"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World" - Christopher Columbus "Me too" - Andrea Montgomery.Columbus sailed past Tenerife on his historic 1492 voyage.Andrea flew into its south airport at the end of 2003.Leaving behind everything she'd ever known: her job, status, friends, colleagues, family, cat and home to move to a foreign country was, for Andrea, like stepping off the edge of her known universe.So why did she do it? The simple truth of the matter is that she was fed up to the back teeth of rotten summers, spending vast swathes of her life sitting in traffic jams on the M6 and doing a job that, although it paid her handsomely, was really not what she wanted to do. So she followed the sun and left behind the Old World of high pressure job, fast car, twice annual holidays to exotic long haul destinations, TV soaps and the bright lights of Manchester's social scene to move to the tropical north coast of an island in the Atlantic Ocean just 500 kilometers off the coast of Africa - Tenerife.And just like that, getting up at 6am, driving 30 miles to work under grey skies and returning under black ones 12 hours later was replaced by waking to blue skies, wafting palm trees and a whole island to be explored. Acre after acre of banana plantations replaced the uniform anonymity of housing estates; shorts and flip flops replaced expensive suits and high heels and an old table on the bougainvillea lined terrace replaced her office.Freed from the shackles of White Paper directives, labour market reports and Ministerial whims, Andrea's writing was finally able to team up with a passion for traveling and they became a couple, producing a multitude of features for magazines and websites, several blogs and in time, two healthy travel books. The first born is called 'Real Tenerife Island Drives' and details a series of amazing drives around the island that take you away from the tourist resorts and into the 'real' Tenerife. The youngest is called 'Going Native in Tenerife' and is a comprehensive native's eye view of the fascinating island of Tenerife; its people, places, fiestas, food and culture. Eight years after setting sail Andrea has still got the same lipstick she had in her make-up bag when she left Britain and the last time she tried to walk in high heels she looked disconcertingly like Dick Emery. Andrea is based just outside Puerto de la Cruz where she lives with her photographer/writer husband Jack and a psychotic white cat with no tail and a penchant for Greek yoghurt. As a freelance travel writer and author, she makes it her business to continuously tour the length and breadth of Tenerife; trekking its mountain paths, tirelessly exploring its cities, towns and villages, attending its many fiestas, sampling its food and wines; and keeping an eye on new restaurants, bars and shops opening - taking the time to find all the best bits, so that you don't have to.