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.