...30 countries later...

December in the UK

2011-09-13T12:30:00.000+02:00

Jandals, boardies and a singlet seemed like great travelling attire from HK... but quickly realised it wasn't my best choice as we landed at Heathrow in a brisk 2 degrees! England was snowed in, with white gold covering the entire length of the country. Over 10cm in London to well over 2 foot of fresh pow in Hexham!

While staying with Daves Family were we able to get some cheeky turns on our new boards in the neighbours field!

Thai time

2011-09-13T11:28:00.000+02:00

While working in Hong kong, we both luckily got a week off work together... so what better way to spend a typhoon riddled week in HK, than excaping to Thailand for some beaches, sunshine and yum food!

It was the most expensive trip to Thailand I've ever had as we had just been paid cash for all our work in HK... so nice hotels, huge meals and lots of wine pretty much sums it up!... and also sums up why we both left with big smiles and even bigger bellies! Unfortunately Dave's foot was still broken so no running around or climbing for us, but it was still a sweet week of chillaxing, eating and muking about!

Khao San pad thai!

Dave proud to be at the Bridge over the River Kwai

Strolling across the Bridge over the River Kwai

Mean big bomb

this guy is real!

...very serious

What is this artist really trying to say...?

Not sure how they steer...

wahooo

Lounging rather than exploring Bangkok

ahhhh they feel so weird

Dave getting a shower whilst scrubbing his ride

Our scooter resting after a hard days riding

Our spot

Crazy firepoi show at Koh Samet

Good old fisherman pants... no trip to thailand is complete with them!

Honkers Konkers

2011-05-27T17:39:00.000+02:00

Hong Kong... normally its thought of as an urban metropolis, with skyscarpers filling the air and housing the masses of millions that live in its crazy concrete jungle. That is what I thought of it after my week long stay there a couple years ago. However after working a Autumn season for Asia Pacific Adventures in HK city my perception of the place has dramatically changed. Unfortunately the pollution and smog was still there but this time I got to see so much more than just central!

The sweetest trip to Brides Pool Waterfall! The only time the falls run with this much water is when its puking rain... like when we were there!

Highlights of the trip included visiting outlying Islands, surf beaches, climbing and bouldering spots, hiking and cruising around in the untouched Nature reserves (that surprising make up 70% of Hong Kong). I'm not sure if the hotcupping experience was a highlight... but it was definitely memorable!

Picked the wrong day to go to the Giant Buddha... on a public holiday!

Incense much?

Raft building on program at Wan Ye Chao

It seemed like such a good idea at the time... hot cupping hurts!

We lived on Lamma Island in an old fishing village that has now been revamped into a rather large expat community, with great restaurants, beaches, biking and hiking tracks everywhere. It was a 20min ferry ride from Central and the perfect way to forget the craziness of the city... plus travelling to and from work by boat was awesome!

The fishermans village on the other side of Lamma

Nice backdrop to run urban OE programs on! (Lamma Island)

Program venues were so close to the city... but were actually extremely beautiful and resonably untouched!

Luk Wu Gorge... crystal clear waters!

Luk Wu Gorge with a whole lot of clients... geeeeeeezzz

Even though we were there for 3 months, a couple cyclones rolled through town and cancelled some programs so we actually had more time off than we expected... which provided an opportunity to chill and explore some more of Lamma and HK City as well.

Passing the time with a bit of slack lining

All you can eat sushi!

Some would call it a nice sunset... others might say a product of pollution

Cool little dude that was outside our house

Dave bouldering on Lamaa

It was never a problem finding Dave in the crowds!

Not the usual view I see while hiking... but it had its own beauty

Nice sunset on the ferry back home

Chillaxing after a bit of bouldering on Lamma Island

It was definitely a great experience checking out HK for a longer period of time... I got so much more out of this trip than the previous one!

Aussie aussie aussie...

2011-03-19T16:15:00.000+01:00

After 2 years of traveling by myself and only staying in a place for a max of 3 months... I started to feel a little detached from my friends and family and pretty much all sense of a community so I decided it was time to change and that I wanted to 'settle' somewhere for 6 whole months! Ray Mackin (a friend I worked with in Italy) told me about a a cool company called OEG - the Outdoor Education Group in NSW Australia and sold me on the job due the family feel of the place and also the great programmes they ran. So after a few weeks back home with the family and my best mates in the world I headed off to Sydney to start my new life working for OEG.

The Salt Lakes with Mt Arapiles in the background

...and I stayed for almost 2 years!!! Well to be more accurate I was employeed for 2 years but they had a brilliant system were you choose how much work you wanted and therefore how much holiday time you wanted as well... so I went for the .8 load which meant 130 days of work a year and the rest off!!!! It was sooooooo sweet!!!! During that time off I went to Chile, Argentina, NZ a few times, Fiji and a couple trips to Araps in VIC plus I stayed local alot between programme and really enjoyed exploring the numerous crags and beaches that were so close to home.

The mighty mangled Gumtree

Plus I really loved the work there as well. Generally we would meet the students at the end of a road somewhere, give them all the food and supplies that they would need for the week and then head off into the bush an return 5 days later with sometimes very different students but always students dreaming of showers, Macca's and their Xbox... typical!!!!

Cold mornings in Kosziousko National Park

But the trips were amazing... hiking all over NSW and VIC, sea kayaking around Lakes Entrance, snow shoeing through Kosziousko NP in winter, biking around VIC, climbing in the Grampians and Arapiles, plus great programmes at Biloela - the property owned by NSW OEG.

The trainees doing their canoeing assessment on Mile Lakes

As it was a not-for-profit organisation, the company actiavely tryed to make the best programmes they possibly could without worrying about money being saved to go into the owners pocket. The managament were really supportive, the trainees were super enthusiastic, the holiday time was amazing and the ongoing inhouse training was better than any I have ever seen. I felt I could have stayed a long time there even though when I signed a year long contract with them I almost cried at the thought of being tied down for that long... they were a great company to work for.

Plus it wasn't always about work... I lived in the old station masters house which was the party house and we would forever be waking up to dozens of people crashed out in the lounge or around the house.

Our tv room the morning after programme finished

There were always trips to Nowra for the surfing and climbing. Plus new crags were being found and developed all the time around us so the climbing scene was really big. The local spots were Wingello and Mt Alex and the favourite long distance crag was of course Arapiles which took a good 13 hours to drive too!

Dave climbing at Nowra

Great climbing at Wingello

Sofa and her brand new BD rack ready to be used her the first time in Araps

Dave struggling with 'the squeeze' at Araps

Its not always warm in Aus... but still no need for shoes

The aussie nature was very interesting... the snakes had me worried but the ants were the craziest!!!!

Flies, flies and flies... and mozzies everywhere

Our campsite friend... the Stumptailed lizard

My first friend in Moss Vale - the friendly non poisonious but always present and always pretty big Huntsman

I had meet plenty of Aussies on previous travels so had heaps of people to catch up with.

Sutto and I off for some solitude in the sun

The NSW crew at National staff day - spot the odd one out!

Classic Aussie humour

The food was amaaaazing on programme

...and there was always so much of it!

The variety of destinations we went to for work was phenominal

Onroute to a canoeing program in VIC

Pre-students arriving on a programme on the mighty Murray ( 40 degrees)

We lived in Moss Vale as thats where the NSW base is located, and it was actually an alright little town... 3 pubs within 300m of my house, swimming holes, golf courses, wineries, lots of great restuarants near by plus being out of the city was a huge bonus.

The local swimming hole

And then there was Dave! We started as friends and climbing partners and grew from there over time. When his visa ran out and he had to leave the country I came along too which was the first time I have ever gone anywhere for anyone else. Was a pretty big move but I'm happy with my decision!

Good times with Dave in Araps

Tribute to the Clayton Classic

2010-09-12T08:35:00.000+02:00

January 2010
Fernhill, Hawkes Bay NZ

Competitors from Canada to Te Awamutu

... unite for the 3rd annual CLAYTON CLASSIC TENNIS TOURNAMENT

The weather was bluebird...

The food was great...

The outfits were pure class...

The Grandstand was pumping...

The competition was fierce...

Conditions were perfect!

Competitor Profiles:

'ManFox and LadyFox'

Tyler & Lou

'MussEnroe'

Corey & Josh'Pink As'

Emi & Laura'Perrybink'

Timmy & Hessie'Team Bayskins'

B & Soph

Kings of the Klayton Klassic... aka KKK

Jono & Dave

Thanks must go to:

Pete and Bron were hosting the event once again and letting us use the ThunderCat!

The official event photography team (everyone)

AND...

Huge congradulations must go to returning champs MussEnroe for taking the title once again!

Kayaking Kadavu

2010-08-16T10:35:00.000+02:00

I always thought that Fiji and sea kayaking were 2 words synonymous with relaxing... so when Dave and I embarked on a 9 day sea kayaking circumnavigation of Kadavu Island in Fiji... we thought we were in for a holiday filled with warm weather, lots of swimming and snorkelling, calm seas and fresh fish and tropical fruit aplenty... we were not expecting a level 2 cyclone to violently smash over our heads, 40 km long days, really rough seas and the Kadavu mini mafia! But thats what we got... and what a great adventure it was!

Our spot behind the pilot on our way to Kadavu

Our journey started on this micro plane (6 seater including pilot and co pilot) that transported us to Kadavu Island - a rather large but sparsely populated remote Island south of Veti Levu (Fiji's main land). We were provided with chainsaw airmuffs to protect our ears from the engines directly beside us. And rocked back and forth for an hour in the little shoebox while 2 Fijian kids behind us giggled the whole way at the turbulance and noise.

Ratu's house/palm trees: the start and end of our journey!

We were greeted by a boatman who took us on a rough ride 25km to Ratu's place (the Fijian partner of Tamarillo Kayaks who we were hiring the kayak from). Where we were greeted by the whole family, feed gorgeous fresh seafood and most importantly... taught how to participate in a kava ceremony whilst drinking a lot of it at the same time. (Kava is a slighty narcotic muddy drink that is an important part of Fijian culture. Daily kava ceremony's occur in the villages and it is always used as a gift, and/or peace offering... during our time on Kadavu kava got us food, shelter, drug offers and lots of smiles).

A whole lot of Kava about to be transported to Veti Levu for Christmas Presents

To sum the trip up...

The circumnavigation was 200km long and took 8 days to complete. 2 of those days we were off the water due to the fact that a cyclone bowled over the top of us and therefore we couldn't move.

The aftermath of one resort after the cyclone came through!

We frequently paddled 30-40km days and occasionally stayed in remote villagers, other times camped and other times got put up in 5 star resorts (can actually thank the cyclone for that!)

Happy times paddling!

Two kayaking shots showing the best weather of the trip!

Kadavu Island is framed by the Astrolobe Reef which is the 3rd largest coral reef in the world!

The Kadavu Airport sometimes closes for weeks at a time without notice, leaving tourists and locals alike stranded on the Island (this also happened to us)

The local boat we luckily got a ride on since the Kadavu Airport was closed with no reopening time!

We had to portage the Mt Washington section due to crazy winds and huge surf so we offered kava to a local guy with a truck and before we knew it flew down the dusty track by truck (which looking back on that truck ride - was just as dangerous as the seas!)

Another type of portage... on Veti Levu when the bus driver thought he would portage the road!

We stayed with the nicest locals who put us up in their homes, and sometimes there our rooms while they slept in the lounge with the kids, feed us fresh local produce, forcefeed us Kava and even gave us take away lunches for the next day!

Our take away lunch of pumpkin tuna curry with rice... compliments of Lamma (our previous nights host!)

And washing down lunch with some fresh coconut!

The whole Island was outstandingly beautiful!

And here's some more pic's to show how the trip went...

Gangsta yaker!

Feeling refreshed after 2 days rest in Padageno Resort (after the cyclone subsided!)

The perfectly preserved shell of this little fella had us mesmerized for hours!

Our home... the night before the cyclone rolled in!

Day 1, picture perfect weather and scenary... blissfully unaware of the weather that was to come!

Argentina yoga camp

2010-06-12T10:20:00.000+02:00

After finishing up our ski season in Chile, we headed to Argentina for a week of skiing there before going our seperate ways - Em and Joe headed back to Chile for abit more skiing then some adventures in Patagonia's National Parks, while I stayed on in Argentina to experience a random but unforgottable time in a Hari Krishna Community.

So it was time to leave behind the luxurys of the ski industry and head to a rural farm 2 hours south of B.A to volunteer my time, give up my coffee addiction, detox from Pisco, practice plenty of yoga and learn some Spanish.

The farm itself was hilariously odd. It had a massive vegie garden... and not really anything else agriculturally based on it. But it did house a massive stark white dome temple, at least 5 other miniture temples, a permanently closed art room and 2m high pizza oven!!!

There was a huge restaurant that was always empty and a few houses that the permanent residents lived in. The community was made up 4 families, many single Hari Krishna followers and 1/2 a dozen international volunteers.

Each person would volunteer 5-6 hours of service per day (the women were put on garden duty while the men had the task to build new houses for future tourists) in exchange for food and housing, plus daily yoga and or spirituality sessions.

This was a sweet gig!!!! Our days consisted of breakie at 7am, sleeping for another 1 hour, morning tea, working in the garden til lunch, lunch, working in the garden til 3pm, afternoon tea, sleeping for an hour, yoga, sleeping for another hour, dinner at 8pm then bed... oh man it was good!!!!!!

So many seista's/down time, copious amounts of delicious vegetarian organic food and amazing yoga sessions!!! I loved it!!

And the area was phenomenally beautiful. I have never seen temples like these before!!!! Huge mosiac's portraying different deity's covered the internal temple walls, 5m high stained glass windows, plus dozen's of 5L old wine bottles poked through the walls so that at night the light would beam out in every direction through the different coloured bottles.

One of the more bizarre things however was the worship of the 1 foot dolls behind the red curtain in the temple. The community believed that these dolls were the Gods themselves and therefore they would make food sacrifices 6 times a day, change the outfits on the gods every morning (they had 30 different costumes), pray to the gods and open the curtains only when people were present - the rest of the time the curtain would be closed. It was bizarre but they were the nicest people so we went along with it!!!

And then there was the yoga - the whole reason I went there!!! We had hour long sessions daily with one of many yoga teachers that lived onsite or locally. The entire session was in Spanish (so I learnt very quickly to observe first then do the moves).

It was amazing to do yoga everyday for 2 week, and the amount that everyone improved was crazy. There was a very different ability range as volunteers would come and go and therefore there was always someone new in the class.

But everyones flexibility and strength improved dramatically over the course of their stay.

However on one of our walks around the district, Anna (American volunteer) got a little friendly with one of the local dogs and found herself in a wee bit of a predicament when the dog got territorial and attacked her!!! It was pretty tame, but she was fine - just with a couple canine-shaped tooth scars on her legs to prove it!!!

While on the farm we led the simple life - no coffee, no meat, no dairy, no internet, no phones, no booze, no tv's or radios and no processed food either!!! So we just worked, ate the food provided, went on walks around the area, attempted to learn a second language... and slept. Fantastic I tell ya!!

Chile powder...

2010-03-22T06:23:00.000+01:00

One of the best moments in my life... Back country goodness in El Colorado

The winter of 2010 was a good one. Because for me it was spent with 2 of my favourite people - Em and Joe in a small ski field called El Colorado which is located just 45mins away from Santiago, Chile.

Beautiful deep Chilean pow

We had plenty of bluebird days, heaps of powder and a fair few attempts at drunkenly skiing home in the dark after Happy Hour.

Me and Joe on the chair during another stellar day

But when the storms rolled in...the powder came in metres!!!! It was seriously the deepest, softest and most glorious powder I have ever ridden... better than Canada, France, Austria, Italy and NZ!!!

Feeling humble in the Andes

Off course there were times in between the dumps when the snow started to melt and thin out... but that was a perfect time to head to the park and try and hurt ourselves on the jumps, rails and boxes in the park.

Joe strapping on his knarly boots

There were also spectacular days had exploring the El Colorado Back country as well. Beautiful deep powder, bluebird days and else around!!!!!!!!! Fresh lines everytime and huge smiles at the end of every run!!!!!!!

Joe checking out the view and scoping our lines

I was only in Chile for a fast 6 weeks, so it was just a taster for me and then I had to move on to Argentina for 3 weeks then finally Australia where work a much depleted bank balance was awaiting me.

Thats me and Em showing off our awesome lines behind us... fom top to bottom and no one else around!!!!!

It was such a great trip purely for the skiing as we did not really get to see the 'real Chile'... only the 'Upper class Americanised side' of it, which seemed a little fake at the best of times. But that didn't matter to us we were living on the mountain, skiing everyday that we wanted to and testing out the fruits of the Chilean alcohol industry!!! It was lush!!!!

During a break in snow we ventured down to Santiago to amuse ourselves... it was a successful trip!

Trekking in the Himalayas

2009-07-01T11:05:00.000+02:00

The infamous Fishtail Mountain framed with prayer flags

Even though we came to Nepal to go kayaking... there was no way we were going to leave without spending some quality time in the Himalayas. So all of Team Kiwi and USA got together and embarked on a 8 day journey from Pokhara to Annapurna Base Camp and back.

Hessie stoked to be at ABC (Annapurna Base Camp)

And this trip was sooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooodddd!!!! Who knew that walking uphill for 5 days straight with packs on your back then turning around and coming down could be so much fun!!!!

Team Kiwi loving ABC - Emi, Hayley, Soph, Hess, Malaika, Anna and me

Basically it involved spending a week with my best mates, in a stunning area, meeting amazing locals, climbing to over 4200m, eating real good food, taking millions of photos, NOT getting sick, laughing constantly, enjoying the bluebird days, tasting very bizarre/straight up gross chocolate cake, teaching locals how to make poached eggs, bartering for the best priced accommodation, getting lost in Tibitan Prayer Flags, soaking in the views and even sheding a few tears remembering those who couldn't be with us that day at the top.

Soph have a chilled moment amongst the prayer flags and infront of FishTail

The trip it self was pretty easy... the tracks were extremely well formed from years of tourists, mules and locals walking these paths, but the gradient was definitely something that caught us by surprse.

Note my surprise when seeing the cross section of the map and where we were walking too

The steepness of some of the hills plus the effect the altitude was having on us... definitely made us breath alot faster and reddened our checks quicker than ever before.

Sofa feeling the burn after the steepest hill of the whole trip

Due to the time of year that we went, there was practically noone else there which meant crowd free walking tracks, cheap accom, tranquility and peace....ahhhh hows the serenity!!! However everytime we did meet people - whether locals or foreigners... we received the statutory "oh no porters???... no guides???... oh be careful"!!

Cheers... to free accommodation as long as we buy their food!!!

Emi getting amoungst some yoga at about 3800m and 2 degrees!!!

We were loving it so much that we even started walking before the sun came up most mornings!!

Emi and Hess cracking the whip for us t o start before the sun starting rising!!!

It was sooooooo nice to just go walking in amongst these beautiful mountains and get back into the vibe of fully and wholly enjoying nature. Our time up there went so fast. I honestly can say that I enjoyed it even more than the San Koshi trip - there were no dramas, no timeframes, no stress, and just amazing people with great attitudes to hang out with the whole time.

The entire team at ABC (4200m) just before our decent, with Annapurna Mountain behind us.

Its just another 4000m to the top from here!!!! Some Base Camp aye?

Noone really pictures the Himalayas as having a tree line... but it is lush and beautiful

Some classic little chickas used to the high altititude showing off their carrying prowess

It was refreshing to meet mountain people and hear their stories of how they work and live, compared to the money crazy peeps in Kathmandu... we met one 50 year old man who walks up to ABC with 50kgs hung from his head every 2 days for a living!!! He was an absolute machine!!! We saw him on his way up AND down, in the same time that we were going up (and we were pretty fast too!!!). Our little lungs just could not compare with his, after living in the mountains his whole life.

Malin struggling with the Altitude

Team Xtreme loving being at the top

Pretty much the only time we had to share the track!!!

And before we knew it, it was Day 8, we were back in tourist-ville and we were bartering with much less friendly locals for a taxi back to Pohkara... what an amazing trip with such amazing people!!!

Me and Sofa reminiscing on the trip we had just completed from view at Pohkara

Himalayan River Girls Expedition

2009-04-08T08:00:00.000+02:00

HRG on the Sun Kosi River in Nepal

Epic is one word used to describe the first ever Himalayan River Girls (HRG) decent of the Sun Koshi River where 30 female kayakers from Sweden, Norway, Wales, USA, Nepal and New Zealand embarked on a 270km, 10 day white water kayaking trip in Nepal. Other words could include frantic, a world first, inspirational or just straight up crazy. But it was definitely epic on many levels.

All the kayakers on the HRG trip... theres another 10 women in the rafts as well

The idea for the HRG kayaking club was originated over a year ago by Swedish paddler Inka Trollsas, who after spending 8 seasons in Nepal had never met a single female river guide. In an industry so huge that ‘Rafting’ is given as an option for why you are entering the country in your customs card – it seemed crazy that not a single woman worked in this industry. Something had to change, and this is where the HRG club came in.

All the HRG women together at the base of the waterfall

The initial idea was to teach some Nepali women how to kayak, but this idea quickly escalated into a huge scale month long programme with 9 Nepali women who participated in kayaking, rafting, river rescue and first aid components, with 21 women from all over the world volunteering to help with the project and 2 film crews joined the party as well!!!

Team Kiwi consisted some of my favourite people Sofalofa Hoskins, Hessie Hilbink, Malaika Davies, Emi Earle, Hayley Segal, Kelly Blayney!!! and I came along too.

Kelly, Malaika, Hessie, Hayley, Sofa, me, Spanna and Emi representing Aotearoa

Team Kiwi rocked into Kathmandu with the aim to donate their skills, time and over $10,000 worth of kayaking equipment that they had been generously donated by the NZ public or sponsored by companies such as Canoe and Kayak, Keen, Macpac, Bivouac, Hydraulics, Icebreaker, CPIT, Shewee, Day Two, Fergs Kayaks, Hybrid Care and helped out by Singapore Airlines.

Just a tiny amount of the gear that was donated to the HRG club by team kiwi

The Sun Koshi River is an amazing 10 day kayaking trip, which starts off with flat water and easy grade 2 rapids and then builds up progressively to peak with 3 days of quality high volume grade 3-4 sections and then settles down again to the finish. This meant that the Nepali girls could be in kayaks on the easy stuff and then jump on the raft for infamous rapids like Huckapor, Dead Man’s Eddie and Jungle Corridor.

Im loving chilling on the rock with Komila (Little Ant), Emi, Hayley and Radha

The trip started off in typical Nepali fashion with horrendous road blocks, hours and hours of delays and general chaos, as well as so much media attention at the put-in that we ended up getting on the water hours later than planned and arrived at camp in darkness.

Emi, Malaika and Hessie riding in style to the put in

Home sweet home while on the river... me, Sofa, Kelz, Hayley, Hes, M*, Spanna and Bruno

The first few days flew by, with the majority of the time being dedicated to teaching the Nepali girls everything about life on and off the water. Everything on this trip was new to them; most of them could not even swim 2 weeks before the trip, but half way through the Sun Koshi they were fearlessly throwing themselves into rapids that some of the foreign girls even swam on!!!

Inka, Radha and Malin enjoying the beautiful river, outstanding weather and great company

Occasionally there would be a big hole or wave train that was dotted between kilometers of flat water and the Nepali girls wouldn’t even blink an eyelid or even think about portaging. One of the local girls Radha was such a natural kayaker that she surfed out of a massive hole that she got caught in on her 4th ever day on the river.

Radha showing us how to kayak on her 4th day in a boat!!!

They learnt how to read white water, build toilet tents and look after foreign women knocked out with the D&Vs (Diarrhea and Vomiting). They amazed us all with their natural ability, positive attitudes and determination to be the first Nepali women to break into the white water industry… and this is from girls as young as 18 who had never even seen a drybag before!!!

Hessie enjoying an early morning venture to the beautiful toilet tent

And then there were the sicknesses. With a group of 35 people on a multi-day kayaking trip in Nepal with no access to clean water and minimal hygiene standards - we were destined to get sick. It seemed like everyday there was a new casualty who had to be confined to an oar boat as there was no way that they could paddle due to D&Vs, exhaustion, dehydration and the inability to hold down food or water.

It looks innocent and delicous... but its cooked in water that has run through China, Tibet and half of Nepal before it got to us and our bellies... it quickly come out...of both ends...not so cool!!!!!

Then Huckapor rapid loomed upon us. We guessed that this was the first Grade 4 rapid that the Nepali girls had ever seen, due to the expression on their faces when they stood on the bank looking at it!!! Huckapor intimidated more than just the Nepali girls, as only half of the foreign women paddled it, but everyone who chose to paddle the rapid styled it.

Scouting Huckapor

Then there was Dead Mans Eddie which is another big rapid notorious for the accident that gave the rapid its name. It is a long rapid that in higher water could be real knarly but at the flow we had, it was big and fast but super friendly. All the foreign girls jumped in the kayaks and styled it with ease.

Sweet line and good times

With these two rapids out of the way everyone sighed with relief thinking that the hardest rapids on the trip were over… but then Rhino Rock and Jungle Corridor came upon us and hit us hard!!!! Rhino Rock is a really long sustained rapid with massive waves, big holes, and about 5 different runable lines. As we thought the major rapids were over we just boat scouted this rapid - but then the paddle signals changed with almost every paddler who ran the rapid. There were so many lines that you could take but impossible to know which one was best and what feature was in between them. All of the Nepali girls were in the rafts but a few of the foreign women explored some interesting lines and took some good beat-downs along the way. But what a beautiful rapid!!! We all could not believe that it did not have a reputation that preceded it because it was one the classiest rapids on the whole river.

Huckapor rapid

And then there was Jungle Corridor, a section of 5 beautiful big volume rollercoaster rapids which always ended in flat pools and about 20 women smiling from ear to ear and screaming with laughter about how fun that rapid had just been!!! None of the Nepali girls were ready to run a section like Jungle Corridor so they were all on the raft which meant that we able to take off our teaching hats and be let loose on the river!!! Jungle Corridor was definitely a trip highlight, and some of us mulled over the idea of hitching a lift 20km upstream to do it all over again!!!

Team extreme always trying to find a challenge...

Hasellah is always smiling... but this time because she was getting into the boat after the major rapids

And then all too soon we were on the flat water heading to our final destination. The last few days were focused on getting the Nepali girls back on the water to develop their kayaking skills, but before we could say ‘Namaste’, we were at the take-out ready for our 20 hour drive away from the river we had called home for the last 10 days.

When the river opened up and turned into the plains

The Sun Koshi trip may have officially finished, but the river training programme had just started for the Nepali girls as there was still the Peak UK Himalayan White Water Festival to enter, 2 weeks of river rescue, raft and first aid training to start and another kayaking trip on the Seti River with most of Team Kiwi and USA. Emi leading the pack at the get out

The HRG Sun Koshi River trip will be remembered for so many reasons by those fortunate enough to be part of the journey; For the scenery, the local villagers, the generosity of the people and companies that supported the HRG club, the attempted macaroni cheese, the illnesses, the 2 films that are going to be made about it, the flat water, the white water, the yoga, the fact that 30 women were on the river at one time, and that after the trip all the Nepali girls got offered jobs from 5 of Nepal’s leading raft companies… and this is just the tip of the ice berg to why this trip was pure and simply EPIC!!!

Crrrraaaazzzzzzzzzzyyy China!!!

2009-02-03T12:44:00.000+01:00

The Yangshuo area

Seeya later Europe - it was time to hit up Asia... so with a pack filled with various peices of metal designed for rock climbing and a few summer clothes I flew off to China with the aim to work for a company called China Climb, and do as much climbing as humanly possible in the 3 months that I would be there!!!

Tommy, Cambodge and Me cruising down the Li River with our students

I arrived in Yangshuo (Sout East China) and was immediately blown away by the scenary - The Guilin are is surrounded by over 70,000 limestone karsts that were once upon time under water before the Himalyas were formed, and now they are 12 hours inland from the coast and are absolutely breath taking... plus they are the reason that climbers from all around the world are starting to flock to Yangshuo every year - to climb these beautiful limestone rockfaces!!!!

Anton and me at the top of Thumb Mountain - a 5 pitch called called Paparazzi Pete

ChinaClimb was a pretty random but extrememly fun company to work for. Whether you wanted to be a full time climber, Outdoor Education instructor or a logistics coordinator - you could... the options were all there for you and your job title didn't really matter!!!! I tried to give all the work options ago but that meant that I climbed alot less than I thought I would, but that wasn't too bad as I was loving running my own programmes and getting a grasp on organising week long activity based trips for up to 80 students, in a country where I couldn't speak the language!!!

Matt loving his job

Abond loving his job

It was a sweet place to get stoked about sport climbing, as it boosted hundreds of wold class-routes on various crags in the area... you were never spoiled for choice and they were all so close to town!!!!!!!!!!!

The ChinaClimb crew out at the crag one day

Ohhhhhhh the climbing....

Joel doing what he does best at Riverside

all sport...Seb over looking the crowds that watched climb for 2 hours straight (during October Week-like Christmas for the Chinese) on Thumb Mountain

Mostly all single pitch routes, but with some mutli pitch as well...

Me coming up 'Paparazzi Pete' after Seb - on of the few multi pitches in the area

all well within 20 minutes bike ride of town..,Seb after a successful arrival at 'The Egg' on the mighty tandem bikes

and all super fun!!!!!!!!! We all just loved it!

Then there wrere the parties... ChinaClimb boostest the best parties in all of Yangshuo and I definitely believe it!!!! The bathroom and underwear parties were some of the the most bizzarze and fantastic nights ever!!!!!!

Here's my boss Scottie; leading the charge at the underwear party

Margot and Matt letting loose at the bathroom party

DJ Anton mixing the beats at the bathroom party

It was paradise for sure!!!! But there were many other activities to endulge as wll as climbing and partying...

Love this shot and all the dudes in it - Anton, Ian the Hoff, and Cambodge getting amoungst at the Babyfrog swimming hole

Like swimming, eating all the yummy local food, biking (tandem especially), camping, trekking, having birthday cake fights, kayaking, chicken feet eating, caving, bamboo rafting and many more classic Chinese Iconic activites that everyone just loved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biking to the swimming hole on an extremely hot day

First and only time I ever saw a Chinese man working the paddy fields

The sights while trekking through the infamous rice terraces in the Longsheng area

This guy is the man!!! It was like an optical illusion watching him create our breakfast using only his fingers to separate the dough into noodles in a matter of a few seconds!!!!

Safety first!!!! Most ridiculous shoes ever

Here I am admiring my beautiful birthday cake compliments of ChinaClimb....

Then here I am 2 seconds later with my new boss, after learning the ancient tradtion of ChinaClimb birthday cake fights

Here's Seb on his birthday

Rice anyone???

3 months in China was definitely an experience for me... epecially the sights that I saw everyday... like walking to work everyday past markets which proudly desplayed roasted pigs ear and tounge as a breakfast treat for hungry shoppers. And then there would a visual feast of thousands of red chillies drying on the pavement, plus many other random sights and smells on the way down the road. And that was just the tame stuff... if you wanted a cut in half blow torched dog then that was available just down the road opposite the pigs testes, the hamsters and the hundreds of dead chickens!!!!! eeewwwwww

One of the more visually appealing sites on the way to work

And one of the not so appealing sites...
I saw this while leading a group of students in the Longshen area... they were pretty grossed out and noone ate bacon the next morning!!!

It was a crazy time but one I will never forget - China is just one of those places!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So interesting, a real eye opener, amazing yet straight up gross some times. I would 100% recommend it to anyone and I am definitely going back!!!!!!! China Rocks!!!! (get it...rocks??!!!)

Classey Chickeeees Climbin' in Croatia

2008-10-02T11:19:00.000+02:00

...The next thing that I know is Im in Croatia with Emi getting stoked about our next mission... to hitch hike through, camp in and climb up the most spectucular rock faces and places that Croatia has to offer over... and we were not dissapointed by Croatia and everything that it had to offer!!!... Heres the low down...

Stoked on life and being in Hvar Island - Day 1 of our mish

The locals are so friendly that hitch hiking was a BREEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!!!! With 15 hitches and an average of 12 minute waiting times... we were stoked!!!! Putting our thumbs out and bumming rides got us across Hvar Island 3x, with so many hours worth of driving on the mainland and even into 3 different countries!!!! We were picked up on deserted roads, dodgy tunnel entrances, motor ways and even in campgrounds by nationalities as varied as Italians, Austrians, Croatians, Germans, English and even Bosnians. Our gratitude is unlimited to these people who truely hooked us up and made our trip even more of a crack up than usual.

Classic moments hitch hiking.. and yes the yellow dress literally stopped traffic... best hitch hiking tool ever!!!

Stunning place #1: Cliffbase on Hvar Island:

A climbers paradise; with over 100 bolted routes, a 200m long Deep water Soloing Traverse, crystal clear ocean lapping just metres from your belayers feet and the best part is that the crag is only accessible to climbers and to those who have prebooked, so that way there are never too many people at the crag... plus the weather is so nice, the price is right and the living is just too easy!!!! Nude sunbathing, Deep water soloing and drinking the local wine (which is the most presigious in all of Croatia) is a must.

Cliff base... where we stayed right beside the climbing and the beach!

Due to the heat and the relaxed attitude of all the people climbing at cliffbase, it became natural to climb in our bikini tops rather than covering up... something I had never comtemplated in NZ or anywhere else actually. We were initially inspired by a 50 year old mother of two climbing in just her bikini and harness. What a legend... it is such a liberating feeling to climb in minimal clothes and know that noone around you cares because they are all doing the same thing.

The beautiful private beach and DWS boulders at Cliffbase, Hvar Island

Then there was the climbing... from slabby faces to steep juggy climbs to 2oom of Deep Water Soloing, any climber could be satisfied with the amount of climbing available to be tackled!!!! And if your extremely keen, then climbing in the midday heat can still be braved if a swim is enjoyed between each climb!!! However if your there for over a week then the intense Croatian sun can be enjoyed while sunbathing or swimming in many of the beautiful beaches that Cliffbase has sole and private access too.

Top of a climb... in my bikini... loving the vibe and the view

The mighty tombstone

Emi and a new English mate having way too much fun belaying

Yeap... thats how close the beach is to the climbing... so nice!!!!

Im belaying Emi while she charges up a mean 6A+ on Tombstone

Stunning place #2 - Paklenica National Park:
Then after sunny days climbing by the beach, Me and Emi starting dreaming of multi pitches... so we got a our thumb-out and our hitch-on and headed off for Paklenica National Park - a mecca for easy-medium mutli pitch routes in a super chilled village a few hours North of Zadar. When we arrived we found a sleepy town, a good wine bar and a mint place to stay called Camping Marco. We were naturally pretty stoked as we were based at the entrance of the road that accessed the park.. so we could even hitch home after a big day on the rock!!!

Emi's turn to be stoked on life due to being at Paklenica National Park - Day 1

We were so stoked with the climbing there... so many mutli pitch routes plus hundreds of single pitch classic climbs that made us sweat, smile, laugh, swear and cry all within the same day!!!

Emi took this photo from the top of the 2nd pitch at me on the top of the 1st. This was a classic 5 pitch climb with the last 2 pitches being MEGA RUN OUT!!!!!

This place was so amazing and the people were extra friendly. An Austrian couple even offered us a road from Paklenica right up into Slovenia to were we wanted to go next. This was such a sweet ride to score and so we cruised in style in a wickedly old BMW that was still sporting a tape deck all the way into beautiful Slovenia.

Super rad place!!!

Stunning place #3 - Bled, Slovenia
So we arrived in Bled and were immediately blow away by the pure natural beauty of this place. With stunning lakes, beautiful mountians, crystal clear rivers and not a whiff of polution in the air... both me and Emi felt at home in this place immediately.

Dinner on the lake... gerk's, cheese, crackers and tuna anyone???

We ate lunch by the lake and then decided that this was a place that we HAD TO VISIT AGAIN!!!!!!! We are definitely coming back with boats and a crew of paddlers because the rivers here are reputed to be the most stunning white water in all of Europe. Some people call Slovenia the NZ of Europe... that just made us feel even more at home here.

This place has it all... climbing, biking, kayaking, rafting, skiing and mountaineering... plus a small population and the price is relatively cheaper than its neighbouring countries to the West.

For one day on this trip we traded in being team extreme and turned into team chilled and tanned, as we laxed out on this beach for the arvo before hitching to Austria

We planned to go climbing in Slovenia but it just didn't work out, so instead we vowed to come back on another trip and climb then, and then went walking around some beautiful areas to check out the local natural areas.
One morning we started walking by a beauty lake and just kept on walking for a couple hours, we got to an area where a beautiful waterfall was being advertised so we went to check it out... but then we found out that we had that we had to pay... as tight-as kiwis we couldnt imagine having to pay to see a natural resource like a waterfall... so I got my barganing skills rocking and scored us entry to the park on childrens tickets. This was hilarious and it made me realise what a cheap-skate I am. (Emi still hassles me about this over 6 months later)

We regretably left Slovenia after a very short 2 days but for the country that both Emi and I had spent winter seasons in... the European country that we both probably love the most... AUSTRIA!!!! We went and hung out with Marco (dude who came on the Morocco mish with us in April) at his dads house which we dubbed 'the hotel' as it was soooo nice in comparision to the mighty tent decked out with one sleeping bag and no sleeping mat that me and Emi had been sharing. Plus we were treated like VIPs with a non stop flow of coffee and special bakery runs being made for us every morning by Marco's parents.

The exquisite Austrian meal that the boys cooked for us using the wild mushrooms we had picked that day

In the one weekend that we were there we squeezed in a HUGE night out on the booze, went bouldering, climbing, slack lining at the lake, wild mushroom picking, rode the Alpine-Coaster that Marco helped build that summer, and also did a 9 pitch climb on the mighty Dachstein. WHAT A SUPREME WEEKEND!!!!

This is one awesome climb at the boys local crag in Austria - I absolutely loved the first part but then went way too far left by mistake and had to come down, so it was Seb to the rescue!!! TOFT!!!

One our way up the Darchstein to our 9 pitch climb. Bluebird day. Great crew. Fun times ahead.

Not all Austrians are hard core!!!!!

Mickey showing us how to enjoy your day at the crag after a massive bender 2 nights before!

Team cool-kiwi trying to prove our extremeness to the hardcore Austrians... they didn't take us very seriously though

Me and Emi with our stash of mushrooms that we picked... pity they were all poisonous and we couldn't use them!

Marco and Huffy watching Emi rip it up

And then unfortunately my time was up and I had a flight scheduled from Munich to China that I had to catch. Which meant that I had to say goodbye to Emi and the lendary Austrian crew... and also Europe. It was such a great 1 1/2 years that I spent in Europe - I loved its diversity... from coming from such an isolated place like NZ I was truly blown away by the ease at which one could travel throughout multiple countries with totally different cultures, lifestyles and languages in a single day.

My trip to this continent is one that I will never forget... especially the amazing people that I met along the way. I don't know if you all know how positively you changed my life. Without Diego and Angi I would have been in NZ in August 2007-over a year ago. So thank you very much.

Final European Shananogins

2008-08-29T14:37:00.000+02:00

Ready for the fastest ever break down of 4 months tripping around Europe??? Well here it is... my best attempt to summerise my experience in Europe after my Morocco trip... without losing the true essence of what it was really like... (and that was absolutely amazing)...

My Home in Haiming (Austria) at the Fankhauser Rafting Alm

Straight after leaving Morocco I went to meet my friend Angi in Tirol, Austria but I arrived at 10pm that night to find out that she was 300km away and I had nowhere to stay that night... so I plucked up the courage and randomly called up the father of another Austrian girl that I'd met twice last summer in Italy and Austria to ask if I could stay there the night... one month later I left Han's house with a heart filled with love for Austrians, a strong connection with the rivers, mountains and land in that beautiful province Tirol, a pocket full of cash and a months experience working for his rafting company. WHAT A DUDE!!!!!!! He had totally hooked me up when I needed it the most and I will forever be in his debt... he is without a doubt the biggest yarner I've ever met and I think he just liked me because I was the only person who would listen to his MASSIVE rants.

Another day at the office... the Inn River in beautiful high water

...then I went back to Assisi, Italy were I worked last sumer for a kiwi company called 'Full On' and so for 2 months I got paid to provide American students with opportunites to improve the quality of their lives. Very cool work. Very rad people. Excellent weather. Amazing coffee, pizza and gelato... And did I mention amazing people???? Some of the best crew I've ever met, let along worked with, and I truely hope that my path crosses over and over and over again with these great peeps!!!!!!!!

Again hard at work... Our very serious mentor meeting...

It is honeslty really hard to be negative when your constantly around such positive and inspiring people. It makes work so much fun as well... I can't even begin to describe how great work was with this group of incredible awesome and positive people!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Medievel dressup night which was so crazy!!! We even ate dinner in Rocca Maggiore... a 900 year old castle

The parties were hilarious and we dressed up alot... we weren't even drinking in half of these crazy photos... just having a great time with great people and enjoying the great situation that we were all lucky enough to be part of. GREAT!!!

Maxx, Mary, Dano, me and Bobby doing our best to keep Sara awake

Cheers to everyone who was part of that crew... especially my flatties the B7 Bellas... love you all so much.

Sara, Mary the Maori, me and Paularenee... the B7 bellas for 2008

And then worked finished!!!! So naturally I moved into a trailor with slashed tyres in a camping ground. It was all class!!!!! Me, Sutto, Sara, Dicko, T-bone, Sandy, Jono and Emily all stayed there and had so much fun!!!! Mafia games night, sleeping under the stars together and pool missions by day... we loved our final week in Assisi, and I stayed there until every single Full On employee had left...that was the hard part.

Trailor trash forever!!!!

But then it was off to the Dolomites for Via Ferrata with Sutto, Paulo and Martino. With Paulo's car stacked to the brim, we set off for a night at the 'sea-side', fun time's in Arco and then straight on to Cortina for the via ferrata and the real adventures to begin. What a great trip. Paulo used to own a restaurant and Martin is an ex-chef so we ate the best food that I'd ever eaten constantly for a week straight. It was amazing. oh yeah and the via ferrata was pretty dam cool too!!!!!!

We became big fans of jump shots and heads up/heads down games

Creeping over the edge of one of Cortina's/Italian Dolomites finest via ferrata

Laura Sutto perfecting 'the stork' on the summit of a 1000m via ferrata peak

Vino Rosso placed strategically at the bottom of a Via Ferrata always ensures happy Laura's

And that was the end of my Italian and Austrian shananogins... well for 2008 anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Off to Croatia and Eastern Europe next...

Morocco Madness

2008-06-19T15:56:00.000+02:00

After living in Austrian knee deep powder for a few months, I figured it was time to go an explore another part of Africa away from the snow... Morocco was the destination and it did not dissapoint. I absolutely loved it!!!! Probably my favourite country to date as I had such amazing time with Emi (legend that I went to Polytech with) and Marco (Emis mate from Austria), plus the landscape is so incredible there, the rock climbing is unbelievably good, the surf is premo, the Sahara is the friggin SAHARA so that was naturally pretty awesome, climbing Mt Toubkal was a mission that I will never forget and Marrakesh city was just crazy!!!!!!!!!

Camel trekking in the mighty Sahara Desert was pretty cool

And staying right on the beach in Immsoune with my new found buddy Momo was pretty meen too!!!

Not to mention the food!!! So good. This is Tagine - a Berber favourite

The locals were cheeky as but dam funny... I did not want to get henna, but within a second of telling me that I had beautiful eyes and giving me a brochure to look at... I had Henna all over my hand and no idea how she did it that fast!!!

After being invited to dinner with a local carpet maker we were quite surprised to find ourselves wearing traditional Berber outfits within the hour of walking in the door...

The beach side town of Immsoune was so beautiful that I seriously considered buying land there and starting my own Riad. Heres a 6 year old girl collecting seawater to flush the toilet in her home- yes the pink house built into the rock!!!
Emi 'the legend' Earle absolutely knackered half way up Day 1 of our attempt to summit Mt Toubkal; North Africas highest mountain. She came down with a random and violent spat of food poisoning which resulted in Emi not eing able to get past base camp... and therefore get looked after by a overly friendly local dude called Mohammed... he fed her Cumin-broth, rubbed her stomach and face too much, and cried over and over again "oh my mineee, and my mineee"... poor girl had to endure this and be sick at the same time!!!! I dont know which one would be worse!!!

At 4200m I was pretty stoked to be on the summit of Mt Toubkal

Me and Emi so stoked and proving it!!! We loved every moment of this rad trip!!!! well... except for the food poisioning, the robberies and the day long bus rides!!!!

Emi with the Atlas Mountains in the background... on our decent of Mt Toubkal when Emi could walk again! (such a stubbornly awesome, self motivated, strong kiwi girl... tu meki!!!)

Check out the climbers paradise in the background... A wicked as tent filled with African drums, beds, tea pots, and with a mean swimming-hole right infront of it... and the best thing is that its situated right in the middle of various climbing crags... such a cool place to hang out when it got too hot to climb!

Emi and I looking as authentic as possible after being dressed by a local dude who is a carpet maker for half the year then a nomad who lives in the desert for the other half of the year. As well as being able to transform a couple kiwi chicks into Berber woman... he can cook up a mean Chicken Tagine too!!! Cheers Mohammed!

The only way to cool down after climbing in the intense Moroccan sun... Heres Marco freezing in the snowmelt-filled river and Emi melting in the hot Morocco sun trying hard not to fall off!!!

The water's chilly, the sun is burning hot, the rock in the background is all climbable and the chickiebabe blowing the kiss couldn't be happier!!!!

Marrakesh is one out-of-it city!!!! Mule-drawn carts everywhere, salesmen galore, alot of sugar filled green tea, orange stalls for miles, incredible night markets, and heaps of cheap goods to buy everywhere you look!!!

Our awesome climbing guidebook that consisted of very accurate, draw to scale maps of all the climbing routes around Todra Gorge!!! (and the sad thing was that it cost $50 kiwi dollars!!)

Todra Gorge is enormous!!!

The local berber women are absolute legends!!!! We saw them every morning on our walk to the crag

Team Xtreme Morocco styles... Nora, Mohammed and Mineeee

Marco and I starting on the Day 1 flats heading towards Mt Toubkal

This trip was so incredible, I absolutely loved it. Even though Emi had $600 pounds stolen from her bag and was sick as a dog for the last few days in Morocco and then a couple weeks after leaving, and I had $100 Euro stolen, plus my luggage was lost on the flight over there from Spain, and Marco couldn't understand us most of the time as we were speaking "cool kiwi" not English... the trip was amazing. You can surf, climb rocks, endure day long bus rides, summit snow covered mountains, ride camels through the Sahara, be hussled in the Marrakesh markets, eat the most delicious food, sleep on rooftops and be painted in Hennah to your hearts content... and thats what we did, and I recommend it to anyone!!!

European White Gold

2008-06-19T14:48:00.000+02:00

St Anton... one of the biggest and best (in my opinion) skiing resorts in Europe, and I was lucky enough to spend a quality few months there at the end of the European winter.

What an amazing place... with almost 500km of ONPISTE skiing terrain and easily 5 times that amount of offpiste awesome, steep, deep, powder skiing, plus the most craziest apris skiing atmosphere that I have ever witnesses... it was guaranteed to be a great season... AND THEN THE SNOW CAME AND DIDNT STOP!!!!!!!! Freshies everyday, powpow galore and still finding fresh tracks at 4.30pm most days!!! Incredible. So incredible that I didnt ever want to stop and take photos... so heres a couple but it is literally the only ones I took in 3 months!!!!

The view from my bedroom window... pretty exciting when it dumps that much every night for a solid month!!!! It also makes an interesting walk down the hill to work too.

Any kiwi can appreciate my houses name!!!! Go House Pies!!!!! It also backed onto the slopes, and was a mere 100metres from Mooserwert!!!

MOOSERWERT!!!!! The craziest bar you'l ever see. Its only open from 2-9pm, then youve got to ski home in the dark after too many beers, schnapps and shots!!! Everyone is wearing ski boots and dancing on the tables, goggle tans are compulsary, they serve shots-on-tap, and if your wearing a transeiver then your pretty much the coolest person ever... and if your European then the one piece super tight ski outfits are the hottest thing on the planet!!!!! (This photo was taken at 4.30 pm one Wednesday afternoon).
This photo tries to capture the sheer size of terrain available for skiers in St Anton... real nice!!!

And this is just too funny... the new-school snowman that guests left for us at the hotel I was working in.

The season was fantastic and I was soooo stoked to land a job there as it was made up of mainly English tourists so I didnt have to learn German very quickly!!! Cool town with amazing skiing, an awesome vibe that just never stops, and a ratio of 10 guys to every girl (Hence the nick name St MAnton) therefore resulting in free drinks for the season. Good times

Euro trip - by Team Clayton

2008-03-09T19:32:00.000+01:00

On the 29th of January I fairwelled Uganda after spending 3 incredible months there, and flew out of that beautiful continent to my next and perhaps biggest adventure yet... a month travelling around Switzerland, France and Italy with my parents!!!!!

Mum, dad and me chilling at a skifield somewhere in Europe, loving the bluebird day and the beers!!!!!!

So I flew into Geneva airport and found Big Mumma C (Bronnie Clayton my amazing mum) waiting for me. It was great to catch up with her for the first time in 8 months. We had a week before Petersauraus Rex (dad - Peter) flew over to join us, so me and mum jetted between France and Switzerland daily to go and eat good cheese, drink good wine, go shopping, do some extreme cross country skiing, and hang out in the nicest wellness centres in the world!!!

Mum having a brief stop while X-country skiing out of Charmey, Switzerland

What else do you do in Geneva?

The action started when Big Pete turned up, as we started travelling and skiing and travelling and skiing and skiing and skiing and doing abit of toursity things in between. It was great fun.

Dad loving another day on the hill, in the sun with his favourite ladies!!!

Rando old dudes playing chess very very seriously in the middle of Geneva

Trying to teach dad how to "blue steel" into the distance... quite funny

We started by exploring a few local French ski resorts which were incredibly impressive... especially the size of skiable terrain and the beautiful weather!!!! The snow was fine, but it didnt snow the whole month we were there - just continued with beautiful bluebird day after beautiful bluebird day!!!!!!! No complaints... it was amazing.

Geez cut it out kids... we're here to ski!!!!

Then we ventured on an awesome roadtrip through Switzerland, Italy and France basically circumnavigating the Matterhorn (biggest mountain in Europe) and skiing all around it. We started in Geneva and then went through Switzerland, via Charmey where I had a malaria and Scarlett fever scare but it just turned out to be Strep throat-which was good but still dumb to be in bed on antibiotics when I just wanted to go skiing!!!

Going on day missions because I was sick, and then almost overheating the car... was sweet tho because mum went adenturing and tested her French language skills out on some locals and they gave her water filled vino bottles to sort out the car!!!! Legends!!!

Then we moved onto Interlaken, where we went sledding which I would recommend to ANYONE!!! Seriously they had a purpose built sledding track and it was STEEP!!!! I swear I barely go that fast on my skis let alone sitting on a plastic sled with no brakes and no steering other than your feet!!! Man it was hilarious!!!!

Pete the speed demon on his sled

Dad leading the chance while sledding in Interlaken, Switzerland

Me and Mumma stoked by the Interlaken sunset, after another amazing day

Then we moved around the Matterhorn to the Italian side and hung out in Lake Maggiore for a while. One day we started skiing in Italy and then dropped over to the Swiss side and back throughout the day. We caught a ski lift (that holds 100 ppl at a time) that took us higher than Mt Cook!!!! Then we got to ski for 19kms downhill completely by OURSELVES back to Italy. Absolute highlight and probably the best skiing experience of my life!!!

Mum leading the charge on our solo 19km run!!!

Dad, me and mum plus half of the Matterhorn behind us... dont trust tourists to take photos of you and inportant landmarks!!!

The Italian couple that hosted us (and only us in their whole B&B)... and one of the mean feeds that they cooked us!! YUM!!!

On our journey we tried not to ski everyday so we could still check out the places that we were visiting. We saw some very interesting and incredible places and saw some random things!! Like these...

A weird and freaky museaum we went to in Switzerland... weird stuff - this picture is the tame stuff... and it had an Adults Only section - I was too scared to go in!!! Strangest exhibition I have EVER seen

Mum chilling with the dude who founded the Red Cross

1 of 20 rows of cheese... the Swiss know how to do it!!!

Also on our last day together dad decided that he wanted to go flying... so we did. The coolest thing is that mum didn't think she would do it, but we got there and (the legend) went first!!! Big ups to Bronnie!!! Whatta superstar!!! It was the best day of the season appartently so the skies were filled with at least 60 other pilots flying around for at least 1 hour each... it was crazy!!! I thought we were going to crash into so many people all the time, but it was all good.

Dad getting ready to take off... after mum was the prope and went first followed by me then dad

Our perfect day flying over Lake Annacey in France... with 60 other gliders

It was such a great trip and I loved hanging out with mum and dad so much - its the longest that we have probably ever hung out... (a month straight with only one day apart) but it was fantastic. We saw some beautiful places, experienced some awesome times and skied some amazing snow together. I would go on holiday again in a second with Pete and Bron cos they are absolute legends and I love them so so much!!!!!

Cheers to Pete for sponsoring the trip... I hadn't eaten that good in months/years and I haven't since youve left as well!!!!! Cheers daddio and mummamia

T.I.A... This Is Africa

2007-12-09T14:28:00.000+01:00

Uganda... I loved it.

Me, Anna, Sofa and Joe going Rhino watching

Words alone cannot describe how incredible this place is!!!

Leela, Ben, me and Joe loving the spray from Murchison Falls

The people are amazing...

Local dude earning a buck carrying our boats from the take-out to our matatu (van)

The food is delicious...

Lunch stop near Masindi... where our love for Mango chutney all started

The size and abundance of wildlife is beyond comprehension...

Me and the Rhino chilling

Just a small group of Giraffes that we saw on safari

Our safari to Murchison Falls was amazing...

The campsite we shared with the Hippos on the 'Delta' at Murch Falls National Park

Nile Festival was the best kayaking event I have ever seen (and entered)...

Nile Fest competitors after the prize giving

Sam defying gravity with a massiff Airscrew on 'Nile Special' wave during the BigAir comp

The girls absolutely stoked after finishing the SilverBack Boda Boda Xtreme Race

The rapids are scarily big but relatively friendly...

Me about to get swallowed on the right line of Bujagali Falls

and the play waves can take you from zero to hero in seconds...

Sofa (always the hero, never zero) about to fly down 'Nile Special'

And the partying is out of this world!!!!!!!!!!!

A impromtu dance video starring Sofa, Hessie, Joe and myself with off-topic commentary from B and Machineeeee, and backup drinkers Jenny, Benny Hucko, Leela and Will... NRE BAR after our day bender at the Adrift pool...

If pictures say a thousand words then feast your eyes out on these because I actually can not verbalise how awesome this place really is...

The girls stoked at the top of Murch Falls

The road to the Rhinos was like this for 4 hours

7 of 11 kiwis... the majority of the crew loving the African sunset

Local kids mesmerised by the kayakers during the Big Air Comp

Boda boda rides into Jinja... Ben and Jenny speeding ahead

Cool as local kids playing at their pre-school (Sponsored school for orphans)

Anton proving his Zappa intensified gymnastic skills... just another ordinary night at NRE bar

Joe with the stoked naked locals

My cool as braids (that cost $20)

Chilling out at the Hairy Lemon (tiny little awesome Island on the Nile River) playing volleyball

Little Ugandan Gromms lovin playing in our boats

Our massiff Christmas tree

Me flying over the last raft on the assult course during the SilverBack Xtreme Race

Yoga sessions in the morning with team kiwi

Chilling out at the Adrift pool/bat

Christmas at Hairy Lemon Island... chilling with everyone at the Jaquzzi swimming hole

Bringing in the New Year at Sipi Falls; Soph, Brendan, Ben and Me

I had such a great time in Uganda kayaking lots, but also celebrating Christmas at 'Hairy Lemon Island' and bringing in the New Year at Sipi Falls, so I decided to extend my ticket to stay here even longer... so I spent another month at Bujagali Falls kayaking abit, resting injuries alot and volunteering for Soft Power Health. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made, but it made it soooooooooooooo much harder to leave!!! Loved those 3 months... cheers to everyone there... love you guys!!!

Im a vegetarian!!!

2007-12-09T13:59:00.000+01:00

Due to my current lifestyle of travelling ALOT (over 100 hours of flying time this year alone) I have decided to try and decrease my ecological footprint by becoming a vegetarian!!!

It is definitely not going to be an easy task for me but Im going to attempt it because at the moment Im using at least 8 worlds to support my lifestyle which really isn't cool.
So Im saying seeya-later to the farm girl in me, mums butterflied lamb, bacon and eggs for breakie and a good old rare steak and exchanging them for bigger and better things... vegies!!!!!

The delicious smelling Swiss BBQ that I had to endure on my 2nd day as a vego!!

So far Im loving not eating meat and I am not even finding it hard because all the countries that I have visited recently have had amazing vegetarian dishes that Ive fallen in love with!!! Spainish tapas, Swiss chocolates, Italian fungi pizzas, Ugandan Chapatis... just to name a few!!!

I definitely think that NZ will be the hardest country to keep away from the animals, so thats lucky that Im not going back there for a while!!!

If anyone is unsure what an ecological footprint is, or is curious to find out what yours is... then google it and do the quiz... then take the next step and actively change something in your lifestyle if your not happy with the result!!! We only have 1 planet so do your bit!

Huckin it westwards across Euro

2007-11-02T12:21:00.000+01:00

With beautiful Tirol in the background I headed West across Europe to begin the next leg of my trip... filled with touristy stuff and partying... heres the highlights and lowlights of Monaco, France, Spain and London...

Monaco:

Me and Helz hanging outside the mighty Monaco Casino

Hung out with Helz in Monaco for a week, mingled with the rich and not-even-famous, ran amuck while fabulously drunk on Helens birthday and got pampered by Helens dads maid for the week.

Before the Rose wine started flowing on Helens Bday

Tried to sneak onto a train in Montpellier (France) but got caught by butch French officials who didn't speak much English, but after claiming ignorance and poverty I luckily got let off (thrown off).

Then I got abit lost, but was saved by Therese a German girl living in France who spoke to me in English... she offered to help me with directions but when she did not know where my hostel was... offered her house as a place to crash instead!!! So before asking my name or saying hers we were walking to her place where I stayed for the next 2 nights!! She gave me her keys and left me in her place while she went to work. Super nice generous girl. And she knows Emi Earles older bro John - random!!!! Thanks Therese your a legend!!

Yum French chocolates and treats

Just being cheeky again I realised that my train ticket from Monaco to Montpellier ($60 Euros) had actually been issued for the day ahead (by mistake) so when I got to the station the next day I got my cash back from the ticket... and accredited on to the next leg of my journey!!! Sneaky, cheeky and on a budget!!

Just another crazy Barcelona art piece (thats 40m high)

ESPANA: Barcelona
-Craziest buskers ever on La Rambla (the main road)
-Parenta Familia and other amazing churches and architecture around the city
-Biking around the city, free coffee, eating baked beans in burritos

Yeap that is actually a dude upside down, under a table, dressed in white... asking for money

Madrid
-Arrive at 8.30pm with no accommodation booked, Friday night, still super busy, getting abit worried after 3 places said no room, randomly found a hostel and the owner slept on the couch so I could have a bed!!
-Great tapas!!!!

This lady stayed covered in mud for hours on end in the middle of the Spainish Summer heat... didn't move a muscle!

-"Tomorrow is tomorrow" - the owners favourite saying so that you could not pay in advance for a bed, had book in and pay every single day.

London Highlights:

The trusty tube

-Yummest Indian food ever in Bricklane, followed by salsa dancing in a Brazilian bar with Flo, Libby and some Brazilian dudes

-Ellies illegal residence on top of a construction site. 8 rooms, shower and bathroom BLOCK, livingroom the size of a tennis court, have to sign in and out during business hours to the construction workers for 'safety'
-Homemade curry by Flos dad

-£4 pizzas

-Watching Capaeira - a form of maritial art/dancing created by the brazilian slaves hundreds of years ago - very similar to break dancing but more traditional
-Catching up with Flo, Ellie, Dave, Holz, Fran, Moody and Libby

Then it was back to Monaco to hang out with Helz again before flying out to Uganda... where the real fun begins!!!!!!

4 month holiday starting now!!! Austria & Swizterland

2007-10-20T15:49:00.000+02:00

Now that I have finished working I have officially got 4 months off work that I can completly dedicate to travelling through Europe and kayaking in Uganda.

The first stop is South-Tirol, on the boarder of Austria and Italy...this area is phenominally beautiful and a winter paradise with some of the best skiing in Europe. Its also pretty crazy because the people don't consider themselves Italians or Germans...they speak their own language (Ladina) and have strong traditions and customs that are stricty abide to, to keep their Tirolian mana strong.

I stayed with my buddy Miu Miu for almost a week, walked everywhere possible around the area, ate great traditional Tirol food and got asked if I was a German way too often!!

The Oetz River were the comp was supposed to be held

Then it was off to the Adidas Sickline Kayaking Xtreme Race in Tirol, Austria which was promising to be an awesome event but mother nature decided against it and poured down with rain non stop so the race had to be cancelled due to high river flows. Such a shame cos it would have been real good but no worries, they kept the party going and that was a pretty mad night even without the race being held-Austrians and kayakers know how to party!!

Angi and Sophie the legends at the after-party!!!!

Randomly met up with some real cool Tirolians (Ben, Sophie and Angi) that I had met on the side of the canyon way back in Italy a month before hand. Then 1 hour later I was going rafting with them, then at their place drinking beers, then getting offered a rafting job for next summer, staying with them, then going to Switzerland the next day with Sophies friend Peter for the next 3 days!!!! I love these guys and I cant wait to come back to Tirol and hang out with them all next year!!!! Great people

Mountain biking in Switzerland, loving the colours of autumn and the great riding

Peter and Shifa at the get out of some section on the Inn River just out of the Swiss boarder.
(Shifa is a Swiss chocolate maker and fattened me up the whole week on the best chocs Ive ever tasted in my whole life!!!!!!)

Then it was back to Tirol to celebrate the girls successful Rafting Assessment, do more kayaking, celebrate Birgits birthday in Innsbruck.... and then go skiing the next day!!!!!

I love Tirol... theres not many places you can go boating one day, and snowboarding the next without having to travel very far. The Kaunertaler Glacier was real nice and they put up a great opening weekend!!! The field was nicely coated with some beauiful snow - especially for mid October!! It was an absolute bluebird day on the hill and me and Angi had a great time!!!!!! Im so excited about the Tirolian winter now, the only dumb part will be adjusting to the climate after the Uganda heat!!

Lago di Garda...the real Italain experience

2007-10-20T12:53:00.000+02:00

Who would have guessed that Diego Depretto the crazy Italian guy who comes to Murch every summer, who sold me my first kayak in 2003... would end up employeeing me at his Canoyoning Company in Northern Italy 4 years later. Random story yes...but thats the best thing about travelling...the people, the places and the subsequent stories!!!

Me in my office, in the Valle de Ledro (Ledro Valley) working hard as usual

So 1 day after finishing work in Assisi I hightailed it up to Lake Garda and found myself with Diego and his extremely pregnant girlfriend Slyvia. They live in a beautiful place called Arco which is filled with some of the best sport climbing in world (Diego bolted 400m high routes decades ago which still are maintained by the council today), theres a huge mountain biking scene, a wicked lake which is world famous for windsurfing and sailing, walking tracks everywhere, top class via ferrata routes as well as only being 2 hours from the Austrian boarder which is overloaded with great skifields and rivers to paddle!!!!

View of Riva del Garda, Lago di Garda and Arco from Cima Capi (a famous Via Ferrata route)

The plan was for me, Slyvia and Mui Mui (my flattie - her real name is Alexia) to share 2 jobs while Slyvia got ready for 'MariSol' (their baby) to arrive. However MariSol popped out only 3 days after I arrived - 6 weeks premature and absolutely tiny as she weighed in at only 2.6kg. I got to see a 3hr old baby who was half the size of a 'normal' baby...yeap I got clucky as hell!!! Anyone who says that newborns are ugly abvioulsy haven't seen an Italian baby with blue eyes!!!!

Me and MariSol, showing off all the Canyoning Adventures merchandise

As it was high season and Slyvia was busy playing mumma me and Miu Miu worked hard non stop til the high season finished. I consequetiely worked 32 days in a row with only 2 1/2 days off. Pretty hard core as they were 12 hour days too...but not really...check out my typical day

7.30am Arrive at the 'magazina - Italian for workshop or office', make tea and pack the van

8am Pick up clients, drive 40mins to the Canyon

9.30am Give them all the equipment and send them on their merry way

10-11am SEISTA

11am Drive the shuttles to the middle or bottom of the canyon

11.30am SEISTA

12pm Pick up the clients, get all the equipment and drive back

1pm Have a BEAUTIFUL authentic Italian lunch made by Slyvia

1.30-2pm SEISTA

...then repeat the process for the afternoon tour

7pm Finish for the day then go home or out to dinner for another wicked Italian pasta or pizza, eat some gelato, drink some coffee then go to bed.....sswwwweeeeeeet!!

Me, Inz, Josh and Mel loving the Margaritta pizza!!! mmmm

This experience was great but it reminded me of the "Puteri Mahsuri' (the sailing ship I lived and worked on for 3 months in Malaysia last year, see older posts for details) because once again I was faced with crazily difficult communication barriers again.

While I was in Assisi I was with 40 kiwis so there was no pressure or urgency to learn Italian, but as soon as I got to Arco...I realsied pretty quickly that had drastically changed. All the Canyoning staff, clients and locals were Italians and the only time they spoke English was when they were talking to me.

So after 2 week in Arco, my Italian was 20 times better than 2 months in Assisi. Which was great but definitely not good enough. Classic times and great challenges which I absolutely loved, however it was so amazing when I started getting heaps of kiwi visiters so I could talk in English at a typical NZ pace.

Half of the 'Bakers dozen' - the team of 12 kiwis and 1 aussie who travelled together after Assisi...crazy!!!!!! They were my first contact with native English speakers since arriving in Arco...I was stoked!!!

When the work load started to slow down, and mates from Assisi same visiting I actually got to go playing in this beautiful outdoorsy paradise. Climbing, mountain biking, via ferrata-ing, running and day walk EXPEDITIONS (rather than outings) with ex-Army Laura Sutton were awesome!!!!

One of me and Laura Suttons nice Italian summery day walks...what th f**k?...snow???

Haha Josh will hate me for putting this on!! Showing off his buffness on demand

Stoked about the 30km downhill that we have to go from the top of Mt Tremalzo to Lake Garda waaaaaayyyyy down below!!!

About to superman through the dirt...my 3rd of 6 bails in the 1st half hour!!

Also when it got real quite at work Diego took me on a paddling trip in Germany and Austria which was real sweet. We found some great park-n-play waves as well as some nice G3+ (NZ Grade) to play around on as well. However we woke on our last morning in Austria to hear rain pelting down, to see white mountains all around us and fast, tree-filled brown rivers. Everything was flooded as so we had to retreat back to Italy dissillusioned with Austrian kayaking. Bummed but excited about coming back.

Eddie at Middle Oetz River

I finished work for Diego on the 1st of October absolutely stoked with my experiecne, and walked away with a handful of EURO cash in my hand, a return ticket to Uganda and camera filled with beautiful photos. If he had not given me this job I would have been back in NZ along time ago!!! He was so generous to me and I loved my stay in Arco... I will always remember Diegos generousity, Slyvias and Miu Mius cooking, MariSol, the Italian Stallion guides (Patrick, Demis and Paulo), the awesome climbing, wicked bike tracks, beautiful views everywhere, the great food and fantastic coffee.

More Assisi

2007-10-18T16:20:00.001+02:00

2 months in Assisi, Italy was so sweeeeet. Beautiful weather, working with great people, eating fantastic gelato, drinking amazing coffee, hanging with 40 other kiwis, and of course just doing random missions everywhere possible!!!!

Hard at work... Me and Vaughn chillaxing while waiting for the students to arrive

I was working for a kiwi compny called Full On which was 'in the business of developing youth potential' and it ws real fun. We were NZers in Italy teaching American kids...abit stuffed up but super fun at the same time

Kees pretending to be dead for our emergency training

We would give them some real cool presentations about pushing their comfort zones, dealing with and overcoming their fears, dreaming about their ideal futures and living deliberatly the way that they want to achieve the most that they can out of life. Then we would chuck them off a castle with a few ropes attached for fun afterwards!!! It was cool and quite an inspiring place to work. Its hard to be negative when everyday your activing trying to inspire and motivate others!!!!!

My flatties...the bunker babes (our house underneath us)

We had some great missions over the 2 months there including trips to Rome, Sirolo beach just south of Ancona, various climbing spots, Perugia, Foligno, Piza and Cinqa Terra was a highlight for sure!!

Showing my mature side at the leaning tower

Excellent partying as well... with crazy nights like the cocktail party, the toga night and the rubix cube party was great as well!!!

Team Red getting amoungst it at the Rubix Cube party

The crazy Irish man Seanie wearing jessies shorts at about 5am one drunken night

It was a great stint there and I would definitely consider working there again!!!

Viva Italia!!!

2007-07-22T20:11:00.001+02:00

Initially I was bummed out about leaving Wales and coming to Italy... but that idea has completley changed now!!!!!

The sunset over Assisi and Rocca Maggiore (castle we rapell the juniors off)

Assisi is absolutely gorgeous and so is all of Umbria (surrouding Province), the crew are wicked and work is sweet. 40 degrees days, presenting 20 minute seminars to over 120 students some days (which I'm lovin!!!), abseil guiding the other days, drinking plenty of great coffee and wine, getting free gelato everyday, climbing and travelling round Italy on days off... to me that equals a sweet deal - so I think getting deported aint all that bad!!!

Climbing at 'Pale' ("par-lay")

Still pastie-white but lovin the Mediterrean beaches

Check out the Italian BBQ!!! One huge cattle beast on the spit, puts our NZ bbqs to shame

Toga party... welcom to the gun show

Scuxing it up at our cocktail party with Jess and Kees

Getting deported from the UK

2007-07-22T19:41:00.000+02:00

London… it’s an interesting place. I had such a wicked week there with Elliecat (Aussie mate I met in Canada) in late May this year. Pretty much I attempted the tourist buzz during the day but just ended up sleeping in parks the whole day and drinking cider with Ellez at night – 2 very good ways to get over a 32 hour long journey from NZ and jetlag!!!!!

Highlights were Canmore Markets, Aussie Rules in the park, making friends with random homeless people and laughing at the stupidness of ‘the changing of the guards’ outside the Royal Palace and jumping up on that Lion infront of hundreds of people looking quite strangely at me. Classic

Me and Bex laughing at the interesting toilet positioning in Wales

Then I headed off to stay with Rach (English mate from Tech) and went to Wales together to start our jobs for an NZ company called Full On. Upon arrival however I was informed off some serious issues concerning work visas etc and that I probably would not be able to work in Wales anymore because I didn’t have a visa/UK passport.

Phenryn Castle in Wales where the Full On abseil site is

Now I have a question for all of yol…. Has anyone ever been deported from a country? Well neither have I but if I use those terms then it will make this story sound extreme!!!!

So after a few days of stressing (by my boss actually, as I was very naïve and in denial about the whole situation!!) she told me that I could not work for them in Wales at all…and that I was getting DEPORTED to Italy!! Turns out that EU customs people don’t have problems with people working in their country without visas (go figure) so a few days later I was on a flight to Rome with the goal of reaching Assisi and working on the Italian Full On site a couple weeks later. I was bummed out at first but now have grown to love the idea!!!!

Many many many missions to come ...

2007-07-22T19:14:00.000+02:00

My last week in NZ was spent with one of my fav girls Miss Sofaloafa laterial (Sophie Hoskins). We loaded the car with all the outdoor gear you could possibly imagine and set off around the Central North Island for a jam packed week of adventures and classic times.

We hung out in the Kaweka Ranges, met weird hunters and ‘horticulturalists’, went hot pooling, attempted to climb Mt Ngarahuai but unfortunately retreated due to terrible weather, cooked soooooo much dahl on the fire every night, drank far too much wine then called friends and Sophs boyfriend and left embarrassing messages on their phones only to regret/laugh about it later, had a crazy day on the Luge in Rotorua (“slingshot…engage!!!!!”), drove 100’s of km’s and ended in Hamilton for one last wild night on the booze together for at least a year.

It was one of the funniest and most classic weeks of my life!!!! Soph… “You’re my best friend forever”. We succeeded in having classic times but didn’t even take the boats off the roof or got out our climbing gear once!!! Hehehe good times

Aoraki Bound

2007-07-22T18:48:00.001+02:00

Aoraki Bound is an OutwardBound course based on Ngai Tahu values, beiefs and ideals, with the purpose of reuniting our community and teaching more kiwis about Ngai Tahu and Maoridom in NZ.

Pounamu fever at Mika Mason's house in Hoki

The course started in Anakiwa in the Marlborough Sounds and finished at the base of Aoraki 20 days later!!

Beautiful Aoraki in the distance

It was a fantastic mission which included tramping in snow storms and flash floods, paddling waka-ama 30km across Lake Pukaki, learning heaps of Teo Reo Maori, an agonizing 25km running race, meeting 11 other amazing people and being filmed for Maori TV!! In a word...Classic!!

The Arahura River in MASSIFF flood

Crystal clear day paddling over Lake Pukaki with Aoraki looming ahead

I would highly recommend it to every NZer as it opened my eyes and my heart to a language and culture that I previously didn't know enough about.

Kelz, Me and Megz after just reaching Hokitika, home of Pounamu

Margot

2007-07-22T18:33:00.001+02:00

On the 25th of February 2007 my beautiful and absolutely inspirational auntie Margot Clayton unfortunately lost her long battle with cancer. The funeral was in Auckland a few days later and was absolutely beautiful. She looked gorgeous in her woven casket, overlooking the pool she swam in every morning up until her death. Her 3 children Anna, Jessie and Freddie would have made her so proud how strong and mature they were that day. 60 people were estimated to attend the funeral and over 200 arrived. I will always remember from that day is that ‘the last thing we know about ourselves is our effect”. I hope so much that Margot knew how her constant positive attitude affected all those lucky enough to be around her. She won the hearts of everyone that met her instantly and she loved those around her so much that you couldn’t help but smile every time she was around. She is still greatly missed, but her memory will be treasured forever. RIP Miss Margot

Kiwi summer in Murch

2007-07-22T18:04:00.001+02:00

After returning to back home to beautiful NZ, having a wee welcome home partai, an awesome New Years at Sophs bach, and hanging out with Hua alot, I got fairly bored of home and decide to pack up shop and move to Murchison with my tent and kayak as I hadn’t been boating in over a year. Hitched down, got a job at the local pub, sent up my (massiff) tent and I was away laughing.

Home sweet home for 3 months

There were still plenty of people around to go boating with and so the summer was filled with kayaking during the day, working in the restaurant after that and usually drinking with Ben and Jenny and Murch crew after wards.

Trying not to crack up and look at the camera while paddling EQ

This was where my obsession with Telladaga Nights began!! Massiff shout outs to the rest of the Telladaga fan club...you know who you are...shake n bake!!!!

After 3 months in the campground I moved in with Ben, Jenny and Polly and gave up my tent and boating to having a house and being able to sleep in. Heres some shots of the fantastic ‘cultural’ dress up party we had – BRILLIANT!!!!!

Can anyone guess who the black guy is????

Then along came Bullerfest - a 3 day kayaking competition which consists of an xtreme race, kayak and raft Slalom, and a big air comp. Ben, Jenny, Joe, Corey, Joelie B and me represented as team Shake 'n Bake in the raft race - it was AWESOME!!! Wicked to have the whole crew down here so we could party hard and have some great times at night as well as during the day... because at Bullerfest theres always plenty of time for shanonagins at the pub and after party!!

Team shake'n bake!!

Hua after he 'rocked the buller' party

Thai stylez

2007-07-22T17:00:00.000+02:00

Trip #1
Had 2 weeks in Thailand after Cambodia which I spent 2 days in crusty but fun Bangkok, and 2 weeks travelling through 3 islands on the Southern East Coast called Koh Samui (huge and commercial), Koh Phangan (home of the full moon parties)and Koh Tao (one of the best diving spots in the world.

Beautiful places and met some really amazing people on my travels. I turned up at Koh Phangan by myself and within 2 hours I had a crew of 22 people and having the time of my life!!!

I stayed in Koh Tao for a week with Fran and Flo (girls I work with in Malaysia) and did my Advanced dive cert by day (which was so awesome) and drunk alot of Thai booze buckets by night!!! The diving was unreal, 30m deep dives with sharks, the most amazing coral and tropical fish in the world and weather that couldn't be failted!!!

Trip #2
I finished work with WC and headed off to Ton Sai, a small bay on the mainland just below Phuket which is a climbing Mecca and an absolutely fantastic place!!!

I was supposed to stay there for 3 days then go back to Koh Tao to party with Gav, Ross, Fran and Flo again but it was just way too good in Ton Sai that I couldn’t leave and I stayed there for the rest of my trip in South East Asia.

The climbing as outstanding, the beaches were beautiful, the people were so laid back and friendly and of course the weather was perfect. I only had 10 days there but it would be an easy place to stay for months!!!

Cambodia

2007-07-22T16:53:00.001+02:00

Immediately after I left the Puteri Mahsuri I went on a much needed holiday to the outstanding country of Cambodia, it was excellent especially after being cooped up onboard the ship where I could only walk 50 meters at a time in one direction.

Cambodia is absolutely incredible, I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!! The people are absolutely gorgeous especially considering their dark and extremely recent history, the Siem Reap temples and ruins are absolutely breath taking, the countryside can be explored by boat, bus or tuk tuk which is an experience in itself, and the vibe the cities have are phenomenal!!

2 weeks there was perfect but I would still go back there in a second if given the opportunity.

The mighty Puteri Mahsuri

2007-07-22T16:29:00.000+02:00

5 days after leaving Canada, I arrived on Langkawi Island, 30km from the boarder of Thailand and Malaysia. This Island is surrounded by 98 Islands in high tide and 103 in low tide. It is absolutely breath taking and the weather was a vast contrast to what I was used to in Canada.

I went there to work for the Malaysian Wilderness centre taking groups of Malaysian teenagers on 5 day OE coursess, but immediately got transferred to work / live onboard the ‘Puteri Mahsuri’ (a 70m long square rig tall sailing ship) for a month to teach the Royal Malaysian Navy and Ministry of Education Officials how to sail the ship on 5 and 10 day long courses.

I was excited about the idea until I got onboard I realized a few things…
1) There were no other women onboard
2) There were 60 other dudes onboard
3) I was the only English speaking native
4) Everyone else were Muslim men; who are brought up to just socialize with the men and then eventually just marry the women – not actually be friends with them in the middle!!
5) Communication between me and the others would be virtually non existent.
6) This was a massive sailing ship which had 11 sails and 98 ropes, no winches and no modern equipment to help sail it.
7) I needed to learn everything about how to sail this monstrosity in 3 days before I would instruct my first group.
8) The person who taught me how to sail it could not speak much English and I definitely could not speak much Malay.
9) My students most likely would not speak much English either.
10) It was a Muslim ship so no alcohol was allowed onboard.
11) And the only time I could leave the ship was when the guys went to the Mosk for Friday prayers… if there was enough room for me on the support boat.

First month was hell – To sum it up I was super lonely, home sick, stranded and bored for an entire month - but I asked to stay on for another month so that I could attempt to make the most of it… the next month I made a huge effort to learn the language, become mates with the crew and students onboard, and learn as much as I could about sailing and Malay life.

It was one of the best months of my life. I absolutely loved it. I did not hold back for a second and made sure I was learning and speaking the language at every moment possible and talking to the guys constantly. Some of the crew felt like second brothers to me, I fell in love with the ship and couldn’t imagine going back to living on land.

Hey I even got a few marriage proposals!!!!

I lived onboard for a total of 103 day. It was the craziest, weirdest and most liberating experience of my life!!!

Winter Goodness in BC, Canada

2007-07-22T16:12:00.001+02:00

For 5 months in the Northern Hemisphere 06/07 winter I got to ride the most beautiful powder in the world at Silver Star Mountain, Vernon, BC, Canada. It was an absolute winter wonderland and I loved every single minute of it. My days consisted of about 8-12 hours working, 2-10 hours skiing or boarding, 4-6 hours drinking at Long Johns Pub and a few hours sleeping. It was a fantastic way to work, live and play at the same time. My days off were even better.

I met so many amazing people and would love to go back again. I now am a complete snow snob and can not imagine skiing on man made snow… or anything less than a 2m base and 30cm of powdery goodness.

I lived in beautiful 444 Monashee Rd with 4 Canadian dudes and 2 Aussie dudes… we could drop off our back door through 2 feet of powder onto the cat track on the way down to the lift…just to get first tracks through knee deep powder on the daily basis!!! Mmm beautiful, I still dream about that snow.