After a leisurely start to the day, we wander into town for a cup of coffee and a Danish however within 20 minutes we were sat in a helicopter, waiting to get airborne. I say sat in a helicopter, because nothing is ever as easy as it should be. Firstly we had the helicopter revving hard and about to take off (by ‘we’ I mean the pilot, because the only contribution I made was to grab the pilots hand for some peculiar reason) when air traffic control transmitted to say they had an emergency and hence we were grounded!
We shut the aircraft down (again the royal we) and waited to be told that it was only an exercise and yes we could go for a fly. Starting the engine for the second time was not quite as successful, the pilot flooded the engine and could not get it started for love nor money. Eventually an older guy who was doing some maintenance on the jetty wandered over and talked the ‘pilot’ through the engine start up routine and we were off (he assures us he has a full licence, however he didn’t do a lot to inspire confidence).
The flight was great, over steaming geysers, sulphur springs, volcanic landscapes, scenes from ‘the Hobbit’, Maori burial grounds and the Blue and Green Lakes and we even managed to get back in one piece.
We then had a wander around the public park in the middle of ‘Rotten roua’; where they have Tulips, Wisteria, boiling ponds and steam vents all tastefully intermingled (I would love to see a British Parky try that one). Our health and safety ‘nutters’ would insist on a safety cordon of about 200 yards, whereas out here all that separated little Johnny from certain death was some pansies ( I don’t know about the other side of the world, more like a different world – the NZ approach would be ‘the little bugger would only do it once wouldn’t he’).
We finished the day with a drive out to the Blue and Green Lakes (probably to check that the colour wasn’t some trick of the light, played by a student masquerading as a competent operator of helicopters), and probably the tastiest Thai meal we had ever tasted (Nigel reckons the Thai waitress was probably one of the tastiest the had ever seen as well).
Tomorrow we are off to Napier, supposedly the capitol of the Arts and Craft movement out here, very Art Deco and a major summer destination. It is in the centre of Hawke’s Bay, you may not be familiar with the name but I bet most of you have drunk a wine from New Zealand that has originated form here.
Photo’s:
Fern Forest (these ferns are 40/50ft high)
Blue Lake
Backseat Driver
Maori Chief Burial Island by the Blue Lake
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