Jazz................nice.

Wassup y'all? It is my penultimate week in Qtown! Really difficult to not feel sad but we are definitely going out with a big ass bang. This week has been another eventful one. More beer and poker. I failed to three-peat my win at Rattlesnake this week but did finish 2nd at Surreal. I was doing quite well there and when i got to final table i was in a pretty good position. I then preceded to knock out near enough every player, including a monumental call against the guy with all the chips. He bet hard at the pot but i just had this feeling that he was bluffing. It put me all in but i just had this feeling. He was bluffing and my pair of 7s held up and i ended up doubling up my stack and winning around 150k. It gave me a massive stack of chips so when i got to heads up with my housemate JC i was in a very strong position. It was late though and both Kate and Laura had to get up for work in the morning so i suggested that we just split the 1st and 2nd place bar tab and go home. JC was having none of it and wanted to beat me fair and square. I won't say i folded a lot of hands but i just wanted to go home too so i also called alot of crap cards and before long he had all my chips and had won. I was stoked for him as it was his last week at Surreal and he had never won there before. I was happy to get a bar tab again but even more happier that i could go home and go to bed.

A lot of our week has revolved around the Jazz festival, or Jizz fest as i have been calling it, that's in town this week. It's been really cool with loads of free gigs around town and a little outdoor stage set up in the middle of town straddling the stream. We went to an outdoor gig the other day and ended up sitting in the sun with a ton of beers with Dicks and JC. We then had a few games of pool before going to another jazz gig at one of the posh hotels down by the lake. We were quite well oiled by now and JC was politely asked to leave the restaurant and go back to the lobby where we were sitting because he "just wanted to dance." We ended up getting extremely hammered but just couldn't help tapping our feet and clicking our fingers all night to all the sweet jizz, sorry jazz.

Highlight of the week was going funyaking. Although funyaking sounds like a pleasurable vomit (fun - yaking) it is far from it. Kate has worked for Dart river jets now for 7 months and apart from a free jet boat ride when she started we haven't done any of the free trips they offer but as the weather is getting warmer we decided to try our luck and booked on to go funyaking. Funyaking is like kayaking but you use these huge big orange inflatable dingys. We got jet boated up the dart river on what was probably the warmest and sunniest day we have had in ages. The jet boat dropped us off at the start of the funyak trip and we got busy inflating the huge dingy/kayak hybrids. We then had to listen to our guide trying to explain to the rest of the group how to paddle and steer the things. He then came over to us and asked if we wanted to try and go in the rockburn chasm. The rockburn is this stunning side chasm that branches off the dart river and forms this amazing secluded lagoon. It is a bit tricky to get into when the water levels are low but he was willing to try if he thought the group were competent. We agreed and watched as we all hopped in our funyaks for a quick little paddle. Within seconds we knew that the rockburn was out of the question as the couple from Singapore had either not listened to a word the guide had said or were just completely uncoordinated. They sat in there funyak doing everything wrong and were just spinning out of control in the middle of the river. Our guide eventually had to tie their boat to his own and ferry them down the river. I was a bit gutted that we never got the chance as everyone else seemed to be pretty competent, oh well.

Kate had feared that she would get special treatment from the jet boat drivers once we got into our funyaks. By special treatment i mean that they would try their hardest to flip us out of our boat. She was right. Within a few minutes of getting into our boat, one of the jet boats came flying towards us, did a spin so its back jet was pointing right at us and then full throttled it. We got soaked but the blast from the jet washed the girls in the boat next to us back up onto the shore! It was hilarious and we then had to explain to the group that Kate worked for the company and that she was going to be targeted all day. We were then of course treated like lepers and no one dared get within 10 feet of our boot. Our guide tried to set us up again a bit further down the river. I helped by grounding us on some shallow rocks and jumping out of the boat leaving Kate as a sitting duck for the jet boat. It came flying around the corner and true to form, turned away from her at the last minute sending a huge wave over the boat and dousing her in icy cold glacial water. Hee hee. She wasn't that soaked and took it all in good spirit.

Apart from the occasional soaking from jet boats and the bastard sand flies, the day was amazingly relaxing. The fast moving current pretty much sweeps you along and all i had to do was keep the boat facing down stream. I often spun it so we could see the amazing views of the mountains behind us too. It was truly beautiful and i could easily see why it has been voted one of NZs best trips on a number of occasions. At one point i pretty much reclined into a semi recumbent position, tilted my hat forward, gazed upward and chilled. It was pure unadulterated bliss. We stopped for a huge lunch and a wander through the woods before hopping back into the funyaks and negotiating the remaining stretch of river. When we got back to Glenorchy we stopped for a much needed beer before heading home for an early night. It was an amazing day and some awesome pics will follow on facebook i imagine.

Right, have to cut this entry short as more jazz and beers in the park are beckoning me away. I will try and post some more in the next few days.

Peace

D

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