Sitting on a plane home from New Zealand, I realised that it was time to send a blog in!
And what am I doing in New Zealand I can hear you asking…well it was just a small holiday that was pre booked a while ago, but I must start at the beginning, as not much has been going on horse riding wise…
You see I got heckled by my boyfriend to come with him to Broome a few weekends ago. He often works up there, and has some good friends living up there who decided to move to Victoria, and so a ‘leaving’ party followed. Not really wanting to have a weekend off, but kind of grateful for a mini escape, I tagged along.
Our chopper
Landing in Broome I am told that we have another flight to catch asap – rocking up to a chopper pad! A friend of his works as a chopper pilot and was booked to take us for a scenic flight up the coast. Pretty cool I thought. We flew over Willie Creek Pearl Farm, saw a heard of wild horses drinking and passed over the hippie protest camp at James Price Point.
…then we end up landing on a secluded beach…very cool I thought, but I’m not exactly in beach wear after a flight from Perth. Next, Ben pulls out a champagne picnic…awesome I thought, ‘Got any food with that?’…Unfortunately not, however, there was a diamond ring!! Down on one knee and I said yes…What a way to start the weekend!!
The ring!!
Lots of celebrating that night, and I am now engaged to my wonderful partner Ben Mitchell…who is current owner of my stockhorse Touchstone Felix…which leaves me wondering, do I now get Felix back?!
So our trip to New Zealand ended up being a bit of announcing to some of Ben’s family about the engagement, as well as what was soon dubbed the ‘engagement honeymoon’ holiday. We went trout fishing, caving and most importantly of all – had a sticky beak at the Taupo Equestrian Centre. Luckily for us, they were a few days off running a CIC, and allowed us, as foreigners, to take a walk around the course.
Trout fishing in New Zealand, on Lake Rotoehu – yes it was very, VERY cold
It is a beautiful place, with jet boats flying up the river nearby and a geothermal power station on the horizon and the most amazing footing. I also snapped a few sneaky photos from the course, a very technical track that I hope one day to be able to ride around.
The C and D elements of the sunken road at Taupo CIC*** – quite a good bounce I thought!
Back at home, the unrelenting rain has meant a hold on events – as Fairbridge CNC coped well on Saturday, but Sunday saw a lot of rain, and a very slippery course with the Eva105 turning into a bit of carnage, I decided to call it quits for the weekend. Although I couldn’t get home as early as I wanted with my poor F250 not being able to get traction on the wet going and having to be towed out! We have also had one event being rescheduled until end of November as they couldn’t get any machinery in to clean up the cross country course.
So coming up we have Swan River Dryandra CIC where Felix is doing the Two Star and a few young ones tagging along. Wish me luck!
