Gisborne Hotel

... przed nami niespodziewanie zwolnila, wkrotce powod okazal sie nam znany. W przepasci pustynnego krajobrazu i pieknymi gorami w tle, mloda kobieta pozowala w stylu yogi rozebrana do rosolu... W tym czasie jej kochanek/agent (?) robil jej pelne pasji foty... a ja to wszystko przegapilem pochylony nad glupim GPSem... ech - takie zycie - przez reszte podrozy mialem kamere i aparat w pogotowiu lecz niestety nic podobnego sie nam nie przytrafilo ...

Took a 12 hour bus ride to Gisborne on the east coast. It calls itself the 'first city in the world to see the sunrise each day'. Although there are actually places further to the east that see it first, I guess they aren't considered cities. Well, the first morning was rainy, so I didn't see it then, but I did get up in time to watch it rise on day 2. Not ...

... it a little odd the way she looked at me blankly but she nodded eventually and smiled but David soon burst out laughing in the privacy of our room and explained to me that perhaps the WHOLE bottle of champagne wasn't actually 'given' to us but a glass or two offered to us as a congratulatory thing. That explained the wife's frozen smile and delayed reaction to my question. Oh dear. Lois..foot...mouth...again!! We ate that night at a fantastic Thai ...

... a bad knee. I did get out to surf a couple of times, but both were unsuccessful and frustrating. We finished work yesterday, a little later than planned, but that extra couple hours just extended my budget by a day so no complaints here. Logging boreholes is at times a mind-numbingly boring job, but it pays well so I can't complain. There is a lot of waiting, and I often feel guilty just standing around and watching the ...

... quick look into some outdoor rave fest thing. What a ****ing circus. The next night we found a nice decent little campground where we met some really cool people to ring in the new year with. A bunch of dudes that Rob traded skat nerd conversation with were there from Auckland (Luke, Cookie, Snowy, and some other guy). We also met Mas and his girlfriend from France, Fidi and her friend from Germany, and Janet and her friend from London and like a brazilion ...

... be out of the gene pool anyway. Anyway, I have a hard time picturing a ski area on an active volcano in the states. Other than Mt. Taranaki in New Plymouth it is the only mountain on the north island that high enough to ski on. All the rest of the skiing is on the south island. Like all skiing in NZ it is above tree line. Unlike all the other ski areas in NZ, the two commercial fields on Ruhapehu face west, directly into the weather. This is very significant. Ruhapehu ...

... it was also quite windy so we got coated in sand, Jay has real issues with sand so we decided to brave the water. We decided it was the best option to run on three into the water, holding hands because obviously we thought this would definately mimick a scene from Baywatch with our toned, bronzed physiques (i think not), really it was the quickest way of gettin there so we didnt have to. So Jay counted down, and we ran, however only made it waist height before ...

... fined $3750 for flying below the minimum allowable altitude of 500 feet while towing water skiers in the queen charlotte sound. Charges of low level flying and dangerous flying were dropped because Wellis claimed the loss of his pilots license would SERIOUSLY affect his ability to obtain income from his flying business (duh really? this is a very typical nz way of thinking. they are very concerned that the punishment not interfere with your income ). Wellis ...

... at the Wairere Falls, which were on the way out of Whakatane. We drove from Whakatane to Gisborne on the SH2 which goes inland, rather than driving all around the East Cape. It takes at least 6hrs to go round the cape due to the winding road in and out of all the bays, so we didn't fancy doing that, as it was already 3pm when we left Whakatane. We ended up in Gisborne at around 5pm, staying at Waikanae Beach Holiday Park, which is right by Gisborne's main ...

... thousands of dollars, but overall it's a good solution. Speaking of brass balls, I want to meet the guys who put up the thousands of miles of fencing on slopes that I would be hesitant to rappel on. These guys must have testosterone in industrial quantities. No wonder bungee is the national sport. As an aside, the sky tower in downtown Auckland has a bungee jumping concession. 192 meters 363 days a year.The attachment points were built in during construction ...