This weekend it was off up to Wellington to see Glynn and Jayne. It’s a really stunning flight up from ChCh.. assuming you remember to pick your seats facing the Kaikouras.

Saturday was spent showing Maaike around Wellington (she’d not properly visited before). We went to see an exhibition by Yayoi Kusama a Japanese artist. She’s quite mad – but her art is really quite cool. Here’s a google images result

Food was eaten and drink was drunk. I was absolutely knackered after lunch (and in this pic with Glynn!)

…So had a wee nap before the evenings Roller derby entertainment.

Now – Matt Pepler who used to live in ChCh is going out with a lovely, pretty, demure lady – Silke. We met up with Matt in the D4 bar (populated by Irish Bar staff – as you’d expect)

And then onto the game. Now, roller derby. Well it’s an odd game – kinda like chariot racing – except on roller skates, with a good bit of WWF style theatrics thrown in for good measure. We were supporting the Silken Dagger (Silke) who plays for Brutel Pagent (they lost to Smashed Malice).

Basically there are 5 players from each team playing at any time. They roll around in an anticlockwise direction – and one player from each team is the Jammer (person who can score). They have to get through the pack before they can score – and their opponents try to block them. In a nutshell.

There was also an interval where we saw some pretty skilled break-roller-dancing (or whatever you call it)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHq9siIoXKM]

So – an interesting night. I must say – it was quite intimidating when we went down on the court after and Silke came over to say hi. She’s tall enough to begin with – let alone with face-paint, padding etc!

Still – it’s amazingly impressive what they’ve achieved. There were 1000 people watching the match – and they only formed a group 2 years ago. Very impressive.

On Sunday Maaike and I met up with my friend Mandy (who I first went to Rai Lay with). It was great to meet up and hear more stories. Mandy is someone to whom improbable things happen to. She’s an art teacher and was looking for a cleaner whilst moving house. Somehow ended up trying to be hired as a mercenary by the supposed cleaner she was put in touch with. Mandy is the furthest person I can imagine from becoming a mercenary. Hilarious.

Anyways – then it was on to the market, ice-cream, sunburn (mmmm love that sunburn), scribblings on the pavement…

And then to Te Papa (our place) to have a look around. They have a (baby 4m) Collosal Squid there. Those are seriously cool creatures. They can take a whale.

Also played on their interactive wall..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNlp3ogEbGE]

On a final note – well, firstly – thanks to Glynn and Jayne for having us.. but secondly, Glynn and I get a lot of stick (well, me esp from Maaike ;) about sometimes, occasionally, needing some me time to just grab a second or two to go onto the internet, read an email or two, catch up on news.. – which engenders ceaseless heckling and abuse for being unsociable. However, here I was, trying to make conversation and Maaike was studiously ignoring me reading the paper (and Jayne was trying to entice Glynn back from the pub… without much luck).

Anyway – I reckon it all evens out in the end ;)

Well well well. Time is only flying by this year. Lovely to have longer sunnier days – and to be back outdoors stretching the legs. Though, they might have been stretched just slightly further than they were expecting this weekend :)

The map above shows the loop we did. It was pretty much three 7 hour days. Getting to lake Christabel is a bit of a slog along a track which is quite rough. Still, it makes the food and wine taste all the better.

This Saturday there was also a giant ‘3’ being made in ChCh – for the Copenhagen commitment to 350ppm. So we made our own three two ;)

The second day – from Lake Christabel over to Robinson Hut was definitely my favourite. Started off well with some Kaka (native parrot) flying about.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-4X88EsvAA]

Then across numerous swing bridges and up up onto the snow. Some stunning panoramas – ridges and spurs all over the place. Beautiful.

And then a pretty steep descent down to the hut for the night. It’s not a very visited place this one. Every hut has a log book inside – and this one went back to 1994 and had about 15 pages used..

Dinner was delicious. I had been slightly lazy with the shopping and Maaike carted this jar all the way (I did have the tent and cooker in defence). Still, teach her to let me do the shopping I suppose ;)

Finally out on the Monday – and back to civilisation (though I thought we were all quite civilised really). It was great having Sylvia along – she and Mark arriving back from Scotland and already back into it. Well, ok, Mark was doing CV’s or something ;)

Anyways – all fun. Thanks to Steve for organising, and (here we go)… Michelle, Amy, Maaike, Sylvia, Amber, Berit, Mikkel, Mike, Liz and Antoine for a great weekend. Loved it.

So, Maaike turned 30 this month – and had a party to celebrate. Apparently she ‘doesn’t do birthdays or birthday parties‘. But this seems to be a complete fabrication of the truth.. as she does both – well.

The cake was created from these delicious truffles (thanks Rachel!) that I really need to get the recipe for. That room that the party is in – is soon to be our lounge when Maaike and I move in together in a month. (drum roll). Address will only change from Flat 1 to Flat 5 though :)

Maaike and I headed to Lake Coleridge this weekend. It’s a funny time in NZ – season wise, as the snow is mostly gone, but it’s not really nice enough to bank on tramping for the weekend.

Anyways – headed away on the Saturday morning – stopping at the Horarata pub for pies. Now I know you might be thinking it’s only a pie, what’s the point in commenting. But really, they are very good pies. Not so sure about the dog carrier though…

We stayed at the Lake Coleridge lodge and went for a short walk to the lake on the Sat evening – enough to whet our appetite (food was delicious)

Next day walked up Peak Hill. Slightly redundant title for a peak, or a hill, but anyway.. once at the top (only a 600m height gain) it gave the most stunning views.

It was pretty slippy on the way up – and even more so on the way back down again. But completely worth doing.

I’m going to put up two panoramas which I took when up there. I suppose with internet speeds these days it’s not an issue – the first one is 2.3megs – and the second 6.3 megs (if you want to see the high res shot).

and

Finally a video from the top too (no sound)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROWJSxahg0]

Hmmm, not a very wordy post this one. Still, that probably keeps most of you happy ;)

Finally – a picture of the Rakaia with sun on it – and me sitting beside the Wilberforce river. There is a book (Under the Mountain – Maurice Gee – Kiwi Author) that I have been reading Maaike. It was made into a BBC mini series (seriously terrified me as a kid) and has also been made into a film (not released yet I believe).

You’re wondering what the point of that was? Well, the evil creatures (slug like – want to turn the galaxy into mud.. basically ,bad folk) are called the Wilberforces. So it seemed fitting to drive 20K to park at the end of the road and finish the book. So we did.

… but a slightly savage morning.