Easter break, redux

To make up for the lack of excitement in my life, I'm posting a few more photos from my Easter break hike and bungee jumping. I've been meaning to post these for some time - they're from Lydia's camera, which I didn't get my hands on until after posting the original series - but work/laziness has interfered. Anyhow, enjoy!

Chipper at the start of the trail (note the clean hair/clothes)!

This was the first of our photos with the camera timer. I'm not sure whose idea it was to jump, but it was suggested for every posed photo (on the side of mountains) for the rest of the trip.

Relaxing before dinner/dark in the kitchen of our first cabin.

"No, Peter, we CAN'T jump - we'll hit our heads!"

The possibly ill-advised snowy mountain side trip.

"No, Peter, we CAN'T jump - we'll fall off the mountain!"

We arrived back in Queenstown from the trek & Milford Sound on Good Friday. Under law, while alcohol can be served in restaurants, it can only be served with food - the language is something like, "Customers must be present for the purpose of eating." Apparently, New Zealand takes these things seriously - police make regular searches of the bars, and we had to hold onto our receipt that showed what we had ordered to eat. Which they looked at. And then questioned us about. ("So how were the nachos?" "Actually, we had pasta.") Lydia thought the whole thing was so funny that she had me pose for a picture to get an illicit photo of the police in the background.

And a few more bungee pictures, just for fun ... I think, in this one, I'm wondering how safe this harness thing actually is.

"Nope, I'm not nervous at all!"

The high-tech towel and nylon strap - I'm chattering away, probably being a smart ass. I would imagine these guys get a LOT of nervous talking in their line of work.

My Trip on the Catalina!

I apologize for the long silence - I've been doing my best to make some real progress on my thesis before winter break (and my trip to Australia's Great Barrier Reef!!). That doesn't mean that I've been letting my Rotary obligations slide, though - I've made several presentations in the last month, and a couple of weekends ago, I spent my Saturday out in Drury (about 40 minutes away from the city) with the Drury Rotary club, volunteering at their annual Catalina day.

The Catalina is an old WWII aircraft, designed to scout for submarines and communicate with troops based in remote locations, often inaccessible by land-based landings. That's right, the Catalina is amphibious! Out of the thousands of Catalinas that were manufactured in the 1930s and 1940s, only two are actively flying today. One of those, based outside of Auckland, is now dedicated to raising money for cancer research. Once a year, local children - cancer fighters and survivors - and their families are invited out for a sausage sizzle and a ride on the Catalina, sponsored by the Drury Rotary club.

My role in this day was pretty minimal - I helped paint some faces and chatted with kids and their parents while they waited for their plane ride. And, on the last ride of the day, there was one seat left just for me, so I got to take the ride too! While painting faces was fun, the flight was definitely the highlight of my day (and I'm sure the kids would agree)!

The first group of kids and parents getting ready to take flight with their two pilots and two crewmembers.

My seatmates, Ethan and Kellan. The take-off was a bit noisy for Kellan!

A view of the city from my (unfortunately foggy) window.

We also flew over Rangitoto Island, site of the infamous helicopter evacuation documented earlier on this blog.

The farmland "suburbs" 40+ km outside of the city - you don't have to drive for long here to get to the countryside!