Out and about in Zephyrhills

The DZ is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so it has given me the chance to catch up on the essentials of life, washing, buying food etc. I have not hired a car this time as I knew I could get a lift to the DZ. However it is a bit isolated on the DZ and there is no public transport at hand. However Paul who runs the bar (another Brit) at the DZ and is a cameraman and AFF instructor offered to lend me his Dodge truck to have a look around. It was suggested that I go to Hillsborough River State park which is about 8 miles away. So off I went on Tuesday morning. The park was quite easy to find, Paul had drawn me a map. The park was fairly quiet, so it was easy for me to get around. There are various stopping places, some of these are for picnicking, camping, fishing, you can even hire a canoe. There are marked walkways of various durations, depending up on how fit you feel. There is also quite a bit about the history of the area and the original inhabitants and the settlers.

The vegetation in the park is very tropical (I have the bites to prove it) and I have attached a few photo's for you. There are also alligators in the park, I did not see any, but I am sure they were there.

When I got back from the park I had a trip to the local supermarket. Any trip out is quite an adventure, particularly when I still am trying to get used to driving on the other side of the road. At least here, they don't seem to have kamikaze motorcyclists here.

The weather here is very changeable, its almost always hot or very hot and humid, but there are frequent heavy showers and thunder storms. They don't usually last too long, so you can sit them out and then get on.

I hope over the next few days to get some more jumps in, hopefully will get some skydive pictures next time. I have attached some pictures I have taken over the past couple of days, including a lizard that was putting on a display for me and a picture of Paul's truck alongside my caravan. There is also a picture of a shop called the Sunshine Factory - a real cool shop for everything in skydiving . john 30/7

Skydive City, Zephyrhills, Florida, USA

Jim from the DZ, met me at the arrivals section of Tampa Airport. Tampa Airport is much bigger than I expected and very modern. The first thing that strikes you when you get out in the open is the heat and humidity. Its in the 90's during the day and mid 70's during the night and you sweat like mad so you need to take in lots of fluid. The ride to Zephyrhills took about 45 minutes. I am staying in a caravan on the DZ, the caravan are run by Judy and Pip, two ex pats and they have made me feel very welcome. The caravan has aircon and its on all the time, it would not be bearable without it. I have everything I need and can even connect to the net from the caravan.

The parachute centre is based on the perimeter of the Airport on the edge of Zephills Town. Its got very good facilities, kit shop, canteen, bar, the aircraft is a Twin Otter, there is a swoop pond for the real serious stuff, nice big landing area, there are facilities to stay over at the DZ if you want to.

Zephyrhills has a reputation of being a very friendly DZ. I can certainly vouch for that. I guy called Roy has been organising me onto various FS (formation skydiving) groups, its nice to be jumping with other people again. The groups so far have been between 6 and 9, that's more than I have ever jumped with. My performance to date is "tries hard, could do better", I am enjoying it and learning all of the time. So far I have done 6 jumps and hope to have some pictures before I leave. I am also going to get some sit flying coaching from Pip later in the week.

Another very pleasant thing about ZHills is the age of the jumpers, skydiving some of the time seems to be quite a young persons sport, not so here, it does not matter how young you are or feel you can skydive and be very much a part of it here. One of the guys I have been jumping with, is in his 70's, a real interesting guy, came back to the sport after a break of 21 years and has now done over 800 jumps in the past 3 years - that's more than I have done in 15 years !.

Before I came to the US I needed to get my USPA membership (United States Parachute Association), but since then I have got one other membership, I am now a proud member of the Muff Brother's, "Muff Brother no 4303". I am not sure what the actual requirements are, but I suspect I must fit the profile. Will it be a Green Card next !!.

That's all for now, will keep you posted. John 28/7

Goodbye Brazil, hello USA

On the morning of the 24th I left Boituva to go to Sou Paulo International Airport. In view of the problems of getting out of Sou Paulo I was apprehensive to say the least about finding my way to the airport. I tried to get a road map to help me in Boituva but could not find one detailed enough. I ended up using the internet to try and work the route out. So I set off at 8.50 am, my flight was at 9.50 pm - I was not taking any chances, well any more than I had already. I got to the outskirts of Sou Paulo in about an hour and a half. One good thing, the weather was good and the sky was clear, if all else failed I could at least follow the general direction of the planes over head (only problem with that there is more than one airport - are you feeling lucky springs to mind). However, I made it, it took me another one and a half hours, but I did not get lost, well I really was not sure, but I did not take any detours this time. So got to the airport with nine hours to spare.
Everything after that went to plan. This time I was flying with American Airlines, initially a long flight to Miami and immigration and then a connecting internal flight to Tampa. I got to Tampa at about 8.30 am on the 25th (25 hours travelling, clocks go back one hour from Sou Paulo). I was met at the airport by a gentleman called Jim from Skydive City, Zephyrhills.

Boituva

Boituva is the town next to the DZ. I believe its actually classed as a city. Its very different from home. First of all the sun seems to shine all of the time and its warm, so the people dress accordingly, its seems quite a busy place, more down to earth than posh. Visiting here, I feel very much a foreigner, as I have said earlier very few people speak English. However I have managed to make myself understood most of the time, one way or another. I even had my hair cut yesterday, considering neither of us, that is the barber and I could understand a word of what each of us were saying, the end result turned out ok. I even found a local restaurant to eat in and got by with some help initially from a customer who spoke English. Its been a bit of an adventure really. The people you meet are friendly enough, lots of smiles, no doubt thinking stupid gringo.

I have attached a few pictures and hope you find them interesting. One of them is of my gardener friend who looks after the grounds of the hotel at the DZ, he can't speak a word of English, but he always has a smile for me and helps me where he can .I am off to Sau Paulo to-morrow to go to the US. Wish me luck !. John 23/7

Skydiving at Boituva

Following on from my last posting, this time its good news and nice pictures. The good news came in the form of Rodrigo Manzan de Andrade. As I was leaving my room on the 19th July (morning after the nightmare day) by sheer chance I saw another guest carrying of all things a parachute rig to his car. This guy turned out to be an absolute life saver. I asked him if he could tell me the way to the DZ. We ended up having breakfast to-gether. After that we both checked out and I followed him in my car to the Parachute Centre.

Rodrigo was not only friendly, he spoke very good English and had actually worked for some time in the UK - He runs his own company called Lara and Associados in Sau Paulo now. When we got to the DZ which is huge -its the National Centre for Skydiving in Brazil, there is something like 14 skydive schools run here. They all share the aircraft, which are two Cessna Caravans running non stop. Rodreigo took me round and introduced me to his friends and all of the people you need to know, including the guy who owns the aircraft and seems to be the overall boss.

There is a real buzz about the place, there is lots of sports skydiving going on as well as tandems, there are shops where you can buy kit and clothing, lots of places to eat. It only operates at weekends so people make the most of their time here. Rodreigo and I did one jump to-gether just for fun and then we went our separate ways as far as jumping was concerned. I did a jump with some of the people I had been introduced to. Rodreigo had to leave at about 2.00 pm to see his young daughter and wife. But before he went he introduced me to even more people, some of which helped me later in the weekend.

One thing I have not mentioned is the weather, its fantastic, about 26 degrees C not a cloud in the sky. It is so nice to be warm again - hopefully I can leave my thermals in the case now.

As for the scenery, the land around is quite flat, its quite green considering there seems to be little rain. There are some large palm trees around the DZ hotel. I will fill you in on the city of Boituva on my next posting.

Back to the skydiving. I manged to get 6 jumps in over the weekend and really enjoyed them.

On Sunday morning before the jumping started a large hot air balloon was been inflated on the DZ. It was for a pleasure flight and not jumping (worst luck), but it was a really nice seen, so there are some pictures on the blog. One of the pictures is a group of four of us (Rodreigo is next to me in the Red jump suit).

I have attached some pictures I hope you like them. john 22/7

Sao Paulo to Boituva

Just a preamble before I launch into this. The place that I was heading for is called Boituva, its about 125 km west of Sao Paulo.
We landed at about 12.30 noon local time, It took me a while to clear customs because of uncertainty about my medication, I eventually got cleared OK. I was to find that very few people, certainly in the parts of Brazil I am visiting speak English - I speak no Portuguese - so trying to explain to people and later on to get directions is not easy and in most cases impossible.
When I was planning this trip one part that I was not looking forward to was having to hire a car and drive to Boituva where the parachute centre is. The journey turned out to be a nightmare. Sao Paulo is a huge city with a population of over 20 million. Some of those who drive particularly the truck drivers and motor cycle riders can only be described as maniacs, the motor cycle riders also seem to have a death wish as they zoom in from all angles at speed !!.
I picked the hire car up at about 2.30 pm (it was to take me another 10 hours to reach my destination).I managed the driving side of it OK even though the controls are the other way round and you drive on the opposite side of the road (saying that I am still indicating with my windscreen wipers) however I got hopelessly lost and ended up being stuck in traffic for hours, I was looking for a particular road number - which I learned later on was a mistake and whenever I found what I thought was the exit from the motorway I was on I had passed it. At this point I did not know how to back track and go back in the opposite direction. So I went off the motorway and tried to find a route back - I can only say - do not try this - I certainly visited places not on the tourist map, and ones that I did not want to hang around in. I had been warned when I picked the hire car up not and stop and ask directions under a bridge - I can add lots more paces than that !. I tried garages, tole booths, eventually it was by sheer luck or divine intervention that I got onto the right road, that was at 10.30 pm, it had taken me 8 hours. I eventually stopped at a service area - I had not eaten all day - quite honestly I had not even thought about food - (at least it stopped me going to the loo) I had some look warm soup and some bread but did not care I was just grateful to know I was going in the right direction.
As I was paying for my food another customer heard me when I was paying and spoke to me in good English. This was the first real conversation for hours, he reassured me I was on the right road and told me how far it was to Boituva. The rest of the journey took me about one and half hours. It was a straight road (about 80 km) and the road signs were clear. I eventually got to Boituva at 12.30 after midnight. I pulled into a garage which was still open and by various means asked the people at the garage if they new of a hotel ?. (I was booked into the hotel at the DZ, but at this point I did not feel like a tour of the countryside and just wanted a bed for the night). It ended up where I think one of the garage staff was going home on his motor bike. There was a discussion between the garage staff and I followed this guy on his bike to a hotel which was just up the road. My luck was in - at last, there were two night staff on and they sorted a room out for me - absolute joy, it did not take me long to fall asleep. So endeth a day I will not forget. John 22/7

Sao Paulo via Santiago - Chile

I left Christchurch early on the 17th July. I flew up to Auckland to catch the LAN Airways flight to Santiago. The flight to Santiago was to take about 11 hours, so I had decided when I was planning the trip to stop over in Santiago just so that I could get some sleep and rest ( I am hopeless at sleeping on planes). Also the time zones were going backwards so my body clock was getting some stick again.
The hotel I was staying in was supposed to be close to the airport - as it turns out it was only about 15 minutes away. However when I cleared customs and tried to get my bearings I needed to get a small amount of money for a taxi ride and some food. - Just a note at this point as you get into the airport proper coming out of arrivals you can hear the taxi drivers baying for business.
I went to the money exchange but on the way asked a taxi driver how much it would cost to take me to the hotel, he said 20,000 pesos (which is just over £20). Because I did not know for sure how far the hotel was at that time and what the taxi rates were like, I said OK. - You know when you do something and you immediately think - you have been conned - well I had that feeling. Turns out I was right, when I got to the hotel, which was fine by the way, I asked at reception how much I should have been charged - it should have been about 5,000 pesos - I had paid about four times over the odds - I felt quite sick. As it happens the hotel actually run a courtesy service to the airport which I did not know about. At least I got a ride back for nothing - they also gave me a breakfast free of charge at 4.15 am the following morning which I did not expect - so I felt a bit better about things after that.
The flight from Santiago to Sou Paulo took about 4 hours and I landed at Sau Paulo international at about 12.30 mid day on the 18th July. From this point the next 18 hours turned out to be a nightmare !!.
(as I write this the spell check on my PC has decided not to work - spelling has never been one of my stronger points - so apologies in advance for any errors ) john 22/7

Goodbye New Zealand

On the 17th July I left New Zealand with some sadness. Of all the countries I have visited up to now this is the one with such huge contrasts. I have been privelidged to have been able to jump in all af the places I have stayed. The scenery with mountains, lakes, rivers, glaciers is truely beautiful. Its difficult at times to find words adequate enough to describe the scenery.

Again I have been treated with great kindness where ever I have been and at times have been quite humbled. I don't know if I will get back to some of the places I have visited, I do hope so.

I have attaced a few pictures taken on my way back from Fox Glacier to Christchurch. (I write this blog from Boituva in Brazil as its the first chance I have had to update things) john 22/7

Fox Glacier

On Sunday 13th July I left Wanaka to head for Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier is about a 3 to 4 hour drive from Wanaka and is on the west coast. I had not realised that Fox Glacier is so close to the West Coast. I actually drove along the coast of the Tasman Sea. The vegetation is really quite tropical. Its a land of rivers, creeks, bridges and tree covered mountains . Those of you who know me know I don't like the cold so this change of climate is a very welcome surprise for me.

I got to the town of Fox Glacier about 5 pm. Its quite small and I found where I was staying easily. I am staying in the best accommodation of my trip so far. Its called Reflections Lodge, its a family home Rae (Rayleen) the owner of the house has been spoiling me. Rae's family is very much into aviation, her husband and daughter both fly helicopters and their son is a pilot in Canada. The view from the house is right onto the mountains, it is truly beautiful.

I have managed to get 1 jump in so far at Skydive Fox Glacier. They have a Cessna 185 so I manged to get in between two tandems. I followed the first tandem out and was able to close in on them and got some reasonable video shots. The view is breathtaking, I got a good view of the Glacier and the mountains.

The weather got a bit cloudy so I have not been able to get any more jumps in yet. I have been doing some walking and went around a small lake which is just down the road from the lodge. The lake is called Lake Matheson. Its incredible its like what I imagine a rain forest is like, the vegetation is so lush.

I have attached some photographs which I hope you will enjoy. Up to know I have taken over 500 phtographs on the trip, I can only put a small selection on the blog.

Finally I will be leaving New Zealand on the 17th July to head for Sau Paulo.

John 15/7

New Zealand South Island

I ended up breaking my journey at at place called Oamaru which is on the east coast, it took me about 3 hours to get there. I simply stopped at the first roadside motel in the town, had something to eat ready for an early start. In this blog I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Its the morning of the 11th July when I write this blog. I don't know if I will have time to bring you completely up to date, but I must say the past few days have been some of the most memorable days of my life - in a good way. I have seen some amazing sights and shown some tremendous kindness.

Before I go on, I do sincerely hope you are enjoying the blog, but one of the main reasons for this trip is to raise awareness of Colitis and Crohns disease and to raise what I can for NACC. So please pass on the justgiving web address www.justgiving.com/johnhillam and this blog address to your friends, if you can do that for me I would be very grateful.

On the morning of the 8th I travelled from Oamaru to Omarama to Queenstown. The journey took me across the country to the west side of the country through the mountains. The scenery got more dramatic the closer I got to the mountains, every turn brought a new fantastic scene, just when I thought it could get no better it did and just continues to do so.

I checked in at Aspen Lodge backpackers in Queenstown and this is where it all gets really incredible from a people point of view. My 2 nights stay there was entirely free and I even had free use of the Internet, they had decided upon this as a gesture for NACC long before I arrived.

I owe my thanks to Sally and Mandy the owners of the lodge for this kind gesture.

The parachute centre in Queenstown is a very professional operation and employs over 5o people. The centre is called NZone (the also have the DZ in Rotorua on the North Island where I jumped). My main contact at NZone is Derek Melnick, NZone were just fantastic, everything they did for me was free, they even arranged for the local press to be there. Derek had arranged a cameraman to be with me on my first jump and they took some incredible stills as well as a DVD. Some of the pictures are attached. At the end of all this Derek Presented me with a cheque for NACC for $200. I have been jumping now for over 15 years and I have never seen scenery as dramatic and beautiful as that I have seen over the past few days both at Queenstown and Lake Wanaka. Finally before I finish on Qheenstown I did a further live interview with Rhod Sharp on BBC 5 Live from NZone just after I jumped.

On the 10th July I moved onto Skydive Lake Wanaka which is owned and operated by a wonderful family wonderful family. Dave and Jools. They have two smashing children Max and Maye (please see a picture attached of us to-gether). Something very moving happened for me here, Max who is 7 presented me with $10 , he had raised this from selling chocolate at his school - they had been looking forward to my visit and Jools had brought the children down just to see me, Jools was an absolute inspiration for me and has given me even more determination to see this thing through. I have done two jumps here and have been given a ride in the co-pilots seat up to 15,000 feet. The weather was perfect and the view unforgettable. Dave and Jools will not accept anything from me, they have given me the jumps for free as well as the use of their Internet to send complete this post.

The set up at Skydive Lake Wanaka is very modern, great turbine plane and friendly staff. I have even got a fellow Sunderland supporter to talk to Andrea who runs the operational side of the DZ comes from Hewith and is a big Sunderland, she has been out here for 7 years now and loves it. John 11th July