Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Another Adventure

Hey all,I have to say I have been so slack , keeping this up to date, for that I'm sorry , I no there are so many people out there that have/are supporting me in so many different ways and thank you to you all.

We Had a wonderful wedding and the list of people that helped is super long, The awesome crew at Blomin Flowers did so much work for us , and made the place look amazing, GHQ did a awesome job with the ladies hair and Eson Beauty ( Morrinsville )did a wicked job with the make up.

So , I do not know if you know , But there is Hope for us Melanoma Sufferers, An Ozzy Dr made a drug the targets a certain mutant gene and reverse it, They have done 2 odd years of trails in Oz , and it works amazingly, trails start here in NZ shortly when they get thru all the stupid red tape . But they have to have a control drug, so 50% of the people on the trail will not be getting this Miracle drug, ( thats FREAKEN CRUEL )

Yes I am trying to get onto this trail but If i don't i'll bust my butt to get to Melbourne to get to the clinic......

Another awesome adventure is coming up for me next week, I'm Off Big Game Fishing
Way up in the far north, A place called Houhora ,this adventure has become possible with the generous people at www.fishing.net.nz . Douglas Pharmaceuticals. Geoff Lamond and his great offer of the first trip in his new boat "Arenui"
I can not wait to get out there and have a go getting a record Marlin.

I will keep you all up dated on how the trip goes and have some awesome pictures to post too

Chow for now
Darrell

Friday, September 18, 2009

Yeah , I have been slack not keeping this upto date , Sorry

Hey ya,ll
I must say , sorry for not keeping this up to date as often as i should.

So after a wonderful trip to Denmark and experience the amazing free diving world champs, some real truly crazy people out there :)

The short little stop over in LA was real cool ( apart from some Jet lag for me ) Our Host Carla is a very lovely lady with a huge Potential in free diving , showed Kerian and I a very small part of California , but what we saw was oh so nice, Meeting her friends and other free diving newbe's DeeDee ( oh my goodness, never a dull moment around her, she will have you laughing in 2 seconds, a very funny comic ) and Ben the guy with the awesome Tesla , A very very cool electric car, all very keen new free divers and nice people , it was truly a pleasure to meet you all.
On our last day in LA Kerian wanted to meet up with another friend of his, Linden . ( she's a Mermaid ) true , she is , well thats her job :) , anyways we hit the main part of LA with all the star's on the sidewalk and had heaps of fun just looking at all the People dress up as super hero's and alike ( I tell ya , I never thought i would see a fat Spider man or superman , But i have now , lol )

Landing back in NZ and oh , It was Cold , Wet, Windy , just coming from a place above 25 deg's with no wind into this weather , was not the home coming Kerian and I had planned thats for sure, but I was glade to be home, all I wanted to do was to get up to see my sweet Bronwyn as soon as I could, but since Jet lag had kick my butt once all ready it was best I stayed in wellington for a night before I headed up the island,

So all settled in after the so so wicked trip and would so love to hit the skies again and go somewhere else, but money dose not grow on trees , ( damm it )

Bron and I have started to get the ball rolling more and more for the up and coming wedding ( yes we have a date, but we have to keep something private. yes ) Bron has her dress sorted and we have chosen a place for the ceremony, chosen a guest list ( which is hard to do with limited funds for the wedding we can not have everyone we want to be there ) why dose everything come down to money...... money . money . money .Its Evil i tell ya .

My Bucket list is getting there and I have some really cool stuff to still do , Go Karting with a few of the boys from the Te Puke Club ,Off Shore Power Boating in Tauranga . Blow Karting in Papamoa . and swimming with the sharks at Kelly Tarltons .
just to name a few things coming up , and early next year I'll be going Small Game fishing then.......BIG Game Fishing. Oh yeah I so can not wait for that.

You see all this crap on the news . with people hurting,killing other people, and death from stupid people who can not drive(boy racer's ) , or drink and drive , or do drugs and drive, all this crap you see on the news every day,
But what you do not see is people Helping , Helping other people, and it is so so amazing people I have never meet before in my life, giving up time, resources , just to help, or put a wonderful memory in my head , and be able to do that is a massive deal for me and my loved one's ( like my sweet Bronwyn, my family and close friends )I will never forget what i have been able to experience and for all the amazing people that have helped me, For all of you that do not know, The TV program 20/20 is doing doco with me , about melanoma , my fight with it , and how we no nothing about it until it is to late, this is not right, why do people have to wait until it is to late to find out that something could of been done, if we have more free checks for this , more people will live, if more people know of it , more people can live.
there is so advertising out there about 2 or 3 types of cancer,s . and there is so so so many other cancers that need to voiced, and it is so frustrating that only a couple is publicized on tv and radio.

Do you know that your child , at school, learning so much in the class room, and sitting there , with the sun coming in the windows, and only within minutes can get burnt, get damage skin cells and WHOOMP THERE IT IS , SKIN CANCER, WITHIN MINUTES. what can we do , easy , after our showers in the morning, put on sunscreen, before lunch put more on, There is a clear film we can get from places that do window tinting place's like TINT MAGIC . that is tested and proven to stop 100% uv ray's . we could even put this film on our windscreens of our cars to stop the most common case of eye cancer ( if it was only legal to do so , Its a clear film , why cant we ???? )

Well thats all for now, hopefully my next one will be more exciting to read
Thank you for all the support you are all giving me , I honestly do appreciate it .

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The trip so far

Sorry it has been a while since I have written something , all this jet setting around
has left my story telling abilities behind. So, first stop Wellington, was a nice drive down, the weather was good and the roads had no dorks on it, so the trip was nice and flowing.
Got to wellington and as usual it was wicked to see my sister and Kerian again, so then it was off to Christchurch for about an hour and we are off, 10 odd hours later we arrive in Singapore , Oh my goodness, The humidity stood up and slapped me in the face, it was about 32 degress and 98% humidity , anyways we figured out how to use the train system ( which New Zealand should take notice off )

Anyways , we walked around Singapore for 2 day's . I never saw any Graffiti, no rubbish in the streets, it was so so clean, we found ourselvs walking into a massive mall, clothing shops, jewelery shops, that sort of thing , it was so so huge we could not believe it, and at one jewelry shop they had a double door system, so you walk past 2 armed gards, who let you in past the first door, then you have to wait to be let into the second door, (we did not go in ) but looking at the massive amount of bling that was there , Daaaaammmm

Most of the people are really helpful and easy to talk to , and they like to bargin so Kerian and I both tried out our skill's and got not a bad deal,

We jumped on the train again and headed to the air port, : Destination... Munich,
When we got to the airport there was time to kill , ( as there allways is ) so we had a look around and the price's there are quite steep, even for food, I was tempted to get some Vodka as they had a 2 for 1 deal on at the duty free shop, but hmmm I had to be strong.
On the plane for our short little 14 hour flight, it was a night flight and both Kerian and i was hoping to get some sleep, so after the real nice dinner and a few vodka's ( which the Luftunsa air line like to serve with nothing else in it ,
:)
We crashed out for a few hours, When we got to Munich we had 30 mins to get through customs and get to our next flight, Destination Copenhagen,

Well walking into the Airport it seamed busy for the time of the day (something like 8 am ) and both of us could not speak a word of Danish , so we looked around and looked around to try and find the train station to take us to here we needed to go , um , we do not read danish either, lol
We got to the info desk and we were saved, the lady spoke English and was really helpful,so , onto the train and away we go again,
We got to the hostel and what alovely lady that ran it, it was part of her house, she had turned the basement into rooms , and a shower and so forth, it was so quiet and real nice, so after un packing and having a shower , .... you guessed it , on tyhe train again , and found our way into town, This place is Wicked, Old building everywhere , real character to them, Something we learned quite quickly was , there is a foot parth, a cycle lane, and then the road, People Cycle everywhere, Old people, young people, People in suit's and ladies in heals, We found some walking only streets and ended up walking along side the canal,and there are people for miles just fulled the streets, and lining the pathway was restaurants, cafes, pub,s. it was a awesome sight to see and experience ,
That night we slept ,and slept and slept, Kerian figured out we are averaging 20 km's per day walking , since we landed in Singapore , so over the 5 odd days we walked a heck of alot , ( My poor old body ) lol
We went to a place called Trivili or something like, Its the world Oldest Theame park . It said on a broucher that it is a life changing experience, um yeah, that was not the case for us, it was not that cool, and stuff me , it was so expensive just to get in, we really did feel ripped off.

Well the next day we got on the plane again headed to Aarhus , where the World Free Diving Comp is,

More to come :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Legend , The Hogster , The Ride Part 1

It was a dark and stormy night, the wind was whistling and the rain was coming down heavy , we pulled up at the hotel, an old English styled place , as well pulled up i thought, we are not going to be sleeping much here, as we checked in and walked into the room, oh crumbs , this is going to be a long night, well on cue every hours or so, we got woken up, after what seem like forever the alarm went off and i dragged my tired body out of bed, it felt like we did not sleep at all, at the air port and everyone is grumpy ( people can not do morning's ) so after an hour and a bit waiting we are on the plan, sitting there waiting as they do there check's and stuff, we get out onto the runway and i think .... will this take off be anything like sitting in a V8 Supercar???? ,will the G force be more or less, what will it be like, , I started to wake up more, thinking about this and that , what about this , what will that be like , will i get to chat to him ??? all these thoughts running around in my head, I wqas buzzing a little bit, ( well ok, alot )

We landed at the Gold Coast, Wow , it was warm, about 20 deg's , no wind, no clouds, simply beautiful, hmmm nice.

We got picked up by some old family friend's ( they meet me before i new which way way up , Man thts a few years ago now ) so after the re union and getting stuff sorted we hit the Gold Coast and had a look around, What a really nice place, I could see myself living there no problem, ( well if i did not have what i have inside of me )
So that was Saturday , on Sunday we went to Dreamworld, ( Hello, this is my kind of place ) we had so much fun and was good to feel like kid's again , letting our hair down and getting the adrenalin flowing again.

Monday ..... The day I have been waiting for. i woke up and tried to keep my excitement at controllable level.
After breakfast and finding how to get there , We got on our way, about an hour or so later we got to Ipswich , now, I was getting excited ( to put it into comparison for some people who can not comprehend it , Me meeting Craig Lowndes is like a rugby fan meeting there favorite rugby star, like a soccer fan meeting Beckham , like a fisherman getting the big black marlin , this for me , is big as huge can get )

We turned up at the Queensland Raceway, driving down the driveway , I noticed,other race teams there , 3 teams, 2 other Ford tream and one Holden tem, ( poor bugger's )

So I signed in, and got my race gear to put on, ( there were alot of people there , all in the same race gear as I was given, I asked the lady behind the desk , this is a sponsor's and fan day, they had Both drivers driving 2 cars and the flow of people was steady , One car # 888 was just sitting in pit lane, no one in it, just a few pit crew doing some stuff around it, Car #1 was coming down pit lane, Crackling , backfiring and rumbling and it comes to a stop , a Very happy person jumps out of the pas angers seat, with a Big cheesy grin on his face, Jamie Whincup gave this guy a ride of his life, another person jumps in and they are off again .
I noticed a guy walking in the general direction, big smile on his face, saying hello to everyone he passed, The Legend him self, Craig Lowndes . ( about now i felt like i was dreaming , These wicked race machine's , the current V8 Supercar Champ , and then , the guy who has one everything there is to win in the V8 Supercar's , The Guy who has won Bathurst 4 times, and that is just to start with,

I started to feel a lump in my throat, and I felt nervous, ( to be honest , since i was told about this melanoma lung cancer thing, I have not been nervous, not even with the skydiving, or putting the Team Huka Honda Ford Falcon into the kitty litter)but now ,I was,
The person inline in front of me jumped into the #888 Team Vodafone Falcon, the car started and they took off. I started to think, what is going through that guy's mind, hmmmm, stuff that , what is going through my mind, my pulse was increased and i felt a bit uncomfortable because of the heat,
The Crackling of the 635 Horse Powered Ford coming down the pit lane, Back firing, spitting and just rumbling, Awesome, The car come's to a stop, the engine switched off, and the door's open, Out come's a guy with a look of amazement on his face,
The Race engineer called my name and I moved to the car, Looking at the spiderweb type roll cage to weave the body through and then getting into the seat, So i just jumped in, leg's in first then slid the body in,Pushing my self back into the seat and finding the harness. as the crew started to strap me in , the Person next to me spoke up and said, Heya Going, ( Holy Smoke , I thought to my self, He just spoke to me, lol ) I told him who i was, and i was here for the ride of my life, With that , he said, I hope your hanging on, The doors closed and he started the mighty powerful racing engine, We cruised down pit lane at the speed limit of 40 km/h , then all of a sudden, His foot slam's the accelerator, 2nd gear 3rd gear, then started to turn for the first corner, 4 gear then 5th , aiming for turn 2 , down to 4th gear, powering through the corner and slightly drifting out of the corner, Plucking 5th gear and foot still flat , hitting 6th gear and getting up to about 230 km/h then Hard on the breaks , down to 75km/h and 2nd gear for turn 3, foot hard on the gas again and 3rd gear, then into 4th, putting the car into turn 4, getting the whole car to slide and hit a little bit of curb at the apex, the car still sliding and so in control Craig kept the flow going and out of turn 5. Then hard on the gas again up to turn 6. The hard on the breaks and slow in to this one , the gradually on the gas to get fast out, 2nd , 3rd , 4th, 5th gear up to turn 1, back into 4th gear , bumpy on the breaks and then more gas, and up to 5th gear, , dab the break's again and down to 4th, aiming for a late Apex on turn 2 and hoping the nervous rear end dose not step out.Hard on the gas, picking each gear with speed and precision as we hit the back striate and climbing up to our max speed of 248 KM/h ,

Holy smoke, what a rush, The G force when he hit the gas for the first time was INSANE , the smooth driving and the talent of the Legend behind the wheel made that one Lap I will Never Never Forget

Monday, July 13, 2009

Post Freedive Comp and Pre Craig Lowndes Meeting

Well the Comp is over, and oh my goodness, My little story has started to go around the freedive world, I have had a huge amount of freediver's contacting me, what a wicked bunch of people they are, yes you , you know who you are, And a Huge thank you to Blue Seventy for providing me with the swim suit and swim skin (T shirt's, Gear Bag ) And to Central Freedive (spearfishing and freediving school )

Well here is a snippet from Scoop about the comp

Kiwi Freedivers smash National and World records

Kiwi Freedivers competing at this weekends Wellington Winter Champs hosted by Lazy Seals freediving club at Porirua Aquatic Centre, Wow'd the crowd with sensational performances, including 2 that exceed the current world records.

Guy Brew, current national record holder for Static Apnea, extended that record, his 3rd in a row to 9min 4 seconds from 8:47s, Suzy Osler a former NZ record holder who returned to the sport in May of this year after a 4 year break, set a new 'Dynamic With Fins' National Record of 188m. Osler, who is sponsored by BlueSeventy, celebrated her new record saying " I'm back!"

Dave Mullins, current world record holder in 'Dynamic No fins' at 213m - made a clean exit from a 232m dive, setting a new National record, and Kathryn McPhee, also the current womens world record holder in 'Dynamic No Fins' at 151m, exited her dive at 152m. While both of these dives exceed the current world records, they only qualify for National record status, as the judges present at the competition are not able to ratify World records...................

Like wow , how impressive is that, Imagine being there, watching these amazing athletes actually doing this, I was so so amazed and blown away, you really have to be there to believe it .

So this weekend I'm off to meet V8 Supercar Legend.... Craig Lowndes .
Now, if you remember when I read the letter out on air, after driving the Team Huka Honda Racing Ford Falcon around the Taupo Motorsport Park. I screamed, (yup I screamed,) I was having problems reading the letter as my mouth dried up and I got a lump in my throat, How Excited was I , How Excited Am I . Im still buzzing, and can not wait to get to the Queensland Raceway on Monday to meet the legend and get taken for a mega blast around the track, It's not very often you get to meet legend's and for the lovely people that arranged this opportunity , I can not thank you enough.
so I'm scrounging up as much money as I can, to get some memorabilia and have it signed. Big Thank You to everyone that has helped with this journey.

If anyone out there wish's to talk more about melanoma or a mole they might have and wish to ask questions about it or just a general question , I have started an email account for this,

nzbucketlist@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you , and thank you for your support

Cheers
Darrell

Day 2 Of FreeDive Comp

Oh my goddess, if day 1 way bad for nerves today was worse, I had more nerve's than there is spaghetti in Italy, I was crapping myself, I was first up out of the Recky group, Ok i can handle that, but when your in the water, looking down the lane, and all the judge's , camera people, 2020 camera person, Bronwyn, my family, sister, Brother in law, and all the people to do with the comp, LOOKING AT ME , why me, it's just me, Yeah ok, i know, my mission to get my message out about the killer cancer.

so here I was trying to calm myself for the dive, I aimed for a dive of 75 metres, something i have never done before, I had hit the 50 mark a dozen times , but nothing further, so this was my goal, I was going to nail the 75mtr mark and show it who is boss, Well the time judge called 1 minute, and i was so shaking , Kerian, got my attention and reminded me to put my goggles on, and to breath deep and slow, the 20 second call came and i emptied my lungs, and slowly started to fill them up . breathing in slowly and in control, trying to get as much in my little lungs as i could. 5 4 3 2 1 Official time started I now had 10 seconds to be underwater, Oh Crap, I took my last gulp of air, and went for if, To the bottom of the pool I went, arm's stretched out and trying to make my body as streamlined as I could, It felt like it took such a long time to do the first 25 metres, I got to the end , Turned around and headed back, I felt good, really good, and this time the time did not seam to take to long, I did the 50, now im turning and it was a struggle to turn, I wasted alot of energy turning , I pushed off again, Now into the distance I have not been before, That was it I felt like I had to come up, so I did , I was Short of what I wanted to do, But I had been further than what I had every been before, by 7 mtr's. I popped up at the side of the pool and OH My GOODNESS, There was everyone, Staring at me, How scary is this, Kerian Told me to breath, take my goggles off, breath and do the ok protocol , which I did, Everyone still just staring, Nothing was said, it felt like forever for 30 second's to pass.Then The Judges gave me a White Card ( a Pass ) and then it when loud, charing, Clapping People coming from all sides to congratulate me, Then Tracey the Judge said Congradulation's I am the Only and First person they know of who has swam that far with my condition, ( I have my own Record ) How cool is that,
I looked around and saw my sweet Bron standing there with a huge smile on her face , and i felt a tear in my eye, i was so happy she was smiling and I could she how proud she was of me, Joy my sister was next that came into view, with a big as smile on her face, then Kerian ,my nephew Kyle, then my parents , and then my new friends I had made at the comp, I was totally blown away,

I feel so so lucky to have all these wonderful people in my life , and everyday , another wonderful person pop's into my life, I am so blessed
Thank you so so much to everyone


Stay tuned for the next Adventure

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Day 1 Of FreeDive Comp

Oh my , well I turned up there, and the nerves started to hit me, I just saw myself on the front page of the Dominion Post, then a full page spread inside of it too.

Not long after Bron and I got there my sister and her troop turned up. We all did the safety meeting thing and there everybody got told that 20/20 will be here tomorrow filming, ( because of me )and they all were told of my condition :) ( yay )and yep everyone looked at me , I felt about this big LOL.

So first up is the professionals and they were doing a static {face down in the water not moving, and seeing how long you can hold your breath}

Well not to make me more nervous, the first guy up , did a record 9.03 .....
THAT'S NINE MINUTE'S AND THREE SECOND'S
Wholly moley ,that's so freaking Amazing,

Then the next dude to put more pressure on me was in the Dynamic class with no Fins ( swimming along under the water for as far as possible with no fin's ) well he did an totally amazing 232 meter's , NO WORD OF A LIE, and that was a world record, {but could not be called a world record because NZ dose not have any qualified World record judge's}

Well with all this going around in my head, the ladies had their go, Kathryn did No fin's and bet her own record {she is a world record holder for that class ) and Suzy { after not training for the last 3 odd year's ) did dynamic with fin's and did a new national record.

So here is everybody kicking butt, and my nerve's are about as big as the Statue of Liberty.

Today I was only doing a Static, I really wanted to aim for the 2 min mark, (I have not really trained for this one ) Kerian,(my brother in law ) was my coach. So here we are, in the water with my New Blue Seventy P Zereo 3 Wet suit on, Kerian is giving me a few last words of advice and said to only listen to his voice and try and
R E L A X and enjoy it, All the mean time, there is a time judge shouting out the time left before I Have to be under the water, 2 other judge's just staring at me, and one guy with a dam video camera ( oh I am getting so sick of camera's lol )
Well the time came and away i went, doing a Static, Very exciting stuff really, just face down in the water, relaxing, holding my breath for as long as i can, as the time ticked by I was so so nervous and could not relax, i just could not let myself go into the relaxed state i wanted to be in, and one minute and forty seconds later, that was it, Hmmm not quite the two minutes i was wanting, but that is was i was able to do, well i came out and had to do the surface protocol ( oh my.. how scary . ) 3 judge's. 1 video guy, and everyone else to do with the event just looking at me, hmmm, hello i do not feel very comfortable, so goggle's off, i said im ok, and for 30 more seconds everybody just stared ...... hmmmm what the heck is happening, then the time judge shout's 30 seconds.... and everyone is clapping and congradulating me.
And Tracey one of the judge's said, White card, you are now the new record holder of static with my condition :) how sweet.
I still can not believe how much nerve's played a big part in that , oh my goodness,
what will the next day bring ???