As I am still in recovery mode I’m only working 4 days a week at the moment. While this might sound like a brilliant idea, the flipside is that I’m pretty much broke all the time! Still, it’s all good really. My friend Steve had some work to do down in Dunedin and invited me to come along for the ride. Dunedin is a place I had only ever driven through so I was happy to get the chance to have a look around.

My impression of Dunedin was of a very vibrant student town. I really liked the compact layout and the fact that everyone walks everywhere. It’s a very Scottish town – being a country where Scottish Presbyterians settled in to build their ideal town. In fact I went to the Otago settlers museum there and there was a bit on the Irish in Otago. We Irish were really discriminated against in the beginning as they didn’t want the mainly Catholic religion to be practiced in their new colony.

It was interesting seeing what the settlers had to go through to get out here. They were allowed to bring one kist with them (3’*2’*2′). Really not the biggest baggage allowance you could imagine.

I also checked out the cadbury factory and did their tour. I was pretty surprised to hear that sometimes NZ supplies product to Europe.

Also checked out some really incredible landscape photography (Andris Apse. Luckily it’s still going to be in Dunedin when I’m down there in a couple of weeks time with my brother and his wife.. so will definitely be recommending we get there.

That evening (Friday) Steve and I headed into the Silverpeaks reserve. We got there at about 5pm with a good hours light to get to our hut for the evening. Just as we were getting close Steve goes ‘Actually, I have a sneaking suspicion that the hut might have been taken out’. I thought many evil things at that point, and even more when we arrived at the site and there was an empty grassy space where the hut used to be.

So we decided to walk on and try the next hut (possum hut). It was a slippery and dark experience and we weren’t even sure if the hut would be there when we got there. It was.. but was in pretty awful condition. Someone had pitched a tent in the cut (complete with dirty newspapers and whisky bottles). We decided to let the tent down and sleep on top of it where it was marginally cleaner.

As I was letting down the tent I came across a dead possum in the corner of the hut. Ick. I really didn’t sleep too well that night.

The next day we walked on to Jubilee hut. The hut was in excellent shape only having been installed in Feb. I was looking forward to a nice quiet relaxing evening – when a group arrived (7 people) and then the Otago University Tramping Club (13 people) so there were 22 of us in a 10 bunk hut. We were snug!

Still, a great weekend tramp. I’m ridiculously unfit at the moment – really need to get out more at the weekends. Would you believe – a button on my work trousers popped the other day! really is the beginning of the end :)

So the Reith lectures are run each year by the BBC. They get in an international speaker to talk on a subject of interest and importance. This year it was given by Jeff Sachs and is on climate change. There’s a link to a blog which has all the audio available for download as mp3.

Apparently it’s a fairly optimistic take on the whole thing which could be good for a change. Just finished reading a book called we are the weather makers which was a pretty chilling introduction to the possible future of the planet. Perhaps the wet summer (and floods) that the UK & Ireland have been experiencing is just a taste of what’s to come.

I must say, I do think that my generation is going to have a very very interesting time of things. I could of course just be a doomsayer, but it seems to me that climate change is real and has the likely potential to be a real disaster unless we can change our ways. Course we in the West will be able to buy our way out of the worst of it.. but the impact of millions of refugees from the likes of Bangladesh etc. could be … interesting.

Anyways, while I’ve not listened to them yet I suspect the Reith Lectures will be well worth listening to.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQl8MahN9fk]

Morph goes green..

Glynn & Jayne were down from Wellington for the weekend and we took the opportunity to head up to Mt. Hutt to snowboard on Sunday. My cameras battery had unfortuantely died so no pictures to show.

We had a few issues getting up there – mostly revolving around needing chains to get up the hill. Glynn & Jayne headed up the hill with Jaynes sister Sarahs family. They had a nightmare of a time as once they’d arrived at Mt. Hutt they then had to drive back to Ashburton (40km or so away) to buy chains as no one was allowed up the hill without them.

We didn’t fare much better as Dave and I piled into Graham and Myras van (along with Matt & Silke) and Annee-the-vanee did very well getting most of the way up the hill before the chains died. They’d lent the chains to some friends who had used them on a car with smaller tyres and they’d been damaged.

I was a complete wuss and stayed in the car while Graham, Dave and Matt (the real men) went outside in high winds (and blown snow) to try and fix it. They did an excellent job (with a little help from some of the Mt. Hutt personnel) and we got up to the ski field at about 11:30.

So took a 1/2 day pass and boarded from 12:15->4pm. I was pretty tired by the end of it – and really had a great day. Glynn was boarding really really well – in fact everyone was really. I spent most of the day trying to board backwards with varying amounts of success… still, getting there. :)

I’m very fortunate with the friends I have in NZ. Dave very kindly
lent me ice-axes boots and crampons for the weekend and off I went to
Franz Josef to play around on the glaciers.

Headed over there in a party of 9. Up and off by 8:30 each day so
that we could beat the tours to the glacier. I felt slightly rude as
the glacier has fresh steps cut each day for the tours – and there we
were arriving early and having everything prepared as if it was just
for us!

So spent a few hours practicing ice-climbing.. it’s definitely a fun
sport.. mind you I wasn’t saying that on the Saturday afternoon when
my borrowed boots had given me pretty nasty blisters on both heels –
and also on the front of my shin. Fortuntely one of the other members
of the party (thanks Bronwyn) had strapping tape and I was able to
tape myself up for Sundays adventures.

Definitely odd places glaciers. It was wonderful walking amongst the
cliffs of blue blue ice, there’s a certain majesty to glaciers.

What else.. I’ve joined a group here in ChCh called Age Concern.
Basically you’re paired up with an old person who lives in your area
and you’ve to spend (at least) an hour a week with them. I’m not
quite sure when I’ll start but I’ve had the orientation so it could be
any time now.

It’s funny.. I’m really not feeling (at the moment) like getting back
into software. Probably mostly ‘cos I got out of it for so long and my
skills have really deteriorated. I’m still thinking about the teaching
thing – and intend doing some shadowing over the next few weeks to see
whether it could be something I’d enjoy. But then maybe I’ll find I
love the Age Concern thing and should try to find a job in that area.
The problem with those sorts of jobs is that they’re ridiculously
badly paid if at all.

We’ll see.. I’m quite nervous about making a change away from software
‘cos it is all I’ve done for my entire college & working life. Mind
you, if I could do the teaching thing I think it’d be a very rewarding
job. Also I’ve been getting emails from my friend Richie who is off
exploring S.America on his very long teachers holidays.. certainly a
bonus of the job!

So at 11am on Saturday I headed off to buy my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I spent most of the rest of the weekend reading and finishing it. It’s so sad to finish a series of books which you really enjoy! Still, it was a good book and well worth the read.

Other than that.. well, I got climbing on the Sunday and went for a short jog too! We’ve just started this challenge in work called the Azion team challenge. Basically you split your workforce up into teams of four and the aim is to do 10,000 steps a day. That’s actually quite a few steps to be honest. You can count other activities like climbing, biking etc so it all adds up. Each day (or week) you type in all your steps and activites into their website – and you and your virtual team do a trip around New Zealand.

Personally I think it’s a really excellent idea. I’d be well tempted (if I ever came back) to setup a similar website back in Europe. It could really take off I’m sure.