Deep South

After being at my friend Shayne Cox's place in Napier (and sneaking in a half day of flyfishing where a tricked half a dozen good rainbows, I made my way down to Wellington yesterday afternoon. I am now at the excellent Geoff Grant's place - having just finished raiding his pantry for toast and coffee, we are set to head to the airport where I board my flight to Queenstown. My friend Paul Jolley flew in yesterday and provided he hasnt got lost, the plan is that we meet up down south, leap into our hire car and head to the hills for some good backcountry flyfishing. The weather report seems okay - so things are looking good. I am looking forward to this week of R&R - it has been a hard couple of months; time in the wilds always rejuvenates me ...
Last night was awesome - we ran our class in Geoff's new school at the top of Taranaki St; it was a good first test for the school, with well over 50 people on the mat, and still room to move. Awesome job Geoff! new ranks were awarded to a handful of very deserving students but especially 'special' was the presentation of a brown belt to Hemi Pou - what a wonderful person; amazing skills, softly spoken, always smiling and one of those people who goes out of his way to help every other student on the mat. When a mat has someone like Hemi on board - it cannot help but grow and prosper ... congratulations Hemi! Congratulations Geoff, for creating such a unique and fun-filled training environment.
Well, time to go - the headwaters of my secret stream await ...
JBW