How do Folks,
I've been just a bit on the busy side of late and been just a bit crap on the mail bit....
So I'm out of NZ now, did 3 days of kayaking in Milford and Doubtful Sound. One day in Milford and the weather was amazing....Fantastic place, wish I could have done the walk, but what can you do....Long day though, up at 6a.m., and that shook me a bit...The area is so beautiful, wish I had ear plugs with me, the airport in Milford is the second busiest in the country when the weather is clear and there was a constant buzz of choppers and planes all over the place.
Up again super early the next day and off to Doubtful. It was chuckin it down, and the forcast was for worse (100mm in 3 hours – the area gets over 3m a year). 40 minute drive, half an hour by boat across the lake and another 40 minute drive to the Sound. By the time we got there the water falls were huge, massive cascades over shear cliffs 800-1000m high. The wind decided to do it's thing too, not in a half assed way though, it went straight for a gale force 6...We hit the water for about an hour and turned back, for a while it was touch and go if the whole thing was going to be called off. It decided to calm after lunch, but it was bloody hard work. Worth ever minute. To be able to paddle right up to the base of a 1000m waterfall and look straight up, the noise and the force was incredible...
Eventually got to the camp in the middle of a rain forest, our home for the night..Everyone was shattered, bit of food, one or two drinks and passout....
The second was much of the same, only colder..I'd forgotten what it's like to put on a cold, wet wetsuit first thing in the morning....
After the kayaking and a few days of rest, it was back to Christchurch for Paddy's Day...The pub were lookin for people to work, so I thought what the hell, cashin hand – and then I can hand it straight back to them!! The pub was 4 deep at 10a.m. When i started....it stayed like that all day. By 10:02 all the green stuff was out – hair spray, tattoos, badges, backpatches – an Irish man really didn't stand a chance..Had a wicked day working though, I think I was the only one in work making tips. Maybe people felt sorry for an Irish man working on the 17th of all days...Finished work at 6, and I'm suer you can guess how the rest of the evening was spent...
4 days later I flew out of New Zealand, after nine and a half months, it just felt strange...But it was the end of a great time and there will be more.....and that's for the next chapter...Sydney – the newest of the Dublin suburbs...
That's me over and out.....Nx
