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.

In Wellington currently – flew up yesterday on the red-eye, (in my shiny new suit.. gah..) and it’s definitely been a very interesting and full round of fairly high level meetings so far. It has been interesting meeting the heads of the various business groups (Radio Spectrum, Companies, Intellectual Property, Insolvency etc..) and also taking part and contributing to some discussions on a couple of new systems we’re getting in (potentially) – the main one for us being a new content management package. It’s designed to allow non computer literate people to create the content for pages, whilst leaving the design and maintenance etc. etc. in the hands of others. And it looks like I’m going to be managing the integration of said software (if it really happens) into the Contact Centres environment. Well, probably anyway… still, it’s a new area for me, and one I’m quite interested to try my hand at. Project Management. 2 words.. but maybe a world of pain ;) I mean am I really going to be able to maintain my quite comfortable slacker existence for much longer (and do I want to?!) Hmmmm.. will see I guess.

On the upside, I get to spend 5 days in Wellington and to tour around a little… so that’s all good. So far I like what I see (from the 11th floor of the M.E.D office just across the street from Parliament), but I’m quite looking forward to seeing the national museum (Te Papa) and exploring around a bit. Also, my wonderful cousin Thomas got me in contact with one of his friends here (should be meeting up with her tonight) so hopefully will get some local colour too.

At last! Away from Christchurch again for the weekend! I do like the place, but I love getting away too… had a ‘working lunch’ on Friday.. it was a presentation to TUANZ(Telecoms Users Assoc of NZ) Was actually quite interesting, talking about how China + India are rapidly taking over all call centre jobs.. Anyway, there was then a prize draw at the end (names pulled out of a champagne bucket). I won. Massages for everyone in the contact centre. Not bad.

So yes, then it was off to the West Coast with Florian,Luke,John & Maeve – to a place called Charleston. We headed to the pub that evening.. excellent local pub. The bartender (Moss) said that the rocks were the oldest in NZ – that this was where Oz used to be attached to NZ. I can’t quite find a webpage which says exactly that.. but this page does talk about the geology of NZ, and does say the oldest rock is granite – in the Charleston area. And I did find this quote too …

The oldest rocks in New Zealand are found at Charleston on the West Coast. They are at least 600 million years old.

so who knows. Either way, the rock is great. And the coastline is incredible.

It truly is a great spot for trad climbing – the pub is close.. the campsite is a five minute walk from the crags (and free)

It’s hard to convey the difference to a non-climber! but trad routes are completely different from sport routes. Sure the main difference is that one has bolts drilled into the rock and the other involves attaching to your harness various wedges, camming devices, slings etc. etc. to secure yourself to the rock with. But more than that – it’s just ‘out there’ somehow. It’s a lot more committing, and you tend to remember the routes much better.

And you can see why, when there are waves smashing all around the place. It’s a real shame you can’t hear and feel pictures.. the sound was massive and the rock would almost vibrate under the force of some of the waves.

It’s great ;)

This pic is John leading ‘Racing in the Streets’ a 16. I will come back and lead this again for sure.

We had to absail down into a little cave (there were some belay bolts) about 20m above some of the more vicious waves I’ve seen.. and then climb back up. It was super exciting! I just wish I’d taken my camera down with me!

That night it was back to the pub for milkbrew. I’m sure it’s supposed to be highly alcoholic.. or reputation wise, it’s ‘only made in one place in the world’… sure… but it was good. Didn’t quite look hard enough to see what went into it, but 1L of milk (less one glass) filled with Kahlua, vodka? and something else. Quite yum though.

Still, all the thousands of games of pool that Dave and I have played in work have finally paid off.. I was on the table for the night… 10 straight games or something (so be afriad Liam ;) If you’re wondering about the scoring system on that page – we play 1 point per game, and 3 for the win (so the winnner gets 10 points for winning – unless someone pots the black early). If and when Dave starts winning again – it’ll say I suck rather than him.

It was a cracking place to just sit and watch the sea though when you weren’t climbing… this pic is of Maeve perched on a rock..

And you could look out and and have huge waves crashing all about you. Most atmospheric really.

There were a couple of bolted routes that we did too.. quite steep for the grade usually. This one is John leading Marlinspike (on Tintin boulder in European Cove for those who want to know!)

All too soon it was time to come back to Christchurch. That’s going to be my last trip away with John and Maeve before they leave NZ. Which is kinda sad. But I’m quite sure that they’ll be coming back. They’ve been bitten too.