At last! The Project Management course finished with it was time to make the most of the long weekend. The weather for the weekend had been looking dire earlier in the week (gale force winds & rain).. but by Friday evening things had improved. Mostly.

So headed up on Saturday evening with Stephen and Volker – two friends from the tramping club. The plan was to bike in to some hot pools on the Hope River (up in Lewis pass). The rivers on the way up were *huge*.. but fortunately they come up and go down very quickly in NZ – so by the time we started the next day they weren’t going to be a problem. Or not too much. Rivers are one of (if not the) biggest killers in the NZ outdoors.

Next two pictures of Volker..

Now, the title of this post was mountain b-walking… as to be honest the first 3 hours or so was more walking than biking. Zoom for 20m, then off to move over some fallen trees!

On the other side of the river is farm land – with a 4wd track.. we kinda took that on the way back (which we shouldn’t have really.. but anyway)

After about 6 or 7 hours we finally made it to our hut for the night. Lovely old place though no fireplace as DOC had taken it out a few months ago (dangerous) The log book in the hut is full of instructions on how to find the hot pools..

It was completely worth the trip though! While the hot pools were a little scungy (black squishy stuff to sit on though – quite comfortable!) they were super hot – and we had the place to ourselves.

It took a little while to relax into them after Steve had reminded us that the reason the hot pools are here is because of the trans-alpine fault line. There are tree-records of all the trees getting flattened ever 250 years or so. It has been over 300 or something since the last major earthquake. We’re expecting a magnitude 9. So if I live here I will get to experience it (though may well be the last thing I do!). Apparently it needs to move about 8m left and 2m up!. Dear oh dear. Still, makes for excellent hot pools.

Woke up incredibly stiff and sore! My back loosened up over the course of the day though.. really wish it was feeling better! Had hoped by now it would be.. but sure we’ll see. Have started in a gym doing strengthening exercises with my physio Kelly (who is off to compete in the world ultimate Frisbee championships in Perth in a few months time!).. so we’ll see.

That pic of me crossing back over the swing bridges. Those things are fun at the best of time – even more so when you have to keep both hands on the bike!

Other exciting news.. My friend Laura arrives for 3 weeks of travel around the S.Island in a months time and I just got a mail from my friend Marcel who is coming (back to NZ) for a holiday for 3 weeks starting the end of January. He’s a great guy and I am looking forward to getting out on a few trips with him.

After 4 or 5 Leffe Brune (so good) on Friday evening after the exam – it was time to bus up to Palmerston North. Thomas picked me up at the bus – so good to see him & Paula (his lovely wife) again. They were visiting my Aunt (his mum) and family up in Palmy. It was simply perfect timing that the course was on this weekend!

Now, onto the important details.. I have regained the scrabble crown – Paula says she is going to have a trophy made up. Good job too. I did have the luck this time – managing to pick up both blanks and get Harried (for 75 points or something) down.. (all letters out).

They have flown over to New York as Thomas is presenting to the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions this week. I do have plans to help save the world too… but more on that in a wee while..

It was also my cousin James’ birthday. He had an awesome dinosaur cake which his dad put together. Most impressive.

Finally it was time to come back down to ChCh. Feeling quite energised after the last week – though it has been a long one..

Now – who can see what’s interesting about the coke can?

So – all this week I was learning about PRoject management IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)… it was certainly stretching! Most of the people on the course were seasoned project managers and I felt pretty out of my debth!

There were two parts to the course – the first was a theory exam (which I passed).. the second was a practical exam where you are assessed on your application of the process to a scenario. Hard to tell how it went – and honestly it doesn’t matter too much…

I certainly learned quite a lot. PRINCE2 is the UK Government standard and it’s pretty rigorous. In fact the UN is about to move to the PRINCE2 system.. so who knows – maybe I can get a job there eventually.

The focus of PRINCE2 is around the business case – and putting the customer in control. So the customer basically runs the project – has to define what they want – and ensure that the project is progressing as it should. This differs from what usually happens; where the customer says they want something – and then gets the supplier to define it – and run the whole show.

Anyways.. we’ll see.. Boyd on the left – and Scott (our trainer from crazy colour) on the right. Scott’s a pretty impressive guy – a young guy who has started up a pretty impressive training company that’s going from strength to strength. He is kiwi, but moved from the UK to Brisbane for lifestyle reasons…. good place the Southern Hemisphere.

Interestingly, Scott’s uncle was in Mad Max.

So, after three subterranean years in the country Andy and Kirsty (Davey and Davey soon to become when they get married in March?) said their goodbyes. It’s a shame, with them gone, and Dave Hume and Joe in Wellington – I’m not sure how much more caving I will get to do for a while.

Mind you.. we’ve been having a few earthquakes of late, and I believe some of the caves have had some rocks come loose. Makes things a little more interesting I suppose.

So – that is what I was sorry to say. I will miss them – but I imagine they’ll miss NZ too..

So yes, croquet… and not sorry to admit it at all! Excellent summers evening day. I sallied forth and purveyed the local croquet lawn yesternoon. Or something. It’s only $100 or so for a years membership – and that gives me free reign to bring friends (from time to time) and use all the equipment etc. And as the world championships (yes, they exist) will be played here in 2007 (or 2008 – can’t remember) one has to assume they’re fairly decent lawns.

anyway – Graham and Myra came down for a game.. they even said they enjoyed it!

Me – off to Wellington for this project management course. Not feeling remotely confident about it, am looking forward to a lesson in humility as much as project management! :)

However! my amazing cousin Thomas (and his lovely wife Paula) are back in Palmerston North this week – I am so looking forward to seeing him. He is working amazingly hard in a NGO / UN lobby position – trying to ban / stop the use of cluster munitions. He went to Lebanon recently after the invasion – crazy stories… so I am looking forward to catching up.

And beating him at scrabble… every time we meet up (to date) have played a few games, he’s the current holder, but only ‘cos he had all the high point letters ;)

honestly :)

So, managed to slightly break one of the things I look after in work – by coping something and copying it back again (and breaking all the links – or internal ones – in the process).

Not the end of the entire world.. but I *hate* when things don’t work as they should (well, things I’ve done anyway). Here’s hoping we can get the backup ppl to restore to what it used to be like.

Mind you, all made substantially better by Glynn cooking an excellent roast pork with crushed junipers in the gravy complete with roast pumpkin, potatoes and – something I love but haven’t had in aaages … spinach…Me and popeye… (Yes Glynn is a culinary genius).

So yes, a really relaxed – and needed – evening with Glynn & Jayne, two better people for the soul it would be hard to find.