Swoop Series Shots

These are the photos of myself, Megan and Bex doing the swoop. Let me first say that Megan warned us that she was a screamer but she LOVES the swoop (she's done it a multitude of times - slightly addicted). Bex had never done it before and she was a little nervous. I've done it once but I absolutely LOVE rollarcoasters and the whole feeling of falling. When I am scared I laugh. It's my nervous reaction to fear. I screamed when the other two started screaming (I was in charge of pulling the rip cord) but then my screams turned into hysterical laughter. These photos are priceless.

We're getting secured in our body bags. It was all still very surreal at this stage. I'm not sure why I'm laughing so hard already... I think the guy was strapping me in and I was caught off guard when he fastened the strap between my crotch (like those lifejackets kids wear).


Megan is starting to psyche herself out. Bex is just totally oblivious because she's never done anything like this before... and we were still close to the ground. I am just thinking about how fun this is going to be.


The girls are getting a bit nervous now.


This is when the curse words start and the fear and panic set in. I'm starting to have second thoughts now. WHY was this fun?

PULL! OMG!!!

WE ARE GOING TO DIE!

Fear. Sheer fear. I'm sure you could hear the screaming all the way to Canada.


Now I start to laugh...


Hysterically.

Bex just realized how loudly Megan screams. My sides are splitting.



That wasn't so bad. Let's do it again!!! Look at Megan, she's such a little drama queen!

Happy Movember!

My Auntie Maureen came to visit me for a month in November. She is my mom's older sister and she lives in Oklahoma. She has recently retired so took the opportunity to visit her favourite niece on the other side of the planet. Smart move.

We have had an early summer. The month of November is always a bit of a crap shoot... you just never know what to expect. But this year boasted lots of sunshine and fantastic temperatures (not too hot, not too cool).



I live in such a great spot, it's easy to spend an entire month just cruising around down at the beach, walks around the Mount and exploring the shops in town. That's mostly what Mo did. She was content to just wander. We have a good bus system - they're called "Hopper" buses. You buy a hopper pass for the day and you can hop on and off as much as you'd like. It's a great way to get around (although I have yet to use them).

Unfortunately I am not independently wealthy so I had to work while Mo was here but luckily (or not) November wasn't overly busy so I had lots of free time to enjoy being a tourist again. I love being a tourist. It's one of my favourite things to do.

Rotorua is high on the tourist list. It's a short 45 minute drive from my place and it has lots of neat stuff to look at - the biggest draw of course being the natural geothermal activity. I took Mo down to a place called "Craters of the Moon" which used to be one of the only free geothermal walks. Not surprisingly, they have started charging a $5 entry fee. If someone can make money out of something as natural as the earth, they'll do it. I like Craters of the Moon because it's still a very basic walking trail (it's not overly touristy) and it's constantly changing. The land is very unstable in this area with new steam holes appearing daily. You have to stick to the path... otherwise you might stumble into a boiling hot mud pit like this.

Another day we took a drive out to Waitomo to see the popular Waitomo Caves and the glowworms that inhabit the caves. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of these glowworms (too difficult to photograph) so you'll just have to come and have a look for yourself. It's a spectacle not to be missed. Imagine taking a boat trip in complete darkness and silence, the only sound is the water lapping the sides of the boat, and above your head is the most incredible light show you've ever seen. The glowworm is actually not a worm at all, but the larva of a fly. After hatching, the baby flies excrete sticky threads to make a "hammock" and "fishing lines". One each of the 70 lines (1-50cm long) is a drop of shiny stuff - the worm's waste product, lit up by the light of the bioluminescent larva itself. Withe the brightness of one-billionth of a watt, it is one of the most efficient wayf of producing light. After months of trolling with poo, the glowworm undergoes metamorphosis and becomes and adult fly.

Evolution was so busy figuring out how to make the glowworm's stool shine, however, that it forgot to help the worm develop a digestive tract. After only a day or two of adult life - flying, mating, and laying eggs - the fly dies of starvation (or from being oversexed). Tragic really. Being a worm would be the highlight of their life. So when you gaze up in awe of the dimly blueish stars of the cave's ceiling, you remember that the speck of light is a maggot fishing for its lunch with a glob of excrement. Ain't nature grand?

We also walked along paths through these fascinating caves and learned all about the beautiful stalagmite and stalagtites and other various cave formations and fossils.

On our way home we stopped in to catch up with Poppy Dick and Jocelyn who live in Omokoroa. I haven't seen them since last year when we met them on our camping trip down to Mokau. It was lovely to see them again.

Auntie Mo had a great trip. I wish I had more time to take her to more places but she was pretty happy with the things she got to see and do. She took a day trip to Matamata where they filmed parts of the Lord Of The Rings and where you can do tours of Hobbiton. She also spent a weekend down in Rotorua where there is a multitude of stuff to see and do. Natalya and Chantelle live there now so we all met up with Auntie Mo at a nature park called Rainbow Springs. There are a lot of native birds, plants and reptiles as well as a Kiwi enclosure which allows you to view Kiwi birds in natural surroundings foraging for grubs. Kiwis are nocturnal birds so you never see them in the wild. They are such fascinating little creatures.

White Island Tours

I forget that some of you rely on this blog to keep up to date on what I am doing with myself. I have gotten lazy with only updating my facebook (but know that quite a few of you don't have a facebook account).

So I am going to write a few short blog updates to fill you in on the exciting stuff happening here... and lemme tell you... it's always exciting in my life!

Auntie Maureen and I had some good adventures together. The best one was probably our day trip to White Island off the coast of Whakatane (pronounced "fuck-a-tan-y") which is a 45 minute drive from my house. White Island is New Zealand's only active marine volcano.

We enjoyed a six hour eco-adventure tour aboard PeeJay yacht tours. It was a stunning day. I highly recommend doing this.

Once we reached the Island we had to board a smaller zodiac which ferried us in to the dock.

White Island is much like being on the moon... but it's really hot and smells like sulphur. It was an ever evolving landscape of hissing fumaroles, lava bombs, glittering crystals, unusual rock formations and hot thermal streams. These streams were highly acidic... how do I know? Well my curiosity got the better of me and I put my hands in it and then scratched my eye. D'oh! That burned for a while.

We were given gas masks to help us breathe when the acidity was too much. High levels of sulphur dioxide isn't the healthiest stuff to breath... and it makes you cough and sputter. The taste reminded me of chemotherapy! It's interesting how you never forget something like that. I remember tasting the chemical as soon as it entered my bloodstream. I wonder if I could have just spent a year on White Island?

It was such a wonderous place. We explored the ruins of the historic sulphur mining factory and learned about the catastophes and the eruption that killed 12 men and ultimately lead to the demise of the mining operation. There is something very daunting about wandering around a live volcano... like you never know if it's going to blow. The eruptions last approximately 1 1/2 minutes but the volocity of the blow is like a bomb going off. Massive boulders fly through the air like bullets. Something tells me our hard hats wouldn't really protect us much.

As we walked along the guided path I felt an odd sensation on my arms.... like prickles poking me. I wondered whether it was the hot sun and if I needed more sunscreen... but the guide told me it was just a bit of acid rain. Nice. It was like being a kid back in my home town of Sudbury Ontario in the good old days before the smoke stack. No wonder I got cancer.

The best part of the tour was reaching the crater lake in the centre. The water was bright blue with a ph-1 and a temperature of 75 degrees celcius. If we ever had a tsunami and sea water reached the crater, the explosion would be disasterous.


This was an absolutely fantastic day out. We were very lucky with the weather. I would definitely recommend it! That's another thing I can tick off my list of things to do before I die!