Well, a huge thank you to Declan who sent over a leprechaun. Which has taken up residence at last. First it showed the frog who was boss..

Which is only right and proper, as that frog certainly had a high opinion of itself! :) And after terrorising it a little more

They (Seamus and The Frog) settled down to a nice relaxing national tipple.

Seamus also sings an lovely song…

“When Irish eyes are smiling,

Sure ’tis like a morning spring,

In the lilt of Irish laughter,

You can hear the aaaanngels sing”

so thanks again Dec, owe you one big time buddy!

Pretty damn busy week really – well work wise anyway.. trying to build a pilot for a performance management system that may eventually go ministry wide. Not super easy, but great to have a challenge. Also offered the possibility to apply for a perm position.. hmmm, can’t say it’s not tempting.

My climbing is definitly getting better, still not sure if it’s back to where it was by the end of summer, but still, getting there. Had a fun night over at 429 Memorial Ave (Ye olde original house) when Glynn and Sam had a barbecue.

Lots of fun, can’t wait for the weather to get a little warmer. Hopefully by Wed as Florian and I are having a barbecue too for his leaving for Europe. Should be fun.

Friday night was fun, had a games night in work. After two hours I had to head to a party, and we weren’t quite finished the first game (Trivial Persuit).

Sat fairly lazy really, did head out to the beach at sumner with Warick (where I should be getting kite surfing soon) and went out in the surf and tried to roll. I failed miserably! Was a little scary I guess, big enough waves.. And pulling the spraydeck to get out wasn’t quite automatic.. it did pop off, but I gotta get better at that, has to be reflex. Then headed over to Lyttleton where we practiced rolling in one of the bays, and I got it there, and quite happy about it I was too.

Oh, and chatted with my friend Barry on Skype during the week too.. what a system :)

Just a few pics to compliment the text from Temple Basin – Courtesy of Dave Aubrey and Neil Hudson.

First pic is of Theresa Anthony and Neil.. this is no optical illusion.. it really was damn steep – I came down this on my heels edge on to the slope, and I still slid and bumped most of the way down it.. really was steep!

Next, well this one is of me heading into Bills Basin..

and then about half a minute later (I was actually resting here.. never fall me ;)

Excellent weekends snowboarding at temple basin (Dave, Neil, Anthony). Not a huge crowd up there, which certainly made all the difference as I didn’t need to worry about crashing into people (too much). Hopefully a few pics to come sometime, I didn’t bring my camera this time, so no pics of the really scenic lodge we stayed in.. or the off piste skiing we did.

This guy writes about NZ skiing very well.. and explains the infamous nutcrackers. Basically the club fields here have a very simple mechanism for getting up the slopes. There’s a fast moving rope running over metal wheels, you grab onto the rope with one hand (with a leather glove protector to stop your glove melting (they do)), and then once you’re up to speed on the rope, you get what looks like a nutcracker (attached by a foot long rope to a belt harness attached to you) and whip it over the rope so that it grabs on. Then you simply hold on for dear life. lots of fun

I’d learned before on the pummers and t-bars that you should leave your back foot out of the snowboard… however here, it was best to put both feet in. The reason became quite apparent when one of the other people on the ski-field (a snowboarder) managed to fall towards the top of the tow-rope. They tumbled down the quite steep and icy slope, but with only having one foot locked in.. well.. I think they got away with just a broken knee..

Definitly exciting though, I mean those ropes are *fast* and the slopes are damn steep, really do hope I get some pics. So that’s probably the end of the snow season for this year, but am really quite happy with the progress I’ve made..

Productive week at work, mainly ‘cos David has been out sick unfortunatly..Quite quiet with Florian away climbing at Paynes Forde, really looking forward to getting back into the outdoor climbing scene now that the weather is warmer.

Glynn got his visa extension – 2 days before the old one was due to run out, so headed out for pints and pool last night, great fun. Hoping to get up to Temple Basin ski field at the weekend.. $100 for accommodation, 2 days ski-passes and food. At least I think there’s food ;) So hopefully that’ll happen. Mind you, old college friends are having a reunion for..

Ben.. who has just completed two and a half years on Bird Island working for the British Antarctic Survey… so I kinda want to give them a call and say hello. Hopefully there’s a phone in the ski-logde!!