Shoulders get a wake up call.

Wanaka turned on one of it's stunning perfect winter days today, clear clear blue skies, tall snowy mountains, lots of sunshine and a crisp bite to the air. I love this place. My shoulders are getting better, my physio here thinks I am not progressing as fast as I should, so she pushed me pretty hard in our last session, which wasn't fun, but with lots of rehab and time spent in the gym everyday I will regain my full range of motion and strength back, it is just frustrating how long it takes.

I had my second flight lesson today, it was amazing, I love it, I was in the air for an hour, we flew from the airport out to Hawea, then towards Wanaka and back to the airport and back around the loop again. I practiced climbing and decending and turning, learning to fly straight and level and of course, hovering, lots of landing and taking off, and an autorotation (which is when the engine fails and you decend rapidly with out any power, but in a controlled manner, sounds pretty scary but wasnt too bad, didnt have to land it though, I think the first time I land an autorotation might be a bit hairy... I guess I will find out soon).
I am very shaky with my hovering but aparently everyone is for the first several lessons.

Oh yeah, Midas South City, the mechanic shop that forgot to finish putting my mini's exhaust on properly, they agreed to pay for the repairs and a little extra, I had to remind the what customer service is but they ended up doing the right thing :)


Visit the Snow Farm, my major sponsor.

contact me

Check out my current world rankings and results, see the Eurosport or Speed Channel broadcast schedule.

iceland

My brother and his wife are working in Iceland on a glacier, they are also waiting to hear if they got the jobs they went to Europe to be interviewed for... working for the Brittish Antarctic Survey, they have a blog too, www.thekarenandbenshow.blogspot.com check it out.



Visit the Snow Farm, my major sponsor.

contact me

Check out my current world rankings and results, see the Eurosport or Speed Channel broadcast schedule.

Learning to hover

I arrived in Wanaka late Friday night, all was going well on the drive from Christchurch untill I was decending the last pass into Wanaka, and my exhaust fell off. I spent over $1000 on my car last week, including having a brand new exhaust system. It was just before dusk, I was in the middle of nowhere and there was no mobile phone coverage, I was feeling like a real damsel in distress, untill Robin Junkins came to my rescue and reattatched it with a wire coat hanger! What a ledgend. An hour later I got here safe and sound. A mechanic has since attatched it a little more securely and said that the all important nut that keeps the exhaust attatched to the car was NEVER PUT ON! Midas South City Christchurch will be paying for that mistake!

I back from the gym, it's good to be back in my old gym. My exciting news is that yesterday I started training for my Helicopter Pilots licence. I am now studying with SIT and Wanaka Helicopters, working towards my Commercial Pilots Licence, (with a student loan of course). I had my first lesson yesterday, and it went well, I managed to hover for 10 seconds (that is really good), but the rest of the 45 minutes was spent being out of control and over correcting every wrong movement, but I can see how it can be addictive. I found I could relate flying to sliding very easily, they both require very subtle movements when steering and being relaxed is very important, and if you take it one way you need to adjust something else to keep balance. Next lesson 9am monday :)

Visit the Snow Farm, my major sponsor.

contact me

Check out my current world rankings and results, see the Eurosport or Speed Channel broadcast schedule.

It has been a long time since I blogged, before the Olympics even! Things got pretty hectic before the games and blogging fell off my list of priorities. But I did write email updates that I sent out to friends and family during the Olympics, so i will put them up in the next few weeks.
Since the Olympics I have been living in Blenheim at my Mothers place, and I have had six trips up to Tauranga to see my surgeon with two shoulder operations, ACC has been brilliant and helped me get my ops done in the quickest time possible and have been shuttling me around to the gym and physio while I cant drive, you usually hear nothing but complaints about ACC but I really cant complain. It turned out that I had two very serious injuries and that the right one ( the one that gave me less grief) was the most serious. Left shoulder is healing nicely, and we expect a full recovery, and right one we hope for a full recovery but there is a chance I will be left with some instability in that one. I had the surgeries only 5 weeks apart, which meant there were some pretty horrible weeks there when I had very very little movement in both arms, thank god I had my mum there to help me. Now though, life is a lot better, finally I can drive my car (HURRAH) and I am strong enough to complete all the neccesarry tasks of living ( cook, drive, use a knife and fork, get dressed, lift light things...), and life is no longer on pause. I have driven 5 hours south to Christchurch and tomorrow I am headed 6 hours south to Wanaka, it might take me 8 hours as my arm will get very sore driving for that long and i'll need a break, probably somewhere near Tekapo where I can see Mt Cook. I am really looking forward to getting back to Wanaka

I have been working with a physio to regain my range of motion in the shoulders and rebuild my strength, which is going good, but I have a long way to go and I am looking forward to working with my wanaka physio Gin Bush, who was the Olympic team physio. The months ahead will see me training, getting strong and healing in Wanaka. And of course I need to secure sponsors for the up coming race season... it is an endless mission.

Visit the Snow Farm, my major sponsor.

contact me