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SNOW!
Ben sian and i enjoying the mountains Hello everybody, well it's been a while since my last blog....June 10th to be precise, since then Marc has blogged about the jet boating and Um bongo gigs; an excellent nights entertainment although the players proved themselves to be rather easily distracted! An of course the shambles that was England in the world cup, beer at 8 am bonding with fellow expats was great though 😊
Activites of the time have involved snow quite a lot.......firstly with Sam,a good friend of mine from uni, we tried our bodies at some sledging. being resourcesful we got marc to raid Liquor King and he gallantly came up with two big stella signs for us. Endless snowball fights ensued and of course injuries, grated myside on a bad slide but you know these things happen when you live life on the edge.....!
More snow exploits......proper snow this time as i decided i couldnt leave Queenstown without seeing what all the snowboarding fuss was about. Fully expecting to be rubbish at it i had a little lesson from a friend at the hostel and within an hour of going up and down the beginner slope i was ready for more! Unfortunaltely this led
my bum!
cold...very very cold! them to taking me onto the blue run bypassing the normal beginers Green Run....uh oh! just the lift in itself was amazing a good 5 - 10 mins ride to the top with amazing views...with apprehension creeping in every minute longer....i really have to come down here on this small piece of wood? exhausting, bruising, and completley out of my depth but it was fantastic. Then we went and did the beginners slope which was then so easy i made it down with only two falls. I loved the whole thing though and cant wait to have another go sometime in the future. I was as amazed as everyone else to return with all bones intact and celebrated with many glasses of mulled wine at the winter fest!
Next activity was paragliding off the gondola hill curtesy of some friends at the hostel. As Alex, Suz and I made the trip up the gondola and the long walk to the top it finally dawned on me I was actually jumping off something quite big! Off we ran though and soared through the air gliding and spinning our way to the bottom. A gorgeous calm little ride. Day was capped
off with goodbye drinks in what became my local pub with a couple of the girls before heading to the Feelers gig! We muscled our way to the front and jumped about the whole gig long loving every minute.
Then it was time to leave, of course we’d made no preparations for this so ran around the whole morning gathering piles of unnecessary junk into boxes and generally making an ordeal about havinjg to pack again for the first time in over three months.
The drive from QT to CC was spectacular. There was complete whiteout at points on the mountains from all the snow, it seemed like a completely different drive from when I did it two months ago the other way in the vanette. Took some great photos and got Frank temporarily stuck in a snow drift! We were lulled along our way by the likes of Cat Stevens, dad's classic tunes! Unfortunately darkness obliterated the rest of the views and a few hours later we arrived into CC into the arms of Ina, another of the girls from Paihia. Next morning we of course set off three hours behind schedule (I don’t know why we
the snow dance
this is where frank got temporarily stuck in a snow bank....marc! ever kid ourselves!) to complete the journey via kaikora and Blenheim up to the very unipsiring Picton to await or ferry for the north. Three hours later finally hurrah we were into Welly and welcomed by a huge blanket of fog which was trying it’s best to completely disrupt Tony and Clare’s travel plans.
Amazingly they got off without hitch and we three, Marc, Helen and I became the proud if temporary owners of a house and a dog! I was ready for treating this time as a bit of a ‘rehab’ session after many late beer fuelled nights in QT at the moment however it seems to be closer to hibernation! The rain is pelting down and it is freezing! I guess we’ll get used to it after a while but warmer climates are definatley calling! Sorry for the disjointed nature of this blog, was a bit out of practice it seems.
Good news it that finally the sunshine has shown itself so we've been able to go for picnics and pretend that we have summer like all you at home! Tara for now, claire xx
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