The plan for the weekend was to head to Mt. Cook with Jana and Julian and get some climbing done. Unfortunately there was a Big Swirly Orange thing heading up from the South West.. which are, of course, to be avoided at all costs.

So instead I went paragliding with Dave. Thems the breaks I guess.. Friday night headed out for beers to the Dux.. while I was slagged half way through the night for moving off beer and onto Lemon Lime and bitters (really is a nice drink)… I was quite thankful for it the next day as I wasn’t flying with a hangover :)

Spent about an hour in a field – possibly less – learning how to run forward with the glider, bring it up over your head, and control it a little. Then it was straight off to Taylors Mistake to fly. No tandem intro.. oh no.. straight into it. So the first two flights you start off 80m above the ground..

It’s definitely odd running off a mountain. Something I’ve never done without having a rope attached before! But it’s so much fun. So much. At the time, I will admit, I was – just a tiny bit apprehensive (in a Manly Way of course ;) however, we had perfect learning conditions so it was ok.

We then decided to do 3 extra flights – to work towards PG 1. Once you have this cert (standard around the world) you can fly solo at any site – under radio supervision. If you continue on to PG2 you can fly solo anywhere. It costs $550 to get PG1.. that means you get your training and 10 solo flights.. quite cheap I believe… anyway, that’s what we’re going to do.

So yes, 3 extra flights.. only this time it was from 280m up (end up having about 2 mins in the air). Here’s a pic of dave at the top.. we fly down to sea level..

It was fun, (I can say that now ;) Dave was a much more natural flyer than me, though I think that’s prob ‘cos he was still hungover and didn’t have any fear ;) hehehe (joking joking). I must admit though, I’ve found it a little hard to stop thinking about the next flight. Which I think has to be a good sign. This next pic of me coming in to land..

The rest of the weekend – well quite lazy really. I’ve been slightly geeky of late, and been playing (just finished) Half Life 2. It’s such an excellent game – mainly because it incorporates realistic physics into the play. There’s an excellent weapon – called the Gravity gun.. and with it you can pull objects towards you and fire them around (or stack them up to climb over obstacles – or smash through windows (and have the glass shatter the way it should..) really – it’s simply fantastic. The physics engine was mostly designed by a company called Havok. I did apply to work there after college.. Unfortunately at the time they weren’t hiring.. otherwise obviously I’d have been employed.. (not). It’s a great company though – based in Dublin.. my friend Graham works for them. As a part of working there you get free extreme sports insurance.. how cool is that?!

And then on Sunday it was Glynns bday. Ancient now he is. Then climbing in the avo – just a few short routes.

I also started my application process for residency..

Has been a fairly hectic week – work has been fairly busy with projects to tidy up, and there have been friends coming and going too. Maeve has moved in for the next couple of weeks (unless she goes to Australia early!) Had my friend Susans’ leaving dinner on Tues, Jana’s leaving & birthday bbq on Wed, and Rozs’ (who I bought my car from) yesterday (as well as extra salsa practice!)

Also played my first squash game in aaaaaaages with Thor. It was great fun, was completely stiff the next day! but do want to play more.

Supposed to be climbing at Mt. Cook this weekend, but not quite sure what the weather is going to be doing. There’s also a trip to the West Coast for a person in the tramping club (Emily) bday. But then I just got it sorted yesterday that I’ll be heading to the Wild Foods Festival in Hokitika. There you can eat grasshoppers, pigs ears, grubs… and hopefully drink enough to make it palatable.

AND! there’s a chance I might get a short flight in a Cessna – the guys I’m going with are cavers (who I did Harwoods Hole with a while ago (and other trips)). They want to take a plane up and have a look at an area they’re hoping to find new caves in.. so all going according to plan I’ll get a trip in a Cessna too :)

Then on Sunday checked out of my quite excellent backpackers… It was called Beethoven’s.. it’s quite definitely not everyones cup of tea.. It’s run by a guy called Alan. He’ll quiz everyone who goes to live there, our conversation went something like this:

Alan : “So why you choose this hotel?”
Me: “Well, it looked like the most interesting one in the guide book, with curious signs all over the place, and an eccentric owner” (knowing he was the eccentric owner, and kinda wondering what would happen)
Alan: “Oh, they use such big nasty words… do you know what eccentric means?”
Me: “I suppose it means off-centre – ex-centric – imbalanced”
Alan: “Oh.. very clever.. yes, I prefer the word interesting“

So that was Alan. There were lots of gimmicky signs up all over the place. I’ll not put them all up (some are kinda crude) but here’s an example:

There are others here and here and here and here and here and here and here and finally here

After checking out went to the Te Papa museum – the National Museum. (free rucksack storage for the day too ;) The part on the treaty of waitangi was quite sad really.. explains the dealings between the British crown and the Maori.. ‘not fair’ springs to mind.

The plane trip back was… different… our pilot kindly informed us that if we didn’t stow our baggage correctly then we’ll throw it out the door and at the end bid us goodbye with live long and prosper

Finally headed over to watch Billy Connollys world tour of NZ (part 3) at Johns.. it’s kinda sad, he left ChCh today (Monday) to head back to Ireland.. it’s been absolutely fantastic having him around – just an excellent guy to climb with and hang out with – unbelievably energetic (even by some of the standards I’ve seen this year ;) and can eat huge quantities of food (and everyone elses) and not put it anywhere – but that’s prob ‘cos he just climbs and bikes and surfs all day. Yes, he will be missed.

Sat headed to the zoo with two Irish guys I met in the hostel. Hmmmmmm, I’ve decided that I really don’t like Zoos.. It has probably been about 10 years at least since I was last in one.. and I don’t like going with ppl who throw stuff at the animals to make them move. Also.. went into the Kiwi enclosure. Now seeing as these birdies are almost extinct they’ve evolved to be pretty damn shy.. so making noise doesn’t help none. Anyway, not to be seen (but did hear it – I think – odd squawky kinda noise)

After that was time to head into town and go to the fringe festival. Lots of gigs.. there’s a pretty distinctive kiwi music – called Roots music – it’s a cross of reggae and Maori (I think).

John then taught us game number 2. This one is easier to explain. It’s called circles and triangles. Or at least that’s what I call it. Good title no?

So you have a group of ppl, and everyone is given a piece of paper with either a triangle (evil ppl) or circle (good ppl) on it. If it’s up to 8 people in the group there are 2 triangles, and everyone else a circle.. 9 or more it’s 3 triangles.

Now, at the start of the game everyone closes their eyes. Then the triangles open their eyes and identify eachother. Then everyone closes their eyes, and finally everyone opens them again. At which time the triangles know who they are, and each individual knows what they are.. but no circles know eachother.

The aim of the game (it’s simple) is that through questioning eachother the circles have to identify and eliminate (by voting) the triangles. Course the triangles are trying to give false information and vote off the circles.

Trust me, it’s a fun game.

I think.

Wellington really is an excellent city. Really gives off an excellent vibe – reminds me of San Francisco really… you kinda feel that you might turn a corner and see something odd, and oftentimes you do.

So yes, the first couple of days were spent in meetings… here’s a pic of my friend Kara and I.. she used to work in the Contact Centre in Christchurch before she found a position up in Wellington.

Then on Thursday evening met up with my cousin Thomas’ friend Jess – and her sister Kate, and had a short tour of a few of the bars around town (and had mussels and fries – yum). It really has a great feeling Wellington. Lots of little swish bars and cafes… if I was going to live on the N.Island it’s definitely where I’d choose to live. For sure for sure.

Friday took in a few of the sights Wellington had to offer.. starting with the Parliament. Excellent (free) tour.. very cool (from an engineering point of view ;) to see the method they’ve used (and is now common around the world..apparently) to protect the building against earthquakes. It’s called base isolation and basically you put a kinda spring ish under the whole of the building, and then chop the foundations away so that the building is now only resting on the springs.. then when the earthquake hits, the building moves slightly (as much as the damped springs allow) but not remotely as much as the full earthquake.

So that was interesting… Also took in the national observatory at the top of the cable car.. It had a great planetarium.. good to see some of the southern constellations pointed out, and also how the Maori identify the same systems (for example, the milky way is part of a canoe.. ) it’s the little differences..

After that it was onto the rose garden and botanical gardens

Then a quick trip around the maritime museum (and a 10 min fly through one of their art galleries.. where I saw 2 pics that really did make me stop ..) before heading for a quick walk up Mt. Victoria.. for a nice view down over the city.

Then Jess invited me over for dinner, where I met up with John + Judith – two friends of my cousin Thomas’ who are doing a quick trip before leaving for Spain.. John is quite the character.. he has traveled loads, worked 15 months with a traveling circus group.. Had run-ins with drug-running gangsters in Nice while trying to stop a very one-sided fight..

But he also knows a couple (well lots probably) of fun games. One of which is called Poker Dice. I could explain the rules, but it’d take a while.. but if anyone wants them..

Fun night though.