Waterskiing (January Part II)

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:

Orakei Korako 2008