Shopping, bungee jumping and a trip home...

Hey all,

It's been a while since the last post so now its time to fill everyone in on what we've managed to get up to since Easter...

April was a very busy month with Aaron working about 3 weeks straight. This was because he did mines rescue training for 8 days and learnt how to rescue people with ropes in hazardous chemical situations. Basically, it meant they ran around in blue smurf suits for several days playing out various situations in which someone invariably 'died' due to (imaginary) toxic chemicals. All in all, a fun 8 days apparently.

April also brought about our second lot of visitor, and the first visitors to our new house. My mum and grandmother came for a couple of days which was lovely. It was really nice to have them there and I got to show them all around Waihi Beach, take them to trivia night and generally hang out together. They're both looking forward to visiting us over at Boddington next year (wine at Margaret River)!

We also had a bit of a work do one friday night, with a Scottish theme. There was scotch tasting (Aaron got all mine), Robbie Burns poetry and haggis. It actually tastes alright (the haggis, not the scotch), its a bit like sausage roll meat, so you can't really tell which part of the animal you're actually eating, which is a relief. I'm sure if I did know I wouldn't have tried it. After that evening, I resolved never to drink scotch again, owing to the horrible taste and what it does to your system!

Anzac day came around and we went down to the dawn service to pay our respects. It was a beautiful morning, so afterwards we decided to head down to the beach and watch the sunrise. It was the stuff of postcards and calendars. Afterwards, we packed up the car and went up to Auckland for a weekend of seeing the city sights! Unfortunately, it was a pretty grey weekend so our plans of jumping off the sky tower failed, as did the idea of taking a ferry out to one of the islands. Instead, we shopped. And shopped. And went to the Comedy Fest, which was hilarious. And came home fully kitted out with ski wear for the season! Plus a couple of extras. Inspired by how much money we spent, we resolved to making sure we get the absolute most that we can out of the ski season with our season passes.

As May came around, we resolved to actually throw ourselves off something, not once, but three times! Gravity Canyon, at Taihape, has a flying fox (174m high, 160kph), a bungee and a swing (off an 80m high bridge, in a very narrow canyon). The flying fox was ok, but I'm not great with heights so I suppose if I opened my eyes it would have been more fun... The bungee was terrifying. We went tandem and Aaron got to be on the edge of the platform, and I don't think I will ever do that ever again. The swing was fun, and I had a sore throat for about 4 days afterwards (epic scream).

I also got to head back to Brisbane for a few precious days, to see family and friends. It was great to be back in civilisation for a while. I got to go shopping, out to restaurants (not just cafes) and, most importantly see my family. Hopefully I'll be able to get back again sometime during the year but I doubt it. All my annual leave is earmarked for holidaying in NZ!

So, that brings us to June. The ski fields at Mt Ruapehu opened on the weekend which was great fun. Unfortunately, the North Island hasn't had much snow so only the beginner areas were open at both ski fields. This was probably a good thing, because if either of us tried to tackle some of the runs we would have run into quite a few problems. So the beginner areas meant we got to get our legs back, and we actually realised just how much strength we have to build up before we really hit the snow. My ankles and shoulders are sore from a couple of hours, I can't imagine what they'd be like after several days! We're hoping that more snow falls within the next fortnight, which is when our families will be here. Aaron is taking Ellie snowboarding for a day, and I'm taking Court skiing for a couple of days too. Its going to be fantastic to show our families a bit more of the country we call home (for now!).

Ciao,

Tara