The wonderful Mark Adams organised another excellent weekend up to middle hill to go biking. Hired the same massive house on AirBnB, similar crew with a couple of switches where people weren’t able to make it. I got-away with my bike not having had a brake change, not making that mistake again (there wasn’t much left in the pads by the end of the weekend).

Definitely a smooth operation, except that I was abandoned by the group when I was locking up the house. Two different cars both thought they had me ;). I suspect I’ll have PTSD for a while (not).

Second day did the same loop at Mt Fyffe that we did the last time, a lot drier this time so far easier riding. Still muddy enough on the way down. I almost completely lost it. Well, I did lose my front wheel but somehow (luck not skill) got it back under control. Felt very lucky to get down in one-piece.

The hump ridge track is about 60km long and set in Southern Fiordland. It has just become a “great walk”, though it’s administered by a charitable trust not DOC. As far as I understand it, Tuatapere had a factory which shut down and the residents were pretty worried about the future of their town and decided to band together to build a great walk to bring people into the area. And it has _totally_ worked. I think about 4,500 people through this season? Each one staying a night or two either side, paying the hut and track fees and getting to do a wonderful hike. They have options to have single rooms, you can buy food + booze at the huts, even have blankets etc. So, if you want to, you can hike with pretty much just a day bag if your budget allows.

My budget did not allow ;) On the plus side, I definitely got my exercise hiking up the hill. The bush was lovely though. It definitely felt like you were “out there”, even though there’s a tonne (of much needed) boardwalk. I found it hard enough on the knees esp going down hill the second day. I’d recommend bringing walking poles just to take a little of the weight.

And the Guinness at the hut was totally worth the $10 I paid donated for it.

Day 2

Second day was pretty much downhill and then along an old viaduct/tramway. It probably was the hardest day, partly because downhill is just hard work, and also because the flatness of the tramway is slightly hard to keep your enthusiasm/concentration up. Still, blessed with the weather and the views (not normal for this part of the world). The old bridges were pretty cool. Up to a few months ago you could walk across them, but, not at the moment (and possibly never again). May have dodged a bullet there.

I channeled my inner Maaike at Port Craig and went for a swim. It was actually not entirely awful once I was in. I think I even stayed in for a good 15 minutes, banging rocks under the water in the hope that the dolphins would come in for a play (they didnt’)

Day 3 and home

Day 3 was relatively short. Still 20km but all along the flat. It’s tidal, so, you need to hit the tides right (it’s really only 1 hour either side where you’re in trouble). Fortunately the timing was fine for me walking out.

I had an entirely lovely time, met a lovely couple Ken and Anne who are sailing their boat for their retirement. Absolute legends.

I again split the drive on the way home. I had a lovely drive up to Wanaka via Queenstown, and then stayed at a free DOC campsite in Lindis Pass which was basic, but, just perfect for me. I was happy-as in my tent for the evening.

Then back to ChCh the following day. All in all an excellent excellent trip. Many thanks to Maaike for suggesting it and pushing me out the door :)

With the good luck of being laid off ;) and the wonderful support of Maaike (practically pushing me out of the house to enjoy this month off) I decided to do the Hump Ridge track. I’d originally planned on just doing the St. James for the n’th time, but, Maaike said why not try the hump ridge, so, I did :)

It’s a really long way down to the start (about 9 hours of driving) so I decided to split it in half and head down the coast to Dunedin and catch up with my old flatmate Mark Tynan.

Lovely drive down past omaru and stopped off at Moeraki for a quick walk on the beach

Got there around dinner time with a bottle of wine and some chocolates to add to the mix. Stéphanies dad sister and brother were in town too, so I got to dust off some very very rusty French.

They’ve been busy prepping the place for a build. They’ve got in a house-by-flatpack from Eastern Europe and are planning on doing a bunch of the work themselves. Mark even bought a digger and learned how to use it. Amazing.

It was a really lovely evening and chance to catch up. Just wonderful.

I’ve been working for vibrant planet for almost 2 years. It has been quite the insight into Startup life. I really really enjoyed working for the company. The team was excellent, we were working on Climate change related tech (with a wildfire resiliency focus). It was using Elixir & Phoenix some tech I really wanted to get into, and it was fully remote and well paid…. a really excellent mixture!

Unfortunately, it was decided that all the development was going to be on-shored into the US. This was, as you might imagine, extremely unsettling. It’s a very weird time out there at the moment, Trump and his tariffs and just generally volatile nature (Iran war now). AI coming in and upending pretty much the entire jobs landscape, and definitely for developers. I have many friends who are out of work recently and the competition is fierce for those positions. It’s hard.

I got really lucky however, a friend was leaving a startup that he co-founded and which was bought out by TradeMe, so, his position became free and I was deemed a good enough fit that I skipped through the interviewing process. Really feeling incredibly lucky and privileged at the moment. Now I just need to actually deliver.

I have a few weeks to work out, then a blessed month off between jobs, and then start the new one towards the end of March. Very lucky.

This weekend we headed up towards Arthur’s pass to camp for the weekend.

We had pretty decent weather (this summer has mostly been a washout). There’s a lovely circuit the cass lagoon which we just did the first part of. Once you’re up towards the saddle there are some tarns up there and we’d been told there were some decent camping spots, so off we went.

It was a decent old hike up hill for Anna. Approx 600m of elevation gain and some boggy parts to navigate. She did really well and basically didn’t complain (the second day was a slightly different affair, but, on the whole really good!).

We had to look about for a good camping spot. Down by the tarns 43°03’01.0″S 171°35’49.1″E was where we setup.

It was a lovely evening, just great to be out in the fresh air. Maaike was extremely brave and went for a dip, and Anna went in too. A little bit too much cold-wind blowing about for me to jump in too. Maybe next time ;)