So it begins....

After a seriously long flight made longer still by a delay at every available opportunity (even at the end, where one of my esteemed colleagues was callously seperated from his luggage resulting in a long wait to see whether it would finally emerge... it didn't) I finally arrived on the green shores of New Zealand last Thursday. The observant among you may realise that it is now Tuesday; go to the cupboard, get yourself a cookie and pat yourself on the back whilst revelling in your own brilliance. So, I have had some time to settle in and get to know people and what a great bunch of people they are!

Clearways (the accomodation block for us budding young pilots) is fantastic, as I'm sure the pics convey, and all of CP44 (thus far - more will be out on the short course) are in the same corridor of Comet Block, so there's already a great atmosphere.

The first night was obviously lacking in energy somewhat, and I was especially tired having only managed about 2-3 hours sleep since leaving on tuesday evening. We did however manage to hit the town on friday night, and indeed saturday night - those of us who were hardcore macho machines didn't get back until around 4:30am on the latter... The nights out were good, but it's not hard to see that the Hamilton night life will get somewhat repetative - it's not the most happening place on the planet. That said though, it's a nice enough city and there's plenty of shops and various eateries to satiate your non alcohol-fueled needs.

On Monday we had the first early start, and had to drive to Hamilton for some of our blood to be drained by evil cackling witches (albeit very friendly ones) after having fasted for the last 12 hours. Then after stuffing our faces at a nearby cafe it was off up to Rotorua for a full medical which lasted the rest of the afternoon. There weren't many suprises other than "super lungs" danny being exempted from the ridiculous asthma side of things, and poor Menno being stuck with either carrying an inhaler with him at all times while flying or taking the rather daunting sounding "Histimine Challenge". All in all it was a fairly painless experience, although I can't say that having my googlies fondled by a man is high on my "to-do-again" list. I did however find something to amuse myself while waiting at the Medical centre:

Today we had our first real day in the facilities at the Airport, and it's a pretty impressive setup they have here. It was mostly an induction day with a walk around the apron looking at the aircraft and the start of some basics about departures and approaches to the airfield. Tomorrow we'll start type rating on the Katana, although we found out due to some exceptionally poor timing we won't be flying until after the christmas break (around Jan 3rd). A shame, but nevermind!

Now it's time for the first CP44 BBQ, so I bid you adieu, and here is the view from our BBQ!