Wanaka Free Falling....Fast!

Hi Folks,
I decided to have my very first Skydive ... in Wanaka. It was a clear sunny day, although there was a windy front coming in so they pushed everything forward to get all the foreigners in (me included)

Anthony was my jump buddy, who had been skydiving for 14 years so he wasn't apprehensive at all!

We were strapped up  .... I had my clown nose on, 

but was told to remove it as the fierce wind may cut the nylon cord into my face.

Off we roll out into the sky.........

Falling at 180km/h...is quite frightening for about 45 seconds...

the pressure on the ears is very intense.

Yaba daba Doooo!

Gravity is really something!

 When the parachute opens its quite a jolt..... and it takes quite a time for the ear pressure to equalise.

Gee it's still along way up there Anthony!

Good job Mate!

Back on terra firma ... the more firma the less terra. 

Anthony said.."would you do that again". I said "no, once was enough"

 We then headed for Lake Hawea up the eastern side of the Lake and managed to find a lovely park up.

 We headed for Gore, a sweet little town, we visited it last year and ended up this time staying nearly a week.

 Some murals around the town.

 A Nelson artist by the name of Natalie Chaplin, was travelling the south island and had set up her own exhibition in Gore.

I was most impressed, she was in the gallery every day & I had lovely chat with her.

I wish her all the best on her artistic journey, she has already at the tender age of 23 gone very far!

 Below is Christine's #1 most cluttered shop ... the local wool shop.

However the lady in there knew where everything was!

We were staying at the A&P showgrounds and there was a two day Show Jumping event ...

 on view right from the back window of the bus.

These two are just horse-ing around!

They also had an 1/8th of a mile drag racing event on the Sunday in Gore 

It was time trial, only one car at at a time as the road was pretty narrow.

Pre drag burn out...dragging some good used rubber onto the road.

 These days there are also electric powered cars, some of which are quick, but the sounds and smells do not (for me) stir the blood. 

Below is a flat deck pickup....all electrical.

He puts the boot in and all he gets is Volts

Next we headed to Dunedin as we were having some battery charging issues, the solar panels were not keeping up with our usage. Finally we figured out we needed new house batteries.

 From Mosgiel we went into the City of Dunedin to get things sorted and visited the Art gallery and other city attractions.

There was a Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition and most some of it was most impressive.

This is a collaged photo image of an artist's impression of where we are all heading with technology, with reference to the old Chinese classical paintings of mountains and rivers.

This is a leather Tank, somewhat deflated...and quite a statement in comment and skill. 

 This was done several years ago and no doubt has been touring the world in exhibitions since.

Many of the painting below have been bequeathed from collections held in Dunedin.

If you want to see any of these photos closer up, just double click the photo.

At the Dunedin Farmers market a child gets a new face.

 I spotted these heritage nectarines...great name by the way.

 We stayed out at Mosgiel at the Taieri Rugby club area called Peter Johnstone Park.

These cones caught my eye (simple things please simple minds).

 Mosgiel has its Priority Parking issues well sorted.

So we left Dunedin with new house batteries all fitted and headed back into Central Otago, taking the back roads west of State Highway 1.

More to follow.

Take care, be creative and have fun!

Jimu & Christine