RAFFLE RESULTS
We have one week left till we head over to Nepal, yesterday the raffle was drawn and 5 lucky people won some awesome prizes. Thank you so much to everyone who helped out by buying tickets. Also a huge thanks to all who helped sell tickets.

We made a total of $2500 from the raffle, which is being used to purchase gear for the Nepali Girls.

An update will follow this week with what gear has been purchased and how the final preps are going.

Once again a huge thank you to all involved with this raffle, here are the results.

1st place: Jenny Neilson from Twyford - 2 nights accommodation at a beach front Bach in Ohope, thanks to the Lelievre family

2nd place: Daniel Bowie from Waipukurau - 2 nights accommodation at a lake front Bach in Taupo, thanks to the White family

3rd place: Brent Whibley from Rotorua - A trip for 2 white-water rafting down the Tongariro River, thanks to Garth at Tongariro River Rafting.

4th place: Steven from Rotorua - A trip for 2 White-water rafting down the Kaituna River, thanks to Noel at Wet n Wild Rafting.

5th place: Stefan Bennett from Rotorua - A double pass for the movies and rock-climbing, thanks to The Wall and The Basement Cinema' Rotorua.

More exciting news from Inka

Inka and Equators 2 first female river guide-trainees.

Here is an update on how things are going in Nepal for Inka

"I have now selected seven new girls to take part in the training program. Radha Tamang 23, Anita Sapkota 18, Sambhavi Karki 23, Hasila Shrestha 27, Pasang Sherpa 25, Rama Shrestha 18 and Kamala Chepang 17. At the selection I took the girls to a swimmingpool in Kathmandu to check their swimming skills and comfort with / love for water. Some of the girls selected are already good swimmers and speak very good English and some still need to practise swimming and work hard to get strong physically. After the selection day we spent a few days in a swimmingpool in Kathmandu to practise swimming and to learn the basics of kayaking. We had a few really fun days with western women teaching and supporting. One of the days Nepali TV came to interview us! Next we are starting on the river on the 11 November. Together with Sita, Susmita and Mona we now have 10 girls to jpin the training program. And from the 16th November 22 western female kayakers are joining us as we paddle down the Sun Kosi. Everything is going very well with equipment as we are getting lots of gear donated.


Cecelia from Sweden training the new girls how to swim

Two rafting companies have offered to employ ladies after the training program. All we really need now is some more help to finance the training. Keep your fingers crossed for us!"


Hassila is still learning to swim, but is a natural in the kayak.

These girls have a couple of weeks before the training programme starts to work on swimming and basic kayak skills, this will prepare them for the Sun-Kosi and the formal beginning of the training programme on the 16th of November.

CPIT helping us out!

All of the kiwi team have studied through the Christchurch Polytech gaining qualifications in the Bachelor of Adventure Recreation and Outdoor Education, and Diploma in Adventure Instruction and Guiding. CPIT was the hub for meeting each other and developing our outdoor skills, especially kayaking. Through Steve Chapman, CPIT have once again shown their support of us by donating pre loved kayaking goods for the Nepali ladies.

Check out the link for Outdoor Programmes held at CPIT.
http://www.cpit.ac.nz/subjects/adventure_recreation

Once again thank you to Steve Chapman and CPIT for your support.

Heaps of updates

I got an email from Inka the other day, things are going great in Nepal. She has all the women selected for the training programme, and one of them Susmita is paddling down the Sun Kosi River, where we will be doing the training programme, at this very moment. It is still quite high water but she should be fine as she has been doing very well. When it comes to the training programme she will be able to take on more of a leadership role, and support the other women.

Here is a photo of Susmita surfing and looking great in that kayak.

Singapore Airlines a huge help
So we have less than 2 weeks to go before we head to the airport and try to squeeze as much in as possible. Thanks to Singapore Airlines we will be able to fit in heaps more gear as they have given us an extra 15kg's each free of charge which means we can now take 35kgs each. Without this we would be struggling to get the gear over to the Nepali girls. So a huge thanks to Singapore airlines with the extra luggage allowance totaling 105kg's .......................................Awesome


KAVU donating clothes
Kavu make awesome clothing and have donated a bunch of clothes to the Nepali Girls, check out their website http://www.kavu.com/



Raffle
The raffle is going fantastic, we will be drawing it this weekend and will post the winners on the blog next week. We have had so much support, Thanks so much to everyone who has purchased tickets. The Okere falls store out by the Kaituna River had a beer fest all last week so with lots of kayakers drinking high percentage German beer, many tickets were sold, and I managed to keep hold of the tickets and money all night while have a little German beer too.

All the Fundraising info will be posted next week with how much we raised and where the money has gone. We will also give you a final gear update before we leave (including what other girls overseas have managed to pull together)

Thanks for keeping updated

Soph