Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Waitaha Valley, South Island, New Zealand
After Wanaka I continued on to Franz Joseph with Darren and Chris to do the glacier hike. We did the full day hike and it was amazing, I really didn't have any idea what a glacier would look like and it wasn't what I expected at all. The only thing that put a downer on the day was the fact that my camera went missing at the beginning of the hike, so no photos of the glacier for the website, in fact no photos of New Zealand for the site as all 250 of them were on the camera. The entire police force of the south islands west coast (all 3 of them) are on red alert in search of the perpetrator of the biggest crime to hit Franz Joseph in over a decade. All the effort and concern has been fruitless so far as I headed off to the Farm in Waitaha Valley on Saturday with a disposable kodak in my pocket.
I'm going to stay put at the farm for a while, it's a good life here, a hard life but a good one. To see me in my overalls covered in cow shit, building fences, milking cows and feeding calves you'd think I grew up in that lifestyle and not in the posh Dublin suburbs. There are two other girls woofing (working on organic farm) here and we're really busy cause the cows are calving. There are 40 calves due in the next week or two, what have I got myself into, 3 have been born since I arrived, I named one Rena 'cause it was born on Ma's birthday. I won't have much chance to update this or e-mail people for the next while 'cause we won't get into town much.
After Wanaka I continued on to Franz Joseph with Darren and Chris to do the glacier hike. We did the full day hike and it was amazing, I really didn't have any idea what a glacier would look like and it wasn't what I expected at all. The only thing that put a downer on the day was the fact that my camera went missing at the beginning of the hike, so no photos of the glacier for the website, in fact no photos of New Zealand for the site as all 250 of them were on the camera. The entire police force of the south islands west coast (all 3 of them) are on red alert in search of the perpetrator of the biggest crime to hit Franz Joseph in over a decade. All the effort and concern has been fruitless so far as I headed off to the Farm in Waitaha Valley on Saturday with a disposable kodak in my pocket.
I'm going to stay put at the farm for a while, it's a good life here, a hard life but a good one. To see me in my overalls covered in cow shit, building fences, milking cows and feeding calves you'd think I grew up in that lifestyle and not in the posh Dublin suburbs. There are two other girls woofing (working on organic farm) here and we're really busy cause the cows are calving. There are 40 calves due in the next week or two, what have I got myself into, 3 have been born since I arrived, I named one Rena 'cause it was born on Ma's birthday. I won't have much chance to update this or e-mail people for the next while 'cause we won't get into town much.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand
Well I finally left Queenstown yesterday and it was beginning to feel like I had settled into Queenstowns Extreme lifestyle. The Canyon swing was amazing, I have never been so scared in my life, yes that includes jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft. We stood on a platform over the 150m canyon in a harness which was attatched to the middle of the canyon. There was a bit of a free fall and then a swing/drop of 109m to the bottom of the canyon. You could choose from 6 different ways to jump off, Rob, Barry and Eimear did the "gimp-boy goes to hollywood" which meant them hanging upside down and being dropped into the canyon. Graine sat on a chair and leaned on the back two legs until it toppled backwards and she went sumersaulting into the canyon chair an all. Muireann and I did the easiest one where you dangle over the canyon and they release you into it and Gavin did the hardest one where he stood at the edge of the platform and jumped off backwards. It was a great day out and a "real result" for all of us.
Since then I've been doing more boarding and I'm getting ok at it now, can make it down the run without falling anyhow, I wish I had more time to practice. We also got into the nightlife of QT, you can follow the happy hours around town and get really drunk for next to nothing. The other day Muireann and I went to Milford sound with Darren, it was a really nice drive there and the place is really beautiful but then so is everywhere in New Zealand, it's strange to become accostomed to suce beauty and accept it as part of the norm. Even here in Wanaka it is spectacular, I can look out the window to see the lake framed by the snow covered mountains. Wanaka is a really small town with an interesting cinema (all couches) and Puzzle world where we spent the morning, now my head is mush.
Well I finally left Queenstown yesterday and it was beginning to feel like I had settled into Queenstowns Extreme lifestyle. The Canyon swing was amazing, I have never been so scared in my life, yes that includes jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft. We stood on a platform over the 150m canyon in a harness which was attatched to the middle of the canyon. There was a bit of a free fall and then a swing/drop of 109m to the bottom of the canyon. You could choose from 6 different ways to jump off, Rob, Barry and Eimear did the "gimp-boy goes to hollywood" which meant them hanging upside down and being dropped into the canyon. Graine sat on a chair and leaned on the back two legs until it toppled backwards and she went sumersaulting into the canyon chair an all. Muireann and I did the easiest one where you dangle over the canyon and they release you into it and Gavin did the hardest one where he stood at the edge of the platform and jumped off backwards. It was a great day out and a "real result" for all of us.
Since then I've been doing more boarding and I'm getting ok at it now, can make it down the run without falling anyhow, I wish I had more time to practice. We also got into the nightlife of QT, you can follow the happy hours around town and get really drunk for next to nothing. The other day Muireann and I went to Milford sound with Darren, it was a really nice drive there and the place is really beautiful but then so is everywhere in New Zealand, it's strange to become accostomed to suce beauty and accept it as part of the norm. Even here in Wanaka it is spectacular, I can look out the window to see the lake framed by the snow covered mountains. Wanaka is a really small town with an interesting cinema (all couches) and Puzzle world where we spent the morning, now my head is mush.
