A few weekends ago, Katie introduced me to the world of forest orienteering at Weiti, which is a forest next to the beach (north of Auckland somewhere). Some of the words that come to mind - exciting, tiring, frustrating, satisfying... For those of you who don't know much about orienteering, you are given a map of the area with a bunch of control points marked on it. Using the map along with a compass you have to try and visit the control points in order as quickly as possible.
All up, it took me just over 2 hours to complete a 2 km course (although I probably ended up running 5 or 6 by the end of it!). This was largely in part to me spending over 1 hour (!) looking for a single control point. Luckily I ran into Sandra, Katie's friend, who was able to point me back into the right direction!
You can see me in the background running into the finish :)
At the end of the race Katie and I hung out with some of the other kids on the beach.
Over anniversary weekend (end of Jan for you non-JAFAs, although I'm still a fake JAFA btw) I went down to Orakei-Korako, near Taupo to hone my waterskiing skills. Well it was a bit more than just waterskiing - did almost everything that you can tow behind a skiboat! I had an awesome time, definitely getting better and the conditions were great. It's a beautiful spot but apparently won't be available to the general public any longer because of private development carving up the land around it. Anyway, this is me on the single ski:
I even have a video of me doing the famed "deepwater" start on a single ski (which can be a real mission to learn!). You can then see me ski around for a bit before I, well... you'll see :) But please note, I'm still pretty much a beginner. It took me a REALLY long time to upload this video so you'd better enjoy it.
Also thanks to Tom Petty for his contribution to the video.
This is me having a go at wakeboarding.
It's much easier to get up out of the water than a single ski (since it's quite a lot bigger). Also, the thing can slide around like soap a bit, but at least when you fall off you tend to be going a lot slower. I never quite got the hang of doing jumps or similar (I don't think you can really call it a jump when you're submerged afterwards). I guess that's something to aim for on my next trip.
A kneeboard.
I am not a fan of these things. Firstly, I hate kneeling (it's not an anti-religious stance or anything, I just find it really uncomfortable!). The cool thing is that you can tow quite a few of these behind one boat (we had five at one point) and have "kneeboard" wars, but if you're the first to fall off it can be quite a while before the boat comes back to pick you up!! Even though I look like I might be enjoying myself I'm always glad to get off and try something else like.... the biscuit!
This thing is mad! You go really fast and you can the most spectacular wipe outs. Basically, the aim of the boat driver (captain?) is to go fast and do turns sharp enough so that you can just barely almost stay on. Eventually your arms will give out and you'll come flying off. Sometimes you'll skim/barrell roll across the top of the water for what seems like an eternity (although in reality it's probably something more like 1.2 seconds)
Once the inner speed junkie had been satisfied we headed to a place called "Paradise" (yes, its actually called that). I've never been anywhere like this before. There is this inlet off the river where all this hot thermal water runs in and it's like being in a massive spa pool. Quite a few people were there (it's easiest to get there by boat, as you can see below) socialising and drinking with music pumping out of the wakeboard boats after dark, it felt strangely similar to a nightclub!!
You can check out some more photos of my trip here:
OK, as someone has correctly pointed out - before starting my January blog, I had failed to finish off December. Now there was the small matter of my friend Mark's wedding (on December 16), where I also happened to be Best Man. Not sure how I managed to forget that (not that I really forgot it, just the fact that it actually seems like such a long time ago now!). There's a warning for all you aspiring bloggers out there, don't get too far behind on your updates!!!
The Stag afternoon (I can't really call it a Stag night since it finished around 9:30 and the wedding was the next day) consisted of some good old manly paintball. I managed to find Mark some lovely attire to wear.
Spot the Stag...
The big day itself was a small affair (in terms of numbers) with only close family and friends. However, everything went extremely smoothly and luckily I managed to create some decent laughter during my (highly anticipated *gulp*) speech :)
The Groom, Best man and Celebrant - Don't we look dapper?
The Bridesmaid and Best Man
Overall, it was a great weekend that I (or Mark for that matter :) will never forget. It was an extreme honour to be my buddy's Best Man. Mark and Nicky make a truly awesome couple.
You can check out some more photos from the wedding in my album here:
