Mount Arthur

What a fantastic adventure!

I got up at 6am on Sunday morning to drive to the base of Mount Arthur; 1786m of mountain. I drove for an hour and a half into the rugged and untouched Kahurangi national park. My drive was made more enjoyable as around each corner I could see the pinks, purples, reds and blues of a spectacular sunrise bro help me start my adventure.

Off out of the car I went and with M people greatest hits in my headphones off I went on my snowy winter land walk. The first hour and a half was through snow clad trees, knitting together above me creating a Narnia environment. I got caught in the moment and tried to make friends with a snow duck (probably not its real name) and it bit my finger!

Then I got to the Hut before the real hike started and sat down for a nice sandwich.

Then off I went with two doctors from the hospital I had met at the hut. I felt more than a little underprepared, hiking through the knee deep snow in trainers with nothing but a bottle of fanta. They had ice axes, fancy boots, crampons the works! 

At one point I dropped hip deep in the snow like the vicar of dibbley. I also slipped on the ice a couple of times rather comically.

The views were out of this world. I can't begin to do them justice with descriptions. The pictures below are ace, but do not give anywhere near an accurate representation of how amazing it was. Snow capped peaks around me giving way to lush dense mountainous hillsides with the turquoise blue Tasman sea nestled in the arms of the golden bay. The distant city of Nelson just visible sitting between the farther, distant mountains and the calm sea.

As I looked up the vivid blue of the sky changes, it deapens. It's not a darkness you associate with bat weather but more like a denser blue. Like a small bit of midnight sky trying to breakthrough to the day.

The final 300 meters were pretty intense. Scrambling along steep hill sides, kicking into the deep snow making foot holds to stop me slipping 20-30 foot down the snow bank. Approaching the summit was a 20 meter sheer climb in the arctic conditions. Kicking and punching into the snow I lead the boys up the snowy cliff. Heaving myself up onto the ledge we had a short walk to the cloudy peak where we enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate for our efforts.

That evening I spent 3 hours in the hot tub trying to nurse my tired legs. The beers were important also...

Being an animal and seeing the animals

Last week I went out for my friend Mike's 30th birthday. 

It was a 'shit shirt' theme. So I went in my best 14 year old boys comic book pyjama shirt. We played a few drinking games and had a good old dance. I think we dominated the dance floor because of our awesome moves that no one else could compete with. Rather than being weird, shit and terrifying.

Nick, Liv and I went to the night club (little rock) and continued to do shots for about an hour before taking on their dance floor. We very soon had a very roomy section to move for some unknown reason. Then on kicking out time we decided to jump in a strangers car. Who had clearly come to pick up their daughter.

We hopped in and politely asked; "so, where are we off to?" There was a lot of screaming. Apparently two males in their late twenties getting in the back of your car and asking you to drive can be quite traumatic. Even if we were both dressed like Noel Edmonds.

Eventually we got out and the screaming subsided. They then shouted out their window that we were idiots and could have been driven off and raped and killed. I responded with the only natural answer to that theory. I pulled my top up, rubbed my nipple biting my other finger and said to the huge middle aged Maori woman "well maybe you should have done. I'm sure we would have both liked it..." Before we ran away laughing.

I then gate crashed my neighbours house keeping them up till 6 in the morning talking shit.

On Friday this week Dave and I went to nature land zoo. We wanted to see the oldest reptile species in the world. It also has three eyes. Unfortunatly it was hibernating.

We still had a good time. Whilst we were in the avery I got talking to a keeper who showed us round. We got to talk to a parrot, have another parrot on our shoulder and hold two of the Australian lizards. Pretty cool all in all.

Saturday night I went and watched an English folk band in a Mongolian Yurk with my French friend Coliene. 

I also got the job as under 19s Physio for the Tasman Mako's Physio this week

Good times, flying by

I've settled down in Nelson really well. The last month has flown by.

I've been doing exciting things most days but it's hard to report on them when your living a (moderately) normal life.

So here is a smattering of anecdotes and what I've been up to.

Firstly on the rugby front I've done my initiation. I took it like a little girl! 

The initiation was to eat a spoon of cinnamon. You may be thinking the same as me; what a piece of piss! I've done much worse, this is neither degrading, disgusting or physically dangerous.

Incorrect.

I strutted up to the back of the bus on the way back from Blenham. I'd just finished eating a mc-ice cream and I'm not going to lie, I was feeling pretty confident I was going to look pretty hard in a few moments time. As I took the heaped tablespoon, amid the jeers, lads were shouting at me to chew it. I've been around rugby lads for a while. Hey, I am a rugby lad. So I assumed they were trying to screw me over for their amusement. So I tried to swallow the whole heap in one go.

The powder congealed in my throat instantly. I coughed and blew it out of my nose. Then the bike came, ah what a lovely taste! As I choked, puffing orange smoke like an asthmatic dragon I threw up and swallowed it. Then I sucked myself tall, tears in my eyes and swallowed the whole lot (again). 

Somehow I had managed to fully line my sinuses with cinnamon. I had to sit quietly full two hours blowing reddy brown grunge out of my nose! 

Then I had a bad sinus headache the whole next day. So I spent my only day off in bed achey while Jack enjoyed rabbit island and ultimate frisbee on the beach.

To make matters worse the Jackson uploaded a video of the sorry attempt so all the lads who weren't there could bully me too.

The other two new guys chewed it like they were told and ate it with no more than a hiccup!

I also went paddle boarding with a friend from work. It was great fun. I took to it pretty well and after a while I was plowing through the mirror calm Nelson sea with enthusiasm. I even stopped to have a bit of a yarn to Suze. Bad idea. A boat drove behind me and the swell turned my bored into a bar of soap. Squirting out from under me. I hit my arse on the board and slapped backwards into the freezing winter ocean. I wasn't even wearing a wet suit, just my rugby gear.

Freezing I got straight back on and got back into the swing of it. 

We swapped boards on the way back, which was fun. As the tallest, and least confident, I slid along the floating boards like a soggy manatee with a paddle.

The pub after that one was a welcomed respite!

I also went mountain biking in Kaiteriteri today with Mike and Sara from work. It was brilliant. Trudging up Candace's massive hill back home after work has paid off. I was flying up the tracks. I really enjoyed whizz ing up and down though the woods, over little jumps and out on cliff faces with stunning vistas.

I've also moved house. Out of the Donovan's luxury lodge and into a small room in a private block out the back of a hostel in town. It's pretty nice, I've put some photos up on the wall and feel quite at home. My housemate Dave, a chef from Canada, is really really nice and we went out with a couple of other lads for a few games of pool on my first day.

I've been a bit of a recluse though as I've been doing a lot of extra work at a national multi-sport tournament going on over the last fortnight.

Well, aside from a few pub quizzes and judo - I'm getting a bit worse at the former and better at the latter- I'm working a fair bit and just generally enjoying the New Zealand lifestyle, running, cycling and getting in the great outdoors!

Flying with out wings

What a difference a day can make to your whole perception of life!

I've been really down over the last few weeks as I felt, with Jack leaving, I had no friends and am becoming isolated. Don't get me wrong I've met and get on with loads of people. But I've not been able to meet anyone who wants to hang out our of work or organised sporting activities.

Then Sunday rolled round. 

We met up with Jeremy a guy from Judo and went up to Motueka for a helicopter ride!

We got all strapped in, unfortunately jack won rock paper scissors and got the front seat. We got miked up and took off! 

It was really cool, we zoomed around picking up a few g's and got really close to a couple of mountains. We even saw some people dirt biking so we dropped down and the pilot held the chopper near horizontal so we could watch.

After the ride we all decided that packing in our jobs and becoming helicopter pilots was the only sensible thing to do!

We then drove over to tahunanui beach to play frisbee. It was really good fun -except that I still can't throw the bloody thing!- and we went for a beer -or in my case an alcoholic lemonade- after and had a really good time with the other guys in the club.

After the fun of the day Jack and I went home to play the intros game for about an hour!

Golden bay

This weekend after a comfortable win for Nelson Marist Jack and I drove up to golden bay, the northern most point of the South Island.

First we drove to takaka to watch the England v New Zealand rugby match in a small town local pub. We got plenty of stick as New Zealand systematically dismantled the English defence. We also got to see a tubby man in wellingtons fight an old man with one arm. The fun of rural NZ!

After the game we set off in the dark to find somewhere to pitch our tent. We finally found a spot behind a bush at a picnic site. 

Camping outside of a registered camp site is illegal in NZ and each person can be hit with a $200 fine. Imagine our anxiety when no sooner had we set up the tent at around 10:30 a car drives up straight next to ours and points it's headlights straight at our hidden camp spot.we dove into the bushes (something I'm now getting used to!) and waited.

It felt like about three hours, although I'm sure it was only a maximum of 15 minuets but eventually the car left. Probably doggers. So we went to sleep!

We woke early Sunday morning and packed up after enjoying a nice stroll on the beach.

We drove all the way up to farewell spit, a sand spit many miles long, projecting into the Tasman sea. It was very nice. Especially when we got over to the west coast. It was a very wild and rugged landscape. Jack and I commented how it would be a great paintball or quad bike spot. There were armies of small grassy dunes studded uniformly along the beach. These formations were interspersed with quicksand. Completely un definable I would occasionally sink up to my knee and fight for my freedom. 

Then we took a 'short cut' -you know where this is going- it was Jacks idea, for once I wanted to stick to the track. An hour later we were still fighting our way through stiflingly dense vegetation, bogs and small mountains. Eventually we found our way back to the car. Not before I figured it a good idea to army crawl across some dense reeds on a bog, dispersing my weight would stop me getting wet right?

No, 

Lying down on reeds in a bog leads to loosing balance and doing a handstand in pewtred stinking brown water.

Anyway we got back and drove to whariki beach (pronounced freaky beach). 

It was stunning, rugged and desoloute. And there were wild seals and awesome caves everywhere! We mucked around for a bit and climed a huge mountainous dune on the sea front and sat and watched the sea for an hour or two.

We then nipped over to the worst lighthouse ever. A seriously shit automated box we had to climb a mountain to get to before driving back to collingwood wood for a beer, fish and chips and another night in the tent.

Monday we drove straight back to Nelson so I could get to work. Stopping once at the jester cafe, voted best cafe in New Zealand. It was pretty nice, with a rustic Alice in wonderland feel.

Swimming with the fishes!

Friday morning we went out again to fish. This time we went off the warf in Nelson harbour. All was going well when Jack caught a fish!

What the hell do we do with it now?

We had a live fish flipping around the deck! 

I picked him up by the tail to give him a whack on the head, but as I swung up he slipped out of my hand and shot over my shoulder!

It was a right farce!

Eventually I Grasped the little fella hard... And battered his face in against the life boat rescue memorial.

When we had finally delt with freddy the fish a big gust of wind came along and blew our big rig off into the sea.

As Jack had waded out yesterday I had to go get a kayak and paddle out to save it.

I ran to the boat house. Grabbed a kayak. And started down the ramp to launch it.

Slippyest ramp ever! 

I slipped like on a banana skin, just managed to keep myself up but with the momentum of throwing myself and the kayak forwards I started skiing full pelt down the ramp towards the sea. I did all I could do. I leapt as my feet hit the salty water aiming for the kayak I had released into the Tasman. I made it, my legs didn't! Soaking wet I retrieved the rig and paddled back.

By the time I had got back my key, I had left when I started slipping, had been taken. Sopping wet and stinking of fish I had to trudge back through the boathouse to explain myself and plea for my key back.

I got it but my shoes stank so bad I had to work in flip flops later that day as the shoe pong was over powering!

Fishing and pub quiz

Today (Thursday) I finished work early to go to the dentist. After having my filling I met up with Jack and we drove out to Moteka. Via the hunting and fishing shop to pick up some Riggs for our fishing rod. 

We were served by this really nice old boy, who was missing a couple of fingers. He didn't even mock us as we openly said we didn't know how to wind the reel and we had also got the hook on wrong somehow.

We shot out to the Moteka beach to have a go at fishing. After 5 or 6 goes we figured out how to cast off!

With the first real launch... We got the weight stuck in the clay like sand. I sent Jack in! Jack had to wade up to his thighs to go pull our brand new rig out.

We also had trouble with the tide. Mainly that it was going out! So in five minuets of casting the line was in the wash!

Eventually we gave up and had a beer in the car!

We then drove over to do a pub quiz with our Judo team. We did pretty well finishing fourth out of 25. A lady on our team won the raffle and gave Jack and I her prize of a helicopter tour around mount Arthur!