Geoff Mackley's film expedition to Ambrym Volcano left on Saturday morning for 3 weeks of filming on the islands of Vanuatu.
In Geoff's expedition team are two Auckland tree climbers, Drew Bristow and Johno Smith. They will provide rope skills support for the film crew, which includes setting a speedline into the volcano crater to transport equipment (and possibly the film crew). Geoff sought their assistance after seeing Greg Parker's Waitakere Kauri video on the Treetoolsblog.Port Vila will be home for a few days while the guys get all the gear sorted and ready for the helicopter trip to their camp on the rim of the volcano. Most of the equipment, including 900 meters of rope supplied by Samson and a Portable Winch , was shipped by sea over the last few weeks.
Unfortunately, some of the gear did not arrive on time!
ISC Wales provided new equipment for Drew and Johno to test (in an extreme environment) but it didn't arrive in Auckland until this morning. After some frantic phone calls to TNT it appears the parcel will arrive in Port Vila by tomorrow evening - just in time for the journey into the bush.
We heard from a patron at Nambawan Cafe today (Vanuatu) who said a couple of kiwi guys were seen at the Craft Markets buying a 15kg gas cylinder (full of gas) and loads of fireworks - apparently they plan to drop them into the lava lake to see what happens!
Let's hope mother nature does not 'belch' on the diet these guys have planned!
