ATAAHUA ORA

Alex, a friend from work has left New Zealand yesterday to go to work in London. He’s originally from Serbia so the last 9 years spent in NZ away from friends and family made his decision to move a little bit easier. I must say that I’m very impressed with his organisational skills - he basically packed his whole house in a week! Admittedly, his wife and two kids are already in Serbia, having taken some of their things with them and he hired a container to take most of the furniture over to London, which came with professional packers (who went through his house “like locusts”) but he still managed to sell two cars and the rest of the things from the house. The only item remaining in the house was a computer desk, which he sold but wasn’t picked up.

Now today was an interesting day - we were going to take him out to lunch before driving to the airport but he called me earlier that one of his travel bags fell to pieces. Emergency! Had to drive over to Dressmart, where he got the bag last week and got it exchanged for a bigger wheelie case. Stopping for lunch in St Lukes we also picked up some hand luggage to fit his laptop and not exceed 7kg.

After that it was back to his house to finish packing. We should’ve gotten the bigger wheelie case! After finding two extra pairs of shoes and a big pile of sweaters in one of the wardrobes it became pretty clear he is not going to fit into his luggage. Lukas was sent to deflate a basketball and fetch a spacesaver bag to give the bags a chance to hold at the seams. At the same time I was trying to fit everything into his two cases, Alex had hurt his back helping people remove things from his house and was having trouble kneeling, bending, walking, sitting, whatever. I’m sure that the stress of leaving the country wasn’t helping either!

Anyway, we made it to the airport with 2,5 hours to spare, which was lucky because as it turned out the cases were overweight (fact: you can take two pieces of luggage, up to 32kg each if you’re travelling through North America. If going through Asia, the limit is 20kg per person) and he had to repack them to make a new piece, which had to be paid for (another fact: if travelling through America you pay a flat fee for each extra piece of luggage, again up to 32kg. This fee was NZD$175. Going through everywhere else you pay for each extra kg). With all these adventures it was pretty amazing that he still had time to buy some greenstone pendants for his children before heading for the gate. Happy flying, Alex! Hope your back is not giving you trouble!

I did it!
Sky Jump is when you work yourself up to step off a platform on Sky Tower. This platform is 192m above ground. Pictures soon in the albums, but here’s a couple from the big day:

I jumped with Edouard, a friend from work, and Dee, Edouard’s friend. The worst thing about the whole jump is the anticipation. I dreamt about jumping the night before the jump and didn’t jump in the end. The whole day I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So when we finally got to Sky City on Friday afternoon I couldn’t get any more excited without getting a heart attack. Edouard was playing cool but the ultimate queen of coolness was Dee. However, in the lift (with glass bottom and glass windows to show you how high you’re going) Dee was getting more and more worked up. Then we had to wait for a test run of the cables, as it was a pretty windy day and finally Edouard was preparing for the jump. It didn’t look too bad, the view is breathtaking from up there and even the “walk down the plank” was exciting in a good way. Then I found myself standing on the end of the platform, with my toes hanging over the edge and the guy yelling in my ear: “Here comes Aggie in ONE, TWO, THREEEEEEE!!!!”. And I was still standing on the end of the platform. But I did jump, or, I did take the step forward and started sliding down. The view is good but if you really want to feel the speed - turn towards the tower and see the concrete segments zoom by.

At least in terms of the number of things that happened.
First, on Saturday morning we finally got our wardrobe doors installed. Had I known that it was going to take all of 10 minutes, I would have asked for delivery and did it myself instead of waiting for the guy to turn up for two weeks.
Then, in the light of last weekend’s trip to the snow and Lukas’ board literally falling apart, we went looking at snowboards. Drawing on my recent experience buying a snowboard in NZ, I picked a board for him from the Internet and marketed it well before we left. That was a good idea, since every shop assistant was trying to sell something from their own stocks, nevermind the size or the suitability. We ended up buying (my) our choice in the fourth (and last) shop we visited, R&R Sports on K’Rd. This is also where I got my new gear a few months ago. Lukas’ new shredstick is Ride Havoc 159 with Burton Mission bindings. He loves it to bits, it’s currently taking pride of place in front of the entrance door so that every visitor can get a good look at it .

I also got some new snowboard boots since they were on sale and we got an even better price buying them together with the board - Ride Rhythm. Can’t wait to try them out!
Then today it was Father’s Day, which we celebrated with a bbq at my parents’ place and a bike trip to Paremuka Lakeside - a new park in Henderson. In a few years time it will be a second Western Springs.