Takaka

Yaay, so here I am in Takaka - or rather Paynes ford, the rock climbing area - where I am camping in a climbers only camp ground due to high demand. So I am surrounded by climbers and really cool people, all into doing the same things as me - climbing and not much else!

Saying that there are options to do tramps in the 2 close National Parks, the Abel Tasman and the Kahurangi as well as mountain biking in the surrounding hills and swimming in the river that runs at the bottom of the lime stone crags we climb on.

All in all with the temperatures in the late 20's and me basking in the sun whilst doing outdoor pursuits I'm going to wish you a Merry Christmas, and I hope the weather does something proper like snow!

x

Hanmer Summer - to Takaka and beyond

An apology to start with, I have been very remiss about posting, but my life has rather busied up since coming to hanmer.

I am just wrapping up 9 weeks of full time work with an activity centre where I have been training on a 3 days paid, 2 days voluntary basis. The activities I have been running are orienteering, a series of team building activities, mountain biking and tree climbing (although I'm shadowed on that as I don't have the necessary quals). So i have been learning the art of leadership, flanked by some really awesome instructors, and great bosses. I suppose it isn't a run of the mill job as every day is totally different, from the students and teachers, to the weather to the time. We work with school groups from year 5 though to year 13, so one session you'll have extremely competent 17 y olds from an all girls school, followed by a bunch of lovely but needy 8 - 9 year olds from a city school. On top of this start times for work range from 7am to 11 am, and finish between 4.30 and 7.30 pm, so one can never fall in to a proper routine, which can be hard, especially as I find routine useful. On the up side, it never really gets boring!.... Its a perfect level for me to learn at.

So the job has been very stimulating and challenging, my people skills have developed considerably and my confidence with groups is hugely better. The first couple of weeks of instructing on my own were scary, and I got nervous leading up to them, but now I'm much more relaxed and I'm able to concentrate on the quality of my delivery and making sure the client gets the most from the sessions and the sessions are appropriate for the age and ability.

Not only is the job really cool, the area around Hanmer Springs is beautiful, surrounded by mountains with huge areas of forest, many mountain bike tracks and tramps, places to camp and fish, swim and kayak, plus there are hardly any people here!

Sadly after the summer holidays (the company follows the school holidays as we work mainly with school groups) Activity Hanmer are only able to offer me 3 days a week. I decided to take it anyway as it isn't for too long a time (from early Feb to easter), plus it gives me the opportunity to work 2 to 3 days a week at the hot pools and gain an internationally recognised life guarding qualification.

In the mean time I have about 6 weeks of free time! Which I am going to spend rock climbing and mountain biking and chilling and sitting on beaches and sleeping under the stars and swimming in rivers and drumming and going to concerts and festivals, and probably not working that much in Takaka - Golden Bay. Its going to be awfully good. At the moment my only issue is getting up there as I will probably have to hitch with quite a bit of stuff and a bike.... hmmm.

Possibilities for the winter season are - doing a ski instructors course, try and get into mountaineering, or working more in a cafe or outdoor shop... so i need to do more endless research and make more decisions. Following the winter season my plans become even more vague, with Canada becoming a possibility in September where I would ideally train in wilderness survival and bushcraft instruction. Otherwise I would follow up on the ski instructors course and instruct at a ski resort in the northern winter. Following THAT I'm hoping to go to the US to work at a camp america in North Carolina on which a few of my current colleagues have been, and bring awesome feedback on. Next, who knows....

So that is my plan. But at the moment I'm munching on some short bread i have just baked, whilst waiting for my climbing gear to drop through in to the letter box from america, and considering wether I should get into aggressive inline skating if I go back to Wanaka.

Love x