Advertisement
Published: November 27th 2004
After jumping - awesome!
We got very, very wet canyoning - but it was fab!!There hasn’t been a travelblog for a while, and since we’ve finally done something worth writing about, I thought I should give you all an update.
The past month has been all about work. Weekends have been spent drinking (of course!) going to a Highland Games (weird in November!), a shopping splurge which means that we now have computer and internet facilities at home (yay!) and generally pottering about in this city we are calling home for the moment.
This weekend we’ve had out first visitor from home - Vicki, who used to work with Graeme at Glasgow (yes, she’s a planner too) has been on holiday in Australia for a few weeks and decided to pop over and see NZ in a week. She arrived on Thursday evening, and of course the first thing to do was to take her to as many pubs as we could manage on a weeknight :-). Graeme had Friday off work, so he took Vicki on an ‘as much as you can see in a day in Auckland’ tour. They did pretty well considering the weather was foul - it was blowing a gale and poured rain for much of the day,
Graeme abseiling down waterfall
This abseil started dry, but went straight down into the waterfall, so you had to abseil through the water :-) but they still managed Devonport (including a very choppy ferry ride), the Sky Tower (which sways considerably in the wind I’m told), One Tree Hill, and a pint in an Irish bar they found. I was impressed! The day finished with a night out at the Viaduct (where the America’s Cup 2000 was based - there are lots of lovely pubs looking out over the marina) - we were joined by Kenny & Luke, Lindsey & David, Louisa (Luke’s niece) & Keith, her Mancunian boyfriend, and various other people. There are photos to mark the event, but only a few are suitable for public viewing, so I’m only putting a couple here!
Saturday morning we were picked up at the flat at 9 (with a few headaches!) to be driven to the Waitakeres to go canyoning. This was to be a day of jumping, sliding, abseiling and splashing down a river, and turned out to be one of the best days we have had so far on this trip. We were taken to the gear shed, about 45 mins drive from the city, and kitted out in wetsuits, helmets, thermals and harnesses, then had to walk for about ½
Jo and Graeme jumping
This was meant to be a group jump, but he shouted '1,2,3,go' so fast that some of us got left behind! an hour uphill to reach the top of the canyon. We had some abseiling instruction at the top of the canyon, checked all our equipment, then we were off. The first two minutes were pretty tame, then all of a sudden we came to the first jump. We had to stand on a ledge, then jump down into a big pool of (very cold) water - my goodness, what a hangover cure! After that it was slide after slide, jump after jump, abseil after abseil until a very quick 3 hours later we were at the bottom of the canyon. It was the most amazing way to view the spectacular scenery, and there is nothing quite like ice-cold water rushing down the front of your wetsuit for the first time, warming up, then having it happen all over again! Graeme abseiled for the first time, and was very proud of himself. All three of us slid headfirst into pools of water, jumped from great heights (including Graeme jumping about 8 metres from a rope swing into a pool) and generally had a great time. At the end of the day we were exhausted, with aching limbs and about 100 bruises
Jo abseiling down the waterfall - photo one
This was the start of this abseil, but it very quickly became... between us! We had enough energy left to shower, find a nice pub for tea, drink two pints each, then drag ourselves back to the flat to crash into bed… The pictures were taken by the instructors, who had a waterproof digital camera with them - not all are of us, but they give you an idea!
This morning Vicki caught a bus at 7.30 to go to the Bay of Islands, and Graeme and I are having a very lazy day - we deserve it!
Till the next time!
PS The full selection on canyoning photos will be on www.photobucket.com (album name is joannethomson, password is jopictures).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 73; dbt: 0.0682s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
