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!

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.

More Lucy Happenings

Another week or so has passed and i am still on a rather too slow for my liking recovery (but at least there is progress). I have got to the point where i can walk/sit/hang out for several hours at a time which is nice.
I went for a check up at the hospital on Thursday and got the all clear. My back is healing well, my ribs etc are on target and i am going to have problems in my shoulder/collarbone area for a while yet. I also got the go ahead to fly to Armenia. I had to wait to do so as i had to allow my burst lung to recover fully.

I managed to get through Heathrow airport on Friday and travel to Armenia, where i am now. It is SO nice to be back in Kapan where i have so many friends pleased to see me. I am really glad that i came back. I had a hassle with returning after my accident as the General Manager didn't want me to come back (he made me redundant a month ago...). He wanted my posessions packed up and sent surface to NZ which would have taken 3-4 months.

Anyway after some discussion which didn't go very far (it wasn't actually a discussion if we are honest) he allowed me to return at my own expense and pack up. So, here i am.

I am packing and hanging out with people and convincing them that i am not half dead (i dont know what the rumours were around here but there were obviously poorly informed!). It is the first time in a really long time i have been in Kapan and not been stressed. Work had become extremely stressful over the last few months and i am rather grateful that i dont have to return to that environment.

I am flying back to London on Thursday then flying to NZ on Sunday the 14th Dec.

I am organising dinner on the 12th in London for anyone who is arround and wants to come - so if it isn't too late and you are in london keep the date free!

Take care all
Lucy

I'm Leaving Delhi!!

I am off to London in the morning!!! i assume i passed my x-ray this morning cos no one said i didn't and i am now packing up (read: i am sitting in bed directing and managing while poor Kris is busy packing up). We are moving stuff around cos i am worried the airline might damage my glider - kind of ironic isn't it??

So i am up to walking about 50m now, the sacro-illiac (sp??) joints in my back are still causing grief but i am going to survive. I I was pushing a little hard to get active in the last day or so and have had higher levels of pain and exhaustion as my companion as a result. Today i slept most of the morning and this afternoon i had two sessions of physiotherapy.

We had a dinner party in Austalian Chris' room tonight. We managed to get my dinner sent down to his room. The food and beverage manager loves Australians(his son lives in Canberra) and thinks that Kiwi Kris and I are both australian so he keeps sending complimentary meals up to Kris... we stopped trying to correct his mistake after a while. It is funny. The only thing missing was the kingfisher beer.

Quick update on my status

I am feeling better everyday, my improvement is really quite remarkable. My lung has re inflated, and now i am doing exercises to make it stronger. The pain in my lower back is slowly reducing, although i do have problems with the joints between my back and pelvis. The rib is bearable except when Chris makes terrible jokes. Chris is an Australian i was flying with in Bir, three days after my accident he had a bad landing and managed to break his back... Funny how his accident was so much less impressive but worse damage. He is in a room two floors down so i spend much of my day scheming on how to convince the nurses to wheel me down there to say hi. They wheel my bed into his room and so we can lie together like two munted peas in a pod.

Today i got out of bed and had a shower, walked about 50m, sat in a chair for 40min and did 5 sessions of physiotherapy for my chest, neck lower back and legs! I managed to walk to the toilet a couple of times too - such an improvement from a bedpan! The other day i had a bad day when i missed the bedpan twice - i have to say i was a very small child last time i wet the bed and it isn't a nice feeling! Now if i can find someone to help me i can get to the toilet!

So, i am on track to be capable of leaving India on Tuesday - to leave i must pass one last chest xray on Monday and be able to sit in a wheelchair for about 90 min and sit upright on the aeroplane for landing and take off. i have to be able to move between chairs and fly for 8 hrs and make my way to the loo if i have to go. I hope it is all achievable as i am pretty keen on a change of scenery.

Crash photos

The dark ridge in the foreground is where I crashed - where it is "flat" in the middle, and just on the other side. Photo taken just before the rescue team left the Police Station to start the climb up to rescue me!

If you want to see more than to to this Album http://picasaweb.google.com/kiwilucy/DharamsalaCrash#

I should probably mention that there are actually photos of both my and Chris 's crashes. He had a bad landing two days after my accident and ended up compressing his spine so we both visited the same hospital. He was also airlifted to Delhi and is lying in a bed a couple of floors down. We occassionally get orderlies to push beds to go and visit each other!

I made it to Delhi

I arrived in Delhi after a rather disorientating 14 hr stop in Munich (which i managed to fill effectively with some shopping- a beautiful pair of black leather boots - and a trip to a concentration camp).

Delhi is an assault on the senses. There are a hundred different smells, sounds, sights at every turn of the head. I saw an elephant yesterday, and cows with big humps on their backs - ox i think, and so many people. Some in rags and others in riches - and they are all going in some direction (which probably isn't the direction the traffic is going in).

He-who-does-not-wish-to-be-named (but i am sure some peoples can figure out the paragliding pilot i am travelling with) arrived today, a day late (after he forgot which day he was supposed to be on the aeroplane). He was lucky - he managed to have his ticket reissued and left me to it yesterday to get acquainted with the madness that is Delhi. Tomorrow more paragliding people will arrive and we will all head to Dharamasala (in the north) on Saturday.

I will try to post some of the millions of pictures i have now taken as soon as i find some wireless Internet!

And then a Swiss wedding

So i used Priscilles rather vague (but useful) instructions to drive to Bagnes then follow the signs to... And arrived at a paddock that was filled with cars. We sat on haybales in a paddock while she arrived on horseback and then Priscille and Luc-oliver sat in paragliding harnesses for their service... I have to mention the bells - even though it was outside and nowhere near a church some of the boys were ringing bells - like giant cow bells before the service to tell everyone to sit and after they rode in on a tractor ringing lots of bells it was good fun! The service was in french but it still made me cry. A huge convoy of cars (around 400 people!!) made our way over the country roads to a lovely garden where there was a festival/picnic atmosphere.

We drank wine, ate icecream, wood fired pizza, cheese and olives, chocolate fondue and little pastries... The kids had pony rides and a bouncy castle. There was a game with a cow - where people bought a small square of ground and then the person 'owning' the peice that the cow pooed on won a tandem paragliding trip, it was very amusing.

An unexpected bonus was that i met two kiwis at the reception. One girl is the girlfriend of the Groom's brother and she had studied at T-col when i was at uni and we lived in hall-of-residence across the road from each other in our first year!

The best bit of the whole day - it was super stable day so no real flying could be had i didn't feel at all hard done by being there... ahhh perfect!

Straight to France

So i arrived back in London early afternoon - and got myself to Stanstead airport (via a quick stop to see Jenn and her little triple babies she was working with). I arrived at Geneva late at night and jumped into the rental car. I drove the non-motorway route that TomTom thought was good and found myself at a locked gate across the road. It appears that this may be a 'border'. So i turned around and found a nice peice of quite farm road to stop and sleep. The veiw was pretty nice when i woke up and the smell of freshly cut grass was overwhelming!

In the morning i wasn't sure if i had crossed the border or not, but as i entered the little coffee shop (at about 9am) and i saw the two old guys drinking their little glasses of vino i guessed France. I pulled out Euros and this was the right move!

Igot to annecy in the morning and spent the next few days flying. I went on a tiki-tour with a couple of guys to this random site in a valley somewhere... we struggled to stay up (my top landing was a bit unspectacular!) but late afternoon we got some good valley thermals and great flying.


Nice clear skys with some dissappointingly stable weather...


Flying in Annecy is really nice, but it is one of the busier sites i have ever flown, so that can make it a little stressful. Here i am ridgesoaring with about 30 other pilots on a very small area. It is like a 3D motorway! I can count 8 other people in this photo!!

Rally taxi driving

Ok, so this is a little late - i wrote this a couple of weeks back while still working in Yerevan.

I thought I was going to die. The majority of the day was enjoyable and passed without incident. But then we needed to go to a meeting and called a taxi. A silver lada turned up. I should have known that a lada painted silver and working for a company (aptly) named Rally would be bad.

We hurled through the streets of Yervan. Me clinging to the front seat and the door hold, bracing with my legs (they were splayed in a most unlady like manner) and maintaining an attention distracting one way dialogue with Vahe assessing the probabilities and the chances of survival (him: front seat, no belt = no chance, me: back seat, no belt but Vahe between me and the window = limited chance).

We took a wrong turn which meant that we effectively had a scenic tour of Yerevan, we drove up steep streets barely managing the make the corners and we drove down cobbled streets not slowing for anyone or any minor inconvenience like 2m deep holes dug into our side of the road.

As scary as it was (undertaking with millimeters to spare at intersections) he showed remarkable ability to approach hazardous situations at a million miles an hour and not crash.

Vahe asked the guy to slow down – twice – this is also a first – even Vahe was slightly shocked by his driving! But alas, our taxi driver seems to be genetically programmed to have a short life. I just hope that he doesn’t take too many people with him when it happens.

Oh yeah, I did an unofficial survey earlier in Yerevan. I counted 42 cars before seeing one person using a seatbelt. This is despite the fact that half of these cars had belts installed.

Blackberries and ice cream..

Fresh blackberries with icecream, sitting in my comfortable lounge (complete with computer and stuffed tiger) with the air conditioning on while it is 37 degrees outside after a hard days work... can it get much better??




I love it in the summer whent there actually is some fresh fruit and vegetables around!

Things in Georgia seem to be settling down. there is talk that the border will open again soon and the russian blockage to the ports will be moved so that shipments might start arriving.

I hope so as we dont have much diesel left in the country at the moment. There have been rumours floating around that the airport has no aviation gas left too - these are only rumours our travel coordinator tells me!

Its all about me

You could say i don't have very good luck...
First Mt Ararat is a no go. Then i decide to go to Georgia and finally see the Black Sea from a position other than 35oooft above, but it is not to be.

Heavy fighting in South Ossetia (northern part of Georgia) has meant that it probably isn't a great idea to be a tourist in Georgia this week. ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7546639.stm

So, i have decide. I am going to London. I will cross my fingers and hope that there are no terrorists or wars started before, during or after my visit. I will head to France and Switzerland and keep my fingers crossed for their security also. After all - it must be me - right??

The next adventure...

So, my next adventure is already booked and paid for (well, the permits are anyway) and now it all looks a little dubious.

I am supposed to be walking up Mt Ararat and flying my paraglider back down...it is a significant hill clocking in at 5165m and since it is a stand alone kinda mountain it is pretty damn impressive (click here for a pic from my old blog).

A few days ago three German tourists were kidnapped by the PKK (Kurdish workers union) from the 1st base camp as they were climbing the mountain... The Turks have closed the mountain, so, maybe i wont be climbing it in 5 weeks time after all.

It seems that the PKK are protesting the German government shut down a pro-PKK TV station in Germany - i imagine if i were kidnapped, when they find out i am from NZ i would get the standard response i get from everyone

"oh, i love New Zealand i want to live/move/visit there one day - how do i get a visa?"

I would then spend the next ten minutes listening to how wonderful NZ is, how wonderful Lord of the Rings was, and how much they want to visit...

Only in Kapan?

I am sure you can find this kind of picture all over the world right?
Check out the people patiently sitting in the van waiting to get to work!!!



Thanks for sending the photo Steve!
Ill get around to writing more on Italy soon...

I'm Home (if Armenia is home that is)

I have got technologically able again... So here goes the last email - it was a great holiday and I had heaps of fun with everybody in Istanbul, Gallipoli, then adventuring into the Unknown with Rachel and Lauren. We had a couple of days in Istanbul and managed to see many of the tourist sites... Topkapi palace, St Sofia, blue mosque, a turkish bath...

Rachel, Matthew and Lauren at one of the many Mosques in Istanbul. I think Istanbul is the most beautiful city I have been too thus far in my travels. It is a fabulous mixture of styles, materials, age and heights.

Anzac was an amazing experience but it was also cold and windy. We set up on our piece of turf at about 9pm and sat there til the service started at 5.30. I basically didn't get much sleep until right on the start of the service when I couldn't keep my eyes open!! Judy Bailey and Winston Peters did NZ proud..


Ephesus is a must see as part of any tour of turkey and there were plenty of people around to see it with... We were lucky to be there right at 5pm and were shown a small amount of the covered mosaics display for free... we even had the air conditioning units pointed out (small pipes in the ceilings).


Rach and Lauren who I travelled with after were very cool! I am normally a little hesitant about travelling with people as I am rather selfish when it comes to wanting to spend time paragliding. Usually this involves me wandering off by myself (well with some other pilots anyway) and ignoring them. I can’t tell anyone any certain information either – how long will I be? Where will I land? How will I get back? I cant even guarantee that I will be paragliding, the weather might be good, it might be bad… who knows!

Oludeniz was a beautiful locations with plenty of activities for everyone to enjoy... Especially paragliding! This was the real break, four days of relaxing and hanging out was needed after such a busy time the rest of my break.

Guest appearance by Rach and Lauren!!

Lucy hasn’t written for ages but she is still alive. She has been travelling around Turkey with some cool friends for the last week and a half.

The plan began in Istanbul with a couple of day’s spent carpet hunting and spice gathering before heading to Anzac day celebrations in Gallipoli. We headed to Anzac celebrations with about 10000 other people and a group of 10 friends on our bus.
The actual ceremony was a cold sleepless night spent in a cramp grandstand while we watched old movies and documentaries about Anzac day through the night. The dawn ceremony was nice but Lucy kept falling asleep and then we all walked up a big hill to Chunk Bair where the NZ ceremony was held. Judy Bailey and Winston Peters made NZ proud!

We were picked up by a hot chauffer at Canakkale and driven to Izmir – thanks to Lucy’s Turkish contacts and we got a free rental car for the rest of the trip!!

The next couple of days were an archaeologists dream with lots of old stuff while travelling east. We finally arrived in Oludeniz for a couple of days of sun, sea and swimming (and paragliding). It is with some sadness that we now find ourselves in Antalya with planes and buses to catch…
We felt that we could impart some good knowledge that may help future travellers out when in Turkey:

Lessons learnt in Turkey with Lucy, Rachel, Lauren and Gertie.

1. One can never have too many figs.
2. There are many ways in which onion can be cooked, maybe not quite 1001 though.
3. Leftover seafood pasta shouldn’t be eaten after having sat in a warm car all day, however this does reduce the food bill for the budget traveller.
4. One can never have too many pistachios, any form will do – nuts, ice cream, turkish delight.
5. On the subject of accommodation, sleeping mats in a tent make it insulated, while the presence of a Turkish carpet creates luxury.
6. Good coffee can be hard to find.
7. More than two CDs should accompany a road trip
8. The probability of your tour bus being last to pick you up when there are 500 of them is 1:500, but it did happen.
9. Leave the tour, before the suspension in the bus breaks
10 Lucy loves this paragliding thing.

It was with sadness we had to leave Gutless Gert, our nice (free) rental car and carrier of figs, paragliding kit and other sundry items in Antayla, especially after such auspicious beginnings (delivery by a hot guy).

Ps. Rach was whisked away to the airport and now Lauren and Lucy are deeply depressed as we prepare for our departure..
P.s.s photos are coming soon, as soon as I find a cable to download them with!

P.s.s.s And lastly a comment by Lucy - I have been dissappointed by the lack of marriage proposals, and to be honest we haven't been hassled or harrassed by any nice or not nice Turk men... maybe they are a bit intimidated by us...

Flying at last!!!

My first couple of days in Bulgaria were a little wet, the weather didn’t co-operate but it was nice to hang out in Sophia. I stayed at a nice hotel and had time to buy some new toys. Bulgaria is cheaper than other European countries and Sofia is fun.

My camera came to a rather messy end recently involving a bottle of milk and my shoulder bag. There is a good lesson here – dont carry milk and cameras in the same bag. I bought a new Lumix Tz3 in Sophia, it was (of course) the most expensive one there and so far I am very happy with it. So now I can post some pics about the flying.

I arrived in Sopot on Friday since the weather cleared and I had an afternoon flight. It was pretty thermic for late afternoon. I had 6m/s average climbs in smooth conditions. A Russian girl showed me her vario from her mid-day flight and it showed a 12.9m/s climb!!

I flew from the chairlift once - and then they decided to stop it for maintanance for a week.... so now we are flying from a site we can drive too. There was cloud Saturday and we only did top to bottoms, then we got some good conditions today. The landing field is next to this village - which is a gypsy village. There are heaps of little kids on the landing area all trying to get your attention and convince you to give them some money.

This valley is called the Valley of the Roses, as they produce lots of roses to make into rose oils. I hope i have figured which fields not to land in.

It has all been a bit of a rough week. Thursday I was told of a friend in NZ who has very seriously injured to his back through crashing his paraglider. This was pretty shocking as you always categorize people into conservative, safe, reckless, ignorant, stupid, etc and he is definitely a safe and conservative pilot with lots of knowledge.

Then today there was an accident in Sopot where a pilot 360ed into the hillside. He is in the hospital having surgery. I don’t know how serious his injuries will be. This accident was more predictable, as there were many factors leading to his accident – new wing (quite hot for him), not flown in 6 months, not flying the flight plan given to him by the instructor.

Nobody tries to have accidents but when there are enough variables accidents do become less avoidable. So now in one week I know of two accidents that will certainly result in long rehabilitation times and possible paralysis. I love paragliding so much that I couldn’t stop, and yet I have been scared by this. This afternoon something changed and it came together. I had a great flight where I explored the mountains, did some birdseye geology, flew with some bird of prey in a thermal, hung with some friends who were thermalling for the first time, checked out some mountain huts, annoyed some cows (hehe) and had a great landing. It was perfect.

Tomorrow I will fly then go to Plodoviv where I can hopefully catch a train to Istanbul. I am meeting hoards of kool kiwis and do the pilgrimage to Galipoli.

Its really good to be home

Thanks Myrthe for the award!! If nothing else is gained I am going to go and read the other blogs now.

It is difficult to imagine what is happening in Armenia at the moment. I hear that there are protests, hunger strikes and it sounds like there is violence also. This is all happening in the rather bleak winter conditions - the protesters have got some committment hanging out in an Armenian winter.

Meanwhile, I am here in safe, warm sunny Nelson. Nelson, where electricity is a given, sewage gets dealt with efficiently and cleanly, drinking water is really drinkable and where I get mad at my nephew for dropping a plastic wrapper on the ground. Where you notice the cigarette butt dropped on the beach, because there is so little rubbish lying around. Kids playgrounds are safe and secure, coffee comes with milk, there 5 brands of baked beans at the numerous supermarkets.

Yesterday i had an almost perfect day, paragliding in utopia (Takaka) then the evening spent camping on the edge of one of the three national parks within an hour or so's drive of Nelson (Abel Tasman National Park). The paragliding was awesome, I had never flown Takaka Hill before, and it was everything everyone had said it was. The views are spectacular when you get above the hill, looking over Nelson, Takaka, Collingwood, Kahurangi National Park and you are flying over native bush.

In the afternoon my twin bro, his little boy and I played at the beach, walked to the resurgence of the Riwaka river (it is a karst landscape - lots of marble and dissappearing rivers) and fed eels at our old house, which is now a cafe. Cody is now 6, articulate, stubborn and adorable.

I am posting pics of my rather cute nephew, and my not-so-cute brother (who i am pleased to say has finally succumbed to the shaving cream-but not before me taking all these pics!). He still has a fishy haircut, Cody (my nephew) thinks it is cool, and all i can say to that is that bad taste must run in the male genes of our family. The thing is that he is pretty ok looking when he scrubs up... Still, it could be worse - right?

The V ball - a sucess afterall

The ball went off without too many problems. We got the mix of Armenian and western pretty right. Things didn’t go quite as we planned, the flutist didn’t play at the start of the night (as we had asked him too), then decided to do his piece near the end when people were keen to dance – not listen to lovely haunting solo’s. The band kept stopping, and starting, but they did play some good variety of Armenian, latin and rock'n'roll music!

The champagne was there- but there was no one to pour it… so I think I poured 10 bottles of champagne in the first 30 minutes. People danced, others watched, the food went well, there was enough alcohol… it was all rather fun. Everyone had more fun than they thought they would (this isn’t necessarily saying much!) and they are already talking about the next one (this is slightly more telling!).

It isn't quite the same in still pics, but people were dancing and having a great time!

This is the only picture i have of me... i am sure there were hundreds taken of me on the night, i have already been shown a few of them. Everyone was rather shocked to see me wearing a lovely dress and heels!

An exciting day...

It has been quite an exciting day for this kiwi. I woke up to find the world transformed into a better (well, cleaner) place witha a few inches of snow cover. I dug the car out and got to work on time (this could almost be classed a miracle) and then we had a visit from the Environment Minister. He gave a talk to the staff in the snow, well, actually, he stood under the veranda and we all stood out while it snowed heavily. It was pretty much a vote-for-my-party-cos-we-are-the-best kind of speech, and then he looked at a laboratory. I wandered along with the caste of thousands. It was there that I was asked if I would like to attend lunch.

So, I had lunch with the Minister for Environment. There were some other officials as well, but in the end there were only 9 people. In true Armenian style we ate and stood to toast, ate a little more then stood to toast, eat, toast, eat, toast. The toasts were for the company, success and happiness, the minister, the mayor, the martzpetyran (government appointed head of region), to the women in the room (there were two of us), to cooperation, to success, to the new manager, more to the minister, the local environmental staff, the future of Armenia, to success in the elections… I hope you get the drift. I managed to minimise the vodka consumption to the point where I could return to work which was miraculous.

The best bit of the whole day was definitely the Minister presenting two bouquets of red roses to us girls. He didn’t know we were coming to lunch, so he must have sent one of his bodyguards or advisors out to buy them. So, although I didn’t get any photos I did have a lovely bouquet of red roses (7 – the Armenians believe odd numbers are good luck and even numbers are only for funerals).

Btw- check out my lovely mink fur cap, it is so warm i hardly even feel guilty about buying it... It came in handy standing around in the snow listening to election promises...