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So today – well – first a few characters… There’s Jonathan, who is the brother in law of my first cousin Hannah ;) . Now I met Jonathan at a bar-b-q that Hannah’s cousins (in law) had in ChCh last week. Following so far? Good. So – Jonathan is an awesome mountaineer, and knows other good ones too. So – his friend Dave was organising this sorta Canyoning trip today.

And Maeve and I went along – Glynn left at 5am on his way to Adelaide for a conference… ahh well. Thems the breaks of the working life. So – off we went towards the hills… And accompanied by Mike (Hannah’s cousin in law) and Sam – a Rhodes scholar from North Carolina – who is definitely tall, and definitely fun. Over here for a year – all paid – very nice. With his mountain bike in tow.

The others on the trip were – Dave – our leader – Sarah,Tim, Alan (from the Northern Ireland – complete with accent), Glynn and Lara. So a nice little bunch.

Started out with a 1.5 hour walk in, hot sun, (last time to be hot for a while!) So yeah, I started thinking that it was going to be ‘interesting’ when they said we had to absail down straight into the river / waterfall pool. No nice and easy break in – no – straight into the river for us. Also – when Dave was explaining that if you tried to absail on the wrong rope that you would fall to your -well – probable death. However, it was common sense as there was a huge chain and knot in the rope.. so if you tried to absail on the side that was the same as the knot then obviously it wouldn’t be running through the chain and you’d have nothing to stop you on your way down. And deservedly so if you make a mistake like that ;) joking joking.

And the two absail ropes where black (for bad – don’t absail on me) and white (for good). Again confirming that all things in life that are bad for you are coloured black – like the Black Riders, and those that are good are white – like Gandalf. Though I guess Saruman was an exception to that rule.

So yeah – straight down into the river, and worked our way along – hopefully will have a few pics to put up later on this week – am having Sam over for dinner (with his digital camera ;) so hopefully get a few pics then…

There was lots of jumping down waterfalls (though I must admit – I hate it – and generally traversed round rather than jump in – i had a fairly painful experience jumping – oh – 4.5m ish into glacial water while rafting in France, so it’s not like I’ve not jumped before :)

So yeah – waterfalls – and *cold*. It was cold, without wetsuits it was defiantly cold, so added incentives to keep out of the water, all good though. And then jumping down a sorta boulder field in the river for the last couple of k’s. Which I really enjoy – hopping around rivers, definitely fun. Right up to the point at which you twist your ankle.

So it was fun, as I didn’t twist it :) But I was glad I was wearing my hike boots and not runners.

Back to the cars, few pints – well glasses of beer (no I wasn’t driving) chips – most needed, and then home.

So yeah, hopefully will put up a few pics sometime, in the meantime, it really is the little differences sometimes….

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