Two Finally’s really. Firstly in this guardian article it talks about the shock revelation from Alan Greenspan that the war in Iraq was mostly about the oil. Note the heavy sarcasm! However, goes on to say (and link to) stories from insiders that Bush & co intend to do into Iran – for much the same reason.

I’ve been reading for a while about Peak Oil etc. and one of the things it talks about are resource wars… and it looks to me like that is exactly what is going on in Iraq and soon to be Iran at the moment. Sad really. Mind you, as oil hits $82 a barrel and our world ever increasingly dependant on the stuff it makes perfect sense to protect your supplies.

It’s interesting (in a scary way) our current civilisation is completely dependant on oil. And oil is a finite resource. And we’re taking about 82 million barrels of oil out per day. Every day. If the peak oil boys are right then world production will peak in and around 2010 (if it hasn’t peaked already). Once that happens there will be a series of price shocks etc. It’s also interesting that the Iranian Oil Bourse has come on stream which must be diverting millions of dollars worth of trade out of the dollar and into other currancies.

I mean hopefully new technologies will come on stream – electric cars etc.. but I do feel that not enough is being done to fix the problem in the relatively short amount of time we have left before prices start shooting up.

We’ll see, hopefully I’m wrong.. :) I mean I hope things do get sorted out ‘cos it might make the bi-yearly trip back to Europe a bit less likely..

The other finally – is that I finally got in touch with a local school and will be going in to do shadowing on October the 9th.. so quite excited about that. I do hope I find I enjoy the environment and feel that it could be the thing for me.

Ok, so while I am enjoying going back through old maths text books to bring my skills up to speed (should I ever actually go through with my current intention of becoming a maths teacher).. I do find some of the questions a tad challenging. Like the one listed below. Personally I reckon it’s impossible – but am keen to be proved wrong. Well.. keenish ;)

So if you feel like a challenge (at least I hope you’ll find it challenging) have a look at the following problem..

Last weekend headed up to Mt. Cheeseman with Dave and a New Person! (Viv). I was struggling at first with the T-Bars on the icy slopes. I think I almost (definitely) prefer a nutcracker to a t-bar. And that’s saying something!

Also made my first ever batch of bread. Very happy with how it turned out – and SO easy to make. Well, could have been beginners luck, but I’ll definitely be trying again :)

Also in town unexpectedly this week was Carole.

And it wasn’t for a happy reason. Sean – an Irish climber who has been holidaying in New Zealand had a snowboarding accident. He hit his head quite hard and sorta cracked his skull a bit. He was amazing in that he did manage to get down to the ski patrol station after his accident. Still, he’s making excellent recovery – though will put a dent in his travel plans.

So here I was, with a few brief moments free (ok, quite a few) in work, and I decided to head over to my favourite joke website to see what their latest offerings are. Only to find that the website has been blocked due to adult material! I mean OK, it does have the odd illicit (but funny nontheless) joke.. but mostly it’s completely harmless.

It’s a sad day when the Powers That Be block joke websites.

Well it has been a really wonderful trip with Matt and Helene. It does make New Zealand feel awfully far away now that they’ve left back to Europe.. Still, one shouldn’t think of the negatives and just try to remember what a wonderful time we had.

So after the mulled wine and mince pie party in their honour we headed down to Dunedin to catch up with friends of the family down there. It must be said that Matt and Helene really were wonderful cooking heaps of mince pies and making mulled wine throughout the night. Don’t think I could have pulled it off this year without them.

On the way down to Dunedin we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders.

We also stopped off on a beach for lunch. Matt thought we should check out the 4wd capabilities of our subaru legacy. Bad idea. Got about 4 foot onto the beach and the car had sunk down in the rocks. We dug out the wheels and with a very hot smelling clutch managed to get the car back on the road. Fun and games.

So a lovely time with Simon and Deirdre in Dunedin… also checked out the albatross colony. Unfortunately August/Sept isn’t the best time t visit as there’s not too much activity. We did see a couple in the air and the chicks on the ground.

We also went down to Sandfly bay I think it was and did some sand-sledding. Called sandfly bay because the sand flies, not because of the little biting insects!

So after a couple of days in Dunedin it was time to get away to Wanaka for some snowboarding. I had booked us into the Altamont lodge and when we rocked up at 7:30 after a longish drive to be told that they had no recollection of our booking it was a little upsetting! I was pretty damn sure I’d booked, and after a little insistence the lady said that she could remember the booking and that she had kept it for a few days waiting for me to call back. Gah, either way it didn’t work out. We drove back into town looking for a place to stay but most were full or too expensive.

We then got to a apartment complex (unfortunately I forget the name) and the man there said he had a room but would try other places for us as he only had a room for a night. HE rang about 3 different places until I suggested Lake Hawea. He then tried the motor inn out there and they had space. He was a shining example of New Zealands excellent service tourist culture. He really made our evening.

Left is lake Wanaka and on the right the view from our motel at Lake Hawea.

So had a few days boarding. Enjoyed cardrona with Glynn and Jayne and Carole.

On one of our days off we went for a stroll up Roys Peak. Ok so I kinda said it was a short stroll… forgetting that I was fitter the last time I hiked it. 1200m up it’s not quite the walk in the park M&H; were expecting. My bad.

We also checked out Ohau on the way home and stayed the night in the really excellent lodge that they have there.

Finally it was time to return to ChCh and then on up to Palmerston North to see family up there.

There was an exhibition of Da Vinci’s inventions which was really fun to look at. This picture of an Archimedes screw, which he must have improved on, but I forget how!

Had a lovely couple of days up there before M&H; hopped on their plane to take them off to Singapore for a few days before back to Dublin. I was sad to see them go. They were so unbelievably generous to me on our trip around. There is something SO special about family.. Thing is NZ is a wonderful country with everything I want to do right at my fingertips.. it does make things complicated! Will have to do some thinking!

So, all in all a great trip. Two of the best weeks I’ve had in a long while!