So this weekend it was off to Mt. Somers climbing for the weekend – with Glynn, Mark (flatmate) and his friend Blair. The walkin was quite long for climbers – at 3 hours or so (we had to do the last 1/3rd in the dark). Glynn cursed me most of the way, but the climbing more than made up for it (at least, he says it did) The hike started off with a climb up to – 843m I think it was (ooooh) to the top of Dukes Knob.

It’s definitely one of the best places that I have climbed in NZ. The rock is split (at least where we climbed) into two distinct types. One has these awesome basalt columns, and the other a weird sort of rock that looks like it’s a pile of cement with lots of loose bits in it, but is actually really stable..

The first crag we climbed (quite the hike up from the hut) was Christian Principles crag. I must write down the names, but they were all pretty nasty! (climbers have an odd sense of humour sometimes) All the routes on this crag (except one which we didn’t do) were trad. Glynn leading them all.. like I said, great to have him along.. I’m not quite confident enough yet .. but I’ll get there. I just lead one climb later on – on the Meat Grinder slab… just an easy one – but freaked me out enough! just not used to climbing trad any more.

It was quite nice to get back down to the hut in the evening. It had become quite cold up on the hill as the cloud came down. Still, apparently it had lashed rain all day in ChCh (as our friend Steve informed us when he joined later on in the day)…

Dinner was a delicious curry (I’m going to invest in lots of small containers for different curries ‘n spices!). It wasn’t quite a perfectly sound sleep following though… See the hut (lovely hut!) had space for 15 people. One of which snored. A lot. And happened to be in the next bunk over. I made sure he woke up a few times in the vain hope he would shift himself into a less snore-prone state… but to no good! Even with my earplugs in it was too loud! One more night of that and it would have been over to Holmes..

Anyway, next day dawned with a nice blue sky, so back to the crag – this time to the concrete looking pinnacles. Steve and Glynn led up a 3 pitch 19 (Glynn leading the 1st and 3rd pitches with Steve taking the long exposed middle (19) pitch. Great views from the top – and a really quality climb.

Finally, a very happy birthday to Glynn. It makes such a difference having a friend like him around when so far from home! Shame I’m up in Wellington and can’t head out for a pint – that will be put right when I get back though…

On the Wellington front, all the tests so far have gone really well, so looks like all the integration with the other systems is going to work out ok. Which is a nice relief!

Firstly a panorama pic from Stewart Island that I’d not put up (as I’d not installed my panorama maker s/w!)

It was time to work the pancakes off on Wednesday evening… so Glynn and I headed to a crag we’d not previously been to before – called punk rock over in Sumner. The great thing about climbing (well, one of them) is that every place is different – especially when the rock type is different – you get different patterns in the rock etc. This place was quite steep and bulgy without too many handholds, but good feet and friction.. I reckon we’ll be back again. I even led a climb too! And then off for pool later on.. good day.

I’m quite excited about the trip to Wellington.. It’ll probably not go as smoothly as I think it should.. but it should be fun. I’ll be staying The Bolton Hotel which looks like it’ll be quite comfortable. It also happens that The NZ International Arts Festival 2006 is on, so will hopefully get to see some of that.

As for the new life first.. well, I went to the dentist and he said I was fine. This has never, ever, happened before! (that I can remember). Now, where did I put the ice-cream and maple syrup..

So.. I kinda made a sorta mini resolution about 2 1/2 years ago that I broke last weekend.. which was never to work the weekend again!. However, seeing as next week I’m off to Wellington for a week of integrating the software I’ve made with other systems.. a little extra work had to be done. However, at least here I’m likely to be able to get the time back (hopefully anyway!). And the good thing is that the work I did meant we could test this week to show what needs to be done can be done.. so… basically what I’m trying to say is that while I don’t have any exciting pictures to show you from a trip for last weekend.. there was a 1/2 decent reason for it!

I did manage to get out to the crag for a couple of hours on Sunday evening with Glynn.. we went to the easy local crag Albert Terrace and led every route there (except for one 19!). Lovely light in the evening on the trees in the back garden (it’s a blue gum apparently)

Did go to see Jarhead after climbing. A strange film, I believe based on a true story… one that Declan might want to watch…

Oh, and just another gratuitous NZ plug.. what with the riots in Dublin over the weekend and bird flu on its way through Europe…. I mean I’m not trying to scare anyone into moving here ;) hehehe, but NZ is a nice safe distance from these things!

And then yesterday it was Shrove Tuesday. Sometimes called pancake Tuesday.. ;) I made batter enough for 54 pancakes (or so) and we actually managed to just finish it. Well, almost, Aroha took some for her and Waricks breakfast.. still.. good times. Still – I missed the golden syrup from back home – Tate and Lyons? or something like that. Kiwi brand is good, but not quite the same.

Good to have Dave back in ChCh too.. his head is nicely obscured in the pic of Glynn flipping the pancake..

Oh, and back on the NZ mobile now – +64 21 1632139

The next morning we went to Glory Cove in the hope that Glynn and Dave would see some kiwi too (as they’d been out paddling). We wandered around the bush but didn’t see any

Warick and I got slightly separated as I was taking pictures – and we actually managed to get completely disoriented in about 10 mins of bush bashing – and ended up walking in circles before eventually finding our way out.. funny – but at the same time realised just how easy it would be to get lost!

We really only had a 1/2 day left as we were crossing back to Bluff in the evening.. so more fishing was done so that we could bring some cod back up to ChCh. In all we probably caught about $400+ of cod between us over the week! The birds below are called Mollymawks – they’re the smallest (I believe) in the Albatross Family.

Slept on the boat that evening – and then back to ChCh on Thursday evening. You can see the deckchairs we sat in the van on in the last pic!

So – Thanks to Dennis, Wayne (skipper), Warick, Glynn, Dave, Gordon, Barry and Lance for a really excellent trip.

We had anchored that night in North Arm. And early the next morning five of us set off on a hike. It was only 6km or so – but took ages as the track frequently died. Well, track is a bit of an overstatement really. It was just a series of plastic tags (mostly not the orange reflectors) running off into the bush, which we followed in the hope that they were going the right way!

At 11am ish we stopped for lunch on the beach. Again we saw kiwi prints in the sand.. They are about – just don’t like coming out in the day light.

And I’m afraid that’s all I can show you of a kiwi! We did see one as we tramped on to meet the others in Chew Tobacco Bay but he was way to quick to photo. Funniest looking creature though – they run as if they’re permanently about to topple over forwards…

Back to the pub again in the evening. I headed off after posting some postcards, and went to the DOC info centre and watched a video on kiwis. They’re actually pretty vicious little creatures – and extremely territorial.. Still, a good way to round out my first (and maybe last) day of seeing a kiwi in the daylight in the wild. Great.