So at 00:03 we saw the new Star Wars… and I must say I really enjoyed it. Though I am going to go back and watch it again.. only this time in the front row in the middle.. only place to watch! :)

Rest of the week was quite lazy – a friend Rachel Buckland (here enjoying the warmth of the house.. no insulation or central heating.. fantastic)

arrived – Glynn Mick and I had met her back on the Kepler Track back in March. She was living in Auckland, and now on her way to Queenstown to work the ski season. So out to a party on Friday night – a kayakers party – where we watched crazy people doing crazy things on insane amounts of white water. (videos)

Saturday headed to the Antarctic Centre with Dave and Rachel

I actually wasn’t super impressed with it, though it was fun reading the rules of golf (just slightly modified)

The evening was really excellent though. The best of the Banff Film festival was being shown in town. It was utterly excellent – outdoor films from around the world – it’s not all just sick strong people doing insane things (though there is a lot of that).. there were some silly films – like the really amazing kayakers who went to Russia to scout out new rivers to paddle (they were invited) and the whole trip was basically just chilled out – going fishing and running grade 1 rapids.. it was funny.

My favourite film by FAR was the peoples choice one.. It was about this guy Jon Muir who walks solo across Australia. It was absolutely amazing, if you ever get the chance to see / rent the film Alone Across Australia do it. It’s hard to describe really the just sheer aloneness (not loneliness) that he goes through, the effort, the willpower.. The final quote was something like ‘After completing the crossing, Jon had lost 25Kg and was suffering from malnutrition.. 4 months later he was at the North Pole’… now that’s a Really Hard Man! That should be on unReality TV…

Sunday off up to Castle Hill… Was good to catch up with Steve again (this a pic of him on Phoenix – a V7 I think it is)

Y’know.. the modern world is quite mental. Generally in the mornings I’ve been playing backgammon (for about 45 mins) with my cousin Thomas in Peru. We chat (for free) using skype, and play games. It’s crazy. If anyone fancies a whipping at backgammon.. ;) then check out FIBS and lemme know.. Great game. Also – a new convert to skype – Tom Prior.. who kept on saying various things along the lines of “this is incredible” and “I can’t believe this is working”

What else.. ummm.. off to see the latest Star Wars Revenge of the Sith at midnight tonight. Think that’s ahead of most countries due to time difference! :) Either way looking forward to it.

I also took my medical for residency last Monday – went fine.. (as far as I know anyway).. get the results on Monday, and will hopefully give in all the paperwork on Tuesday to get residency.. Which doesn’t leave a huge amount of time to apply for the various visas (China, Vietnam etc. etc.) for Asia.

So this weekend was off on TWALK – a 24 hour rogaine (orienteering event). Lots of fun. Seeing as it was fully booked out – I went along to help cook (for 250 people). Once the first rush of competitors had come through

we (Fran, Neil and I) were free to head off on some of the legs and see if we could find the controls. It’s a kind of a treasure hunt – as the clues are crypic. For example – one clue was ‘A Girls Best Friend’… which is a diamond.. and the control was close to a diamond road sign.. However, seeing as the controls were small (1×3″) pieces of blue plastic (unreflective).. it was quite hard to find them at night.

But fun. I think I also managed to get a bigger two scoop ice-cream than John on the way through Amberly.

So admittedly it took until he’d gone back to Ireland and isn’t here to walk into the shop after me and say ‘Can I please have a 2 scoop ice-cream that’s bigger than his‘ But still..

So just went out and did 1/2 of leg 2 before we gave up (clues were way too hard to find).. and then headed out at 8am with Neil and Fran

.. And did 1/2 of leg 1. Lovely views out over the sea. When I got back to town – (and was reading my weekend Irish Times online) I saw that I’ve managed to get my first letter (of 4 or 5 sent) printed in the Irish Times (Reprinted below – thanks to my brother Matt for sending it over..) All do with a motorway being built very close to Newgrange – a very beautiful, relatively unspoilt and historic part of Ireland. A real shame.

Well, work is a little mad lately.. not stressful – but just really busy. Am actually quite enjoying it though. There’s a huge amount of tidying up that I need to get done before I leave.. having a state of the nation meeting on Monday to see what really HAS to get done.

It was Arohas 30th on Thursday. And it was a really really excellent night – so many lovely people I’ve not seen in ages – Michelle was back from 3 months in Canada, and in flying form.. yeah, really great night – definitely ppl I’m going to miss a lot

Not sure if I linked to this before, but if you want to read some quite funny propaganda, with a wonderful (not) pic of me.. then there’s a pdf here

So yes, TWALK which you may remember from last year is this year being run by David Bones.. he’s a great guy and it promises to be a lot of fun. So much so, that for the first time in the history of ever and ever, it’s fully booked out (250 competitors). I’m going to go along and help cook for everyone, and hopefully get out on a couple of legs at night.. should be fun.

And tonight – went out with work to see the Crusaders vs Hurricanes (Wellington). My first rugby event in NZ. It was kinda fun. The build up was a laugh – with horses running around the pitch

And some really quality athletes on the turf too

The actual match was fun. We won 40:20, so the crowd was happy anyway.

So, after waving goodbye to Steve and Yvonne on Sat morning it was back to the Hurunui with Warick and Aroaha and Dave, Emma and Ollie. It was a good way to end my kayaking here, after all, I started back in November on the same river.. No, I’ve not progressed as much as I should..

Still, it was an excellent day. I had 3 layers of polypro on (tops and bottoms) and a wetsuit. And I was warm enough! I did have one swim.. I tried to roll.. but brought my head up too soon so it didn’t work. Mind you, when one tips over into freezing cold water, I think you might find your first reaction was to get your head the hell out of the water. But when you roll correctly it is in fact the last thing to come up.

Oh, my friend Dave sent me this in an e-mail forward a while ago.. the subject line was ‘I knew I’d seen him somewhere else before’

(sorry mum ;)

Slept well on Sat night – was so wrecked. Sunday – it lashed rain all day, so no climbing. Monday – went back to the pool for another rolling session in the kayaks. I must have rolled 40 or 50 times, really quite comfortable with it. In a pool. In a warm pool. With noseplugs, and goggles. So not quite the same as a freezing river. But it’s progress. So that’s good :)

Really is winter / late Autumn now. I wake up and get straight into my down jacket! Was the most stunning sunrise this morning..