Flying Breast Peak in January

I wasn't up to flying this day, so I went along as a driver along with a couple of other keen para-groupies... We sat at the top of the hill drinking a rather nice Pinor Noir Rose wine and nibbling some cheese while the lads and ladess' took off. It was a perfect day.


Kat taking off.

Jan, Ruth and Quentin were other para-groupies on the day.

Grant took Tom the station owner for a flight, he got to spend an hour cruising around his farm enjoying the veiw from a new perspective!


You can almost see my house from here!!

Back in Nelson

So finally i put some more words on the page.

I have been meaning to update this for so long, and the longer it waits the harder it is to figure out where to start. I wanted to get some photos downloaded and actually write about some of the things I have been up to, but never got there. Grant and I have had some great adventures this summer and autumn.

- We spent a great week sea kayaking in Stewart Island, and some shorter trips on Lake Wanaka and the Abel Tasman National Park.

- I have carried on flying, and had some fantastic days flying around Wanaka and Nelson (and one flight at Taylors Mistake in Christchurch)

- We have got out on the mountain bikes in Westport, around the Port Hills in Chch, and of course Sticky Forest in Wanaka.

I have healed up nicely since my adventures last year. It is almost 6 months and I am pretty much fixed. I just have to get fit and strong again... I was very lucky to have injuries that could heal fully.

Now i have a job and I am working in Nelson for a couple of months. It is great to be living in Nelson again (my home town) and I am enjoying the fact that i keep bumping into people I know. I will hopefully head back to Lake Hawea in a few months and have enough work to do to pay the mortgage. By then the ski season will be in full swing which will be great!

12 weeks to the day

On Friday i had my first flight since the crash back on 30 October, twelve weeks after that day.
We are up in the Wairarapa on holiday and so i had a short but lovely flight from a local hill here. Since then i have managed a couple more short flights and some thermalling... i am very happy to be airborne again!!!

Anyway some pictures etc might eventuate if i can get organised with a good connection and my camera any time soon...

It is 30+ degrees hot every day, with light northerly winds and cloudless blue skies at the moment, this feels like what summer used to be like! Long may it last.

Stuff I've been up to

Another big improvement in my recovery has meant that i can now do some stuff that i really love. I have been out swimming, kayaking, biking and walking now... all relatively small adventures (generally 20 mins is enough to tire my out) but all good to be there.

The weather has now come right after a long period of crap and I am loving the hot days and the compulsory (and still really chilly) dips in the lake. There has been a terrible number of drownings in NZ this year, 12 since Christmas, and we witnessed a near drowning at Lake Hawea the other night when we went for a quick swim. The young girl is very lucky to be alive by the sounds of it but the volunteer fire brigade, a quick response st johns and a normal ambulance turned up.

On Sunday Quentin Kate and I took out some kayaks on the lake and blatted over to a wee island. Quentin has a fancy video camera that is waterproof and he recorded this wee clip - check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdfuHfwA3Q&feature=channel

He has got some other pretty cool videos on there now too - check it out.