Miles in May

Well sadly the whole comp can be summed up in one post. We had a couple days we flew short flights followed by a few days of rain. The weather to the east was looking better so not wanting to sit in the rain for another day I suggested heading to North Battleford towards better weather.

We stayed at Larry's cabins on the lake and did a little man towing on the beach with Timmy's paraglider. We found a tow road Just north of North Battleford which worked out great. The locals were friendly and didn't seem to have a problem with us using the roads. The wind was strong blowing from 25 km/h to 35 km/h out of the east. We were on a line of two weather systems. To the west it was over cast and to the east was nice looking Cu's.

Ross and Doug launched early and weren't able to stay up. I wanted to wait a bit any way for the over cast to push further west. After Timmy took a couple tows and started to drift away I figured it was time to go. I pinned off in good lift and slowly climbed out and drifted down wind. I was feeling pretty rust and not flying very well. After working hard to get to cloud base at 9000' it was easier to stay up. I stayed high for all of the flight until I started to catch up to the overcast skies. Perhaps it was just my perception that the lift should be shutting down. Their was some lift around which was hard to work low in the strong winds. Not wanting to end up with a challenging landing I turned into the wind and landed. Ross managed to stay up for another couple hours and flew 220km. Doug Keller also landed a little further than me at 100km.

We went back to Daysland on Saturday for another windy day. It was similar to the North Battleford day with the strong wind making getting up difficult. I drifted away from the tow road before I landed. Many pilots took several tows. Those that did get up made the 100km goal easy.

Sunday wasn't a comp day but was the best XC day I'd seen in a long time. Since we were heading home we just made a short 22km task back to the golf course. The winds were light and the lift was very good. It got awesome at about 2:30pm. When I arrived over the golf course their was plenty of lift and climbing out was easy. Would have been a great race day. Hopefully we will have some more great days this summer.

The wheels on the bus go round.

After leaving France Joseph the next stop was Makaraura or something to that effect. After dinner we did some Karaoke. It was a fun night hanging out with every one. Back on the road and a short stop in Wanaka for lunch. Then off to JB Hacket which is the first bungy jumper in the world. I've never had a strong desire to go bungy jumping but if I do it I will do it here in Queenstown where it all started. One last night with the gang from the bus before we split up. I have a few days here in Queeenstown.

I've started watching the weather back home and am glad to see it is slowly improving. I would be happy NOT to see any snow when I get back. Look forward to doing some flights on my own.

Friday would have been my last day but it rained so we didn't work. Saturday was a going away party for Fiona from sky dive. A few of us were leaving so it was a bit of an all in one party. It was a fun get together one last time with every one before setting out on my trip home.

Sunday I hopped on the Stray bus and we made our way to Barry town. Barry Town is a hotel and a few houses. It's a big party night and the theme for the night was dirty pirate hooker. You could dress up as any of them or combination of two or all three. It was a fun night getting to know every one. Four of us got up early to do some jade carving while the rest got to sleep in until noon.

Then we were off to France Josef Glacier. It was an early night as every one was up early today to do a hike on the glacier. The weather was perfect this morning for a hike. After lunch I've been trying to catch up on Internet stuff but getting very frustrated. The Internet connection in this country is brutal. managing to get a few things done.

Another Party

Launching rounds into the neigbours yard.

Roasting the pig.


We had a birthday party for Lee on the weekend. A friend that lives here in Mot. The guys were out pig hunting a month ago and got a small wild bore. Pig hunting is very common here. They normally go out with dogs and a knife and that's it. The pig was frozen until Lee's party and then thawed and roasted on a spit. It was very tasty. The theme for the party was Camioflauge which I didn't know until I got to the party. Didn't have any to wear any way. The guys set off, what seemed like a lot of fire works. Considering what we pay for them in Canada it would have been very expensive. They must pay a lot less for them here. The cops had been by three time before 9:30 to ask us to keep the music down. Seemed kind of early for people to be complaining As they boys got their party on they figured arm wrestling would be fun. Turned out not so much. Lee broke his arm and the ambulance came and took him into Nelson. He didn't even get any wild bore before he left. That will ruin his rugby season:( I headed home early as I had to work on Sunday. I only got a little lost walking home. Only a few weeks left before I head back to Canada.

East coast tour.

I've added some pictures to older posts. My last day's off I headed out to the east coast. I started off going to Hanmer Springs. It's a nice little city that has mostly newer buildings. The area around town reminds me a lot of the Kamloops area. They have some hot springs there which I spent a couple hours in relaxing. They have lots to do including bungy jumping, jet boating, quad bikes, rafting, horse trecks and more. I was going to do a trail ride in the morning but it was raining so I just hit the road. My next stop was at a seal colony. Can't remember how to spell the name of the town. I almost stepped on a seal which jumped up and barked at me from two feet away. Scared the crap out of me. After grabing some garlic shimp for lunch I headed north up the coast to Bleimner and did some shopping before heading back west and home.

They look a lot scarier from a couple feet with there teeth showing.

A few seal facts.

Most bridges here are one lane. They jump off this one.

Typical narrow Kiwi road but fun to drive.

Mariua falls created from a big earth quake in Murchison.

Number two all time.

I took a Brazilian girl for a tandem flight the other day. I will rank her as the second most scared person I have taken so far. I picked her and three others up in Nelson. Once we got to the hanger she was vocal about the fact she was scared. It's common that people are nervous but I didn't realize how nervous she was until we were putting on the harness. She was breathing heavy and nearly in tears. She had taken a fear of flying course before she left Brazil in order to get on a plane. She started screaming as we started rolling and didn't stop until she ran out of breath. She was calmer once we were up a few hundred feet which I had suggested as we were getting ready. She was still nervous but relaxed enough to enjoy the view. A short burst of panic set in again once we let go of the tug and you get that dropping sensation. Lucky for us the air was smooth and she did enjoy the flight. After landing she was very excited. The funny thing is she is from Rio which is the biggest tandem site in the world. I'm not sure she would have been able to run off the ramp in Rio. Aero towing has it's advantages. I think the over under harness makes them feel more secure as well.

Going Away

One of our pilots Mitch is quiting this week. Mitch is from Samon Arm and married a Kiwi girl a year ago. He is one of our micro light and tug pilots. He's been a great friend since I've been here and I'm going to miss him when he goes. Alex was one of the partners in the business but died in an accident a couple years ago. His wife is still a partner in the business and hosted a going away party for Mitch. She has a stunning house up in the mountains just before the Tasman park. It's a large L shaped house cut into the mountain with a great view of the ocean. Tile floors through out the house and stainless steel counter tops which I've never seen before. We schooled by Linda's kids in a few games of Wii. Her dog was really into cuddling me when it wasn't my turn. Mitch and I also did our best not to break any thing, including our selves, skate boarding and riding the scooter through the house. After a few drinks and a wonderful dinner we called it a night. Thanks to Linda for being such a wonderful hostess. I wish you all the best in you future endeavors Mitch.

Mitch and Helen.

A mean game of Wii

Let go of the couch! You can do it.

West coast tour.

A veiw of the west coast

A beautiful day on the coast.

Well I headed down the west coast on my last days off. Finally doing a bit of site seeing before I head home. They get quite a bit of rain on the west coast but I was lucky enough to get some really good weather for my days off. The coast line is beautiful along the west coast. I can't use my own computer to get on line so posting pictures is a bit of a pain but I will post some when I can. Some British tourists said their was a Kiwi bird at a road side stop so I went looking for it. It was very friendly and not to camera shy. When I got back to work they informed me that what I had saw was a whacker. Very few New Zealanders have ever seen a kiwi bird in the wild. I spent the night in Greymouth at a campground/cabins. When I headed out in the morning I run into the air force guys that were here in Motueka. They said they were getting a lot more pot plants on the west coast. Making lots of unhappy farmers. In the afternoon I did a quad tour for a couple hours which was fun before heading home. The roads here are very narrow and twisty. Most of the bridges are only a single lane. The scenery is amazing. I really enjoy driving in the country here and even gotten used to driving on the left side of the road. Work continues to be slow. Not sure what the main cause is but it makes for long days. I'll be trying to do a bit more before I have to head home.

Pictures

Our sexy pilots

Welcome to sky adventures

Some excited customers

Some satisfied customers

Pictures

This is our Van.

I tried to load a video but it was going to take an hour.

Harvest time.

The forest here is very lush and green. The hills behind where we fly is very good for growing pot so I'm told. Huge crops are planted threw out the forest. Some with booby traps. The air force has been hang out at our hanger the last few days and have a very large helicopter they are using to harvest the crop. They then drop it at our airport and the police pick it up and take it back to the local police station to burn. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of unhappy farmers in the area.

Party Party Party

Mitch's wife Romi and two of her friends.

Game on!

Two Canadians trying to blend in New Zealand.

Last weekend was a birthday for one of the guys I work with. The weekend before was a party for Lisa who works for the sky dive company at the airport here. It's seems to be common here to have costume themes for birthday party's. Lisa had a vampire theme where people came dressed up as vampires. Mitch did a come as your favorite country party. He came dressed up as a Mexican and another Canadian came as an Arab. (Mitch is Canadian too) I came dressed as a Canadian as I had a couple things to wear with me. Had a bit of a foose ball tourney and finished up with some competitive guitar hero. Lots of fun. I'll try and figure out a way to get some pictures up. Rob.

Natural Disaster.

Well as some one reminded me this isn't my first trip to a country during a natural disaster. Although the earthquake in Christchurch didn't kill as many people as the floods did when I was in Rio this is the worst disaster this country has ever seen.

Not every one has been found yet they do think their are more people trapped alive under collapsed buildings. The quake registered 6.3 on the rictor scale. They were in the process of rebuilding after a 7.1 in September. That quake did not cause as much damage and I don't think any life was lost. This time the tremor was not as deep, 5km compared to 33km deep in September. It was also closer to town and during a busy time of the day.

I heard one story of a woman working on the fourth floor of a building that was standing on the street after the quake hit. About 70 people have died and many more injured. I've heard of people having limbs amputated to free them from the rubble. Constant after shocks, one reaching 5.7, have made rescue dangerous.

New Zealand is a small country with 4 million people. Christchurch is one of it's largest city's at 4 hundred thousand. It seems every one around me has friends or family that live there. It seems as every one was affected.

Australia, Japan and the US have sent people to help in the rescue. People here are opening their homes to strangers to give them shelter after they have lost everything. The entire country is pulling together to help Christchurch get back on it's feet. This doesn't really seem like any thing new here. From what I've seen in my short time here they all treat each other pretty well on a daily basis.

Kicking off the rust.

I've lost my camera but I will try to get a new one so I can post some pictures.

We had a few windy day's here so not to much flying was happening when I got here. The temps. have been great for getting my tan on tho. When the wind backed off I did a bunch of tows with Guy, one of the other tandem pilots. The first couple felt pretty rusty. It really sucks going so long with out being able to fly at home. Even after three months you feel rusty. It's been even longer since I've Areo towed, three years! It's great having some coaching from some one who does it every day.

Today Guy signed me off on my New Zealand ratings and I took my first customers. Two tour buses came in at 4:00 and we had four micro light flights to do and five tandems. Wouldn't you know my first passenger was Canadian! A girl from Toronto who giggled pretty much the entire flight. Also my good luck the airport was busier than JFK at that time. Trevor snuck out on grass strip next to the paved run way with the micro light and I had to wait for 4 planes to land before we could go.

Once we got threw a bit of turbulence for the first few hundred feet the air was butter smooth. Then I here some one calling me on the radio. It's the sky dive plane asking me to move a bit to the west as he was dropping off some sky divers. I moved over a bit but I don't think as far as he would have liked. I was staying super conservative and with a good sea breeze blowing in I didn't want to wander too far away from the strip.

Trevor my boss is very safety conscious and I'm staying extra Conservative until I become comfortable with all the action we have here. Looks like we have five great days of weather ahead of us.

Endless Summer.

After a poor summer flying season and an early start to winter again I just couldn't stand to go an entire winter without flying again. My first thought was to try and find a job in New Zealand flying tandems. After sending an e mail to Jim Ronney he suggested Sky Adventures. I sent them an e mail and they offered me a job. After learning the process and getting my Visa I finally booked my plane ticket for the 3rd of Feb.

I had a three hour flight into San Fransico from Calgary and then a 12hr flight to Auckland. The flight was uneventful and I managed to get enough sleep on the plane that I wasn't too tired when I arrived.

My job is near Nelson on the south island so I figured I'd spend a day in Auckland as I didn't think I would be back unitl I headed home. Auckland has a feel much like Vancouver. It seems the economy has hit the young girls here hard. They can't afford skirts that much more than cover their butt's. I rented a car to explore the town. Auckland wasn't really the best place to try and get used to driving on the left side of the road. I didn't have any problems but I constantly have to think about where I am and need to be on the road.

From Nelson I rented another car to drive to Motueka and get myself familiar with the area. We operate out of a busy little airport with a pit special that does scenic flight. A sky dive out fit, and a flight school with cesnas and helicopters. The place is beautiful right near the ocean and on the edge of the Tasmin national park. This is going to be a great place to spend a few months.