New Zealand - Bay of Plenty

We are now one month into work and is going really well, Dave is planning on doing lots of white water trips and I'm brushing up on my rolling technique before i head down any rapids. I have started work in the office of the adventure park purely for my experience, learning lots about the admin side of running an adventure park.

We have found a place of our own to live which is only minutes from work, so a nice short commute plus we can have visitors to stay which is always good. The guy we are renting the unit of use to work at Waimarino and is a good paddler so Dave is pretty excited, they went on there first trip the other day down the local run, there are a couple of photos, but from what i gather Dave was more concerned on surviving his first descent of the Upper Wairoa rather than taking photos of it.

Both Dave and I have both had our moneys worth of NZ health care, thank god it is reciprocal. I managed to burns myself making sugar paste, i have had to have two weeks out of the water so they can heal, they are now on the mend and hopefully i will be back on form soon. Dave got blobbed on the big inflatable at work and basically managed to land on his head in the water, which doesn't really sound to bad. However he got out of the water with concussion, memory loss and a perforated ear drum, guys at work are now calling him Buzz Light Year as he was so spaced out afterwards. We are both still alive and kicking which is the main thing.

The weather is still being very unpredictable. We'll have one day of pure sunshine and 25 degrees and the next will be pouring with rain. Sounds a little like England just without the cold factor. We are have no troubles with the tan though, the sun is so strong it is ridiculous, burn factor nine.

We have been starting to explore around us more, we went to Rotorura to see the hot pools, and some of the thermal springs. Rotorura is possibly the smelliest town i have ever been to due to all the sulphur being released into the atmosphere.

So thats it for now, wee will be posting more pictures and stuff soon.