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.

Last couple of weekends I’d been hoping to get out snowboarding like I was this time last year.. but no joy. There’s just been hardly any snow in the Cragieburn range (where most of the club fields are). Looks like when my brother Matt arrives (yay) in a month or so we’ll have to head down to Wanaka / Queenstown to find the white stuff.

So – two weekends away Dave Aubrey got back from Canada, and I suspect serious jetlag was the reason he assented to coming on a tramp! We headed on a short 2 hour tramp in the lewis pass – to the Nina hut. Good times.

Then last weekend headed up to Steve and Yvonnes lovely bach (holiday home) in Arthurs Pass. Again hoping to get out snowboarding but no joy. Went on some nice walks in the national park and had a mid-winter feast on the Saturday night. Afterwards the others stayed up and played Cranium.. I’m still getting tired really early these days (leftovers from January’s craziness!) but managed to chip in a few answers…

Well I had a lazy weekend (again – this is becoming a nasty habit!), must try to get away this weekend. I was hoping to have been able to get snowboarding, but unfortunately there was lots of warm weather and rain which has washed a lot of the snow away. Apparently down south (Wanaka/Queenstown) is good – so will probably have to head down there when my brother matt arrives. Hopefully by then there’ll be lots of snow in Canterbury too.

I also had the pleasure of celebrating the engagement of Warick and Hannah. They had a few friends over on the Saturday night and it was a really lovely evening. They’ve really make the house into a very nice home.

I also got out a copy of Harry Potter and Half Blood prince which is the last book in the harry potter series. I wanted to re-read it in anticipation of the final book which comes out in 16 days or so. I’ll probably not do much else that weekend except reading! Though I do hate finishing good books! It’s such a shame :)