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Here is a lot of the crew on their way to Picton (Lochmara Lodge) from Wellington. In these pictures, we're missing Michael Wood of England Wellington. The man in green is Dave. The woman to his right is Rachel, with whom is Zuni, the little baby-like critter. In the very back of the plane are Buzzy and Jules, with Fenny and myself right front of them. The other two strangers on the plane we didn't know. The view out the window of our little plane, flying from Wellington to Picton. Picton is amidst the Marlborough Sounds, a bunch of... uhm... sounds at the northeastmost bit of the New Zealand South Island. The Marlborough Sounds are quite beautiful, as you'll hopefully see from some of the photographs in the coming days. After a safe landing in Picton. The plane of Michael Wood of England Wellington comes into Picton for a safe landing. What else would you expect, since he was the copilot? This is, after all, the One True Saviour, the Hero, the Prophet, the Man Who Foretells the Coming of the Great Prawn! He exits the plane and strolls confidently, exiting stage right. After our safe landing in Picton airport, we were shuttled into downtown Picton, near the waterfront. Amidst the confusion and shuffle of literally HUNDREDS of people, we took our gear from the shuttle bus and piled it into the Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company Kayaking shed whilst waiting on our escort from Lochmara Lodge to come pick us up and take us to Paradise on Earth. This should give you a feel for the hectic pace of Picton. For Buzzy, we take this picture. More pictures that show you the chaotic mess that Picton is during the weekend. We could barely move from one part of the park to the other because of the HUNDREDS of people walking here and there and everywhere. But because I've lived in San Francisco for some years, I was used to all the people, and was able to get around without my camera being stolen. Here Fenny dodges some fairly close encounters with collisions with the other Pictonites as they move along through their busy day to destinations unknown. Picton has always held a fascination for me. Ever since I first landed in its airport in the hills back in February 2002. Gosh. That was about a week ago, I think. No matter how I rib on Picton, it's in a beautiful place. There's no denying the Marlborough Sounds are wonderful. Another dedication to the Nickster who hates bird pictures more than a sane human really should. Oh. Wow. So what can I say? It's a really fucked up version of Rapey Mouse, owned by Disney Time Warner GE Sony Viacom or whatever the megaconglomerate of the week is. I'm sure that if Warner Disney Sony Time ViaGE knew of the existence of this Mickey visage, they'd ask George W. to put some troops here, kill a few locals, and wreak a little havoc, but obviously they don't know about its existence. I'm just doing my part to make sure everyone knows. This world really could use a few more bombs and a lot less copyright violations. At least that's what United States social policy would indicate. An overseas experience can teach you a lot. Oh, how appropriate. These pirating hippies who STEAL valuable ideas from the megaconglomerate of the day believe in PEACE (perfect peace). I guess George W. Bush should drop some cluster bombs on these pirating bastards and teach them a lesson they'll never forget. While we were waiting on our transport to Lochmara Lodge, we sat 'round the baby, took pictures, laughed, and made merry. It was a lot of fun, but I'm afraid the baby was getting a little worn out trying to entertain us. Some cool bird pics. These aren't dedicated to the Nickster because he's already got enough bird pictures dedicated to him. I'll dedicate a picture of a beautiful lady to him later. Maybe I'll retroactively dedicate the pictures of that tall lady in the Funky Green Voyager to him, because he deserves at least that. Anyhow, these are birds doing things. Hopefully I got them in midflight and stuff so you can feel these pictures are special to you. Our boat ride to Picton aboard a boat piloted by Shane of Lochmara Lodge. I was told to get up in the cabin so my camera wouldn't suffer a salty windy spray from the ocean waters. Arrival in Lochmara Lodge! The Lochmara Lodge is located in the Lochmara Bay. There is no lake. It isn't Loch Mara. It's Lochmara. I wish there was a lake, but there isn't. There is ocean. With little glowing algae bits in. And glow worms and hills and trails and rope swings and hammocks and everything. Lochmara Lodge is pretty cool, but be careful. Don't let outward appearances fool you. Their showers suck big chunks, and blow them out all over your clothes. Their showers are lame, sucky, stinky, cold, and otherwise miserable. But ignore all that. It's a cool place. Here the whole group stands around the refrigerator we appropriated and debates whether we should put only beer into the fridge, letting everything else sit in the sun, or whether we might actually need to leave some of the beer unrefrigerated. Reason finally won out, and we decided that for five days, we couldn't live on beer alone and that other things might be tasty for eating. Thus, we packed some bread, chicken, milk, juice, and other things into the refrigerator. It took some time, but we accomplished it with the organisational skills of Jules and the grimacing of Fenny. Naturally, my photographing of the situation helped out a lot. Thus ended the first day in Lochmara Lodge. Okay, so I kinda lie. It went on and on into the night, with twenty beers consumed, a guitar played, some cards, some scrabble, and a twist of lemon. |
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