Two friends of Maaike’s from The Netherlands (Sander and Simone) came to NZ for a brief 4 week holiday. Now I realised some of you might be thinking ‘4 weeks is brief?!!‘ … but when you’re flying into ChCh, wanting to get down to Milford Sound and then up to Auckland (driving) 4 weeks really isn’t that long at all.
I am going to get round to putting up a tips-and-tricks page for NZ – but I suggest if you’ve got 4 weeks in NZ *don’t* try and see everything.. rather come for 6 and spend 4 on the South Island (if you like mountains) and 2 on the North (or vice-versa if you want more beachy stuff).
Speaking of mountains and coasts.. The wonderful Michelle McMillan (Shelly) was doing the coast to coast this year. It’s a one (or two) day event where you start on the West Coast of the South Island, and bike-run-kayak your way to Christchurch. Pretty savage really.
Maaike and I had been climbing (outside!! oooooo) and then headed over to Sumner to watch her come in. Must be quite the feeling to run over the finish line at last.
Next post will have details about the upcoming trip to Europe. Really can’t wait at this stage!
Here is some of his best advice: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t; it’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car; it’s not food if it is called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Pringles); avoid food products with more than five ingredients; avoid foods you see advertised on television; don’t eat breakfast cereal that changes the colour of the milk; drink the spinach water; eat all the junk food you want, so long as you cook it yourself; have a glass of wine with dinner; stop eating before you are full; eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored; buy smaller plates and glasses; spend as much time enjoying the meal as you spent preparing it; eat meals.
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..
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