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!

Yay – picked up my brother (Matthew) and wife (Helene) at the airport this morning. Spent the day showing them around the botanics, museum and sorting out snowboarding gear for our upcoming trip. They arrived fully laden down with chocolate and gin, but unfortunately minus a fresh salmon which had been stopped at customs.

Really looking forward to travelling about and hitting the slopes with them. Fun times ahead.

So took off on Saturday and headed up to broken river skifield for the day. Headed up with Dave, Aroha, Neil and Fran. I found the conditions pretty tough actually.. the snow was pretty heavy and there were a few rocks poking through. In fact I found a chip taken out of my board so that’s off getting fixed at the moment.

It was great to get up though and try a few jumps.. I’m so woefully out of practice it’s terrible. Still, I’m really looking forward to getting out on the slopes with my brother Matt and wife Helene when they arrive.. that’s going to be excellent!!

Had a pretty annoying start to the day today (Wednesady) when I went down to our gateway to find that the letterbox had been vandalised. Second time in a year. What is it with these people? I just don’t get it – I mean it’s not like it’s a challenge to kick over a letterbox. Gah. I just hope that after spending my evening fixing it that it doesn’t just get vandalised straight away again. Quite irritating as there are other things I would rather spend my evenings doing (like tidying the place before Matt & Helene get here).

Sigh.

So this is a highly addictive game. My best time so far is 35.188 seconds.

Also, went out to see a comedian on Monday night – Danny Bhoy. Quite enjoyed it – though I thought the comedian who was on before him (who’s name I forget) was equally if not more funny.

Really getting quite excited that my brother & wife arrive in a little over a week. Just a shame they’re not moving out here permanently!

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 :)