Wet, wicked and hilarious
Wednesday
White water rafting (grade 5 style) down the Rangitata River with a dreadlocked guide called 'chunky', and with 4 US air force pilots, wasn't really the best way to get rid of a cold but I had to take up this opportunity whilst I was in Christchurch. The Rangitata rapids are apparently the best in NZ.
There were 26 people rafting that day and whilst all the guides were sarcastic and joking the whole time there was a lot of education going on aswell. Kitted up and looking like a seal trapped in a red nylon sheet we were driven to the wilderness and home of Lord of the Rings (2nd film, castle on the side of a mountain) to start the rafting experience on an ice blue glacier fed river.
Chunky until this point had been quiet, but that changed once in the raft. Chunky, the rapids and the willingness of the US air force to stretch boundaries led to no boundaries at all. 'Kiss my cuunt' was our mantra after each rapid (ie. kiss my arse in dutch - the 6th person was a dutch girl) and a mixture of that, spinning the boat going down grade 3 rapids, capsizing, and surfing back up the river into a grade 5 rapid (and then being trapped there 'surfing' by the rapid) was amazing and so much fun.
I'm looking forward now to the Black Abyss in the northern island. White water rafting in a rubber tube in a black cave system with waterfalls!
In there was a talk from Hike NZ which I would like to use for 10 day hikes in a future trip as the images were amazing and they literally do take you off the beaten track. Do you know that there are 3,000 glaciers in NZ and 900 mountain huts?
Thursday
After a dodgy start with the internet and the lack of sleep from 37 sand fly bites (26 on one arm alone), I eventually made my way to the coast to Littleton, a sleepy village/town by the sea and sloping down a hill side and then up a gondala to the summit with amazing views over: 1) the Canterbury plains, and the Pacific Coast and 2) Littleton, which is in fact an extinct volcano crater which has eroded and caused the inlet that is the Littleton harbour.
I finished off today with a trip to the International Antartic Center. This is actually the main base for all explorations off to Antartic and holds a permanent base for UK, Italian, US etc military and scientists. There is also a cool visitor center with simulations of the vehicles used actually in Antartica and of a storm out there together with daily images sent over from the camps and interesting facts, eg. Antartica, South America, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand were all part of the same continent millions of years ago before it broke up. Before that time it was a hot land inhabited by trees and dinasaurs. Now Antartica has no life or vegetation on it, except for scientists and has a temperature of -5 in summer to -80 actually at the South Pole. I'll stop boring you now.
White water rafting (grade 5 style) down the Rangitata River with a dreadlocked guide called 'chunky', and with 4 US air force pilots, wasn't really the best way to get rid of a cold but I had to take up this opportunity whilst I was in Christchurch. The Rangitata rapids are apparently the best in NZ.
There were 26 people rafting that day and whilst all the guides were sarcastic and joking the whole time there was a lot of education going on aswell. Kitted up and looking like a seal trapped in a red nylon sheet we were driven to the wilderness and home of Lord of the Rings (2nd film, castle on the side of a mountain) to start the rafting experience on an ice blue glacier fed river.
Chunky until this point had been quiet, but that changed once in the raft. Chunky, the rapids and the willingness of the US air force to stretch boundaries led to no boundaries at all. 'Kiss my cuunt' was our mantra after each rapid (ie. kiss my arse in dutch - the 6th person was a dutch girl) and a mixture of that, spinning the boat going down grade 3 rapids, capsizing, and surfing back up the river into a grade 5 rapid (and then being trapped there 'surfing' by the rapid) was amazing and so much fun.
I'm looking forward now to the Black Abyss in the northern island. White water rafting in a rubber tube in a black cave system with waterfalls!
In there was a talk from Hike NZ which I would like to use for 10 day hikes in a future trip as the images were amazing and they literally do take you off the beaten track. Do you know that there are 3,000 glaciers in NZ and 900 mountain huts?
Thursday
After a dodgy start with the internet and the lack of sleep from 37 sand fly bites (26 on one arm alone), I eventually made my way to the coast to Littleton, a sleepy village/town by the sea and sloping down a hill side and then up a gondala to the summit with amazing views over: 1) the Canterbury plains, and the Pacific Coast and 2) Littleton, which is in fact an extinct volcano crater which has eroded and caused the inlet that is the Littleton harbour.
I finished off today with a trip to the International Antartic Center. This is actually the main base for all explorations off to Antartic and holds a permanent base for UK, Italian, US etc military and scientists. There is also a cool visitor center with simulations of the vehicles used actually in Antartica and of a storm out there together with daily images sent over from the camps and interesting facts, eg. Antartica, South America, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand were all part of the same continent millions of years ago before it broke up. Before that time it was a hot land inhabited by trees and dinasaurs. Now Antartica has no life or vegetation on it, except for scientists and has a temperature of -5 in summer to -80 actually at the South Pole. I'll stop boring you now.
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11:04 PM
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