News
New Zealand is a Beautiful Country
Date Posted: Friday 23 January 2009
The following report was sent to us by Joanne who has recently completed an Overseas Fundraising Challenge on behalf of Cedar to New Zealand, with her friend Pauline:
We're back safe and sound!! We had an excellent time New Zealand is a beautiful country!!
Abel Tasman National Park is a gorgeous place with lovely beaches behind the lushness of the trees, it offered plenty of photo opportunities which we were more than pleased to have as it was quite tough in the heat. The campsites around the park were well maintained and we were feed very well, which of course is very important to my constantly hungry tummy although when I got back I was sick of eating.
Mt Robert and Mt Fyffe were the biggest challenges as they were so steep, I was nearly crawling on my hands and knees to get to the top of Mt Fyffe because of the steepness and the extreme sun, but guess what was at the top of it...SNOW!! I couldn’t believe it as the heat was unreal but there was snow, how weird is that!! It took ages to melt when you held it in your hands and it wasn’t like our snow it was like ice cubes stuck together.
Pauline and I don't want to see another tent for a while though either as camping is definitely for the hardy!! I woke up one morning to seeing poor Pauline with her clothes wrapped around her sleeping bag and just her eyes looking out this wee hole, she had been awake most of the night freezing and there was me sweating bucket loads as my granny had bought me the biggest sleeping bag you ever did see, and at the beginning of the trek I was slagged off for having such a big sleeping bag, guess who had the last laugh?!
All the hard work was well repaid because at the end of the trek we stopped off at a Japanese Rockpool Spa Resort in the middle of the wilderness, it was brilliant, lovely rockpools outside which were at different temperatures, so when we lay in them with the steam rising there was a lovely backdrop of mountains behind us.
All in the entire trip was amazing and I would recommend others to do it. We met great people who were very friendly, hilariously funny and very kind. We hope to meet them again in the New Year for a reunion.
Acknowledgements:
Firstly I would like to think everyone at Cedar Foundation for your help and support throughout the past year, as you helped us a lot which I appreciated greatly.
All the ladies who took part in Walk the Triangle, all the fellas who took part in the paintballing activity and those at Adrenaline Assault Course, Gerry McAleese, Ballymoney United Social Club, Joanne Kirgan, Jason Wilmot, Jayne Ritchie, Tommy Blair, Gemma Sloan, Jane Deering, The Bush Tavern, Alan Clyde and Mark Getty for getting waxed, Maria Dunlop of Beauty by Maria, The Glynns Bar, All those who participated in the bed pushes, Walkers of Ballymoney, Billy Kyle for the line dancing evening, HSBC, ASDA, Tesco, plus all my family and friends and lots of thanks to those who donated and supported the events and the local papers for providing me with the publicity.
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