Helicopters, Geeks & NZ wine

Well, up early, flight on, picked up at 9 & took off by @ 9.45

To paraphrase Craig Revill-Horwood (or whatever his name is (Strictly Judge, Luvvies))
Fa-bu-lous!
Take off was cool, flying over the bay was cool, jiggling about in the thermals was cool - even though it completely did for my camera work!, & the awesome rocks at the location were so cool they were hot.

Anyway - to backtrack a bit.
Got picked up at the Paradiso & taken out to the airport. Sorry mate, can't remember your name, even though Scott told me! But, Thanks, anyway.
Introduced to Dion, the Pilot, & he did all the safety stuff (incl talking about what I should do in the event of a crash - eek!).
Then it was get aboard, buckle up, headphones on (it was bloody noisy), & lift off.
Lift offs were fun. Kind of like a 'polite' slow-motion buck. And those of you who never experienced a horse bucking will just have to take my word for it!

A great journey westish over the bay towards the Abel Tasman National Park - the smallest in NZ (& it's tiny! - ahh, cute).
As we hit the hills at the other side we tossed about a bit in the thermals, but that was just good fun.
A warning, though.
When the vids of this are up, don't watch them if you're inclined to be queasy. I can't be responsible for vomit on your keyboard (it'll be a real bugger to get off, too!)

After a bit, Dion* pointed out the rocks used in the location for the trip south of Rivendell - before they tried to go up Caradhras. It was a wonderful right-handed swoop down to land, & I think the vid will be fun.
Unfortunately, Dion hadn't flown the cast & crew 10 yrs ago, & didn't know all the camera angles, like Ted had at Mt Victoria, but if my memory worked OK, I managed to get the right photos.
It was on Mt Olympus, which sounds like it should be 'he-uwj', but is actually only 1519.

(And yes, they photos/vids are still not up, but I consulted a Geek this afternoon, & if it rains tomorrow, as promised, I'll upload some.)

All to soon it was Andy Pandy (time to go home), & we lifted off again & flew home via Harcourt Hole. This is bloody big hole in the ground peeps like to go down - no accounting for taste, eh?

* Re Dion. I don't know if it's a function of having a mike close to his mouth a lot, but he was very Daniel Craig from the side. I was quite fascinated!
What with Scott (who came with us & ran me back to town) looking like a young Tom Hanks (think 'Big' & you'll be almost there), & Dion having Mr Craig's profile, it was an almost lustful morning - fnar, fnar!

It was a very hot day, & after Scott had dropped me off, I wandered around Nelson for a bit.
I stuffed my face with cherries, & saw copies of the One Ring, Nenya & Aragorn's at Jensen's - they designed & made the the original rings used in the film. This was all due to the kindness & courtesy of the lovely Anne-Marie at Jensen's, who took out very expensive jewellry, & let me photograph & hold it. Wow. & when I say expensive, I mean EXPENSIVE!

Then I met a Geek. He told me there may be a problem with my SD card & took it away to fix it.
I nearly completed a Sudoku while I waited.
I may need to get another SD card. Heaven forbid I lose some photos & vids!

After that I walked to the sea. The map showed a shortcut - & it was (as the crow flew!). Unfortunately, the shortcut went up a hill & down a hill about 4 times before I made it to the prom. Ah well, good for the CVS & the legs!

Then I spent a lot of money on a late lunch - cider, whitebait, gewurtztraminer, groper (a fish, not a randy bloke), botrytis riesling, & an awesome treacle pud. $87 dollars - oops ;-)

Walked back to town after that. It was after 6, but still wonderfully warm, so when I got back to the Paradiso I decided to go down the local for more alcohol - that made 4 helpings since 4pm (Shut up, I'm on my hols).

I was on my way to blog, but I got waylaid by a Wales/All Black game on the telly, so I'm a bit later than planned.
Anyway, that doesn't matter, as most of you will be at work right now - unless you're in the US of A, where you'll still be in bed!

That's more or less it for today, folks. It sounds like there a good film on the telly, so I'm off to have a shufti before bed!
OAO