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Published: September 19th 2006
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Sky Dive II
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Well, its been a long time since my last bulletin so i thought i'd bring you all up to date with my current situation. After my leaving Te Puke and the Kiwis and having a wholey depressing time in Auckland wondering what on earth to do with myself, i eventually got things sorted more or less. So much so in fact that time has slipped away from me, i know not where it went, and i now leave dear old NZ in just 6 days. I imagine this will cause a plethera of emations similar to Claire's on her departure, so i've opted to spend my last days here camping on my own miles away from anywhere with wine and my guitar. Anyroad there is much news so i'll plough into it.....
Working with Kiwis
Somehow i managed to keep this up for another 2 weeks and actually enjoy my time doing it. I was very lucky to keep my job 'supermanning' for the whole time and with plenty of bonkers brazilians and crazy chileians to keep me entertained the time flew by. I ended up finishing my time there just as the grading work finished and my last day
Dwarf and Woo Monkey 6
Anglo German relations improved by fear ended up being a taster of what it would have been like if i'd stayed any longer. Not good is the short answer as the work now shifts from taking out 'bad' kiwis to grading all the rest into any one of 5 billion catorgaries. I also had another wake up call in my last couple of days as to why i'm so grateful to be British. All the workers there from brazil, india ect. were finally granted 9 month extentions to there tempoary visas. Despite sounding like a cause for celebration (which they did in highly south american fashion), in reality it means they will (including many who i now count as freinds) be there working 6 days per week, 12 hour days for another 3/4 of a year if they so desire. Not much of a life as most of the money they make is sent home to there families in their native country. Still as i have said in all the previous blogs about the kiwi factory, spirits were always high, laughter plentiful and good times often. Not much more to add other than leaving will also mean no more of the questionable pies at lunch time
Landing
Not flatering to instructor or pupil but essential nontheless from the canteen. For a country which prides itself on this food, i must be honest and say often they score very low marks out of ten. Very very finally the title of this blog is dedicated to the fact that during the past 2 weeks i've been able to do a lot of productive thinking and planning, whilst at the same time belonging to a team (again) that was regularly termed as unproductive. Any person in England on my return wishing to incur my wrath need only say one of the following phrases:
check your fruit please, grade the table, too many bad fruit going through, check for pressure marks, check your beaks (the tip of the kiwi), check for puctures, soft and rots out please, feel your fruit, dont feel your fruit and use your eyes, rots rots out please, softs and rots, pressure marks, and most depressingly (and often), guys guys we fail another pallet CHECK YOUR FRUIT
Sky Dive Part II
So when your whole week is taken up feeling Kiwis and Sunday is your only break, you have to try and do something good for each one. So, after lengthy negotiations with Brazilians,
Post Jump Relax at Huke
Clockwise: Marc, Juao, Alfredo, Jan, Judith, Rafael, Philip. Germans and late in the day 10 or so Chilians who went too, 2 sundays ago we took to the road and headed for Taupo, and Skydive Part II. Although i'd done one before, the experience left me with such an amazing feeling i still wanted more, and so when the oppotunity to go along with a multitude of excitable types arose i jumped at the chance. We were very lucky with sunny day and for me the experience was fantastic. The tingly excitement of the first jump wasn't there this time but it was replaced with an apprecaition of every detial and i certainly remember much more of this jump than the last one. The views were also somewhat more spectacular as the mountains to the south of the lake were still covered in snow and looked perfect. Included fun wise was the reaction of seeig all of the others do it for the first time and to feel all the excitment and delight they all had. In sumation i quote the typically laid back Alfredo...very nice, very very nice, i like a lot, i want to do again. On the way home we enjoyed an excursion to the
Jans Birthday
I baked a cake and sang happy birthday with my guitar only to be drowned out by an enthusastic brazilian version soon afterwards Huka Falls (again) which again was great to see and gave many group photo oppotunties.
The Selling of the Frank
Very nearly twas the title of the blog given the significance of the event. Auckland failed to preovide a buyer and it looked at if Te Puke also would be useless, but eventually one of the Brazilians from our hostel came forward with a mixed offer of Kiwi dollars and American currency (handy in South America me thinks) which i accepted with a heavy heart. One condition of the sale was another WOF (like an MOT) which of course he sailed through - i was so proud. Only a replacement tyre was needed before sale, which i got and then the deal was done. It was a sad day for me. I salute you Frank, the worlds greatest automobilic companion. May you have many more happy miles (to add to the 320000km he's already done) and remember your tour of NZ with the mad Britishers 2006.
Future Travel Plans
So for those of you who dont know yet my plans have finally been finalised, and i just before writing this blog picked up my tickets. My dates of
Goodbye Frank
I truely nearly cryed, how sad movement are...
24th Sept - Auckland - Santiago (Chile and hence Peru, Brazil & Argentina)
10th Nov - Buenos Aires - San Jose (Costa Rica)
14th Nov - San Jose - San Francisco (then overland to Chicago)
2nd Dec - Chicago - London (then by parental taxi to dear old Coventry)
Solid details at this stage for movemnet between flights are what Dad described as 'fluid', but rest assured there will undoubtable be stories aplenty. So many more funny stories i could write about my recent times but time is against me.
marc
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mum
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not long now
your looking quite healthy in the photos!, do take care on the next leg of your journey. Counting the days till you return. lots of love from Coventry.xx