So every year we have The Buskers Festival. It’s 2 weeks (or is it 3?) of comedy, juggling (and general circus arts) and other such things.

Anyway – this year I saw one of the most beautiful routines of contact juggling as a part of FlameOz’s routine. The guy in question is called Dimitri Ogden (aka The Fluid Druid) and you can see more at their youtube channel here.

Contact juggling is one of – if not the hardest forms of juggling you can do – and also the most elegant / beautiful. Dimitri has been doing it for a very, very long time.

So, here is a video which they’ve kindly given me permission to show – if you get the chance to see them .. do!

Well, more to come, but after 6 years with blogger – they’ve changed the way they do things (no more FTP) and so I’ve moved to Wordpress. It’s a move I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It automagically (well, almost) imports all the posts (except for video’s) but not comments.. though I may try to work on that.

Anyways.. enjoy – let me know if anything does(n’t) work that well..

Maaike and her mum arrived back down from swanning around Marlborough, drinking nice wines, having fresh Paua out of the ocean and other enjoyable things for my 31st birthday on the 21st Jan (Happy Birthday me).

The next day at midday we drove down to Mt. Cook for the weekend.

We did a few short walks – but they take you to some absolutely stunning scenery. This lake (the end of the Tasman glacier) used to be ice about a hundred odd years ago or so.

Mt. Cook is however, a serious environment. It really brings out the person within. And you don’t even have to be on the side of a hill for this to happen – as is demonstrated in the emotional highs and lows of our ‘Continuo’ Game.

It was one game each to Maaike’s mum and I, and then she viciously attacked me with a very sharp knife. So sharp it was *almost* like a needle.

But yes, all in all it was a great trip – and well worth a visit if you’re in the area. Hopefully Maaike and I will get back this year for a jaunt up to the Mueller Hut and maybe a climb or two at Sebastapol Bluffs..

Drove up to Picton on Friday evening to join Maaike and her mum for a few days. Stopped off just North of Kaikoura for a wee stretch of the legs at Ohau Waterfall seal colony (not too many seals about though)

It was lovely to meet Maaike’s mum – esp in advance of our trip in April (details to follow!) – she has a great sense of humour – and puts up with endless “Mamaaaaaaaaa’s” from Maaike. So we toured about Picton – taking in a Maori fort (Pa)

They had visited some Dutch friends up in Hawkes Bay – and they imported Dutch Cheese for their restaurant – so they picked some up. It was delicious – and not even Edam ;)

Now – Maaike’s mum (Wilmy) doesn’t really like heights much. Understandable I suppose coming from a country which is mostly below sea level, and sports a mountain with the dizzing – nay oxygen needing lofty summit of 321m. I can’t wait to climb it – hopefully unaided but we’ll see ;) Anyways.. that aside, we went for a cliff walk, and while I think Wilmy was mostly terrified, she did brilliantly.

This is possibly why I managed to claw a victory against the (mini)golfing talents of the Jongerius’. Fantastico. And apparently from(the 17 previous comments) Maaike hasn’t lost at family golf since after “that holiday in Denmark“. Aaaahhhh well.. I’m not one to gloaty gloat.

That said, they did get their own back at Boules later on. Apparently they have a set at home, so it hardly counts I think you’d have to say.

Oh, and we did some wine tasting too…

Then I took the coastal train back from Picton (no pics sorry) and Steve picked me up (thanks lots and lots) and Michelle cooked a yum dinner – and all in all it was an end to an excellent weekend.

Friends of the family from Oz (but living in Dunedin) were in town for a night. It was great to have a BBQ on the lawn and give them a tour of the house and garden. Ok, so this garden is kinda Mona Vale (the old (for NZ) house opposite – now city owned) – but still, it’s like our back garden as we have our own bridge into it :)

You can just about see our house hidden amongst the trees. I love this place.

Q: If a friend who is a helicopter pilot invites you to come with him when they fly 200km up the coast on a Friday morning do you:

• A). Say you can’t because you have to work
• B). Burn Airwolf and Ride of the Valkyries to CD, take the day off (and work it back on the weekend), fly up and hitch back?

Bit of a no-brainer really.

So.. Dom organised a lift out to the airport with a friend, and I messed about looking at Really Big Socket Wrenches and at the insides of helicopters while Dom got things ready.

Then, cranking on the Airwolf CD, it was time to take off.

It took about 50 minutes to do the usually 3 hour drive up the coast.. and I’ll just put some scenery pictures up. Seamus came along for the ride.

As we were coming into Kaikoura it was time for ride of the Valkyries…

Of course, then I was 3 hours from ChCh with no helicopter to take me back again.. so, I hitched. It took about 30 mins before I was picked up by two.. young gentlemen. One back from Afghanistan and thinking about becoming a private security guard (read mercenary) for about 20K cash a month. Still, they were good drivers, it was a new comfortable Audi, the dope they smoked (for lunch) didn’t impair their judgement (yes, I would have got out if I’d felt uncomfortable) and all in all it was actually quite fun.

So, a 500km round trip for $0.00. And in pretty good time too.

Thanks to Dom – brilliant.

Short entry.

Stayed in Takaka at Sylvia and Jualian’s parents (almost complete) house. It’s build on limestone rock – should have taken a pic.

Anyway.. here’s a video of a game called Face-Off we played. Mad.

Finally – on the way back had lunch at the Riverside Cafe (damn I love that place – even has the Wild Things..)

Finally – I thought this was hilarious.

Does nominative determinism apply to cars too?

Well, this may well be the second best New Years of all-time (note, this includes the potential of the future). Maaike couldn’t make it as she was meeting her mother in Auckland and is currently off exploring the North Island.

I have met a lot of really great people through the Canterbury University Tramping Club (CUTC), and I think my first tramp was with Sylvia – who organised this New Years along with her brother Julian.

Sylvia and Julian’s parents bought 1000 acres of bush and an old paper mill up in Takaka (Golden Bay) for $17 an acre in 1970. It is an awesome place. They’re still discovering caves there.

There was a great bunch of friends there – some (like Jana and Julian I’ve not seen in 2 years since they left to Germany)? The trip was spent exploring and playing games. For example, golf (with hokey sticks – playing balls off trees / buildings / tents etc. very much encouraged). Michelle (playing) was killer.

They have mobile lawnmowers (sheep). Some of them are self shedding. One of these was shawn by Mark Hooker. Can you guess which one?

So yes, exploring the bush and caves was fun. About 2km from their property is a 7km long cave (this pic is not that one).

Their water they get from a stream 100 (vertical) metres downhill. But they use a hydrostatic pump to get it up the hill. Basically (as far as my very ageing engineering brain can understand) you create a header tank (pressure) and then use this pressure to force a (small amount) of water through a one way valve. Effectively you use a relatively large amount of water at lower pressure to push a small amount of water at high pressure. And it works with very few moving parts and little maintenance. It is, almost, magic. And here’s a rubbish picture.

Steve & Mark shot a goat each (wild – pests here) on New Years eve.. so that was prepared for dinner. The fire was insanely big – considering bush all about. Luckily all the tents had been removed first ;)

The goat (backstakes) were grilled (on a small fire – honestly, a little tough – but the curry the following night was way better). We also toasted marshmallows on (very) long sticks.

There were so many little things that made the place groovy.. just two of which were their ingenious wood system. Basically there was a hole in the back of the kitchen cupboard that you could pull through from the wood pile outside. Very clever. And their toilet in use sign (blue hand) was also quite neat. Also a picture of Michelle looking happy as Steve enjoys taking out a splinter (too much wood chopping)

Also went for a really enjoyable scramble with Jana (yay to have her back for a visit!) and Lachlain (damn tough kiwi). Just scrambling around waterfalls and up block-strewn rivers. So much fun. And a pic of Al Wood, in a boat, on the 20m long pond.

All in all, an amazing new years (and good to be out of mobile reception for it too ;)

I am extremely fortunate to have an Aunt and cousins who live in New Zealand. This year Maaike came up with me to Palmy and experienced her first Christmas lunch with Turkey & Ham etc. (Dutchies are weird and don’t have that tradition).

Maaike was an immediate hit with the wee cousins.

I suspect the circus course helped. But when she tried slapstick and they wound up in hospital* it wasn’t so funny.

It was lovely seeing Mary (Aunt) and just relaxing.. a gentle?! intro to what awaits us in Europe when we visit our respective families (more details to follow – just as soon as all the flights are booked – but arrive into Dublin on the 2nd April)

Went to this old (for NZ) house for a bbq and drinks. Lovely place. They did have a real skull on the mantelpiece though. Which was strange (left over from anatomy lessons I think).

Also took in a quick trip to OTaki, spent far too much in the merino outlet store (if that’s possible) and went for a walk on the beach (above), saw my cousin Williams garden (very cool – has all the ingrediants for Mojito’s in a single tub (ok, Lime tree + mint). I think this is an idea to be copied.

All in all really good times.

*may not be true

The last three weeks have been spent tidying, cleaning, cooking and organising.

Moving in takes quite a bit of effort and time to be spent on these things. After we’d got most things organised it was time for our first guest. Val, who’d just left the flat – came back for a couple of nights before leaving for the Antarctic (again). Also, we won a rocky road cake (unrelated).

Which is, probably (certainly?! – definitely, absolutely / completely …) why Maaike chose these few weeks to run away and join the circus. Well, run away and do a three week (5 days a week, 4->8pm) circus course. Coming home to cooked meals and cleaned rooms. Hope she doesn’t learn to expect these things ;)

Heh… anyway.. she can now juggle, knows one end of a trapese from the other, can beat people up even more effectively – create human pyramids etc. I’m actually really impressed and more than a little jealous. Might have to go on a course myself.

Anyways – here are a few video’s of the performers..

Trampoline…

Rollo Bollo?! (something like that anyway)

juggling (and passing)

trapeze

Maaike’s part in the performance was as MC. She gets really really really irritable though when anyone gets in her way (on or off the stage).. next three video’s of Maaike..

Most impressive..

Finally for the performance there was a human pyramid formed (well, lots of different figures really). Well done to Ollie (housemate) for organising the whole thing – and to all the up and coming performing artists.. great work.

Not quite finally for the evening though – Maaike took out the rest of her agression in the pub. Narrowly avoiding being thrown out on her ear..

Honestly… no idea where she gets it from – but will be meeting Maaike’s mother in the New Year, and will have a few questions..

p.s. … I’m sure you’ll agree the best thing about Maaike’s performance was, of course, my shirt..