Yikes... Jeff and I are talking about having me reapply for JET in the hopes of getting me a job closer by BUT the application is due end of November and I only just realised how much paperwork is involved - eek!! I had blocked out the painful memories of getting the excess of paperwork done last time we applied, so am having a wee freakout about getting it done in time now!! Am trying to rope in anyone I can to move things along faster - having my little sis fill out forms in NZ to save postage, emailling medical stuff and hoping my referees kept my letter on file!! Please all keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get all this stuff together and shipped back to NZ in time to try to apply again.
After that you can all cross them for me that a job close by comes free and that the Board of Education's description of who they want matches ME. So yes, there is a lot of luck involved in this!!
A nervous Charly
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Yikes, it's COLD.
Hey,
I don't mean to moan about the temperature AGAIN - I've only just stopped complaining about the heat. BUT last night on my drive home it was 4 degrees!! I mean, it's 4 degrees in October and it was still hitting 30 in late September! No wonder it is a massive shock to the system!! I'm sitting on the couch in my PJs and have spent the last two hours urging myself to go do a few weights. However, that involves changing out of my PJ pants into shorts, so so far no go!! (If I work out in my PJs, ok, my merino long johns, then I won't have their warmness to wear to bed tonight, so yes I do have to change) Instead the only time I've got off the couch has been to make more tea...
Had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day which ended up with the decision that one of my sisters would fly over for a couple of weeks to cover for him while he takes a holiday. Currently Beth and Kate are fighting it out to decide who should come. It sounds like Beth has the time but Kate has the money. We will see what happens...
But no wonder I didn't feel like leaving NZ was a big deal - within six months we will have had Kate or Beth, Sandra and Geoff, Trudi, my parents and possibly Laura all visit us!! We moved to Japan and the rest of NZ is following us!!
Oh, yay, the sun has come out. Hopefully that will warm the house a little. This cold is a particuarly big shock because we spent the weekend at my apartment on Mukaishima, which is always several degrees warmer than Jinseki (last night it was 7 degrees there. Once it was 9 in Jinseki and 18 in Onomichi. Sucks to have an uninsulated house in Jinseki!). Jeff stayed down for the weekend, so we could go explore the island where I stay. We drove round the edge, past lots of little ports and old fishing boats and peered at houses that were built with no reference to the fact they were on the sea. While in NZ houses in that situation would be all decks and big sliding doors, here they would abhore the idea of indoor-outdoor flow (outside dirt coming inside... ugh!!) and everything is very shut off, with only a small balcony that you can hang your futon over to air them.
Geography note: I probably haven't explained this previously, but I use Onomichi, Mukaishima and Innoshima fairly interchangeably. In actual fact, Innoshima is where the main school that I work is, Mukaishima is a smaller school that I stay above and occasionally teach in and Onomichi is the main city that I drive through to get to the islands. 'Shima' means island.
Saturday night in Mukaishima was fun. Jeff was supposed to meet a friend in Fukuyama, but it was going to be a really late night and would rely on me being sober driver and driving home pretty late. Here you cannot even have one drink and drive, BUT (or perhaps because of this) non-alcoholic drinks are almost the same price as a beer when you buy them at a bar. None of this 'free drinks for the sober driver' stuff!! So we postponed that plan for a different night and Jeff and I were free to do our own thing. Conveniently my flat in Mukaishima is within walking distance of two supermarkets, a mall of sorts and a number of restaurants (starting with the okinomiyaki place next door - yum!). In fact, not just walking distance, but walking in heels distance. That close. So in celebration I put on my heels (first time I've worn heels in Japan, so it was a big deal!!!) and we walked around the corner to a ramen place. There we had yummy ramen and a pork dish that the guy whipped us up and didn't charge us for - little pieces of pork cooked to perfection with a blow torch. Yum! We even had beer with dinner - BOTH of us!! It was so nice being able to have a beer together at a restaurant - another first for Japan. We then went for a little walk down the street before retiring to my apartment to watch a movie on my laptop and share a bottle of red wine. Yay! So it was a really chilled but enjoyable evening.
That's about all to report, I think. We are trying to figure out the details for our Christmas holiday - and trying to save our pennies so we can afford it. Jeff has been kept busy with speech competitions and helping out with an older people's group for English language practise. The school speeches are funny because the winner of the school speech competition then has the ALT (i.e. Jeff or Luc) write their speech for the regional competion. I wrote a couple of the Jinseki ones this year. So Jeff and I were laughing that it will be my speeches taking on his! (Luc will write some too, but Jinseki or one of Jeff's schools always wins, so it is really just Jeff vs. me!!) Maybe we should bet a massage on it... Hmm... too cold for massages, maybe bet a nice homecooked meal on it :)
Ok, now I REALLY need to lift some weights before getting out of the PJs and going to the supermarket. Hope you are all doing well.
Charly
I don't mean to moan about the temperature AGAIN - I've only just stopped complaining about the heat. BUT last night on my drive home it was 4 degrees!! I mean, it's 4 degrees in October and it was still hitting 30 in late September! No wonder it is a massive shock to the system!! I'm sitting on the couch in my PJs and have spent the last two hours urging myself to go do a few weights. However, that involves changing out of my PJ pants into shorts, so so far no go!! (If I work out in my PJs, ok, my merino long johns, then I won't have their warmness to wear to bed tonight, so yes I do have to change) Instead the only time I've got off the couch has been to make more tea...
Had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day which ended up with the decision that one of my sisters would fly over for a couple of weeks to cover for him while he takes a holiday. Currently Beth and Kate are fighting it out to decide who should come. It sounds like Beth has the time but Kate has the money. We will see what happens...
But no wonder I didn't feel like leaving NZ was a big deal - within six months we will have had Kate or Beth, Sandra and Geoff, Trudi, my parents and possibly Laura all visit us!! We moved to Japan and the rest of NZ is following us!!
Oh, yay, the sun has come out. Hopefully that will warm the house a little. This cold is a particuarly big shock because we spent the weekend at my apartment on Mukaishima, which is always several degrees warmer than Jinseki (last night it was 7 degrees there. Once it was 9 in Jinseki and 18 in Onomichi. Sucks to have an uninsulated house in Jinseki!). Jeff stayed down for the weekend, so we could go explore the island where I stay. We drove round the edge, past lots of little ports and old fishing boats and peered at houses that were built with no reference to the fact they were on the sea. While in NZ houses in that situation would be all decks and big sliding doors, here they would abhore the idea of indoor-outdoor flow (outside dirt coming inside... ugh!!) and everything is very shut off, with only a small balcony that you can hang your futon over to air them.
Geography note: I probably haven't explained this previously, but I use Onomichi, Mukaishima and Innoshima fairly interchangeably. In actual fact, Innoshima is where the main school that I work is, Mukaishima is a smaller school that I stay above and occasionally teach in and Onomichi is the main city that I drive through to get to the islands. 'Shima' means island.
Saturday night in Mukaishima was fun. Jeff was supposed to meet a friend in Fukuyama, but it was going to be a really late night and would rely on me being sober driver and driving home pretty late. Here you cannot even have one drink and drive, BUT (or perhaps because of this) non-alcoholic drinks are almost the same price as a beer when you buy them at a bar. None of this 'free drinks for the sober driver' stuff!! So we postponed that plan for a different night and Jeff and I were free to do our own thing. Conveniently my flat in Mukaishima is within walking distance of two supermarkets, a mall of sorts and a number of restaurants (starting with the okinomiyaki place next door - yum!). In fact, not just walking distance, but walking in heels distance. That close. So in celebration I put on my heels (first time I've worn heels in Japan, so it was a big deal!!!) and we walked around the corner to a ramen place. There we had yummy ramen and a pork dish that the guy whipped us up and didn't charge us for - little pieces of pork cooked to perfection with a blow torch. Yum! We even had beer with dinner - BOTH of us!! It was so nice being able to have a beer together at a restaurant - another first for Japan. We then went for a little walk down the street before retiring to my apartment to watch a movie on my laptop and share a bottle of red wine. Yay! So it was a really chilled but enjoyable evening.
That's about all to report, I think. We are trying to figure out the details for our Christmas holiday - and trying to save our pennies so we can afford it. Jeff has been kept busy with speech competitions and helping out with an older people's group for English language practise. The school speeches are funny because the winner of the school speech competition then has the ALT (i.e. Jeff or Luc) write their speech for the regional competion. I wrote a couple of the Jinseki ones this year. So Jeff and I were laughing that it will be my speeches taking on his! (Luc will write some too, but Jinseki or one of Jeff's schools always wins, so it is really just Jeff vs. me!!) Maybe we should bet a massage on it... Hmm... too cold for massages, maybe bet a nice homecooked meal on it :)
Ok, now I REALLY need to lift some weights before getting out of the PJs and going to the supermarket. Hope you are all doing well.
Charly
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Japanese horses
I'm supposed to be leaving the house in 23 mins and I still need to shower and dress for work, so this is only a quick catchup note.
On Saturday I went horseriding with Emma, an American JET who lives in the next town over. She managed to chance upon a riding stable of sorts - three horses, one of which is pretty chilled to the extent that it is used for riding demonstrations while the rider fires a traditional bow and arrow, one of which is young and green and one which is a little pony. Emma has been riding the green horse a couple of times a week, training it up, so I rode the chilled one. After wandering round the arena for a while as Emma trained up her one, the Japanese bloke who owns them came out, bareback, on the little pony and we were told we were going for a trail ride. He took us on a little ride past a little lake/dam above his rice paddies, past a random little cemetary hidden in the bushes, along a little ridgeline and back down to the stable. It was a short but super cute trail ride! Especially because I was on a ploddy chilled horse following this spry older Japanese man saddle-less on his little pony. I thought my family would have approved!
Sunday we went down to Fukuyama to pick up a couple of things (important things like real coffee and Vegemite!). We got a little bit of Christmas shopping done (trying to be organised early because it's hard to get stuff here that a) you can't get in NZ, b) isn't lots more expensive than NZ and c) is postage-friendly) then headed home in time to catch the vege shop before it closed. The highlight of the day (other than the cute hat I bought!) was dinner - I had been craving something spicey so I made an Indian curry (Japanese do not do spicey, none of their food is hot :( ). The curry was really tasty and we ate far too much of it. But it was so good, and wasn't an expensive meal. I forsee me making it very often!!
Ok, shower time. 13 mins, eek!! Gosh, I'm terrible with time!!!!
Hope you are all well,
Charly
On Saturday I went horseriding with Emma, an American JET who lives in the next town over. She managed to chance upon a riding stable of sorts - three horses, one of which is pretty chilled to the extent that it is used for riding demonstrations while the rider fires a traditional bow and arrow, one of which is young and green and one which is a little pony. Emma has been riding the green horse a couple of times a week, training it up, so I rode the chilled one. After wandering round the arena for a while as Emma trained up her one, the Japanese bloke who owns them came out, bareback, on the little pony and we were told we were going for a trail ride. He took us on a little ride past a little lake/dam above his rice paddies, past a random little cemetary hidden in the bushes, along a little ridgeline and back down to the stable. It was a short but super cute trail ride! Especially because I was on a ploddy chilled horse following this spry older Japanese man saddle-less on his little pony. I thought my family would have approved!
Sunday we went down to Fukuyama to pick up a couple of things (important things like real coffee and Vegemite!). We got a little bit of Christmas shopping done (trying to be organised early because it's hard to get stuff here that a) you can't get in NZ, b) isn't lots more expensive than NZ and c) is postage-friendly) then headed home in time to catch the vege shop before it closed. The highlight of the day (other than the cute hat I bought!) was dinner - I had been craving something spicey so I made an Indian curry (Japanese do not do spicey, none of their food is hot :( ). The curry was really tasty and we ate far too much of it. But it was so good, and wasn't an expensive meal. I forsee me making it very often!!
Ok, shower time. 13 mins, eek!! Gosh, I'm terrible with time!!!!
Hope you are all well,
Charly
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Festivals and sponge cake
Hello there,
Time for your next update... a little overdue really...
Last weekend was a three day weekend. Jeff and I had initially had plans to go away, but we have realised that, as good as Jeff's salary is, all this travel is burning through it pretty fast and we need to save up for our Christmas trip and our travels with our visitors in March/April (we have Geoff & Sandra, Trudi and my parents all visiting within two months! Awesome, but our bank account won't love us for it!). Then we were inundated by invitations to festivals, so we decided to stick local.
On Saturday we had been invited to a festival at the school next door. I was picturing something like an NZ gala day, with stalls to buy things and kids projects to admire. We had a lazy morning, watching Outrageous Fortune and eating Korean pancakes for lunch (yum, thanks Jeff!), then headed over about 2pm, knowing it finished at 3pm. The school was silent, and when I poked my head into the gym, there were heaps and heaps of people in there, sitting in the dark. We started to beat a hasty retreat, but the maths teacher came out and ushered us in. They told us to sit down at the back - as if we could see anything in the complete darkness. They finally navigated us to a couple of chairs, the curtains on stage opened and a play started/continued (no idea which - we don't have enough Japanese to understand what was happening at all!). I, at least, knew the kids, so could watch with the knowledge that I would later be able to tell them how well they did (although, for the record, when you don't speak the language, it's really hard to tell good acting from bad. I mean, the fake laughing was pretty fake, but maybe it was supposed to be like that...??). Jeff, on the other hand, just realised he had an hour of watching a play with kids he didn't know speaking a language he didn't understand, so he scooted out, mumbling something about not feeling well. So that 'festival' wasn't really what we had in mind! Clearly it was more like a school performance.
Sunday we had been told about the Yuki festival. Jeff works in two different schools in Yuki, so felt he should check it out, but then we were fearful it would be the Yuki version of what we had experienced on Saturday in Jinseki. For that reason, we went after lunch, figuring that way we weren't stuck for too long if it wasn't enjoyable. However, this was a totally different experience. We had to follow a track down into the woods to a beautiful little shrine tucked away in the forest. There, the straight road/path to the shrine was lined with cymbol-like drums being beaten by guys in ceremonial jackets. The road itself had taiko drums and drummers filling it. There were four drummers to a drum and they wore amazing costumes - huge elaborate feathered headdresses, crazy orange and yellow jackets and lime green sashes holding everything in place. They beat the drums with something that looked like a small hand weight had sex with a cheerleader's pompom. There was dancing and chanting and drumming. At each end of the drummers was a black two-man dragon, swirling and posing in time to the beat. A man in a blonde wig and mask like a red, angry Pinnochio strode/danced up and down between the drummers. I couldn't help pondering if that was what we (read 'I') looked like to them - some blonde haired, red faced devil, a reference to other cultures trying to invade. I don't know if that's the origin of the costume, but it sure looked like that to me.
We hadn't been there too long when we got asked to come around the back, where they had small shrines, made to be carried by four to eight people. Initially we were dressed in the ceremonial jackets and made to help carrying the childrens one (WAY more difficult than it should have been - trying to carry something while NOT standing on the three year old or the loop of rope he was trailing right in front of my feet). We relinquished that one when it went up for it's ceremonial blessing, feeling like right gits carrying the kiddies shrine. However, one of the men's groups, when they saw Jeff was free, grabbed him to help carry their shrine - assumably feeling a big tall foreigner would find it easy to carry their shrine. However, Jeff was so much taller than the bloke in front of him that the guy was struggling to even look like he was taking any weight. Jeff had the option of taking far more than his 1/8 of the (very heavy!) shrine, or walking with a part squat. In the event, he alternated. I ran alongside taking lots of photos and videos (they should hit facebook soon!) when they carried the shrine from the main building, along the driveway to a little park area where more ceremonial stuff happened (some little girls danced, some old guys in priestly clothes said some stuff in Japanese, there was lots more drumming... by this point I was so hungry my concentration span had totally gone!), then getting Jeff food when he was waiting on taking the shrine back to the other end (yes, I was much better once I had eaten!!).
When they were finally able to take the shrine back, Jeff and I returned our jackets (sadly - I was really hoping to keep mine!!) and wandered home with the crowds - stopping only to buy a banana and chocolate crepe - YUM. All in all it was a really great day. And the bruise on Jeff's shoulder has almost disappeared now...
Monday, being the holiday, we had been invited to a taiko drum festival in Shobara, our closest town and closest proper supermarket. Zac, one of the other JETs was involved in the performance, so we were picking up Emma (another JET) and heading out there. That one was a lot more popular than the previous two festivals - by the time we had bought tickets, paid for parking, driven miles to the carpark, found a park, then walked at least a km to the festival, we totally missed Zac's performance. Luckily we heard it as we walked over, so we could still report that he did great. However, when we got in we found the grounds to be so packed that there was no way we could get close enough to tell which drummer was not Japanese. He could have been in EVERY performance and we wouldn't have been able to tell. After the drummers there was a fireworks display that put NZ ones to shame. It is true, the Japanese do amazing fireworks. Also, this is dorky, but in NZ I spend fireworks displays being worried about all the horses nearby potentially freaking out. So it was nice to not worry about any ponies, for once! Of course, when we were driving out, about 100m down the road Emma pointed and said 'The horses I ride live just down that road'. So much for no horses to freak out!!
Sorry if this seems a little hurried, but I have to get out the door in an hour and half for work and I still need to pack lunch and dinner, shower and pack my stuff for tomorrow. And bring in the laundry and maybe do the dishes. *sigh* The joys of not being the income earner... In all fairness Jeff does heaps round the house, but I feel guilty if he brings home the bacon AND cooks it. And cleans up after. If you know what I mean...
Oh, just realised I never explained the sponge cake thing! Yesterday I went to school at Jinseki chugakko, the school next door. I only intended to stick round for a couple of hours, but Ken (the teacher that organised for me to attend) asked me to stay another couple of hours, as he had organised an interesting class for me. Fearing that 'interesting' meant another two hour koto lesson (I do NOT have the patience to play the Japanese harp!! I think you just play the same piece again and again until you remember it... boring!!), I said yes anyway. However, it turned out he had organised for me to join in the cooking class. They were making sponge roll - a cake that the Japanese are particuarly into and you can buy at any conveni (like a dairy). I was really excited, thinking I was going to learn how to make a sweet treat without an oven (Japanese kitchens only have the gas stove top and a microwave). However, it turned out that what I mistook for large microwaves were actually electric ovens. So we made a cake that none of the kids would be able to reproduce at home... Not so useful! However, it turns out that the pride of taking home a piece of the baking you did at school doesn't diminish with age (or at least it doesn't if your cooking ability is as poor as mine!), so I was crazy proud of my battered, squished-looking piece of sponge roll that I took home for Jeff!
Next week doughnuts... might have to make it to school again next week!!
Hope this finds you all well...
Charly
Time for your next update... a little overdue really...
Last weekend was a three day weekend. Jeff and I had initially had plans to go away, but we have realised that, as good as Jeff's salary is, all this travel is burning through it pretty fast and we need to save up for our Christmas trip and our travels with our visitors in March/April (we have Geoff & Sandra, Trudi and my parents all visiting within two months! Awesome, but our bank account won't love us for it!). Then we were inundated by invitations to festivals, so we decided to stick local.
On Saturday we had been invited to a festival at the school next door. I was picturing something like an NZ gala day, with stalls to buy things and kids projects to admire. We had a lazy morning, watching Outrageous Fortune and eating Korean pancakes for lunch (yum, thanks Jeff!), then headed over about 2pm, knowing it finished at 3pm. The school was silent, and when I poked my head into the gym, there were heaps and heaps of people in there, sitting in the dark. We started to beat a hasty retreat, but the maths teacher came out and ushered us in. They told us to sit down at the back - as if we could see anything in the complete darkness. They finally navigated us to a couple of chairs, the curtains on stage opened and a play started/continued (no idea which - we don't have enough Japanese to understand what was happening at all!). I, at least, knew the kids, so could watch with the knowledge that I would later be able to tell them how well they did (although, for the record, when you don't speak the language, it's really hard to tell good acting from bad. I mean, the fake laughing was pretty fake, but maybe it was supposed to be like that...??). Jeff, on the other hand, just realised he had an hour of watching a play with kids he didn't know speaking a language he didn't understand, so he scooted out, mumbling something about not feeling well. So that 'festival' wasn't really what we had in mind! Clearly it was more like a school performance.
Sunday we had been told about the Yuki festival. Jeff works in two different schools in Yuki, so felt he should check it out, but then we were fearful it would be the Yuki version of what we had experienced on Saturday in Jinseki. For that reason, we went after lunch, figuring that way we weren't stuck for too long if it wasn't enjoyable. However, this was a totally different experience. We had to follow a track down into the woods to a beautiful little shrine tucked away in the forest. There, the straight road/path to the shrine was lined with cymbol-like drums being beaten by guys in ceremonial jackets. The road itself had taiko drums and drummers filling it. There were four drummers to a drum and they wore amazing costumes - huge elaborate feathered headdresses, crazy orange and yellow jackets and lime green sashes holding everything in place. They beat the drums with something that looked like a small hand weight had sex with a cheerleader's pompom. There was dancing and chanting and drumming. At each end of the drummers was a black two-man dragon, swirling and posing in time to the beat. A man in a blonde wig and mask like a red, angry Pinnochio strode/danced up and down between the drummers. I couldn't help pondering if that was what we (read 'I') looked like to them - some blonde haired, red faced devil, a reference to other cultures trying to invade. I don't know if that's the origin of the costume, but it sure looked like that to me.
We hadn't been there too long when we got asked to come around the back, where they had small shrines, made to be carried by four to eight people. Initially we were dressed in the ceremonial jackets and made to help carrying the childrens one (WAY more difficult than it should have been - trying to carry something while NOT standing on the three year old or the loop of rope he was trailing right in front of my feet). We relinquished that one when it went up for it's ceremonial blessing, feeling like right gits carrying the kiddies shrine. However, one of the men's groups, when they saw Jeff was free, grabbed him to help carry their shrine - assumably feeling a big tall foreigner would find it easy to carry their shrine. However, Jeff was so much taller than the bloke in front of him that the guy was struggling to even look like he was taking any weight. Jeff had the option of taking far more than his 1/8 of the (very heavy!) shrine, or walking with a part squat. In the event, he alternated. I ran alongside taking lots of photos and videos (they should hit facebook soon!) when they carried the shrine from the main building, along the driveway to a little park area where more ceremonial stuff happened (some little girls danced, some old guys in priestly clothes said some stuff in Japanese, there was lots more drumming... by this point I was so hungry my concentration span had totally gone!), then getting Jeff food when he was waiting on taking the shrine back to the other end (yes, I was much better once I had eaten!!).
When they were finally able to take the shrine back, Jeff and I returned our jackets (sadly - I was really hoping to keep mine!!) and wandered home with the crowds - stopping only to buy a banana and chocolate crepe - YUM. All in all it was a really great day. And the bruise on Jeff's shoulder has almost disappeared now...
Monday, being the holiday, we had been invited to a taiko drum festival in Shobara, our closest town and closest proper supermarket. Zac, one of the other JETs was involved in the performance, so we were picking up Emma (another JET) and heading out there. That one was a lot more popular than the previous two festivals - by the time we had bought tickets, paid for parking, driven miles to the carpark, found a park, then walked at least a km to the festival, we totally missed Zac's performance. Luckily we heard it as we walked over, so we could still report that he did great. However, when we got in we found the grounds to be so packed that there was no way we could get close enough to tell which drummer was not Japanese. He could have been in EVERY performance and we wouldn't have been able to tell. After the drummers there was a fireworks display that put NZ ones to shame. It is true, the Japanese do amazing fireworks. Also, this is dorky, but in NZ I spend fireworks displays being worried about all the horses nearby potentially freaking out. So it was nice to not worry about any ponies, for once! Of course, when we were driving out, about 100m down the road Emma pointed and said 'The horses I ride live just down that road'. So much for no horses to freak out!!
Sorry if this seems a little hurried, but I have to get out the door in an hour and half for work and I still need to pack lunch and dinner, shower and pack my stuff for tomorrow. And bring in the laundry and maybe do the dishes. *sigh* The joys of not being the income earner... In all fairness Jeff does heaps round the house, but I feel guilty if he brings home the bacon AND cooks it. And cleans up after. If you know what I mean...
Oh, just realised I never explained the sponge cake thing! Yesterday I went to school at Jinseki chugakko, the school next door. I only intended to stick round for a couple of hours, but Ken (the teacher that organised for me to attend) asked me to stay another couple of hours, as he had organised an interesting class for me. Fearing that 'interesting' meant another two hour koto lesson (I do NOT have the patience to play the Japanese harp!! I think you just play the same piece again and again until you remember it... boring!!), I said yes anyway. However, it turned out he had organised for me to join in the cooking class. They were making sponge roll - a cake that the Japanese are particuarly into and you can buy at any conveni (like a dairy). I was really excited, thinking I was going to learn how to make a sweet treat without an oven (Japanese kitchens only have the gas stove top and a microwave). However, it turned out that what I mistook for large microwaves were actually electric ovens. So we made a cake that none of the kids would be able to reproduce at home... Not so useful! However, it turns out that the pride of taking home a piece of the baking you did at school doesn't diminish with age (or at least it doesn't if your cooking ability is as poor as mine!), so I was crazy proud of my battered, squished-looking piece of sponge roll that I took home for Jeff!
Next week doughnuts... might have to make it to school again next week!!
Hope this finds you all well...
Charly
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
White water rafting Part II
Hey, so part II of our rafting adventures:
Just before lunch we successfully navigated a rapid (yay! This was rare!) and our guide offered that we could 'surf' it if we wanted. This involved paddling upstream until your boat was under the waterfall which would a) sometimes get you stuck there, b) get you all very wet (see the facebook photos if you doubt this... It's the ones where most of the boat is submerged) and c) potentially - if badly managed - flip your boat.
Ok, so being smart cookies, you can all see what is coming now, right?
Yes, we paddled on in and the force of the water caught us, pushing the front of the boat under (where I was, incidentally. Who needs to breath, right??). The force of the water then pushed our boat sideways, so the left side was being pushed under by the pummelling of the water. Our guide yelled to lean right, so we all transferred our weight to the right side of the boat. But it was too little too late. The force of the water flipped the whole boat over, spilling everyone into the broiling water.
My big fear with white water rafting had always been to get tipped out and come up under the boat. Now, though, I was strangely calm. Perhaps it was because I had the most experience out of everyone on our boat (most were newbies. Jeff was very rude about some of the paddling!!) or perhaps it was because of the millions of times in my childhood that I had been told how to survive a rip. As I came up I realised I was under Alex, who had been at the front of the boat with me, and above her I felt the boat. Instead of fighting for the surface and ending up under the boat (which a number of people did), I let the current take me further downstream until I popped up by one of the other boats, who fished me out. I was noticeably the only one who travelled that far downstream before being put back in a boat. Something which didn't really concern me, decked out as I was in my sexy mustard fleece, wetsuit with holes in the crotch, battered-looking helmet and 'Happy Raft' logoed lifejacket. Come on, when you're kitted out like that you can take on the world!!
So, by this point we had all definitively earnt our lunch break (and, more importantly, our toilet break!!) and we enjoyed the opportunity to eat chicken and salad bagels, drink warm tea and queue for the smelly portaloos!
After lunch, we were refreshed, recharged and ready to go. If a little more cautious-feeling than in the morning...
The afternoon was pretty similar to the morning - you know, a river, boats, water and rocks to get stuck on. And stuck on rocks we got. Again and again. Finally, we were approaching another rapid, when we took a wrong angle and glanced off a rock on the side. This deflected us into another rock, which sent us ricochetting into a large low-lying rock in the centre of the rapid. Time slowed down as we were stuck at the top of the rapid, the water slowly pivotting the boat until, as we faced backwards, the water pushed us free and down the rapid.
As we fell, the front of the boat flicked up, sending Sarah and I caterpaulting out. As Sarah went, she fell across Jeff, bending his oar across his knee. In case you can't picture this, here is the mean action shot (if you look at this picture on facebook you will find that I am tagged in the white water to the right of the boat):
After bumping off a few rocks I popped up close to our boat and with a couple of swim strokes was able to hang on. I went down a few smaller drops hanging on to the outside of the boat, with Jeff trying to haul me in and me trying to not get hauled in for fear of getting squished between an underwater rock and the boat. I figured I was safer doing my own thing, amply protected by my lifejacket, wetsuit and helmet. However, the guides were bellowing at Jeff to get me in, so despite my protesting, Jeff grabbed me by the lifejacket and dragged me into the boat. Just in time to go down the last large drop on that run of rapids, with Jeff lying on the bottom of the boat and me hunkered down, spider-like over him, trying to hang onto any ropes I could reach.
As we pulled over at the bottom, I was protesting that I was fine and that I didn't see the danger in letting me stay outside the boat until we reached a calm bit. However, as I was explaining this, other boats were negotiating the rapids. We heard a shout of alarm - a small Japanese girl had fallen out of her raft. As we watched, she was rushed by the water, just ahead of the boat. There was a few metres of clear water, then the brunt of the current pushed the river into a big rounded stone, sticking a metre or two out of the water. We watched in open-mouthed horror as the current pushed her towards the stone, the boat only a foot or so behind her. With centimetres to spare her guide managed to hook onto her lifejacket and pull her into the boat, only seconds before the boat would have slammed her against the rock.
"Oh," I said. "That's what can go wrong..."
If you are a concerned or attentive person, you may be wondering by now what happened to Sarah while my lovely husband (the only one capable of pulling people into the boat properly) was busy saving me. When I first managed to reach the boat, Sarah had been a couple of metres behind me. I tried to grap onto a paddle, hoping she would grab the other end, but we were both too dazed to manage that. As the boat and I were swept further away, another boat threw a safety rope out to Sarah, so they could haul her to safety. As she was getting towed back in, congratulating herself on remembering how to grab the safety rope correctly, she glanced upstream in time to see her oar coming straight for her, and the hard end smack straight into her forehead. BAD LUCK!! The good news is Sarah's lump on her forehead was the worst of the injuries and we were able to put our boat back together with everyone in one piece.
After this, we managed to stay in the boat except for when we chose to get out to swim or leap off big rocks (ok, in my case, get pushed off big rocks because I was too wussy to jump! I was hoping the people below wouldn't hear me ask the guide to push me, but when I climbed back into the boat Jeff was pissing himself laughing at me!! Bugger!). In fact, once we got all the big rapids out the way, our guide even got up the confidence to put us in some crazy positions going down the rapids.
The most notable of these would have been when Alex, Jeff and I were kneeling at the front, top halves hanging over the front of the boat. My heart was in my mouth when we got caught on a rock (you never would have picked that, right??) and the boat started leaning downwards on an angle, making my head the closest thing to the water. By that point I was cold and tired and stiff and really didn't feel up to another crazy fall. If the boat flipped, my head would be the first thing under, so God knows how many people I would have had land on me. Luckily, we got free of the rock and rode the rapids up the right way, landing with everyone in the boat.
We then did rapids standing up in the boat, lying sideways in the boat, and facing backwards (one of the scarier ones, as I could see the tension in our guide's face! Note: Sorry if I told you about that one already in Part I, I left too long between these!). Some of the other boats offloaded so their occupants could go down some rapids without the boat, but by that point the people in our raft were looking cold and exhausted. There is only so much adrenaline you can take in one day!!
Later, sipping hot tea in dry clothes, I was chatting to one of the guys from a different boat. He confessed to being a little jealous of us, saying his guide was so competant it made everything look easy. They had told him the big rapid was 'nothing', but as they watched our boat approach, bouncing off rocks and getting stuck at the top of the waterfall, his guide said 'It's not nothing if you do it like that!' and winced as we slithered down, losing two occupants. "Your boat looked more exciting!" he said. Yes, that was a very accurate observation. Terrifying, heart-attack-inducing, exhausting, exciting... same diff, right?
Cheers,
Charly
P.S. Sarah says she had a good time, but I doubt she will ever go rafting again.
Just before lunch we successfully navigated a rapid (yay! This was rare!) and our guide offered that we could 'surf' it if we wanted. This involved paddling upstream until your boat was under the waterfall which would a) sometimes get you stuck there, b) get you all very wet (see the facebook photos if you doubt this... It's the ones where most of the boat is submerged) and c) potentially - if badly managed - flip your boat.
Ok, so being smart cookies, you can all see what is coming now, right?
Yes, we paddled on in and the force of the water caught us, pushing the front of the boat under (where I was, incidentally. Who needs to breath, right??). The force of the water then pushed our boat sideways, so the left side was being pushed under by the pummelling of the water. Our guide yelled to lean right, so we all transferred our weight to the right side of the boat. But it was too little too late. The force of the water flipped the whole boat over, spilling everyone into the broiling water.
My big fear with white water rafting had always been to get tipped out and come up under the boat. Now, though, I was strangely calm. Perhaps it was because I had the most experience out of everyone on our boat (most were newbies. Jeff was very rude about some of the paddling!!) or perhaps it was because of the millions of times in my childhood that I had been told how to survive a rip. As I came up I realised I was under Alex, who had been at the front of the boat with me, and above her I felt the boat. Instead of fighting for the surface and ending up under the boat (which a number of people did), I let the current take me further downstream until I popped up by one of the other boats, who fished me out. I was noticeably the only one who travelled that far downstream before being put back in a boat. Something which didn't really concern me, decked out as I was in my sexy mustard fleece, wetsuit with holes in the crotch, battered-looking helmet and 'Happy Raft' logoed lifejacket. Come on, when you're kitted out like that you can take on the world!!
So, by this point we had all definitively earnt our lunch break (and, more importantly, our toilet break!!) and we enjoyed the opportunity to eat chicken and salad bagels, drink warm tea and queue for the smelly portaloos!
After lunch, we were refreshed, recharged and ready to go. If a little more cautious-feeling than in the morning...
The afternoon was pretty similar to the morning - you know, a river, boats, water and rocks to get stuck on. And stuck on rocks we got. Again and again. Finally, we were approaching another rapid, when we took a wrong angle and glanced off a rock on the side. This deflected us into another rock, which sent us ricochetting into a large low-lying rock in the centre of the rapid. Time slowed down as we were stuck at the top of the rapid, the water slowly pivotting the boat until, as we faced backwards, the water pushed us free and down the rapid.
 |
| A novel way to do the rapids... |
 |
| Sarah - yellow helmet - bending Jeff's paddle as she falls across him - black helmet. I am long gone... |
As we pulled over at the bottom, I was protesting that I was fine and that I didn't see the danger in letting me stay outside the boat until we reached a calm bit. However, as I was explaining this, other boats were negotiating the rapids. We heard a shout of alarm - a small Japanese girl had fallen out of her raft. As we watched, she was rushed by the water, just ahead of the boat. There was a few metres of clear water, then the brunt of the current pushed the river into a big rounded stone, sticking a metre or two out of the water. We watched in open-mouthed horror as the current pushed her towards the stone, the boat only a foot or so behind her. With centimetres to spare her guide managed to hook onto her lifejacket and pull her into the boat, only seconds before the boat would have slammed her against the rock.
"Oh," I said. "That's what can go wrong..."
If you are a concerned or attentive person, you may be wondering by now what happened to Sarah while my lovely husband (the only one capable of pulling people into the boat properly) was busy saving me. When I first managed to reach the boat, Sarah had been a couple of metres behind me. I tried to grap onto a paddle, hoping she would grab the other end, but we were both too dazed to manage that. As the boat and I were swept further away, another boat threw a safety rope out to Sarah, so they could haul her to safety. As she was getting towed back in, congratulating herself on remembering how to grab the safety rope correctly, she glanced upstream in time to see her oar coming straight for her, and the hard end smack straight into her forehead. BAD LUCK!! The good news is Sarah's lump on her forehead was the worst of the injuries and we were able to put our boat back together with everyone in one piece.
After this, we managed to stay in the boat except for when we chose to get out to swim or leap off big rocks (ok, in my case, get pushed off big rocks because I was too wussy to jump! I was hoping the people below wouldn't hear me ask the guide to push me, but when I climbed back into the boat Jeff was pissing himself laughing at me!! Bugger!). In fact, once we got all the big rapids out the way, our guide even got up the confidence to put us in some crazy positions going down the rapids.
The most notable of these would have been when Alex, Jeff and I were kneeling at the front, top halves hanging over the front of the boat. My heart was in my mouth when we got caught on a rock (you never would have picked that, right??) and the boat started leaning downwards on an angle, making my head the closest thing to the water. By that point I was cold and tired and stiff and really didn't feel up to another crazy fall. If the boat flipped, my head would be the first thing under, so God knows how many people I would have had land on me. Luckily, we got free of the rock and rode the rapids up the right way, landing with everyone in the boat.
We then did rapids standing up in the boat, lying sideways in the boat, and facing backwards (one of the scarier ones, as I could see the tension in our guide's face! Note: Sorry if I told you about that one already in Part I, I left too long between these!). Some of the other boats offloaded so their occupants could go down some rapids without the boat, but by that point the people in our raft were looking cold and exhausted. There is only so much adrenaline you can take in one day!!
Later, sipping hot tea in dry clothes, I was chatting to one of the guys from a different boat. He confessed to being a little jealous of us, saying his guide was so competant it made everything look easy. They had told him the big rapid was 'nothing', but as they watched our boat approach, bouncing off rocks and getting stuck at the top of the waterfall, his guide said 'It's not nothing if you do it like that!' and winced as we slithered down, losing two occupants. "Your boat looked more exciting!" he said. Yes, that was a very accurate observation. Terrifying, heart-attack-inducing, exhausting, exciting... same diff, right?
Cheers,
Charly
P.S. Sarah says she had a good time, but I doubt she will ever go rafting again.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Looking death in the eye, aka White Water Rafting Part I
Morning people,
Before I kick this one off (I fear I will have a LOT to say...) and forget I wanted to tell you: this morning I went for a little run (cannot overemphasise the 'little' part...) and saw a SNAKE run over on the road. It was maybe 30cm, maybe a little more. Flat enough that I could look at the scales, not so deaded that it was just a flat dry thing. If I had a camera on me I would have taken a pic - because you KNOW you want to see a flat, dead snake!
Ok, so to the big one: white water rafting!!
Friday night Jeff and I headed down to Fukuyama, where we met the bus of JETs bound for Shikoku Island (I'm skipping a big bit there so I don't bore you to death. In a few words, 1.5 hr drive to Fukuyama, met Gabrielle at supermarket so she could show us the way back to her house, drove to her place, ran from her place to closest bus stop, 20min bus to Fukuyama station, used station toilet - grossest, smelliest squat toilet with no paper, found place where JET bus was picking us up from, waited for half hour while the bus was late, THEN met the bus of JETs!). I was a little overwhelmed at first, as the bus was already pretty full of JETs from Hiroshima, who were a) excited and b) had been drinking. They all knew Jeff and were politely enthusiastic about meeting me (read between the lines when 'politely enthusiastic' coincides with 'drinking'). But after the bus started and everyone was made to sit down so the bus driver didn't get pulled over by the cops, I had a chance to chat to some of the people Jeff had made friends with. That was good, being able to put faces to names.
I know I'm probably stupid for being surprised (again and again) at this, but it always impresses me how every time Jeff says he really likes someone or really got along with someone, that I find them really cool too. I mean, even with best friends there are inevitably SOME people you disagree on. But Jeff's judgement seems to strongly coincide with mine (though mine are inevitably expressed much stronger, while Jeff is more willing to give someone a chance when I think they are a git). So I enjoyed meeting the people he had hung out with at language camp.
Anyway, that night we drove about an hour and a half, maybe two, crossing the bridge to Shikoku Island (one of the big four, kind of South-east of the main island, Honshu). We stayed the night in a traditional hotel, a ryokan (hope I spelt that right!), where we stayed on tatami mats with futons. There were two of us couples sharing a room, which was slightly odd, but good because we didn't have to worry about a raging party in our room (he was a fairly quiet American guy who spoke a bit of Japanese, she was a quiet Japanese girl who spoke a bit of English. Fascinating, having a relationship where there is no language they are both fluent in. Or maybe that's a recipe for success - at least from the guy's point of view!).
We spent AGES that evening wandering round the streets in search of a conveni - stupidly we let a drunk guy look at the map initially. Finally when it was clear we weren't getting anywhere useful our Japanese roommate took the map and directed us to the conveni. Luckily it was a nice night for walking, because we had walked in a big circle to find the conveni when it was pretty much straight down the road from our accomodation!! Stupid drunk gaijins. After getting a couple of drinks and some midnight snacks we went back to one of the other rooms to be sociable. About 1am I decided there were too many fart jokes and Gregg was getting more nude than I was comfortable with, so I took off back to our room and not long after the rest of our room followed. Sleepy time!!
6:40am we started our day with a traditional Japanese breakfast. I hadn't had one of those before, and to be honest, I wouldn't rush to have one again. I don't remember EVERYTHING served, but will try to list what I remember: half raw egg served in some kind of broth, a fish steak, several types of pickled vegies, some kind of sweet bean, rice, miso soup, green tea, seaweed, salad (lettuce, tomato, ham and salad dressing), and more pickled THINGS (nope, no idea what!). I admit I am rather pedantic about breakfast, and NEED to start my day with a balanced nutritious feed - usually porridge or muesli with fruit and yoghurt, although occasionally I have toast with - you guessed it - fruit and yoghurt. So we all felt a bit out of kilter starting the day with such an odd assortment of food. At least I had managed to eat all mine - many others, Jeff included, couldn't stomach that food at that time of the morning and consequently were really hungry by the start of rafting.
Yes, the rafting. I'm getting there. After another hour and a half bus ride we all piled off at Happy Raft. There a Nelson boy gave us our forms and explained things, a bloke in the biggest pounamu ever got us into our wetsuits and a bloke who - according to all the Americans - looked like the Dad in Boy gave us the safety talk. The four of us Kiwis on the trip were cracking up - we come to Japan to go rafting and it's all Kiwis!!
However, when we got put on our boat we got an Australian guide - they cleverly have plenty of guides, so foreigners get an English-speaking guide (well, Australian is close to English :P) and Japanese customers got a Japanese guide. I guess for safety reasons you don't want to go down rapids unable to understand what your guide is telling you!
There were two notable things about our boat: we had Sarah, a physically timid English woman who only came because Jeff peer-pressured her into it and she was TERRIFIED. And for our guide we had 'Milky' - and we were his first ever boatload of customers to take down the river. I think you could safely say he was also terrified. So, as you can imagine, not a great combination!!
We started our day by plunging into the water while we were waiting on the boats - we were SO hot in our wetsuits, fleeces and helmets in the hot sun!! So we were all wet before we even got into the boats :) Back at base everyone had been complaining about wearing wetsuits and 'do we have to wear fleeces?' I kept telling them that I'm sure the guides knew what they were doing recommending we wear them, and that five hours on the river, wet, especially if we were in the shade, was a LONG time and they would get cold. Sure enough, as soon as everyone plunged into the river their eyes widened with the shock of the cold water and there were no further complaints about wetsuits or the ugly mustard fleeces!
As we set off down the river our guide taught us the basic commands - paddle forwards, paddle backwards, stop, lean left, lean right, hang on and get in. We also had safety talks about what happens if your boat flips or if someone falls out and needs the safety rope (turns out we needed all that info!). I was pretty laid back about the whole affair - having done the 7m waterfall in Rotorua, I expected the day to be fun, but not scary. How wrong was I!
The morning was pretty calm most of the time, with fairly small rapids warming us into it. There were LOADS of other boats out, so you were safe in the knowledge someone would fish you out quickly if you fell. In fact, our company had at least six boats go out at once and apparently there are TWENTY different companies running tours on the river, with no coordination between them as to who goes when. So before every rapid there were actually traffic jams, and we would have to pull up to the side and wait our turn!
Perhaps the scariest bit was when our guide made us turn around, hunker down and face backwards while we went down a particular rapid. As we went down, I could see the tension and fear on 'Milky's face - probably the scariest moment up till then! Sitting at the front of the boat, it had never occurred to me I wasn't in confident, capable hands!!
Then, just before lunch, it happened.
Oops, sorry, out of time! Will have to finish this tomorrow. Watch this space!!
Before I kick this one off (I fear I will have a LOT to say...) and forget I wanted to tell you: this morning I went for a little run (cannot overemphasise the 'little' part...) and saw a SNAKE run over on the road. It was maybe 30cm, maybe a little more. Flat enough that I could look at the scales, not so deaded that it was just a flat dry thing. If I had a camera on me I would have taken a pic - because you KNOW you want to see a flat, dead snake!
Ok, so to the big one: white water rafting!!
Friday night Jeff and I headed down to Fukuyama, where we met the bus of JETs bound for Shikoku Island (I'm skipping a big bit there so I don't bore you to death. In a few words, 1.5 hr drive to Fukuyama, met Gabrielle at supermarket so she could show us the way back to her house, drove to her place, ran from her place to closest bus stop, 20min bus to Fukuyama station, used station toilet - grossest, smelliest squat toilet with no paper, found place where JET bus was picking us up from, waited for half hour while the bus was late, THEN met the bus of JETs!). I was a little overwhelmed at first, as the bus was already pretty full of JETs from Hiroshima, who were a) excited and b) had been drinking. They all knew Jeff and were politely enthusiastic about meeting me (read between the lines when 'politely enthusiastic' coincides with 'drinking'). But after the bus started and everyone was made to sit down so the bus driver didn't get pulled over by the cops, I had a chance to chat to some of the people Jeff had made friends with. That was good, being able to put faces to names.
I know I'm probably stupid for being surprised (again and again) at this, but it always impresses me how every time Jeff says he really likes someone or really got along with someone, that I find them really cool too. I mean, even with best friends there are inevitably SOME people you disagree on. But Jeff's judgement seems to strongly coincide with mine (though mine are inevitably expressed much stronger, while Jeff is more willing to give someone a chance when I think they are a git). So I enjoyed meeting the people he had hung out with at language camp.
Anyway, that night we drove about an hour and a half, maybe two, crossing the bridge to Shikoku Island (one of the big four, kind of South-east of the main island, Honshu). We stayed the night in a traditional hotel, a ryokan (hope I spelt that right!), where we stayed on tatami mats with futons. There were two of us couples sharing a room, which was slightly odd, but good because we didn't have to worry about a raging party in our room (he was a fairly quiet American guy who spoke a bit of Japanese, she was a quiet Japanese girl who spoke a bit of English. Fascinating, having a relationship where there is no language they are both fluent in. Or maybe that's a recipe for success - at least from the guy's point of view!).
We spent AGES that evening wandering round the streets in search of a conveni - stupidly we let a drunk guy look at the map initially. Finally when it was clear we weren't getting anywhere useful our Japanese roommate took the map and directed us to the conveni. Luckily it was a nice night for walking, because we had walked in a big circle to find the conveni when it was pretty much straight down the road from our accomodation!! Stupid drunk gaijins. After getting a couple of drinks and some midnight snacks we went back to one of the other rooms to be sociable. About 1am I decided there were too many fart jokes and Gregg was getting more nude than I was comfortable with, so I took off back to our room and not long after the rest of our room followed. Sleepy time!!
6:40am we started our day with a traditional Japanese breakfast. I hadn't had one of those before, and to be honest, I wouldn't rush to have one again. I don't remember EVERYTHING served, but will try to list what I remember: half raw egg served in some kind of broth, a fish steak, several types of pickled vegies, some kind of sweet bean, rice, miso soup, green tea, seaweed, salad (lettuce, tomato, ham and salad dressing), and more pickled THINGS (nope, no idea what!). I admit I am rather pedantic about breakfast, and NEED to start my day with a balanced nutritious feed - usually porridge or muesli with fruit and yoghurt, although occasionally I have toast with - you guessed it - fruit and yoghurt. So we all felt a bit out of kilter starting the day with such an odd assortment of food. At least I had managed to eat all mine - many others, Jeff included, couldn't stomach that food at that time of the morning and consequently were really hungry by the start of rafting.
Yes, the rafting. I'm getting there. After another hour and a half bus ride we all piled off at Happy Raft. There a Nelson boy gave us our forms and explained things, a bloke in the biggest pounamu ever got us into our wetsuits and a bloke who - according to all the Americans - looked like the Dad in Boy gave us the safety talk. The four of us Kiwis on the trip were cracking up - we come to Japan to go rafting and it's all Kiwis!!
However, when we got put on our boat we got an Australian guide - they cleverly have plenty of guides, so foreigners get an English-speaking guide (well, Australian is close to English :P) and Japanese customers got a Japanese guide. I guess for safety reasons you don't want to go down rapids unable to understand what your guide is telling you!
There were two notable things about our boat: we had Sarah, a physically timid English woman who only came because Jeff peer-pressured her into it and she was TERRIFIED. And for our guide we had 'Milky' - and we were his first ever boatload of customers to take down the river. I think you could safely say he was also terrified. So, as you can imagine, not a great combination!!
We started our day by plunging into the water while we were waiting on the boats - we were SO hot in our wetsuits, fleeces and helmets in the hot sun!! So we were all wet before we even got into the boats :) Back at base everyone had been complaining about wearing wetsuits and 'do we have to wear fleeces?' I kept telling them that I'm sure the guides knew what they were doing recommending we wear them, and that five hours on the river, wet, especially if we were in the shade, was a LONG time and they would get cold. Sure enough, as soon as everyone plunged into the river their eyes widened with the shock of the cold water and there were no further complaints about wetsuits or the ugly mustard fleeces!
As we set off down the river our guide taught us the basic commands - paddle forwards, paddle backwards, stop, lean left, lean right, hang on and get in. We also had safety talks about what happens if your boat flips or if someone falls out and needs the safety rope (turns out we needed all that info!). I was pretty laid back about the whole affair - having done the 7m waterfall in Rotorua, I expected the day to be fun, but not scary. How wrong was I!
The morning was pretty calm most of the time, with fairly small rapids warming us into it. There were LOADS of other boats out, so you were safe in the knowledge someone would fish you out quickly if you fell. In fact, our company had at least six boats go out at once and apparently there are TWENTY different companies running tours on the river, with no coordination between them as to who goes when. So before every rapid there were actually traffic jams, and we would have to pull up to the side and wait our turn!
Perhaps the scariest bit was when our guide made us turn around, hunker down and face backwards while we went down a particular rapid. As we went down, I could see the tension and fear on 'Milky's face - probably the scariest moment up till then! Sitting at the front of the boat, it had never occurred to me I wasn't in confident, capable hands!!
Then, just before lunch, it happened.
Oops, sorry, out of time! Will have to finish this tomorrow. Watch this space!!
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