Boxing Day up the Tower

 

Sarah (from the Tower) invited us to work so we could bring her a bacon sandwich. In return she had to let us press the buttons. Look out for us on the news...

Dear Santa, I'd like some elasticated jeans

 

Yes that does say 38 and a half inches.

Seconds!

 

As you can see, I didn't go hungry. And yes Mum, there are some peas on there. As you can see from the state of the table cloth, some drinking had gone on during the preparation stages.

A Very 'Merry' Christmas

 

Faced with the prospect of being stuck in NZ for Christmas, when I was expecting to be at home, I was pretty miffed. However, once I stopped feeling sorry for myself, and remembered how cheap booze is here, we decided to have a jolly good time. 7 of us, Jimbo, Tony, Shaun, Steve, Doc, myself and Sarah from the Tower (more of whom later) all pitched in and assembled an enormous Christmas dinner.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

And we nearly got it, snow was forecast for the southern part of the North island but didn't quite make it. With the cloud at about 600 feet we had to drive through it to get over the hills to Tauranga. Saw a patch of blue sky, paddled in the sea, had an ice cream and then came straight home to cook dinner. Did I mention how much I love the weather here?

Sunset at Raglan

 

Enough soppy scenic shots now.

The Bay

 

Its easy to forget when we're stuck in Hamilton in the pouring rain or impenetrable fog that NZ does have some stunning scenery, especially when my ugly mug isn't in the way. 

Raglan Again

 

Here we are, back at Raglan. Jo was really lucky with the weather while she was here and we got to spend a lovely evening down by the beach after I finished work. 

Bridal Veil Falls

 

Now that's a waterfall. Jo took this on one of her excursions to Raglan while I was slaving away at the airport. 

Huka Falls

 

More rapids than falls. Either way, I wouldn't want to fall in. 

Elephant Rock

 

A rock that looks like an elephant's head. Time to go home. 

Aladdin's Cave

 

They weren't too imaginative with the names of these features. Apparently this is one of only two volcanic caves in the whole wide world. I think I was starting to get cranky at this point as we'd walked quite a long way and still hadn't had lunch. 

Walking with Dinosaurs

 

Apparently the BBC came here to film some of the Walking with Dinosaurs footage. New Zealand being the time machine that it is, I'm surprised they didn't see any real Dinosaurs. 

Danger!

 

Having jumped out of a plane, wasn't feeling this. 

Diamond Geezer

 

After all that silliness falling out of aeroplanes we decided a more leisurely trip around some of the volcanic stuff would be in order. We visited this place just north of Taupo with geysers and mud and caves and stuff. Very exciting. 

Like a Puppet on a String (or not)

 

Not quite sure what happened with the pictures of my heroic return to the ground. These make it look like I'm a puppet with its strings cut. I think my unusual pose came from the wickedly tight harness around my undercarriage, and fearing that any kind of movement might render me gender non-specific. 

Jo meets Mo

 

I don't know how this one slipped the net. Last month was Movember, a charity event to raise money for treating testicular cancer by acquiring ourselves some facial furniture. I couldn't believe my luck that I had finally found a legitimate excuse for growing a Mo but, unfortunately, Jo did not see things the same way. Whilst curious to see it, it was gone within an hour of meeting her at the airport! To be honest, I'd gone off the idea anyway after two weeks of having an itchy upper lip. 

The 'Slowmad'

 

So called because its slow and you'd be mad to get in it. Apparently this type (really called a Nomad)was built as a university project by some students in Australia. Looked good on paper and quite a few were sold, then most of them fell out of the sky, mainly due to catastrophic failure of the tail. This is one of the very few left, only the Kiwis would keep flying such a liability. Was happier to jump out of it that wait for it to land! Of course I made sure I told Jo this before we got in. 

Scared? Not me!

 

Jo being ultra cool. Says a lot about us that as soon as our feet touched the ground, we were concerned about what to have for lunch. 

Meat Bombs!

 

The local colloquial term for parachutists. What can I say, can't think of anything more exciting I've done or am likely to do in the near future. Jo jumped just before me (it was organised that way, I wasn't being a chicken) and we fell from 12,000 ft to 4000 ft in about 40 seconds before the guy I was strapped to pulled the cord and opened the canopy. It was all over too quickly and I think i might have to have another go one day soon. 

Then the sun went down

 

I know I know, boring. You can see the cone of Ngaruahoe quite clearly in this one, no smoke though. 

Mountains (from the ground)

 

Also from our hotel window. The two mountains are Ruapehu (with the snow on) and Nguarahoe (still an active volcano). 

Move over Judith Chalmers

 

Jo auditions for Wish You Were Here. Jo chilled out with me for a week and then we took of for Taupo for a week to be meat bombs. This is the view from our hotel room. 

View from the top

 

Not such a bad view for dinner. Gave Jo something to look at other than my ugly mush. 

The Skytower

 

Wow, been a while since I've updated so this is going to take a while. Lots has gone on but I'll keep it brief. I took this pic on a flight with Guy up to Auckland in atrocious weather, just good enough to make it through although we had to bother Auckland to let us bust through their airspace. This is the Skytower, the southern hemisphere's tallest building, apparently. More of this in a minute...