thats strange i’ll send again when i get to a comp with cd capabilities. this bungy jumping lark, looks like a walk in the park. possibly abit expensive. i’ll check it out.
what price white water rafting? i mean to say what kind of crappy insurance have you got me?
no fresh news on the lethal flu thing in tailand?
well i leaned something today. never under any cicumstances atempt a vicously dificult maze when you have to get on the bus at a specific time. the horror! we have just been to puzzle world, a theme paky kind of thing for puzzles. quite cool really, loads of wierd stuff encluding a room which was at a 45 degree angle. and of course there was this maze. if you havent experianced the unplesant realisation that you are the only one left in the maze from you bus which incedentaly is just about to leave, and your freinds are watching, loaghing and yelling contradictory directions, and atempting the impossible task of solving a maze wilst sprinting, well you havent lived! well i made it in the nick of time, but only by cheating and using one of the emergency escape hatches.
the day before i risked life and limb clambering on the glacier, i went kyaking. this was most exelent. we set of at about 3.30 and finished at 7ish. there was the option of double or single kyaks. i chose a single as it was quite clearly better. it was quite small and supprisingly menuverable with the aid of the rudder which i controled with foot peddels. there wasn’t much in the way of instruction. the bloke, who incerdentaly was called wayne, basicaly demonstrated how to paddle by flailing his arms a bit, and shoved us out into open water, with the usefull tip “don’t fall in” the lake we did it in was choppy to start with then became very calm and flat. i found it suprisingly easy get into a rythem and nip along at quite a pace. we went across the lake which was massive, then moved into a kind of mangrove swamp or something. the was a thin stream wich we could navigate amidst the reeds and twisted trees. all in all very classy. wayne took a load of digital photos and stuck them on a cd for us. i forgot to bring them into town so i’l mail some later.
the next day we set of bright and early for the glacier, after picking up our boots, raincoat, icepick and talonz(small versions of crampons with teeth very simmiler in style to a brickhammer) the first bit we walked was just rock and scree covering the base of the valley in the distance was the glacier, looking like an inormous mound of flower for some reason. it took us around 30. minutes to reach the base and there we split up into groups of diferent speeds. climbing the foothills of the glacier was quite easy the guides have already cut steps into the ice for you. the plan was that we would head up to an area sutable for lunch then tackle the sinister sounding pinakels(aaarg the pain of spelling) but before this we had to cross a series of nasty looking icebridges. these were basicaly your common or garden ladder stretched across a gaping casm with a plank on it so you didn’t fall through the rungs. the nasty part was that they were quite springy and there was not much of the ladder in contact with the ice, so there was a chance of them bouncing off. also you were suposed to walk with your feet well apart so that your talonz didn’t catch on your foot straps, this is tricky when you are walking a plank. at one point i my hair obscured my vision, and i stumbled giving me a heart stopping momant of terror befor i regained control. when we got to the lunching spot we decided to carry on to the pinakles and have lunch afterwards. at this point the steps were disapearing and the guide had to hack out new ones when we got to a perticulaly nasty section. the pinakle were like very sharp fold in the ice and we had to clamber along the bottom of the folds through thigh deep pools of freezing water or along the side of unplesantly deep sinkholes. the guide of course pranced obout like a mountan goat, leaping crevases and hacking steps left right and center. he was called hamish and was slightly crazy. at one point we came to this fantabulous icecave which burrowed deep into the glacier. the inside was a crisp blue and quite bright. the passege we travesed was very norrow at points smaller than the width of myshoulders and carved into amazing shapes. slightly scary but very cool. after the cave we hadto wait frozen to the marrow with our boots full of water as the guides tryied to work out were we could possably go. they chose to head for another cave accesed by walking along the side of a fold with nothing below us but a large hole. very tricky and non a little scary. after that we had lunch and went back down. and had a bit of a rest.
got to go. i’ll mabe ring tonight.
hello! i’m in franz josef, it is picturesque here, right next to the mountains and the ice rivers. there are about three houses and two shops or so. we stoped at a mining town on the way and we had the oppotunity of panning for gold. i declined, it was a bit stupid as they quite clearly poured gold dust into a pan put some rocks on top and you “gold pan” into a plastic bucket. very tacky i thought. went for a walk instead with a couple of swedish girls called jesica and helen and anglish guy called rob who i had met on the bus. they are prety cool, and i am doing some kyaking in about 20 minutes with them. tomorrow i’m doing the full day glacier walk taking about 8 hours or so. it should be fun. i’ll blog later on see you
julio
yo! hmm six fresh e-mails from tarn to read. curse this expencive e-mail place.
i’m in greymouth at the momant, not much tot do here, and i can’t be bothered to pay for an activity.the bus journy here was quite plessent. the bus was due in westport to pick me up at 12.45. of course i have a horror of missing buses/trains so i arrive an hour early. after a soul consuming wait the godrotting bus eventualy arrives at 1.30. the river leaps out, he seemed a jolly chap. he gestured at a clip bourd and rasped something at me. hell, i said to myself. this was just what i needed, a hyperactive bus driver with a speech defect. it turned out that i could just make a rough estimation of what he was saying from reading his lips. i’ll see you back here at 2.15, he stated. most plesent. to cool myself down i went and bourt the biggest icecream ever. fantastic! the journey itself was ok. we would stop every now and again to have a rest and at one point he dropped a few of us of at the start of a walk, and after an hours walking picked us up at the end. we lost some people on the walk so we had to drive around looking for them for ages. this made us so late that the driver decided we should visit the beach and watch the sunset. nice! it is funny how hard it is not to look directly at the sun when you look at a sunset. amidst flailing wildly at ravening sandflys, catching sight of the sun and screaming “my eyes! they burn!” and atempting to take photos of the sunset using my sunglasses as a rudamentory lens filter, i had a nifty time. we also stopped at punakaki the pancake rock place. a bit dull really. just a load of rocks and stuff. lost my toothbrush, or someone stole it. the foam bits on my shaving devices seem to have melted into slime, this mixed with soap dribling from my soap tube, has formed a viscouse ooze at the bottem of my toiletry bag. it coats everything. fowl. had to clean it out today. descoved that my toothbrush container smells revolting, running a finger inside i found it had a layer of foulness cakeing the inside. obvisly it is the perfect breeding ground for germs and fungi. nice one mama! ear cotten bud things are usefull by the way! right i’m going into town to develope my pictures.
wack! advance wars 2 comes out june 23 . nice!
nergle? quite clearly i transmited a virus which invaded his brain, thus teminating him.
your the war is all over the place, a bit hellish really. i got the jacket, amazing price. now, not only do i look like the spitting image of indiana jones, but i can go up to people in tailand and say “hi, i’m selling these fine leather jackets!” in tribute to monkey island.
thanks for the e-mail mama. speaking of puzzles there is one in most of the hostels i have stayed at involving moving wooden blocks around. it is insanely difficult. i hate it. most useful advice on the gold front, though i’m not sure i will be stopping at those places.
i’m finaly quitting this hole of a town, by god! leaving after lunchings. i think i might treat myself to a whitebait meal at some cafe.
by the way how come i have no e-mails from you tarn? is now one forwarding them to me? a pox on ye all!
am reading a lusbader novel called ninja at the moment. campared to tai pan it is simple and tacky. can’t believ i used to read his stuff.
had a jolly birthday-walk-on-the-beach yesterday. much fun.