Hi

Kiwi report #2. Those ear plugs sure came in handy Friday night. I dropped in for a couple of beers at the kareoke night downstairs. They had three mikes on at the same time. Needless to say it sounded like a heap of cats screaming.

Well Saturday was no good for flying so I decided to take a little trip down the coast to a town called Raglan. It has the best surfing on the North Island and sometimes they fly there. Well the trip took four hours, with a number of wrong turns. Talk about windey roads and no signs. Two hands on the wheel most of the way for an 70Km stretch. I'm not one for driving, but man it was really fun. I guess everyone thinks so too because the few cars that would come by every 10-15 minutes were all going about 80-100Km/h. I guess they have alot of deaths from speeding since I saw a number of signs asking drivers to slow down and heard numerous adds on the radio. Out in the country there are no solid lines, just dashes. The last 10 Km of the road was gravel, with little bits of pavement in between, really strange. When I got to Raglan, I went to the main Beach and had a quick look. They were having an "Eco-Reggae fest". It was getting late so back I went. This time I made it back in 1h 50m, after all that practice driving on the way down.

Sunday, 13th was good and so I met up with the gang at launch around noon. Sebastian, who brought down the glider I was to use, forgot the base tube so it was looking like I wasn't going to fly. When Paddy turned up he had an old glider that I was able to use. It was the same type I owned eight years ago, which makes it about 15 years old. It creaked, and had rusty pins but otherwise looked okay :-).
Winds were weak and I stayed up for only 6 minutes, shortest flight in four years. Spent an hour swimming after. Also got my first sunburn.

Well Sunday night was my last night at the Kentish hotel. I was getting attached to it. I was the only person checked in those two last nights. I would meet the cleaning staff, owner and their cat in the mornings over some tea. We would talk about New Zealand and Canada. The cat was always wandering around, even when patrons were in haveing a meal. One thing I won't miss is, what I assume was, the volunteer fire station alarm. It went off in the middle of the night Friday and Saturday and sounded like an air raid siren. The first time it went off I thought maybe India and Pakistan were at it and things got out of hand, with maybe the Brits jumping in.

Well, more later on Monday and todays whirlwind sightseeing tour. I have some postcards to send out now.

Martin