I've let time pass me by and now so much is happened since I last wrote anything down that now I worry that I wont remember what I've done. But I will try to remember, and I'll try not to be trying.
I'll give the highlights only in order to keep you all sane. So since I last flirted with a dolphin (a subject inspiring both awe and ridicule) this is whats happened to me.Queenstown - I took a repeat jaunt to the South Island back in March to catch up with Colin, Jenny and Billy, it was an awesome week away from work and great to catch up with the guys. The nights were relatively boozy affairs in what must be one of the better towns to party in in new Zealand. During the day I got stuck into a bit of biking, walking and of course the compulsory kayaking.
The kayaking was on the kaurau, and my lines were slick and stylish the first couple of times but the last day was a different story and I ended up swimming the length of the rapid Citroen a good 400m of white water, rocks and not a lot of air. all turned out to be relatively harmless though and i lived to swim another day. I watched Billy jump off a hill and even got a shot in his mitsu delica, reminiscent of my days with Krystaal although Billy's was in one of those honeymoon periods of functioning in between the times it must spend in the garage, being of the same ilk as krystaal only older, diesel and 4x4. Much fun all round all in all.
Back up north I continued on a period of a mixture good times with bad karma. Every day I was out enjoying the outdoors of New Zealand. For several weeks I spent every waking moment outside work either on a board, in a boat, on a bike or in a harness. I was living the dream - a shift worker with a car and toys in the late summer of an outdoor playground paradise. At the very least I would get a couple of hours of surfing in a day, i say very least but we were enjoying one of the best summers for consistent swells in the mount for many years I have been led to believe. This time coincided with the school holidays which meant everyday there was a bus laid on at the biking trails at rotorua to take us to the top. It was still summer so there was even a weekly release from the dam on the Wairoa for paddling, not to mention afterwork mid week trips to the kaituna for more paddling. On the few (very few) occasions that the swell failed and it was raining but not enough for the rivers there was the climbing wall to keep me entertained. This time of basking in my smugness of having chosen to live here was only darkened by my bad sports karma.
Since my swim on Citroen my luck had been out with the sports. I went biking a day after a rainfall and came off my bike for he first time in years, then again and again and again. In a couple of days i'd hit the deck more times than an Italian footballer. And it wasn't just the biking - in my boat I couldn't seem to find the line on the main drop of the kaituna but instead found the bottom of the river following a 6m drop several times, only to almost pull my shoulder out of its socket with a very silly brace later down the river. And surfing too - I bought a new surfboard - (a 7S 6'6" fish epoxy with a quattro fin system for uberspeed for all those interested) and it immediately improved my surfing. (my old board having been a sorry excuse for a board ready for the dump i picked up at a cash converters.) However, when i day tripped across to Raglan to try it out in something a little bigger the word of the day was "beat-down". I spent a lot of time with my face in the sand of the seabed or gasping for air in between sets. When i tried out the point break further down the coast I only succeeded in ripping my hands and feet open on the rocks. To add further injury to injury as I rode the last wave in (and subsequently fell off) my board and one of my feet decided to fall in a different direction to the rest of my body resulting in a sprained hip. This wasn't really a problem until i tried to do some climbing a couple of days later and got stuck up the wall in a smear across a corner, the insult finally catching up. All this was making me feel a little soft and crap at sport. But as i said times were good and it was difficult to really care about it.
Then came the season of change, it may even have been autumn. First of all I noticed the change in the sports karma - my biking became less painful and the kayaks i got into didn't seem to plot to drown me. Then came the change of the clocks - the daylight hours after work became limited and the end of the non stop fun seemed imminent. It was at this time that Colin and Jenny came through on their way out of the country. This was like the last stand of the summer. It was still hot and I had most days off work to play, so the nights drawing in could not curtail the fun. It was also a return to form in my sports (i say return to form but it may have just been a coming of age as there may not have been an original time of 'on form'). On the Kaituna I nailed the line on the main drop for the first time, (jenny having less fun and swimming down 3 drops) and I managed my first left hand break on my surfboard, whilst on the Wairoa I successfully navigated my boat down avoiding all the rocky crevasses and undercuts. What is more it was like the sea had also decided on one last blast for the summers and dealt up some of the biggest surf to date on the main beach. Me and Colin got out in 1.5 -overhead glassy goodness to carve it up whilst Jenny got to grips with a board in the breakers. All in all there were 5 surf sessions to be had in 2 days and smiles all round. A couple of boozy nights on the town with stories not to be shared on the internet later and Colin and Jenny were off again.The last of these surf sessions took its toll on me though and whilst in the mix of a wave my surfboard managed to collide with me and break a rib. And that was that. Not a crippling injury but nonetheless causing pain whenever I tried to do anything i enjoyed. The light had left and with it the heat.
I suggested I may have experienced autumn earlier because i am not entirely sure if i did. One week it was hot and sunny and weather I could only describe as summer, even the sea maintained most of its heat and a rash vest surf session was still possible if not desirable. The next it was cold and wet and dark. The only thing separating the two was a freak hail storm, the likes of which had never been seen in the mount before and people were snowboarding on the beach while the woolworths roof collapsed and yet a couple of blocks away it remained sunny throughout. Now when i surf it's with a hood and booties to avoid the inevitable ice cream head and frost bitten toes.
And so it was, i was inactive and bored and work was the only thing happening and i waited for myself to heal and for my birthday.(To ease my rage though the sea seemed to sympathise and we had the longest swell free period since my arrival). These happily seemed to coincide. A few days before my birthday and my first attempt at activity in three weeks was an introductory lesson in hang gliding. wow. even though it was only being trailed behind a car to get to grips with the controls it was a lot of fun and hopefully a few more hours tuition and i'll be jumping off a cliff before you know it. Then it was up to Auckland for a night out on the town with Dave and Emma and Warren. We got drunk beat everyone else in the pub at pool (pretty much) and headed off to a club. A most inviting change from the now tiresome nightlife back at the mount. Then it was off to see my birthday in in a quiet motel room with some firends from work. The reason was that we were catching a plane in the morning headed for the south pacific so with a case of beer and a bottle of cheap fizz we celebrated into the early hours of my birthday and headed on holiday. The rest of my birthday was spend nursing a dry mouth and slightly throbbing head on the plane.
But not to worry 4 hours later we landed in Samoa, and thanks to the international dateline it was now the day before my birthday. So my second birthday in the same year was spent on a tropical paradisiacal beach, snorkelling over a coral reef filled with fish of a thousand different shapes and colours and drinking cocktails. We slept in fales or little open sided huts on the beach, we drove around both of the Samoas islands enjoying the rich pickings it had to offer. We swam with turtles as well as all the fish, we were entertained by picturesque lightning storms out at sea whilst we sat dry on the beach beers in hand, we swam ubder picture postcard waterfalls in the jungle and ate and drank till we could do neither anymore. One night we slept in a 228year old banyan tree in a tree house that satisfied many a latent childish day dream and we also found the most westerly point of land in the world, although the swell was a little too intimidating to jump off the rocks at the end of the world, so we stayed dry. A glorious week in the sun (13degrees south 31degrees celcius).
Now I'm back in the winter of the Southern hemisphere but despite not having the warmth of a Samoan sun to look forward to all is not dark and gloomy. For a start work has been fairly exciting. I have been asked to step up to cover some gaps on the senior doctors rota and 'act up' as it's known and provide senior cover for my peers. Its nice to be appreciated. Otherwise i'm fixed, if not fully fit. Several weeks intense sport followed by several weeks of inactivity has almost given me a gut (almost mind). And what is more the sea is stirring again and has offered up a couple of days of swell where I have been able to lay some ghosts to rest. The most exciting thing now though is the prospect the mountains hold for entertainment. There is already over a metre of snow at the ski field and this weekend is opening weekend so i'm off to rip it up. can't wait.
That about raps its up, the photos are all of Samoa as that is the only time I've had my camera out since my last post. Just thinking of anything else that I've missed - I went horse riding to proove to Emma it wasn't that hard and I was right, galloping, easy. (although my horse did like to demonstrate the complete lack of control i held over it by galloping away a lot, but i stayed on) I fell asleep in a cinema for the first time in my life (through Angels and daemons - i didn't miss much) and maybe that is a sign im getting old and soon I will hopefully be in possession of the coolest snow boarding goggles known to man (pictures to follow). Thanks to everybody's birthday wishes that they sent and to all the messages and emails I've had, I've been trying to reply to them all but I'm a bit crap at keeping in touch at the moment cos most of my free time is taken up trying to sort out my next job, will get on to it soon if i haven't already.
Correction to last post - it wasn't Tarawera falls that I paddled on the Kaituna it was Tutia to see why i didn't paddle Tarawera check out this out (click me) Thats right its a waterfall that flows underground before shooting out the face of a sheer cliff and tumbling on to boulders 65m below. Sorry if i missled anyone into thinking that i had achieved this feat and thus making me the most amazing person in the hisotry of cool shit thats been done. I'm not that good
Peace.
