this morning and all around town, so that might ad up to around 1 hour bike riding!
Going to the gym after this, 1hour min.
The either a fitness class or go swimming for, 1 hour for fitness class and 30 for swimming.

I’ll let ya know tomorrow how I went.

So, just a short update today!!

Take care!!

xxoo

Kez

Had a slow start today! =)

Started with doing some washing and watching a movie. Don’t want to rush into the morning walks, my cold got a bit worse from the flights. Tomorrow it’ll be an early start tho!

Around lunch I started walking down the esplanade and after 10min the rain POURED!! I’m soaking wet as I write this but far from cold. It’s nice and warm rain and the best way to dry is to stay outside. The air con inside is a sure ticket to get sick.

Before the rain started I was just thinking how strong the smell of the orchids here are. There’s a sweet smell in the air, very pleasant. Since the rain stoped for now I’m going to go into the supermarket next door, Woolworths, and get some vegies and meat, head to the park and fire up a free barbeque. That’s the thing about Australia, part of the culture is the bbq, and in most public parks there are spots where you can cook, usually free, all ya need to do is push a button and there’s gas for cocking! Awesome!

If you just tuned in to this blog you might have missed the favour I’ve asked of you all!! It’s all laid out in the previous post. Have a gander! (Have a look.)

Thanks for stoping by this time, be sure to come back now, you hear! =)

xxoo
Kez

Back in Oz...

the Esplanade














...For a month at least!

Im in Cairns now, its hot, its humid, its geat!!

Spent ten hours yeasterday at Narita Airport in Japan, eating great food and sleeping! Got some cool pics of the weird toilets they have. (Hole in the floor...) And some other things.

The flight's been great, smoothly and semi-quick. Landed 05:15 this morning so now Im a bit on the sleepy side. But thing's still the same here in Carins and my little dove is still here too! The ship is called the "Duyfken" meaning little dove in old Duch. I used to work as a guide there and was hoping to do so this time around too. But as of today she's going into reefit and being pulled out of the water! I'm gonna help put on that, but now today, sleeeeep is requierd first! =)

Im staying with a helicopter friend of mine. He lives not far from the centre of town, near the esplanade, which is the walkpath by the water. It's really pretty.

As most of u guys know Im here to study and to get fit. I'd like to include u guys in tha latter. Its more fun and more motivating if someone is following ur progress. So each day (or as often I get Internet) I'll be blogging my regime for that or the previous day.
So join me in this, cheer on and encurage me, Im gonna NEED it!!! =)

I'll be looking forward to ur encouraging post here! The more often u post the better!!

So for now, I'm going to bed. But I'll be seeing u here from now on!!!

xxooxxxooxxooxxoo!!

Kez

Coming home!!

I will see u all (my swedish friends) back home in GBG on 17th of June this summer!! Coming home to stay for a while!!

To all my Ozzie friends I will miss ya dearly and hope to see ya again soon!


Take care!!

Karin 'Kez' Hansson

The bats are out again!

It’s like a scene out of Batman Begins as I stand on the wooden deck of the Duyfken looking at the setting sun across the inlet. A few of them gets confused and flies into to mast and rigging of the many boats here in Marlin Wharf, but gets free again without much effort and quickly joins the other in search for food for the night which consists of mangos and other fruits. They’re magnificent to watch and knowing they’re blind and navigating via radar makes me feel a strange connection with them as I’m reminded of my sail over the Southern Indian Ocean to Australia. Not seeing anything else but ocean and trusting the radar to get us there safely. It’s nice to know I’m finishing off my time here in Oz as I first came here, on a wooden tall ship. This is the first ship that reportedly came to Nova Guinea, aka Terra Australia. That puts the Dutch’s 1606 landing in Australia 164 years before James Cook and the Endeavour in 1770.

A normal day for me here onboard begins around 0700, or it would if I was more of a morning person. Usually I roll out of bed ca 5min before I start at 0800. We wash and scrub the deck every morning, not only to keep it clean but also to preserve the deck with help of the salty sea water. Usually a cup of tea follows and morning chat with the ships bosun, the guy who knows how these ship works and what maintenance needs to be done. Our guru is Mr Phillip Rose Taylor, the same man who was the sail maker onboard Gotheborg III during the entire voyage from Goteborg to China. Old, English, very traditional and full of stories from younger days.

During the day we do maintenance and cleaning. When the cleaning has been done below deck (the galley, the heads and the museum), we oil the rigging or work on our gun carriages. You know, everyday sort of job. Soon we will be doing some tarring too, something I look forward to for the wonderful smell and the good excuse to climb the rigging.

From 1000 to 1800 we’re also open to the public, $5 for an adult, $3 for a child and $10 for a family. A personal guided tour is included in that prize and this is my main responsibility. I give tours, train new guides and boss our existing guides around! So when I’m not doing maintenance or cleaning, I read up on the history of the ship. It’s very interesting, and sometimes hard to believe that I get paid to learn about history. Besides the guides, I’m also in charge of the volunteers we have and the backpackers that stay onboard. These backpackers get to stay onboard for free accommodation in exchange for working 2 hours every morning. Right now we have one German, Finn, and one Dutch guy, Feike, onboard. I’ve been pretty lazy myself when it comes to the morning cleaning but as we starting to get busier with the tourist season starting soon, I will start to get more strict. That means 0800 start every morning, so I kick them out of bed at 0730 and feed them brekkie (corn flakes with milk is included) then the deck wash begins. They work until we open at 1000 but they are more than welcome to do some volunteer work after that too. Once a week they have to do shipkeep, which is another one of my responsibilities. I sleep onboard to keep an eye on the ship just in case something happens during the night; a rag self combusts, (has happened before), we start leaking heavily, the moorings come off (has happened before) or the gas bottle explodes. I hope it won’t because I sleep in the Captain’s cabin just next to it. With another shipkeeper onboard I can take the night off and go have a beer with my new yachty friends at Cairns Yacht Club (CYC).

So my responsibilities so far are:
Cleaning,
Maintenance,
Guiding,
Guides, volunteers and backpackers,
Keeping the ships log book every day,
The merchandise and money onboard,
and yeah, did I mention I’m the curator of the museum too?

No wonder I love my job! The job has a big variation to it, and the people I work with are exceptional.

But in having said that, my visa runs out in less than a month. I love to stay with this job for a while, but if it turns out I can’t, then the rest of the world a waits. I will come back to Oz in a year or two as a helicopter student, which is something I can’t wait to do.

Marlin Wharf where the ship has its berth is the centre of the main marina. From here all boats departing to the Great Barrier Reef, Green Island of Fitzroy Island berths. Every morning I wake up to the Ocean Spirit’s crew talking over the PA system ‘Could the crew please report to the main cabin for morning meeting’. Then Enya’s ‘Sail away’ goes on when the boat departs and also when she comes back at 1700. I know it by hart now. Lol! Hoping to go out with them one day and see the reef. Apparently the Duyfken crew gets a good discount, $15 instead of $150, but you have to get to know one of the captains or mates, and they’ll put you on as family.

My day from now on, as it gets busier, will start earlier, 0700 or 0630 and that’ll start with the raising of the ships flags which comes down every night. The one on the foremast is no worries, just a matter of jumping up on the fore castle and lower/raise it. The bowsprit’s flag is another matter though. Unlike the Gotheborg or the Endeavour rigging, this doesn’t have any foot ropes but since you can lower the yards, it actually a lot safer, except for the bowsprit. That one you have to climb out on top off with only a man rope to hold on too. It’ll take a bit more practice before I feel completely comfortable doing that. A few more mornings of practice and I’ll recon I’ll be there! (Was I to fall, the water is only 5m below me!)

I love seeing mountains again after being in the desert for so long and here in Cairns we’re surrounded by them and they’re all covered in tropical rain forest. I look forward to go hiking in them, seeing the flora and fauna there and maybe a waterfall or two. Things on my to-do list include; white water rafting, diving, parasailing, the Sky Rail (that goes over the rain forest) and a crock farm to mention a few. This will probably have to wait til later, when my visa expires. For now I want to spend as much time on my ship as possible and learn the job! I’m looking forward to the sail we’ll be doing up to Cooktown in June. It’ll be mindboggling to think I’ll be travelling the same coast line James Cook did in a wooden ship just like him and seeing it from the same perspective!

I’ll see you all in July though; I’ll be home for Cecilia Karlsson’s wedding on the 4^th July.

Until then I wish you all a great time and a hope you get an early and wonderful spring. Cya this summer!! Don’t forget to e-mail me!!!

Xoxoxo
Kez

Tropical Cairns

It's raining like crazy here in Cairns. Must be careful not to get washed away. Lol

Will be sleeping onboard my ship tonight. Quite looking forward to it. The thought is as a shipkeeper I should stay onboard every night, but it's been that wet that the manager said, stay in the house for now. But even though it's raining heaps still, and the ship isn't the dryest in the world, I feel like it's time to move into my new home. I love staying onboard that ship, she is just so beautiful and authentic. Real speacial feel to her, she's a breathing, sweatting, living wooden ship with a soul. Hard to explain, but think Gotheborg III (if you've been onboard) but minus ALL modern things!!! Trey cool!

Better be off. This might be the last blog for a while, no internet access onboard. But keep leaving comments. Do love reding them!!

xoxo

Two years away from home, two years travelling, two years spent, TODAY!!! :D
It’s been two eventful years, to say the least. But I’m getting closer to my goal, to my choppers and to summer when I get to see ya all again!! BIG party when I get home!!!

Hit the town yesterday to celebrate that and my last big night out in Kal, and oh my, last night was a hit. And so is my head today. Lol Ah bit on the heavy side. Started with a house warming party at a friend’s place and then we hit Judd’s, my fav pub. It was packed and so much fun!

Also, I think I might have sold my car, not sure yet, I’ll get back to ya on that. Lol I hope I did tho. :D

My sisters BIRTHDAY on the 19^th of Feb, a little shout-out to her and to Helena and Peter’s baby Alvar who turned two on the 23^rd of Feb. Happy B-Day guys!!! LOTS OF LOVE!!

xoxoxo

I’m finally getting excited about leaving Kalgoorlie and going to Cairns. Haven’t really taken it in yet, but today I started training my replacement at work and I think it sort of finally sunk in. Hoping to sell the car before going because I could use the money, but no disaster if that doesn’t happen.

I can’t wait to get to Cairns actually. I hear it’s supposed to be really beautiful there with lots of green and beaches for miles. It’ll be nice to see the ship in that sort of exotic environment where it sort of belongs. I’ll have to take heaps of videos and pictures to post here!

This weekend will be packing, packing and packing. I’ll have to once again try and fit my life into a suitcase and this time I’m killing my darlings. Nothing unnecessary can come. But the bike will. Yay!

I’ll be stoping in Brisbane first for one night and then fly off again!

xoxoxoxo

I’ve up-dated the VIDEOS page, have a look!

Today Wes and I went to the Arts Centre to see a Stand-Up comedian, Danny Bhoy. So funny. After we went out and hit the town and had a few. Didn’t stay out long, the night scene isn’t what it used to be. Gone quite tired of it.

Spoke to Cian today, my future boss on the Duyfken. Seems that Cairns not being flooded like the rest of Queensland. Good stuff! If you haven’t heard, a big storms hit QLD and 12 inches of rain fell within 12 hours, which is a LOT. Flood water everywhere. If it’s not a farkin drought here, or a big bush fire, it’s a flood. Nothing in-between. Lol

Going to put my car up for sale tomorrow. Feel a bit sad about that. I just got it... Ba hopefully I’ll get a lot of money for it. (Not likely) lol I’ll take a few pics and put up here.

So how do ya’ll like the new website? Leave a comment and let me know!!!

Have a great day mates!! Hope to cya soon!

Xoxoxoxoxo

Karin ‘Kez’

New Blog!

Welcome friends to a new dawn and a new era! This is the frist entry in my ExploreDreamDiscover.se blog and I'm hoping this will replace Resedagboken.se.

Thank you for checking in. You are most welcome back again!!!

xoxo
Karin