…. if you happen to be interested.

Head of APSO on Peak Oil – Aberdeen University

After the exertions of TWALK, it was only fitting to have a relaxing weekend away on the banks peninsula. This time, instead of the usual Akaroa haunt (closed for the winter) Maaike and I decided to head to a small village?! called Okains Bay.

Now, Maaike *says* that she prefers to steer clear of Dutch people as a rule whilst in NZ… but you’d have to say it was highly co-incidental that the hostel she chose was called ‘Double Dutch’, and just happened to be run by a Dutch couple.

No pictures of the hostel, my bad, but it was very nice.. though the fact that it was all wooden floors (no shoes please) and winter… made for me wishing I had brought slippers.

Many games of Tantrix were played, and an old game I hadn’t played since I was about 12 at my grandfathers called continuo.

The most interesting part of the weekend was definitely visiting the Maori museum (and colonial). They had period houses (Okains Bay is a very early settlement.. in terms of NZ white-persons terms anyway). I did feel like such a complete and utter wuss when you see what Olde Worlde people had to do. “Grandma’s Washing Machine”.. looked savage.. basically a hand cranked modern dishwasher. Only worse.

Finally, a picture of the museum grounds, and a close-up of the entrance to the Maori Storehouse (or pātaka). Not entirely sure I’d like to go there for my shopping.

From: Michael McKenny
Date: Tue, May 5, 2009 at 10:09 AM

Paddy

have just checked your blog,
and am sweating and shaking uncontrollably.

who the **** put you in charge of navigation?
is there something ******* wrong with them?

… for the love of God…..

this could put swine flu in the shade as an international story,

my hands are slipping off the keyboard with an extreme level of sweat

So it was that time of the year again – TWALK. TWALK stands for 24 hour walk. It’s an orienteering/rogaine event run by the Canterbury University tramping club every year. And it’s a lot of fun!!.

Everyone dresses up in costume (below Maaike as a topical Swine Flu carrier)

We were dressed up as lemmings.. no pics which really show it off unfortunately.. but there were lots of really great costumes – including the ghostbusters and pacman!

This year I was jointly in-charge (with Michelle) of the navigation as my usual navigator, Steve, is in France. And I loved it!!. I probably ought to have more confidence in my navigational abilities… though it *was* perfect blue-skies conditions and pretty easy terrain to navigate through. Still.. we walked about 32km from 10:30->01:15 and knew where we were pretty much all the time!

It was pretty damn cold at night – beautiful stars, but damn cold. I slept in my down jacket, and had two pairs of thermals on my legs, my feet tucked into the sleeves of another thermal top, and inside my reasonably nice sleeping bag… and I was comfortable. Still there was ice on the inside in the morning!

So yes, all in all a really excellent weekend. I would like to do more of the navigation I think, though I recognise that it was *easy* with lots of people around and perfectly perfect conditions.. still.. it was a good effort.

Thanks to my team-mates Michelle, Andrew (McTaggart) (who’s pictures these are), and Kylie… we lived up to our team-name (Maximum J (for enJoyment)) brilliantly.

And before she says it, Maaike’s team did thoroughly pummel ours, but then what do points matter when they were bickering all the way, and limping onto the bus with blood filled blisters leaking out their shoes (note, may not be true)

A friend posted this on FaceBook – it’s one of the best urban bike video’s I have seen in a long time. All taken around Edinburgh.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o]