an introduction

Alright, so I am situated in the fantastic town of Murchison, with their 800 inhabitants of which 300 live in town. Its a really nice place in the bottom of a valley, with mountains and rivers all around. Its the perfect place to be a kayaker because just in half an hours drive there are over 16 different runs. AMAZING. So far I have met some awesome people in this town and because i probably will mention them more or less, ill give the main characters a short introduction:

Danny the traveller: Danny is from Lee on Solent, close to Portsmouth, an hour away from London, UK. We met in Norway at an activity center, where we both worked and decided to travel together to the grand NZ. We both got trainee "jobs" at Ultimate Descents, which is the rafting company next door to the cafe where we both got jobs as well, to pay for the trainee "job". Anyway, Danny is working to become a grade three new zealand standard raft guide, which is a lot of work. She has travelled, more or less for the last three years, spent a lot of time in Canada, a lot of time in Australia, some time in Mexico and Norway, and spent the rest of the time traveling to little places like Fiji and such. We live together in a hut now.

Mary the car: Mary is our Mazda Lantis, which i hate and love with a passion. She has been baptized in a proper fashion, putting angels on its body. But still, only after two weeks she broke down on us, and has surprisingly not fixed itself and therefor keeps braking down on us. Poor thing, she is waiting for an alternator change.. ANyway, she has been good to us, when she's not breaking down, and got us from auckland all the way through the north island, through the east coast on the south island and up to murchison. We slept in the back, and for those who knows how small this car is, you can understand why we often woke up with people laughing at us and commenting our sleeping situation. We met some cool people this way, an example, when we woke up to find ourselves in the middle of a gypsy market with a broken down car, NICE!

Jude the stressed out boss: Jude is our boss at the cafe, and she is awesome. She has kind of taken the role of our mom, and because we had been sleeping in the car for the past two weeks before meeting her, (im guessing we didnt look to good) she has given us her spare clothes to use for work, pushing pretty much everyone she knows to give us a place to stay and fixed us rented bikes. She is a wonderwoman in short, but because all wonderwoman work very hard she gets easily stressed and therefore runs to Australia on holiday and threatens to leave every time she gets too stressed. You have to love her.

Fiona the hard worker: Fiona was the first woman jude pushed to rent us a room, we stayed with her for two weeks and got to know Fiona quite well. She has two awesome dogs, a mother and son, called Teva and Ted, which i had the joy of taking out for walks as often as i wanted. They are crazy but very fun and very well trained! Fiona works two shifts pretty much every day and her night job is the chef at the local pub for the locals, the Hampten. She has a boyfriend whose name is Grant and he is pretty cool, even though i dont know him that well yet. She has been nothing but good to us.

Danielle the doctor: Danielle is the woman that took us in after Fiona. After a cup of tea she decided to let us take care of her house and cat for the weekend while she was away for free! Yes, this is danielle.. She trusts us with everything and has been so kind to us. She is absolutely crazy and has no limits and no fear. After years of caving she decided to switch to another field and become a kayaker. She is very good friends with Mick, who is a legend in the kayaking world, and got him to make her into a grade 4 paddler in one year, which she pulled off!! This is where she met Jeff, her current boyfriend of 5 years, who is a good grade 5 paddler and very good friends of Mick. She not only let us stay for free at her house and use everything she had, for a good week and a half, she has also taken me into her life and takes me out paddling trying to teach me as much as she possibly can and introduces me to as many people as she can. Yesterday, she let us pick as much silverbeed, spinach, rhubarb and raspberrys as we could handle. And in january there will be tomatoes waiting!

Donna the amazing chef: Donna is the day chef at the cafe and is very good but works way to much for her own good. She is a lovely woman, and like pretty much everyone else I've gotten to know, she is extremely kind. She has rented out a sleepout in the back of her house to us for 20 dollars a week! Its an absolutely lovely sleep out, with two massive double beds, no need to say any more is there? She has a really cool house, a lovely daughter named Holly, a crazy (and im sure mental) dog who i love and a very cute lamb that we call Shaun. The dog is crazy and extremely friendly which it shows by laying infront of your feet while your trying to walk to get you to rub its tummy.
Donna has an awesome taste in music, loving drums and bass, and she is currently going to Fleetwood Mac tomorrow. Which means i get to watch the dog for a warm shower/ bath. Think im going for the bath.

Regen the raft guide and former trainee: Regen is the most awseome raft guide at Ultimate Descents. He has taken the roll of the good friend and "mentor" while i was there, and worked hard to teach us everything he possibly could. He is very kind and fun to be with. He is currently the ball in my band "cock and balls", but sadly we havent had a chance to perform yet because of the lack of another ball. We do however have a good dance routine, which Regen is a master at.

Annabelle the outspoken: Annabelle is one of the coolest girls i have gotten to know so far, she is not afraid to say her speak and will, no matter what other people say in return. I am so glad I've gotten to know her, she is awesome to hang out with and so much fun. She is Regens girlfriend and works at the cafe as Donnas right hand. She is very good at forgetting things in the oven, but has extreme luck remembering in the last second and ususaly when they're just perfect!

Leone, the returned sheep from Aussie: Leone is Annnabelles sister, and has returned to NZ from Aussie for the summer to hang out with Annabelle, and now me. She is working as the barista at the cafe and is as close as you can get to a southerner in the states. She, like Annabelle, says her mind when its in her place, and she comes out with the funniest comments which will crack the most serious person up. She rents a room from the couple that owns the Hampten, and they love her being there. She also has a boyfriend back in Aussie land, who, judging by the massive card he's made for her, is the best boyfriend in the world!

Sandra, the frontline: Sandra is frontline at UD, and is pretty much the instructor for every active class they have in this town and if you ever read a copy of the murchison newsweek (can be bought at every store for 50 cents) her name will appear more than once under activities. She loves helping the locals out. She is originally from the UK, but now after getting her NZ residency she spends half her year here and the other half in France. She has pretty much done everything in the active tourism industry and is one of the fittest woman i know. She does some kayaking, but is more into waka paddling, which she took me out to try last week.

Philippa the girl with the "gods gift to woman" boyfriend: Philippa also works as frontline at UD on Sandras days off. She also works at the swing bridge, where you actually have to pay 5 $ to cross! She is incredibly nice and has invited us poor souls over for christmas! She is the kinder of the kindest. Her boyfriend is gods gift to woman. He comes down with awesome lunches for Philippa to our great jealousy, has offered to fix Mary by changing the Alternator for us for just a bottle of brandy and has offered his house to us on christmas. You gotta love the guy!

Trainees, the working class that doesn't get payed: The trainees at UD are all wonderful people and have chosen to live in a very poor state in order to get treated like slaves and not get payed for anything (except shuttle drives, which is a whooping 60 $). I was one of them, but have decided i'd rather spend my days paddling than rafting. The trainees include: Danny (who I've already introduced). Jilian, the girl which nobody ever manages to spell her name right, she works at the commercial pub some nights and has just bought her first kayak and is awesome, she is currently moving in to Danielle's place and out of her van.
Jenny, the hardcore girl straight from Polytech. She always manages to get hurt in some way, just like myself, and has chosen to live in poverty because there aren't a lot of jobs here and she loves to spend her money at the pub or at her friends house drinking. She is always in a good mood and very hardcore.
Ryan, the traveling trainee, Ryan comes down to train in the weekends, and is never sure about a whole lot, he just does as he pleases whenever and instead of getting a job he sells his stuff (he has a gazillion things) and comes down for the weekends and travels around the rest of the week. If you ask him of something his answer 9 out of 10 times will be: i don't know or maybe. He is a good kayaker, and we go paddling together whenever he decides to turn up. He doesn't really have a plan for his rafting, he just does it cause he likes it, so far. cool.