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Published: April 24th 2006
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Nice comb-over eh!
Jet boating on the Kawarau river. Hello there everyone!
Finally a message from Claire, and to reward you all greatly it's going to be mostly pictures as i know how much you all miss our ugly mugs.....
First to answer Uncle Denis, a previously unknown blog reader, yes you can be a little smug about the weather as it is pretty cold here and as been raining quite a lot. We had some snow up on the mountains last week which was very pretty but that has been rained away now. As i type it has just started bucketing it down! So enjoy your spring sunshine over there.
As for regrets on the car, well with the joys of hindsight firmly under our belts maybe things would have been done differently. The main reason for getting the car was to have a better chance at resale with vans being notoriously hard to sell on. Unfortunately so can cars, even ones called Frank (maybe this has something to do with having over 300 000 km on the clock, i just dont know). As for the meeting people that was another big factor but when we have camped it's quite often been in hostle gardens. This works
Bungy time!
Nope not scared at all.... out at quite a good deal for customer and hostel as we get a cheap stay and all the facilities that everyone else gets (bar the comfy warm bed) , and we get to meet loads of people and they get $12 from us for little extra trouble. They do the same kind of deals with camper vans too.
Other reasons for not getting a van.... higher petrol costs....ah and the van we were going to buy would have got would have blown up within days, this put us off the idea of a van quick significantly at that point.
So in other words, a van would have been a good investment but it just didnt happen for us and the car has seen us proud. Strange you should ask about vans now though becasue as as it happens i'm flying over to christchurch on thursday to fetch a camper van that we have aquired from our lovely american friends who've had to leave the country without being able to sell it. So we will have temporary ownership at least, possible longer term depending on how it all goes. Maybe we'll just set up a unsellable vehicles unit instead!
Any more qustions please ask, i get free internet with work so am happy to tap away. I'mm interested to know if there is a particular reason behind the questions....would another member of the falconer clan be coming on travels here?
So anyway to the photos, i lied about not writing much but i will try and keep it brief.
As marc has hinted i have landed myself a fairly cushy job here and am getting to do some very adrenalin pumping activities, hours of laundry folding not being one of them! So far i have been jet boating, bungy jumping and the best so far.... flying! Jet boating was fun, got spun around a lot, sprayed with water and got to see some pretty parts of the place. Bungy jumping was really quite scary, it was only a 'little' fall of 47 meters but as you can see from the pictures i was terrified. My boss is trying to get me to go on the big one which is 143 meters....eek. (it is very safe though mum dont worry).
And then flying...which was fantastic. It's a bit hard to explain.....you're strapped into the 'plane' which is
Pilot Claire
Quite possibly the most cheesy photo ever. Yeah. suspened by a wire from the middle of the 400m wide valley then you're winched up the valley wall and released. Swooping down the valley and up the other side you can then pull left or right on the handle bars and control your flight to swing round the other side and loop up and down the valley to your hearts content. Reaching speeds of 120km with 3gs and 3.17 seconds of weightlessness (i have to sell the trips on once i've been on them so i know all the stats!). oh and possible the best part.....you get to wear a jump suit that has 'Pilot' written on it! If anyone happens to be in China in 6 weeks time you will be able to see me doning said jump suit on television as i was followed round by a film crew for the day! hmmmm fame and fortune? Not quite!
I know mum is horrified that i went bungy jumping but i promise it is really safe. I'm trying to get on some different activities though, one's that dont scare me silly!
So we've been having great fun here. I have been working loads, most of this
week doing 10 - 8 shifts because of the easter rush. We've got a great group of friends here, two of whom we are now missing dearly as they have left us to go adn explore austrailia and thailand. Long live the hippo memories! Next blog will be all about the van road trip which i'm so excited to go on........ love claire x
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Tim
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Top Gun
Wow Claire, with that photo you could have played Maverick in an alternate universe!! I'm not sure about the view from your flat... looks a bit like Wyken to me. I get very jealous of you guys being out there while I'm sitting here in my Birmingham concrete office block designing sewers (only the most glamorous jobs for me), but it every time you blog it cheers me up a little bit. I've read every single one, just can't bring myself to comment on them very often! Take care, Tim x