From: Adrian O [adrian_o_stories_at_hotmail_dot_com]
Sent: 29 February 2008 06:27
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Cc: sazandben_at_hotmail_dot_com
Subject: greetings from the land below the world


Greetings, to all our friends in the place above .....and to to some who are down here in the land below the world. As one or two of you may already know we had a fun beginning to our journey when we found that neither of our credit cards would work on leaving the UK.....for two different reasons, one A HACKED INTO WEBSITE leaving ourselves more than Hacked Off....the other a piece of returned Mail undelivered over the Xmas period ...Triggering an A/C query.....that then triggered a computer programming error.....leaving us stranded half way round the world with no access to cash......to cut a very long story short ( novel for a Storyteller I hear you say).....we tried the Busking.. fire eating .....Lap dancing ( it's overated.found it hard to keep my footing while dancing on those laps ) .Sue tried the Unicycle but all to no avail....and in the end we had to rely on a Poker player in the Uk ( thanks Luke ! ) to get us out of trouble....it took over 3 weeks to solve the problem......so many phonecalls that they sent up a new satellite to cope with the demand. After checking in on the family in Nelson( and assured that the arrival of latest grand daughter was at least a few weeks away) we headed south to the Ends of the Earth.... Fiordland.... and all the wonders that that entails...one of the wettest places on the planet....with extravagant waterfalls ......light shows and rainbows....dolphins and penguins...........it was our third time to visit Doubtful sound....the Charter Boat that we go with had never before taken anyone for a third time so they made a special thing of giving us a HALF PRICE Deal........it got even better on the morning of our departure when the other bookings failed to show ....and we had the whole thing to ourselves....the sheer Wonder of the place....drifting through those remote fiords....lapping metalic waters....the power and majesty of those towering mountains with dramatic waterfalls that plummet towards you....those of you who have been will know what I mean ! Words alone do not suffice.....hopefully I took a few thousand pictures that might capture a bit of it. RECHARGED ....like pilgrims on a spiritual Quest we spent two weeks exploring the edges of the land between the Mountain and the Sea.....remote quiet places shimmering ...in the hottest summer that this part of the world has known in living memory......with the music of our friends on the CD player connecting us wherever you are......on one occassion the urge to dance to CAJUNOLOGIE got so great that we pulled over by the waters edge and with the car doors wide open we danced at the water's edge.....Yves'voice and fiddle drifting out across the waters of the Southern Ocean hopefully one day soon to land on some Antarctic shore.....and as we walked by the water's edge the sound of Nina'a triangle like some long past ship's bell...floated off in the breeze.... heading south on a summer's evening as a pair of dolphins broke the surf nearby obviously curiuos about such new sounds. Ah I know its hard work.....but somebody has to do it!.....time to laze and ponder the big questions in life....Like....IF A MAN SPEAK IN THE FOREST AND THERE IS NO WOMAN TO HEAR HIM........IS HE STILL WRONG ???........Sue says YES Of Course...... Well she is the BOSS.....and she has my permission to say so!. We spent some days in and about Jacksons Bay as we came up the west coast and were pleased to meet some 4th generation Irish farming folk.....and spent a wonderful evening together....Although the forefathers had landed in 1870's they still kept the ould Irish Oral traditions alive.....with storytelling around the fire and all wrote the equivalent of Bush Poetry sometimes in true comic vein......tis great to know that each of us is UNIQUE....just like everybody else..... Great folk and t'was indeed a pleasure to make their acquaintance..........We worked our way to the Oparara Basin and its limestone wonders in the far north and walked a little of the great Heaphy Track......stunning walking by the waters edge beneath great Nikau palms.......before returning to Nelson for the impending arrival of the new family member......still no news as I write but watch this space........with a few gigs to focus on over the next few weeks there is no better place to spend some time than this idyllic spot.......but we were disturbed to learn that my Aunty Pat and Uncle Malachi were booked into a downtown city venue for St Patricks Night......I suppose we will have to go and support them...Blood being thicker than water and all that......God knows what a New Zealand audience will make of them.....Think we might have Sue with the engine running outside for a quick get away ! Anyway if we survive that we will e mail you again later......Our love and best wishes to you wherever you may be....arms around the world.....".all that wander are not lost" Till we meet again Love Adrian and Sue _________________________________________________________________ Free games, great prizes - get gaming at Gamesbox.
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