So, quite a while ago I went tramping in the Mt. Owen region with Mhairi,Marcel, Dave and Anthony… it was a fairly eventful trip and one I’d not care to repeat (well, it’d be lovely to tramp with them again, but the whole Anthony-falling-concussion-helicopter thing I could do without)

Anyway, this time it was back with Thor & his lovely wife Jess and our friend Anna. Headed up on (Good) Friday… Anna and I had forgotten to get some drink.. and while we couldn’t in the supermarket…

did manage to pick up a bottle of palatable whiskey for the cold nights ahead.

The walk in is a bit of a slog (pretty much 6 hours uphill)

On Easter Sunday the Easter bunny arrived for the newlyweds, and they found a substantial amount of eggs around our tent…

The walk to the summit (5 hours return to the tents) is really interesting – as it’s a karst landscape.. really good fun. There was a bit of low cloud, but we had pretty decent views for most of the day – and fortunately weren’t baked by the sun!

Had my cream egg on the summit – tasted delicious after lugging it all the way up there :) And I think the other photo below is looking down towards sunrise ridge where all the excitement happened on the last trip… very pleased there was nothing like that this time!

So yes, a great Easter- thanks to Thor & Jess and Anna for a really wonderful weekend.

For the last few wednesday evenings (into the night) I have been doing a rogaine series with Steve and his lovely girlfriend Michelle, and our friend Mike who has just returned from travels (and about 150 other people). For some reason best known to Steve (who’s into bugs & suchlike) we are called the rostrums. Good fun though… great to get out and stretch the old legs after work!

So a long time ago my friend Declan sent me over an Irish leprechaun – who has been called Seamus. He always comes out on the town given a chance – and St. Patrick’s night (not Paddy’s day – heathens!) is usually a big one for him. The pictures speak for themselves really.

Well one of my crazier (and I should know ;) friends, Florian, is leaving NZ to head back to Europe to become a teacher. He has – by a country mile – the most messed up (interesting??) accent I have ever heard. He is French, but spent quite a while in Ireland and Scotland. He was the reason I got to live in my wonderful (if run down) house – with my own river and a huge garden – and lots of great house mates. I was flatting with a guy called Jim – who is a very nice guy – just very different from me. I’d moved in about a month and then 39 Fendalton came free… and I was agonizing over leaving Jim after just a month… but Flo said something along the lines of Who’s life are you trying to make happy. Now I don’t think one should be selfish… but I was really glad he said that to me and that I moved in. I have met so many great people and just had a great time.

Then there was the time we went hiking (Flo leading) with the tramping club – and off we set into the depths of Arthur’s Pass. Up a ridge, and we were walking along and it became apparent things were a little off. Flo was adamant that we were heading South.. and said – “Look at the Sun – of course we’re heading South”… one of the party disagreed and eventually it was resolved by pulling out a compass. At which point Flo gave in (and then realised he was in the Southern Hemisphere so it was all backwards).

Then there’s his cooking… he is an AMAZING chef.. but the kitchen is a complete bomb site afterwards… and I should know as I lived with him for a few months … still.. acceptable tactical losses.

Anyway – he will be greatly missed – but I’m sure I’ll see him again somewhere!

There’s a discount card in Christchurch through one of the local radio stations – RDU… and I went into a music shop to pick a replacement up. The assistant basically refused to sell me one unless I took the $5 more expensive option and bought tickets to a music gig with the discount card thrown in for free.. So on Sunday Steve & Michelle and Aroha and I went off to the Cheap as Chips concert. It was a good gig if a little cold – the highlight definitely being a dub band called the Blackseeds..

Other than that a fairly lazy weekend, tried to find out what was wrong with my camera (takes about 4 pictures and then dies) and it looks like it might be the charger.. I had no idea those things could break!