Work party tonight – lots of fun. My good friend and pool nemesis David is on the right in this photo. Bananas in Pyjamas..

It was fancy dress, I went in my toga costume.. twas fun.

But the best bit was absolutely my Chriskindle (or however you spell that) present.. Secret Santa they call it here… It wasn’t super secret.. but my not-so-secret santa (Juanita) was absolutely far too generous – and got me this great t-shirt (now my new favourite). In my opinion it totally sums me up.

Finally, Happy Christmas to all, (esp those who’ve mailed, sent postcards, left messages.. it really makes a difference!)

Spur of the moment decision.. one of the people I know through climbing here is off to Krabi in southern Thailand. A place I’ve always wanted to visit – and climb.

I mean when it looks like this…

who wouldn’t want to go!… I think quite a few of the bond films have been made in the area. Anyway, so today I bought tickets and will be heading over from 16th Jan -> 1st Feb.. crazy I guess, but I need a holiday ;)

Also passed my NZ Driving test (well theory was all I had to do) If you’re here more than a year and haven’t got the license, then you can be fined $400. So that’s good.

But pretty excited about the climbing.. limestone sea cliffs.. excellent, prob get some diving in too if I can.. ahhhhh, ’tis the life.

Dear oh dear, free alcohol at work functions ought to be banned. I reckon. At least for me. Still, on the upside, seeing as today was a total write off (though did go and play squash!) went to see Team America – World Police made by the same guys wot make South Park. It’s quite definitely one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.

Crazy weather lately.. it’s really been kinda miserable (for summer) for the last week. On Saturday headed up to Lewis pass with Marcel and Emily and did a small tramp along the tops – we only went for a couple of hours as we’d not (all) brought crampons and an ice-axe.. and also it was blowing a gale with really limited visibility, so there wasn’t much point.

Then it was off to Motueka..(after an hour long soak at Maruia Springs). We had a tiny epic along the way when we stopped in Murchison to get petrol.. and the car decided it didn’t quite want to start again (Marcels car).. but a push got it going again (after we’d tried replacing the battery). So met up with Mhairi and her parents, who are traveling for a couple of weeks.. got taken out for an Indian by them.. which was most kind! All in preparation for The Hike Of DOOM. Well, not really (at all infact), but I thought it sounded a little more exciting.

I’d actually been up before with Maeve and Kirsten in Febuary, but this tramp was a little more interesting as we tried to get up Mt. Arthur.. again, the weather didn’t oblige so we didn’t get to summit.

Mhairis’ parents were unsurprisingly fit (and fun)!

So the pace was fairly quick for the weekend. Which was great, as we got to the hut in fine time and got to chill out and play games (and drink mulled wine from a plastic bottle.. hmmmmm… ok, I’m a mulled wine snob I admit). Scrabble was fun believe it or not ef is a word (it’s the letter F).. as are more useful two letter ones like ZO (Himalayan cattle), XI and XU are also pretty good… We also had a rubber of bridge. Don’t care what slags I get! It’s a great game and I’m sticking to it (and legions of old-folks will back me up I’m sure)

Walking out the next morning along the valley was cruisey.. too so for Mhairi I fear!… she headed off to run a different track and meet her parents later.. I *think* she did about 35km or so in about 4 hours. Quite ridiculous really! :)

And all too soon back to ChCh.. it’s a great place.. but sometimes I think it’d be better if I just got money to enjoy myself and didn’t have to work at all. It really does get in the way of things sometimes!

Sad day! Sam – a really great American (they do exist.. joking joking!) has headed travelling and I’ll not see him again until I visit North Carolina .. or him to Dublin (or Christchurch where I’m kinda considering living after travelling for 8 months and saying hi to Ireland + Europe again) Met him in January on a canyoning trip.

He’s also kinda tall.. but that’s ok.. even if I do look a little glum about being about a foot shorter than him in this pic..

We headed out to a pretty different restraunt – The Bodhi Tree for his second last night .. it was Burmese. Weird food, spicey – but yum.. lots of little tapas (kinda). It was good anyway! then onto The Twisted Hop microbrewery. The next morning wasn’t fun.. but the night was great.