Rafting down Avon

Life is beautiful. I am enjoying myself to the full. Last weekend I saw a really good play with my newly found friend Prue (Doubt by John Patrick Shanley ). It was great to be a bit cultural in a cultural dead city like Chch. Labour weekend (public holiday in NZ) was also enjoyed with lots of people. We had a bit of a pickled herring party here. Next time I will need to fish out all my shots glasses so we can sing "helan gar".




Mauricio is enjoying being surrounded by gorgeous girls like Hedda and Prue.










I escaped the bed weather in the city with Prue, Warwick and Björn and we headed for Castle Hill village for a big batch. It was a awesome time with good food, wine and company. I dragged Warwick out on a big run and it was gorgeous to run around the amazing rock formations up there.



I had a great opportunity to go with work up to Auckland to finally celebrate the end of this environmental programme which I got involved with the recruitment for, probably 2.5 years ago. 30 businesses have managed to get the Enviro-Mark certification, reduce waste and cut down on their power usage. It was great to hear their stories and meet many of the people I have often emailed and talked to over the phone for so long. The celebration was held in the viaduct in the Floating Pavilion.


My friend Warwick has for many months dreamt about rafting down Avon river all the way out to South Brighton. The raft had to be man made out of rubbish and and he referred to it as "Le Race de Avon". With many people on the waiting list to come along, when we finally got around to it most people were too hang over to join in. Sonia and I had only slept for 5 hrs, but getting into the cold Avon river was a great way to wake up.


In the end we made it about 2.5 km instead of the 17km which was intended and it took us 2 hrs!! You might think that we just floated and enjoyed cocktails, but in reality we had paddles and we actually used them as well.



We had many tourists looking at us when we passed through the Botanical Garden. The wildlife was amazing and we saw paradise ducks and ducklings, ducks, ducks and one rat.




After two hours we stopped passed the Town Hall and had a beer. It was a perfect way to spend a sunny Sunday. We all had a big pizza feast at Hjartar, Emma, Björn and Hera's place in New Brighton.


What else has happened? Not much. I have pulled out a wisdom tooth, done some shopping, started subscribing to the Wilderness magazine, started a new diary, I have done some more mountain biking with Clare and Nick and more running with various people. I love the Port Hills. Chch would be hell on earth without it.

Ok, time to stop blabbering.