Cloud Busting... Omarama Style

After a few days of doing not much but answering the occasional phone call, which trust me, becomes exciting, Chris pops up with "Hey Brittany, we could do a flight this afternoon" at about 3:00. Little did I know this "pretend it's a half hour tourist ride" would turn into busting clouds, 2 and a half hours, and 10200 feet later.
After a gorgeous takeoff, away we went to "The Nursery", which is a range right beside us. It is usually the starting point for most flights as it is fairly reliable and a close tow, so away we went.
What I worked hard for, Chris seemed to find with ease, and we thermalled our way up enough to push out across the valley. After thermalling a bit on another range, Magic Mountain, we tried for the wave in the middle of the valley. We just tickled the bottom, but in the meantime found a very nice line of convergence. This is where wind going one direction (say east) crashes into wind going the other direction (west) and has nowhere to go but up. It was a matter of staying on the right side of the clouds, and getting as close to the clouds as you can (which is very close, let me tell you) and still be able to see.
This is where I tell you that clouds are sneaky creatures. They form out of nothingness and disapear just as fast, they move along the ground sometimes opposite to what you think because they are going opposite to the cloud near them... SNEAKY. They are also just like ridges in that you want to get very close to them, but not into them, for the best lift.

Other than the flying, things here are nice. I'm making pies and trying to figure out what I have to do to the shells to get them to work here... it is very very dry... and bringing them, in to work every couple of days. The crew here don't mind that they are my test subjects. They don't mind at all. Also, we have New Zealand bank accounts. It's odd, but we do, so now we can use EFTPOS (their debit) in stores... but at 60 cents a transaction, we will try just to take out some cash and leave it at that.
This weekend we are planning a trip to the city of Dunedin. We are already booked at the stables at the castle for the stay saturday night, as well as the cadbury tour and the Speights (as in New Zealands south island beer) tour. Looks like it is going to be a nice weekend, and the flights here are picking up... it's 10 and Ryan has already been in the air for about 15 minuntes.
The weather has been pretty nice the last couple days due to a nice high sitting above us... seeing this whole island without isobars on it yesterday was almost a bit scary... AH WHERE'D THEY GO!?... as it is very odd to not have this tiny island just covered in them. Chicago? Windy City? They've got nothing on us...
Love you all, some post cards are in the mail, but apparently they may be slower than we first thought!
Pictures to follow when Chris gets his camera hooked up... another crazy Canadian at 10000 feet with shorts on!