Blogsitter says:
Sorry for the delay. Blogger decided that all old accounts needed upgrading to the new one, but as this blog is owned by Charbs and she's not here it became rather complicated. Anyway, here's what she's sent me since.
Charbs says:
Hiya!!!!
Cant remember if I emailed you all from Waitomo so I'll giveyou a quick update on all our adventures since leaving Auckland!
waitomo is a tiny little one street town, famous for nothing but its caves and glowworms, we got to sit in rubber rngs and leap off of waterfalls and into freezing cold water to float along looking at all the glow worm lights, they are amazingly pretty.
On the next day we were there, we went under ground again, this time abseiling our waydown, I really loved this and had a great time, and it was proper caving as well after that, we were crawling on our hands and knees under tiny rock holes and scrambling up huge gushing waterfalls and getting shouted at (heheh) for still not knowing left from right!
The group we did this with were all french people, but mad as anything and great fun, they led us in a conga line, waist deep in freezing cold water while our Kiwi caving guides, just looked on bemused!
After that they decided we needed to go celebrate our underground adventures and took me, Emma and Dan our guide to the pub, where we drank lots and ended up going back to their place at 11.30 so they could cook us roast beef!
After Waitomo, we caught the coach to Wanganui, (Wendy Waldegrave if you remember her bob! ) which is where an old friend of mine now lives, I've not seen her for 7 years but she's still the same as ever, and even still has our pictures up on the wall. The last time we saw her daughter she was 6 and now is 14 and really tall.
Shes still mad about horses, that we introduced her too!! and she took us all out to see her comepete in a 1 day event, and we ended up being brought into judge a fence, on the cross country course to make sure no one refused it or fell off and Becky came 4th in that event so a good day all round!
We then headed into Wendys school where she teaches to listen to a Maori initiation ceromony for all the year 7s and new starters, which was really interesting!
On sunday she took us to a place called Taihapi, where we did a 100km flying fox with Becks, which is like a zip wire over all the trees and cliff tops, while strapped into a hammock, we floew along like asuperman!
We also did a 80ft (or metre - whatever's tallest) bungee jump, I got scared at the top again and made the people turn me about so I can jump off backwards, dunno why I find that less scary!Bungying is the craziest thign ever, unlike the sky tower jump we only had the one rope about our ankles and we free-fell for what seemed ages before being bounced back up again.
The worst part is hanging about(!) waiting to be rescued, cos the adrenaline takes over and your legs start to shake and you feell like you might slip out of the ankle harness!!
Sunday We got to Wellington, which I have to say I dont like as much as Auckland, I'm not even sure why but its not as fun, anyway we were only there for 2 nights so we throughly explored the city, discovered the local spirit of choice midori (melon liquor) which is dead nice with cranberry! and went on a movie tour, where we got to sit in Lord of the ring and King Kong sets, which was very neat!
today so far we've taken the ferry across to the South Island where we're currently in a place caleld Nelson and tomorrow move on to a place called Kaikoura, and then to Dundedin, both of these places are supposed to be the best places in New Zealand to spot wildlife, so we're going whale watching, albatross spotting and sea kayaking to see fur seals and find a rare penguin colony, so really looking forward to that!
Kaikoura was an absolutely amazing place, we got to go and view sperm whales diving and chilling out on the surface and went sea kayaking with a guy, who looked a little like a seal himself and did very good seal impressions!! It was great and we got to get a lot closer than yu would from the shore or from a boat and even got to see a tiny blue or fairy penguin cruising in the water.We also went Albatross spotting in really rough seas, you dont actually appreciate how big thoser birds are until you see them in comparision with another gull!
We even made friends with a tiny piglet next door (Piggles!)
Next stop after that was Christchurch, its a very old fashioned english town and we staye here for one night taking it sedately after our last few weeks of non stop activities, and rode the tram and cable cars.We're now spending our final night in Dunedin (based loosely on Edinburgh, but with steeper hills and nicer weather!!) Again we've been taking it sedately, been on a wildlife cruise today, and saw super rare yellow eyed penguins and toured a brewery and cadbury world, both places with free samples!!!
Tomorrow we move on again to Queenstown, where we're spending the day white water rafting so cant wait for that one!!
Blogsitter says:
I'd imagine it was more a 100m flying fox thing. 100km would've taken them about 5 hours :)
And she's right, Kaikoura is amazing and so is Queenstown for that matter!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Another email from the charbs!
She even uses a capital letter once or twice :-P
wanganui update....
boo, Wendys laptop is on dial up so its dead slow and stuff and wont let me up load pictures of my abseil for you all.But I shall fill you quickly in on my adventures since the last email, we'd gone and done an amazing abseil and caving, scrambling up waterfalls and ducking under low caves and then we ended up getting invited to the pub to celebrate surviving!So me and E and our guide Dan appeared in the pub and we started drinking and it turned into a great night.The French were really random and odd, and after I brought all 9 of them a drink, they decided we had to go back to their place in order to have a real tea (so far we've been living on cheap pub meals and carrotcake) so at half 11, we were taken back and then cooked a really nice piece of beef, and some pasta and then they all proceeded to try and teach me how to drink wine (i loathe it) cos they were insulted that I think it tastes like vinegar and they were very amused that I was downing it in a shot, as it was the only way I could drink it.It was a real random night and completely awesome.
After a 5 hour coaxh ride tthrough mountainsides we came to my friends house, now I/ve not seen Wendy for 7 years and the last time I saw her daughter she was about 6, nows shes a tall blonde and drop dead gorgeous, and a really cool person.She had only been here a little while before she was on her hands and knees rooting around in mud to fix the pool and showing up pictures of her first wild pig, that shed shot, skinned and gutted.
She's really wonderwoman!!
Today, we went to admire her in a ODE (one day event), I feel kinda proud about this as we took her for her first rides as a kid and now she's really good.And of course we all love being around horses, so we were having a whale of a time, watching her compete.We even ended up being line judges, over a square oxer, which basically means we just sit there and watch making sure that no one refuses, which is a minus point or falls off.
It was great!
This weekend we're doing another bungee jump and a jet boat ride across the river.
Blogsitter says:
If the definition of Wonder Woman is now someone who can skin and gut a pig, and not a very fit brunette is tight hotpants, then I'm beginning to suspect that the tramp I drive past every Monday morning is in fact Superman after the work stopped coming in....
She even uses a capital letter once or twice :-P
wanganui update....
boo, Wendys laptop is on dial up so its dead slow and stuff and wont let me up load pictures of my abseil for you all.But I shall fill you quickly in on my adventures since the last email, we'd gone and done an amazing abseil and caving, scrambling up waterfalls and ducking under low caves and then we ended up getting invited to the pub to celebrate surviving!So me and E and our guide Dan appeared in the pub and we started drinking and it turned into a great night.The French were really random and odd, and after I brought all 9 of them a drink, they decided we had to go back to their place in order to have a real tea (so far we've been living on cheap pub meals and carrotcake) so at half 11, we were taken back and then cooked a really nice piece of beef, and some pasta and then they all proceeded to try and teach me how to drink wine (i loathe it) cos they were insulted that I think it tastes like vinegar and they were very amused that I was downing it in a shot, as it was the only way I could drink it.It was a real random night and completely awesome.
After a 5 hour coaxh ride tthrough mountainsides we came to my friends house, now I/ve not seen Wendy for 7 years and the last time I saw her daughter she was about 6, nows shes a tall blonde and drop dead gorgeous, and a really cool person.She had only been here a little while before she was on her hands and knees rooting around in mud to fix the pool and showing up pictures of her first wild pig, that shed shot, skinned and gutted.
She's really wonderwoman!!
Today, we went to admire her in a ODE (one day event), I feel kinda proud about this as we took her for her first rides as a kid and now she's really good.And of course we all love being around horses, so we were having a whale of a time, watching her compete.We even ended up being line judges, over a square oxer, which basically means we just sit there and watch making sure that no one refuses, which is a minus point or falls off.
It was great!
This weekend we're doing another bungee jump and a jet boat ride across the river.
Blogsitter says:
If the definition of Wonder Woman is now someone who can skin and gut a pig, and not a very fit brunette is tight hotpants, then I'm beginning to suspect that the tramp I drive past every Monday morning is in fact Superman after the work stopped coming in....
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Emails galore (well, two anyway)!
Email 1:
Hello!
This is the first of my roving reports from New Zealand!We're currently in Auckland, after a horrible long plane flight and being terrified by the over the top security in LA!Auckland is realy, cool, and a little odd, it looks posh and then we keep finding all the old shabby areas and sex shops!!!The traffic lights are a bit scary too! Cars seem to ignore them!As we came down to land at the airport, we got our first glimpse of the Sky Tower, its asoluteluy huge! You can see it for miles around and we were terrfied, as oyu can problably tell from the photos!
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5620/karranoj8.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2391/karrn1nh3.jpg
I'd never been so scared in my life and the poor woman that I was clinging too, kept telling me to trust her and fall!!In the end i had to tell, her I cant jump looking downwards so she swaped me about so I could fall looking up instead of at the little bullseye target we were meant to land on!We've also been over to a little place called Devonport and ad a picnic by the beach!I've forgotten to pack my usb port so until i find one or buy one, you'll ave to do without photoe\s!!Everyone is dead friendly, we'd onl been here 10 minutes and had been invited to stay with some couple in New plymouth!Its boiling hot here, not burnt yet though!
Next stop Waitomo!
Email 2:
HEy!!!I'm currently in the back of beyond AKA waitomo, its really a one street town, made famous by nothing but the caves and glow worms.We're supposed to be staying her for 4 days but the locals, all look like they belong in the 17th century gold prospecting and look at us funny so we're running away to my friend Wendy a day early.However we're having a great time here, we've been jumping about in underground caves leaping down waterfalls and getting soaking cold and freezing.tomrrow we're going abseiling down a 30 foot rock formation thing, so hopefuly will have some photos from that to show y uall!(as you can see, I've still not mastered this crappy kiwi keyboard!!!)We've been horse riding today, along the mountains which was really cool (On a horse called Nugget Mum!!!) and even got involved in an inpromtu sheep rescue!Right time to go and sample the delights of Waitomos one bar and hope we dont get looked at funny when we wanna play pool!
Blogsitter says:
Charbs needs typing lessons.
And spelling lessons.
Also, no doubt you've all figured out her secret by now so I may just keep my nads when she gets back :)
Email 1:
Hello!
This is the first of my roving reports from New Zealand!We're currently in Auckland, after a horrible long plane flight and being terrified by the over the top security in LA!Auckland is realy, cool, and a little odd, it looks posh and then we keep finding all the old shabby areas and sex shops!!!The traffic lights are a bit scary too! Cars seem to ignore them!As we came down to land at the airport, we got our first glimpse of the Sky Tower, its asoluteluy huge! You can see it for miles around and we were terrfied, as oyu can problably tell from the photos!
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5620/karranoj8.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2391/karrn1nh3.jpg
I'd never been so scared in my life and the poor woman that I was clinging too, kept telling me to trust her and fall!!In the end i had to tell, her I cant jump looking downwards so she swaped me about so I could fall looking up instead of at the little bullseye target we were meant to land on!We've also been over to a little place called Devonport and ad a picnic by the beach!I've forgotten to pack my usb port so until i find one or buy one, you'll ave to do without photoe\s!!Everyone is dead friendly, we'd onl been here 10 minutes and had been invited to stay with some couple in New plymouth!Its boiling hot here, not burnt yet though!
Next stop Waitomo!
Email 2:
HEy!!!I'm currently in the back of beyond AKA waitomo, its really a one street town, made famous by nothing but the caves and glow worms.We're supposed to be staying her for 4 days but the locals, all look like they belong in the 17th century gold prospecting and look at us funny so we're running away to my friend Wendy a day early.However we're having a great time here, we've been jumping about in underground caves leaping down waterfalls and getting soaking cold and freezing.tomrrow we're going abseiling down a 30 foot rock formation thing, so hopefuly will have some photos from that to show y uall!(as you can see, I've still not mastered this crappy kiwi keyboard!!!)We've been horse riding today, along the mountains which was really cool (On a horse called Nugget Mum!!!) and even got involved in an inpromtu sheep rescue!Right time to go and sample the delights of Waitomos one bar and hope we dont get looked at funny when we wanna play pool!
Blogsitter says:
Charbs needs typing lessons.
And spelling lessons.
Also, no doubt you've all figured out her secret by now so I may just keep my nads when she gets back :)
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