hola, bitches! ima back and rested and, after almost ten days off, never want to work ever again. strap yourselves in for a bumper post... it's long so i'll forgive you if you skim it.
here's mikey at one of those signs near punakaiki. we'd just seen some seals. mikey bought some 'travelling pants' for $20 at big W the day before we left and he wore them pretty much every day. it's with love and respect i say that they were pretty awful and he was horrified when we got home and saw all the photos.
i have no idea why i was making this sign, we did not go fishing. the jacket is Bernie's and is from SES. i left my big duffle in melbourne so borrowed this one. i'm wearing it with my deer brooch from zia and the sunnies i bought for $10 from countdown (aka, un zed woolies. what they're counting down to, i don't know).
here's me early one morning near the thermal pools at maruia. i'm wearing b's jacket, her red wool scarf and some everlast trackies (which were my travelling pants). also got my maroon campers on, which are trashed following some mountain climbing. more on that later.
here's me by the road, on our way up into the mountains. i bought the hat from the kids section of warehouse for $6.95 - which, with the exchange rate i am calling five dollars. yessssss. lovely handmade jumper i bought from an op shop for $3.
so this is me halfway up the mountain. to get to these particular ski fields we chose, we actually had to climb the mountain to temple basin, some club owned runs that haven't changed since the seventies. the appeal was that they were isolated, which they were - we had the place to ourselves, except for some mad italians who disappeared over the other side anyway.
ANYWAY, the climb up was alleged to take 45-50 minutes on the website. it was not so. it was a half a kilometre up in the air, but wound up and up and up. this was us about halfway up. towards the top there was snow and there was one point i was crawling on my hands and knees to avoid slipping off the edge. the campers did not serve me well, at all, and this look on my face sums it all up pretty well, i think.
here's me at the top. it was worth it, although that night i was the most body tired i've been in a long, long time. i'm wearing my beanie again and my scarf was knitted by my nana.
this is me winning connect 4. still haven't managed the art of winning gracefully. the black jacket is the 'showerproof' one i bought from FCUK early winter and, after skiing in it, can confirm that it is not waterproof.
here's mikey in our bunk. he bought a jaunty white V neck to go with the travelling pants and combined, he looked, well, gay. me and his sister clare had lots of fun teasing him about it. all's i can say is that boy is secure in his sexuality getting around in gettup like that.
Here's mikey in his incredible hulk ski gear. he was magnificent on the slopes, while i had a much worse time due to a 'nutcracker' lifts, which do not work well for left-handed people and subsequently fell off it more times than i made it to the top. mikey is wearing a green ski jacket borrowed from his dad, colin. sunnies $10 from countdown.
here's me in a borrowed thermal top from colin, borrowed ski pants from clare and my beanie. again. it was cold up there but perfect spring skiing - apart from there being no one around, it was sunny and actually quite hot, what with all the falling off the towbar and everything.
here's mikey in his OTHER pair of pants - green fishing or possibly garbageman pants, bought for $10 from savemart (2nd hand store). they were hilarious, and every single dude who worked on the mountain commented on them - one guy loved them and thought they were rad, another offered to lend him a pair of shorts.
here's me relaxing outside the lodge, looking at these giant parrots, natives, called kea. they are really naughty and like stealing things. i heard they can unzip zips and unwrap sandwiches.
here's one climbing my leg after trying to rip the rubber from the sole of my boot.
this is mike's sis, clare, getting a big lick from muruma. clare's tee-shirt reads 'spooning leads to forking' and she bought it in las vegas.
here's mikey's dad, colin. colin's in his green macpac tee and trackies.
here's us on our last day in ch-ch. i'm wearing a jumper i bought second hand in newtown, mikey is in a light blue jumper he bought recently for about $20, i think.
kent and joelene live just over the back from colin's, and kent and mikey are old mates from school. kent has just qualified as an architect and jolene is a hair and makeup artist. i couldn't bring myself to explain about DTTE and the confusion it would no doubt bring, but i did manage to ascertain joely's jeans are from nu+nan in newtown - she lived in Oz for four years. we had a lovely last night there with our hosts and a bunch of mikey's mates and stayed until we got kicked out, about 2am.
here's us under the clothesline (we were about to climb over the back fence). we got home around 2am and then packed and set our alarm for a six am flight (that turned out to be five am because of daylight saving). in short, we got up about an hour and a half after we went to bed and it made for a pretty horrible night/morning, whatever it was.
here's us at the airport at ch-ch. mikey said the flights were only about $100 each or something at that hour and as much as i love a bargain it didn't stop me whispering sweet 'i hate you's' into his ear until we boarded and finally got to sleep.
