Hey Guys,

Well we made it back from our 7 nights in Crete, was really hot, about 30degrees every day which was great for the tans! We stayed in the younger peoples area of crete - so there was heaps to do and see. The food was really good, especially the fruit and vegetables - the best water melon ever!! Streets - even back streets consisted of supermarkets (selling a lot of lilos), then car rentals, then scooter rentals, then a jewllery shop followed by a travel centre - then just repeated over and over again! Stray dogs and cats everywhere which was kinda wierd - I felt sorry for some of the dogs, when they had sad faces!! We even watched a cat eat a tomato it was so hungry!! Think they need a RSPCA there. Another thing too which was hard to remember was that the toilets cant handle toliet paper!! And when we arrived at 5am in the morning - that was the first thing I forgot - opps!! Paul did heaps of snorkelling - almost went out every day, and found treasure - which amounted to $1euro, and a hair tie - Yay!! He wanted to find enough to quite his day job.

We arrived into Crete a bit later than expected, firstly the flight was delayed, and then after we were all belted in, and lady had a panic attack and had to get off - which meant they had to unload all the bags to find hers - which tool another hour. On our 30 minute bus ride to our hotel - we decided that the roads were way to crazy to hire a car - however after a couple of days of being there we decided we would risk it, after we got fed up with waiting for a bus!

Our first day was one of mucking around, and drinking cocktails beside the pool. Day 2 we hired a little yellow car for 2 days, and managed quite well - considering the roadsigns were in Greek (which consisted of triangles, backwards Es etc etc), the map was a mixture of Greek and English - the drivers were all over the road, scooters everywhere - plus we had to remember to drive on the "wrong side" of the road!! Pauls usual aim to get as much rubber off the tyres as possible before returning the car also caused a few arguments when we were going down a road that was somewhat like the Crown range. Anyway, we managed to drive up to Rethymno, which was about 1.5hrs west of where we were staying! The airconditioning made up for having to listen to Greek radio stations the whole way! Rethymno was cool for shopping, and day 2 of our trip and Paul is well and truely sick of jewllery shops!! We then headed to the South of the Island - where we found a cool beach and went snokelling!! Wild goats were everywhere which was kinda cool.

Day 3 we thought we would take in some history and went to see the Knossos palace/ruins. This site is was built around 1900BC - and was cool that we actually got to walk through it!! After this we drove to Water City - which is a park full of water slides!! I quit after about the 4th slide when i came out upside down and nailed my shoulder on the bottom of the pool, which Paul thought was hilarious!! But Paul carried on - doing every slide in the park!! We then managed to return the rental car with no problems - and were back to beating the feet again - we reckon we walked over 30km this whole trip - not a bad effort we didnt think!! We went out in Hersonisos at night, where you could get $3euro cocktails which was awesome. Euopean pours with no nip pourers is even better!!

Day 4 we took a bus to Agios Nikolaos - East of where we were staying, from which we took a ferry to Spinalonga Island. The boat stopped half way there and we were able to dive off and swim around for half an hour before continuing! Spinalonga was cool - but was extremly hot - with no shade! We learnt heaps about the history of the Island, then walked around it - before lying in the sea to cool off.

Day 5 we intended to get to Santorini, made it to Iraklion by bus which was amazing, then 1 ferry had broken down, and the other was fully booked! So we missed out. However, we ended up hiring a scooter - which was kinda fun!! We stopped off at some beaches, and ended up going parasailing. Paul told me that I would not get wet and that they would just winch us out from the back of the boat and back in!! About 2 minutes later we realised that we picked the cowboys of the bunch, and they told us nothing!! We were hooked on and standing on a pontoon and told to walk to the end when the guy told us too! However we got the timing all mucked up, and face planted off the end of the pontoon, and dragged through the water until the parachute filled with air. Once up, we were about 90meters in the air, being held on by 2 dog clips, and a rope that was just knotted!! Paul was trying to reassure me that if the knot did come undone - we could just float down with the parachute!! I was freakin out. The next mish was getting down - which was just getting dropped into the water, the boat driver had lowered us twice to get our legs wet - and then would take off again, was getting sick of this game!! But the landing was considerably better than take off, which would have looked funny as. Anyway we did some more touring around on the scooter - accidently arrived at a nudist beach - left there pretty dam fast!!

Day 6 we had booked to go to Dia Island - however there the captain never showed (we guessed a hang over), and we had to take a different trip up the Coast to Sissi. Here we had lunch, and then brought lilos to lie on the water all arvo!

Day 7 - was time to go home :(, we didnt fly out to 5.30 though, so managed to go to the beach and the pool!! The Heraklion airport is kinda like Invercargill airport - except a million more people, and not as flash!! We made it back on time though, which was cool. Raining here now though - so its pretty cold.

Sorry just realised how long this story is - sorry to bore yas.

Take Care

Haylee and Paul