Happy New Year!

Here's hoping 2007 is a good'un.

All of CP44 (and two defectors off CP42) went up to Auckland for Gatecrasher's New Year's Eve. After having arrived in Auckland we rocked up to Queens Street Backpackers youth hostel, put our bags away and then went off to have a quck look around. We ended up at the sky tower fairly soon after, with a few of the guys bothering to hand over the requisite $22 to go up it - the rest of us went to the pub and put the $22 towards a more tangible liquid cause. Here is the result of their efforts however:

Lovely... More interesting however is the fact that you can jump off the edge of the tower attached to a cable. Basically you jump off a platform, if the operator is feeling sadistic they dangle you briefly infront of the viewing area, and then plummet towards your rapidly approaching doom only to be saved by the grace of a steel wire that slows your descent before you become nothing more than a jam splat on the target. Alas none of the intrepid few who ventured up the tower had a go at it, and the next day no one was in any state to have a go. Maybe next time.....

Beers continued through dinner until we popped back to the hostel to get ready for the night out- A few bottles of beer in the hostel later and we were off to gate crasher. In short; crazy night, lots of fun, paid for in hangovers the next day. As an aside, New Zealand roads are bumpy as hell and do not bode well for a 2 hour trip when you are feeling a little delicate.

CTC life starts again tomorrow (wednesday) with FRTO (Flight Radio-Telephone Operator) groundschooling and all being well most of us should finally get our first lesson in the long course syllabus - who would have thought we were here to learn to fly eh.

Anyway happy new year, and good luck sticking with those resolutions!