This time it was celebrating the Allen family pre-Christmas gathering, so we added opening presents and eating Christmas cake to the mix of activities. We also included another new one - The Glow-Worm Zombie Walk, a midnight tramp through the pitch black forest to view glow-worms and frighten each other to death with evil tricks in the dark. By the time we returned to the safety of the lodge we had all completely morphed into zombies and entered the room burbling and walking with our hands stretched out in front, zombie style. That walk was not shown in the photos, as it was too dark out there. There was a wonderful horse-ride on Saturday morning which also missed out on photos so if any of our horse-riders has a good one to send us, feel free. My camera is a bit large and precious to risk on horse-back.

Real-Life Near-Death Drama on the Flying Fox.
Mike was riding and when he hit the tyres at the end of the ride, (the normal way of stopping.) We saw a puff of rust-dust go up from the cable. There were lots of ping-ping-ping noises caused by strands of the cable snapping. Another puff or two of rust dust. More ping-ping-pinging.

There was Mike suspended in space held by about one or two thread-like strands of wire which were all that remainded of the thick cable. All we needed was a few alligators (or a hot fire) waiting underneath for him to fall onto and we would have had the classic thriller set in front of our eyes. He yelled at me to get my camera. I was not amused and failed to comply, being too busy trying to work out how to get him down. He made various other jokes from up there while we all freaked out down below and felt helpless, waiting for the moment it would let go completely and he would crash to the hard ground. The drop might not have killed him but he would almost certainly have broken some bones and he and others among us could also have been injured by pieces of the apparatus flying around loose as it collapsed.

In the end, Joe took a big risk and just grabbed the trailing rope and dragged him towards the tyres hoping the last strand would not break, and it didn't, so all was well. He got off safely and we closed the apparatus and returned the key to the warden to prevent further use until repairs had been undertaken.
Granny said sadly, "But I was just about to have my ride."
She's missed out until next time.

These are cropped miniature photos of the family weekend at Pirongia Forest Park Lodge Click them to see the complete picture full size.	Photos and processing by Tui
	Sally and Keelie take to the skies	Sally, Keelie, Victor and Phoebe flying over the Waikato	Three generations of Allens
Joe on flying fox	Joe and Jack on swinging log	LittleJoe gets ready to roll	Steph and Joe having marriage guidance counselling
Little-Joe prepares the rocket launcher	Mike and Betty having marriage guidance counselling	Mike Steps out off the swinging log	Phoebe gets ready to roll
Phoebe horizontal on the trampoline	Sally on the flying fox	Sally flies over the tree-ferns	Steph comes in for a high-speed landing
Phoebe gives the thumbs-up	Jeff and Tui having defacto guidance counselling	Victor arriving back on land	Victor flying upside down

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