Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2007
Monday 11th December 2006 to Sunday 17th December Spent a nice Monday morning flying really high (highest glider up again) over the 'gut' on Port Hills, doing top landings. Then went and met up with Lisa, her co-workers (from Katmandu) and our two new German housemate girls (Marlene and Kira) and the Dutchies for a nice beach BBQ on Sumner. They said they had spotted a red glider over the Port Hills, that was me :-)
Tuesday I went to work and afterwards met Lisa and a few other housemates at Govinda's for Yoga and food. I feel really good after stretching out and relaxing my muscles and the food (vegetarian three course) is great value.
Wednesday was another full day at work, so I could get together enough hours to take off Friday too.
Thursday was another long day and after work I dropped off leaflets to all the hostels advertising my car and bike for sale. Then went out for some Sushi, using a 20%!v(MISSING)oucher I found :-)
Friday was my day off, which I used to get a load of errands done in town and met Lisa for lunch. We went to one
of my favourite places to eat in Christchurch - the Asian Food Court. It has about eight different stalls from all over Asia and you can get really good cheap food. I ordered the 'Fun Hor' just for the name :-) That evening I went with Lisa to a Hanukkah party at a local temple. It was an 'experience' - especially the bundle when the food was served up!! It wasn't my thing so I sat outside and let Lisa fight the masses to get us a nice plate of food, including some traditional Hannukkah dishes for me to try. Friday was the start of Hanukkah and Lisa followed the tradition of lighting candles for the eight days of the Jewish holiday.
The weekend I played indoor volleyball with some of my house mates and went out for a bite to eat at a Spieghts Alehouse. I also went shopping and bought a new wind/waterproof jacket and some windproof gloves (for paragliding) to replace the jacket and gloves stolen out of the back of my car (left a window open).
Monday 18th December 2006 to Friday 22nd December On the Monday I took the day off and went
flying with Dave at Taylor's Mistake. I got pretty high (see a video
here), so Dave took up a new student in a tandem and we headed out to the Cliffs - a new flying area for me. Unfurtantely I hit a 'bad cycle' of lift/sink and fell short just before the cliff edge. I had three choices - 1> try and land short of the edge, 2> try to clear the edge and hope for lift (and face a sea landing if not) or 3> turn and glide over the sea to Taylor's Beach (or face a sea landing if not enough height). I went for option 1, which itself was not without risk as if I couldn't slow down enough I risked falling over the cliff edge. Luckily I made a soft landing in long grass a about 10 metres from the edge. It did mean that I had a long walk back though... Things got worse when I saw Dave didn't make it back either, landing at Taylor's Mistake beach. So he wasn't going to be able to drive over to pick me up. Luckily a walker offered me her phone and I called Lisa who was
Me and Dave
Perfectly aligned so you can see two wings, one person...up at the launch site with my phone. I just managed to ask her to pick us up before I got cut off (bad reception on the wrong side of the Port Hills). She came and rescued me and Dave (and his tandem) after I had almost walked halfway to Sumner. What was all the more amazing was Lisa had managed up the steep winding roads in my car - she doesn't drive manual and so has problems knowing what gear she should be in for hills, etc. She did a great job!
Tuesday I had to work all day to make the hours up.
Wednesday was my work Christmas party, with open bar... We went to a Spanish place called Pedros. It was a really good night. It made me realise how different childhoods Lisa's and I had - it was the first time Lisa had pulled a Christmas cracker.
Thursday Cairan popped back to ours for the night, so after work we went out for a few drinks and playing pool, a few of Lisa' s work colleagues joining us.
Friday was my last day of work as I would be leaving for Australia
Me and Dave
Flying out to the cliffs - I didn't make it :-( soon. I said my goodbyes (I hate that - rather just disappear) and Lisa and I went to Fuji (tepanyaki restaurant next to Coachman's hostel in town) to celebrate. I had never been to such a place - where you sit round the chef and he cooks it all for you in front of you, with a bit of a show of throwing stuff around, etc. I asked for a bit too much garlic in mine, but otherwise it was good food and great fun!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.274s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 73; dbt: 0.0943s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
