snowpool came to the rescue this weekend. While the weather was looking distinctly dodgy (in fact most of my friends elected for a weekend city bound) I headed up to Broken River for the weekend. I figured I’d rather read a book & write my diary up there than down in ChCh anyway!

Euan was also coming along as there was a telemark weekend (a weird form of skiing.. purist?) and he has been learning that (and fast) this year. Picked up by Trevor – a Broken River club member and user of snowpool! at 7:30 – and off up we went.

It started raining when we got close, and snowing as we got higher. After checking into our accommodation headed up to the slopes. Complete white out. I had a few runs – but found it completely disorienting. You pretty much had to guess which way the slope was going, commit to the turn, and hope you were right. If not a hard bump and a shallow laugh later I was ready for the next turn.

So, after 4 runs I wussed out and went to read my book (Gold Wars – quite interesting actually)… Miraculously, when I poked my head out around about 11:30 ish, it was clearing – and we actually had blue skies for the rest of the weekend. Perfect.

So boarded about with Euan for Saturday (here is a pic of Euan in Allans Basin)

That night there was a slideshow of telemarking in Norway – they were doing 30 odd km a day on skiis! Still, looked like a great holiday.

I walked up above the lodges to have a quick look at the sky for the persiads. It’s a meteor shower the Earth passes through every August (up to the 22nd August I think it is).

It was a little cold so I didn’t stay up too long. I suppose they’re visible from the Southern Hemisphere? One would imagine they are!

On Sunday – Matt – one of the guys who I met up at BR before said a group of ppl were heading up Hamilton Peak (a mountain inbetween Broken River and Cragieburn ski fields). It was going to be fresh tracks all the way.

So Matt, Tom (Czech Republic), Lassa (Danish – who I played backgammon with!) and I headed up. It was a 30 min hike, but well worth it. Hamilton is the peak in the above picture..

The picture above is looking down into Cragieburn Skifield. BR and Cragieburn have an arrangement that you can use either day pass interchangeably. Quite handy really.

Awesome fun boarding. Unfortunately I forgot to tell Lassa that video’s had to be taken horizontally.. (as you can’t rotate them!) so no vids this time..

After a quick break for lunch we did another hike, this time heading left along the ridge and dropping down into Avalanche Bowl?. I took a couple of videos as we did the run twice. The first is Lassa Skiing down, the second Matt Boarding.

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

You can download a divx video better quality here

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obm_EVeeJ7Q]

You can download a divx video better quality here

All in all, an unexpectedly excellent weekend, as the weather really was supposed to be awful!

So I live in this old house. In my opinion it is a great house to live in. It’s big, it’s old, it’s on the river, peopled by lovely people (though they keep on moving out – but I’m sure it’s not personal ;)

However, it does have it’s little quirks.

That’s my ceiling. Or was a few days ago. Since then it has rained even more than usual… and now it looks like this..

Not really an improvement. I have told the landlords (well, I didn’t tell them the ceiling had fallen in a bit – but I’m sure they’ll see it when they come over to fix a switch which has broken. No, it’s not a simple one to fix – it’s on the mains and I aint going near it!

Now.. on other unrelated but fun things.. Glynn sent a link to a pretty fun video..

My friends Andrew and Neil have been competing in the World Orienteering Champs in Denmark.. their website is http://woc2006-irl.blogspot.com/.

Now.. while you might think this pic

has nothing to do with orienteering… well.. you’d be right. And wrong. Andrew and Neil are.. trouble makers.. always were. Anyway, the organisers set up weblogs for everyone. Now, they soon worked out that they gave everyone the same password. Stupidly it might be argued.

Andrew and Neil, after changing their own password, went on a little tour of the sites.. the American one (would have to be ;) had a trailer of their training or something on it.. http://woc2006-usa.blogspot.com/2006/07/interviews-maps-routes-middle-quali.html. Somehow – who knows how (we do) it mysteriously got changed to the above pic. With some funny comments.. (well, Ireland’s one at the bottom anyway)

Classic.

Finally… got round to reading ‘Fast Food Nation’. Well worth it if you haven’t already. And went to see An Inconvenient Truth. Please go see it if you get the chance. It *is* scary and it is happening.. and while there may not be a massive amount we can do… we can at least try! But really really really worth seeing.

Mind you, at least if the gulf stream does get turned off and Europe plunges into the next ice age I should be warmer in NZ. Maybe.

On Wednesday night I headed out to play bugpolo. It’s a little like canoe polo – except played in these things called water bugs. They were designed by a kiwi here in ChCh, and are pretty unique to here. They’re made for hiking into rivers with – and going down serious rivers (grade 4 & 5)… madness. The polo was fun though.

Then on Saturday morning (08:30) Glynn arrived back from the US and we (Graham & Myra, Glynn & Jayne, and Dave and I) down to Mt. Dobson for the weekend… Really great time, feeling more confident on the board, and even tried a few little jumps (though none in this video)… hopefully get to Temple Basin next weekend with Dave & Co.

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

We stayed in The Fairlie Lodge for the night. $80 for a 3 person room, and the place had a spa & sauna.. not entirely sure what Glynn is up to in this picture.. strange man really… but good to have him back in the country.

I meant to say.. on Friday headed out to the funky new NZ Alpine Club building to drink farewell to Richard who has been CEO of the club for five productive years. Can’t quite remember where I met him first, but an incredibly fun and positive person. He hopes to work for the International Red Cross for a few years. At least I believe that’s the current plan.

Those two pictures were taken ages ago. Richard is sitting at the top of the chalice (a sculpture in the middle of the cathedral square) and the article says why they’re up there (protest against the war on terror..). Perhaps it’s the real reason he has been forced to leave the job ;) No, I think not, but it was the perfect time to put the pics up.

Then it was time to catch the bus over to Lyttelton for Bob’s going away. Bob has been in and out of NZ for the last 5 years or so. He’s a really fun guy – climbs, skis, bikes, runs.. the usual really ;) Only he’s pretty gifted at them all. Anyway, he has had to leave back to the UK. Current plans are to return I believe, but who knows .. maybe the bright lights and glitzy core of Yorkshire will hold him there… hopefully not! he’ll be missed.

Someone put a picture up on picaweek of the skelligs in Co. Kerry. I would really love to know who took the pic. It’s a place I have always wanted to go. There are three UNESCO world heritage sites in Ireland.

• Newgrange
• The Giants Causeway
• The beehive huts on Skellig Michael

I’ve not seen the last one! (yet).