Well, what happened this week… hmmmm, work started off with getting into detailing the requirements for the companies office web-help system that I’m going to be to building over the next couple of weeks, so that’s interesting! Monday had a squash match and got completely trounced. Which was a shame! Still, I got over it when I got my own back with an uzi. No, that’s not true, I was just totally off form.

Pretty excited about going on TWALK My friend and sometime squash partner Thor invited me to join the team he’s on. Should be – well.. completely tiring. It’s kind of a Rogaine (a 24 hour Orienteering event), but the clues are cryptic… and it’s based up in the mountains somewhere.. I’m not entirely sure how much I will do, will decide on the night I guess. Starts with getting picked up by a bus and dropped in a mystery location, then the first leg takes about 3->6 hours depending on fitness! That takes you to some DOC hut where there’s food (yay) and more looping routes that you can do out of there. Well, that’s what I understand of it all anyway, guess I will know more next weekend.

Climbing again on Tuesday and Thursday, though nothing too special, I got the 3 month pass again, and I really have to make the most of it, been out of practice for too long.

Friday was great fun, pics to follow hopefully. It was a themed party with work. I invited Sam along as Glynn was feeling off, and we were stuck for one person to come along, and it was great that he headed. The theme was that we were on a ship (in 1938) on the way to Argentina, when it goes off course and gets sabotaged. I was the dodgy owner of the fleet (Sly Sinker). My info was that I’d been embezzled out of my fortune by Harry Hood the accountant, so there was no insurance on the boat and I was penniless. There were some British and German agents on board too, kinda, and nuclear devices, and film stars, locals (who’ll look after your every need..) Yes, all in all a fun evening. Everyone got dressed up and made an evening of it.

What was also cool was that my boss Andrew, offered to take Sam and I out sea kayaking in Littleton sometime.. so will have to remind about that one from time to time ( ‘Yes Andrew, I’m sure I can make this release, but I’ll sure need a relaxing weekend on the water’ ) that should do it ;)

And tonight off to dinner in Memorial Ave, should be great fun, and tomorrow I have to get my snowboard and boots and bindings in the ski-sale.. Well I hope to anyway.

This week was fairly lazy as they go, well, didn’t get away for the weekend, but I suppose that’s needed once in a while. Monday was funny, – see I recently changed my squash clubs when I moved house, and on Monday a league match came up against my former team… there was an amount of slagging ;) but all fun.

I guess the highlight of the week was heading to Lyttelton (which is like a small seaside village over the Port Hills (the hills just by ChCh). It’s really close, yet feels like it’s far away, has its own chilled out atmosphere, cool place. The reason to go there was to see a travelling Scottish / Irish music band play. There were pretty good really, though I have been quite spoiled by great Irish music back home. I think some of the best evenings I’ve ever had was in a place called the Cobalt Café, which is on North Great Georges Street. My friend Caoimhin O Reilleigh (excuse the spelling) organised them. Comhluadar is the website, but doesn’t look like it’s been updated in years. Probably ‘cos Caoimhin is now in Co. Clare (Miltown Malbay I think) learning to make Uilleann Pipes. But yes, there were a couple of evenings in the café, listening to a piper and fiddler playing, having a bottle of red by the fire.. Yes, those were great evenings. So I’m slightly prejudiced now when I hear other players. I think I might try to get back in contact when I come back to Ireland and see if it would be possible to get those evenings running again, it was amazing.

So that was Thursday. Saturday I went out to the Super Shed, which is a great place. When you go to the dump here you dump by weight.. So here they have a setup, where if what you are throwing out could still be of use – books, furniture, crockery, sports gear, garden stuff etc. etc. that you can bring it to the Super Shed for free, and they’ll sell the stuff on, thereby reducing waste (through reuse) and making a little money for the council.

Here you can see hundreds of pairs of skis… I dunno if they’re safe or not, but you can pick up a pair fo $8…. So that’s kinda cool. So, for the princely sum of five dollars I managed to pick up a table, lamp and bin!. I mean you can’t really complain about that. The table is fine – not a wobble anywhere in sight!

Well!, quite a busy week really, started off very well, and ended slightly better except for a minor mishap with a bar of peanut brittle chocolate thing and a recently patched front tooth!

So yes, started very well with me getting a new contract from work. The M.E.D has bought me out of the recruitment companies contract, and I have signed a new one with them. The net effect being that I will probably get some more interesting / challenging work to do, and a 43% payrise. So that was nice.

Back playing squash too, which was great, am a little out of practice, but still, it’s great to be back on the court again. The new place is working out fine, nice and close to work – and toasty enough at night.

But the big excitement of the week was the trip back up to Takaka – to go caving in the Harwoods Hole.

Left on Friday night – and besides getting some pretty awful chips (which were made worse by the fact that they had managed to get their salt and sugar shakers mixed up) it was a fine trip up to Takaka again. The hostel we were staying in -well – caving club hut, was quite like the one in Waitomo, but smaller. Still – at $6 a night with beds, gas, and a pretty great location – it was pretty perfect (situated right on the top of Takaka hill)

The Next day started with me reading this newspaper clipping.

Harwoods has a slightly evil reputation as quite inexperienced people go down it and then get into trouble. The woman in that newspaper cutting sounded quite idiotic really. She got freaked out 20m down, and tried to swing herself over onto a ledge. Which she did, which was fair enough I guess (except that you really don’t want to fray your rope too much over a 180m vertical fall. So yes, once she’d established herself on said precarious ledge she then untied from the rope, because it was pulling her off the ledge. Insane behaviour. So she was then perched on a ledge, 180m above death, with no line connecting her to anything at all. Mad. Luckily enough the rescue people got there before she fell in.

The main scary part (but not the most difficult) is the 200m absail in. That’s what… 50 ish Stories??? Quite big. You first go down 20m, and then you have to swap over ropes (called a re-belay) and go down 180m on the second rope. The changeover is the scary part.

The other slightly more impressive rescue was when a group of – well – 15->17 year olds decided to do the trip as the weather wasn’t quite nice enough for climbing in Paynes Ford that day. So they tied 4 dynamic ropes together (for the non-climbers out there, there are dynamic and static ropes – the dynamic one stretches, so that when you fall off a climb the rope stretches a little so that you don’t get a sudden stop). However, dynamic ropes aren’t the thing for caving with – or at least descending 180m – well about 200 in total. Aaaanyway – so the lads got down the bottom of the cave and then realised that they didn’t actually know how to get through the cave. So one of them prussiked back up the rope (with one prussic and a gri-gri) Pretty impressive stuff. See they’d only told one person (informally) at the campsite that they were going to try this trip.. and so they might not have been spotted for days. All ended well though.

These pics here, were taken by Dave Hume (our leader for the trip), but on a previous trip.

You’ll excuse me a little … flowery description of the absail. Hehehe, someone also had left a little plastic skeleton hanging by it’s neck 15m down on the first pitch – I didn’t see it though, but anyway – yes – the absail. It was scary, no doubt about it. Easy enough to get down to the re-belay – where Dave had also absailed into and was watching people go through it (which was just so great!) Then, once you’d switched over ropes (a lot easier than in the practice session we did) it was a total free-fall to the bottom. Well, not fall, but you know what I mean. IT was slightly strange, as you do start to rotate (any momentum and you just keep on turning) so there I was, twirling around in mid-air, trying not to get disorientated and not particularly liking to look up – or down (long way down!!). Eventually though you settle into it and just enjoy it, then it was cool to look up and see Dave suspended sooooo far above. So far. It was, to be honest, quite beautiful to watch the drops of water caught by the sun go whizzing by. Really spectacular.

Once down the bottom we all moved off to one-side while the others came down (there were two trips made – both on the Saturday) It was great – I was in the second trip so got to have a nice lie-in until 11am Lovely. So when Dave had come down to join – Joe, Susan, Clare, Greg and I, it was off into the cave itself.

Here again is a pic of Daves – this time from inside (no kidding)

The cave itself was a marble cave – with some limestone formations. It was ‘sporty’, which means it was quite tricky, lots of little absails inside, and squeezes and bits of climbing. But all in all it was one of the best caves – well the best longest cave I have done to date (though I still loved the blow-hole one in January)

Then we came out into the Starlight Passage. So called ‘cos it’s covered in quartz and it shines like stars. Quite pretty.

Heluva slog back up the mountain, quite glad to be doing it in the dark (we came out of the cave at about 7:30pm) The best part of doing it second was that Chris, Nick and the others had cooked dinner

Which was just amazing of them. Quite a few beers and most of a bottle of Port later, it was time for a well earned sleep!

–Sunday–
Very lazy day – reading my excellent book given to me by a friend (Paris) before I left. Called ‘A Mad world, my Masters’ by John Simpson – he’s the BBC foreign affairs correspondent. And an excellent writer he is too, and finally the long drive back to Christchurch.

So, quite a lot has happened really in the last wee while, I suppose should start with the weekend. Easter Weekend, which is looong over here (you get Friday and Monday off) which is nice. Went off to Paynes ford. Which is up near Nelson. The weather report for the weekend was pretty awful really, but we decided to go anyway. So early on Saturday morning (ok, 11am ;) we headed off. A pretty excellent drive up through Lewis Pass my new favourite way to the West Coast. You do pass the odd sight or two along the way…

We were a little lucky – snow has arrived early, and if we had tried to get across this way on the Thursday, the road would have been blocked. So a little lucky there. Drove past Hamner and Muroa springs – hot pool places. Places I definitely want to get to in the winter.

So on off up to Takaka – and after having a quick look at the crag (too dark to climb) we headed off to what has been one of the nicest hostels I have stayed in. Kiwi-Anna I think it was called – again – the BBH card coming in useful with some more nice discounts. The hostel itself had free Pool, free table tennis, babyfoot, and a hot spa. So we were quite content. It’s quite nice to be outside in the freezing air, mostly submerged in a hot pool drinking a nice cool beer. Yes, quite nice. Clear skies, good stars, even if Orion does shoot the opposite way (it’s the little differences)

–Sat– Up early (10am!) and off to the crag, I guess any new climbing place you go to takes you time to get used to the rock – but I think we all enjoyed our second days climbing a little more. The rock is limestone, lots of huge handholds and on the harder routes, lots of pinches and slopers. The grading was quite interesting… I mean I know I’ve been off climbing for a month and a half now, but still.. some of those 16s felt a lot harder than 6a… (and 16 is around about 5b ish I think). Glynn and Andy were climbing very well, though I think they found the grades (at least on the first day) a little steeper than expected. Mind you, one of the 18s was really chossy so that didn’t help the confidence.

Here is a pic of Glynn on an 18 that he led towards the end of the day

That night, and the next, I stayed on the campground with friends from the CUTC (Canterbury Uni Tramping Club). Very sound people, and very good climbers. The campsite itself was set up by a local climber who really promoted the crag (recently died in a very unfortunate climbing accident… as far as I can gather absailed off the end of the rope – didn’t fall far, but far enough). However, the campsite – hangdog, is set up for climbers. It’s a very eccentric place, the guy must have been totally pro-British – the sign to the front door is Victoria Street. There are some quite excellent signs, and maps up.

Though I think my favourite (while totally unPC) was the following – I also enlarged the key to the map

it’s the Tory map of the world..

In the evenings, people collect firewood from around and about, and make a big old fire for everyone to sit around, a guitar is produced and it’s all just good fun. Mind you, it was pretty damn cold, though the sleeping bag that my kind Aunt Mary lent me (when I visited at Christmas) has actually been really good. I do kinda wish I’d brought my sleeping bag from home, I know I won’t want it when I travel on, but I guess I could have posted it home.

–Sunday–

Up and climbing at the crack-o-dawn (well 8) and down to the crag, led just a couple of 16s (though they were interesting enough) Top roped a 20 and had a go at a 22 – which here you can see Sylvain leading. Andy later on-site flashed it too. Most impressive. Sylvain also did a 25 (really quite hard), though I was not there to get pics of it, but quite savage I am sure!!

And here is a pic of another of the climbers, Jana, trying “Elvis lives in Takaka” perhaps?

–Monday–

All too soon time to head home, picked up at 9:30 by Maeve, Glynn and Andy, and off to Kaiteriteri (in the Able Tasman area) to do a little canoeing. It was fun, though I would have liked my own kayak really. Been ages since I did that, and I’ve never, ever, had one with a rudder and foot pedals before. Not sure if this is a sea-kayaking thing, or if it is just so that tourists find it harder to kill themselves.

Then a long old drive back along the coast. And back to 429 Memorial Avenue. Just in time for me to move out, which I did. So my new address is

So all the thousands of postcards and letters that I’m sure people have been saving up until I move, well, that’s the address to send them too. Glynn et al will be staying in Memorial for the next 3 weeks at least, so I don’t think post is going to be too much of an issue really.

The new place is quite homey really. Has a fire, which is nice and warm, a big old garden, a hot shower, washing machine, computer (with internet access ;) A quite large tele (which I do not intend watching much!) and all in all, ’tis grand. It’s quite a bit closer to work too, which is just great in the mornings, but a little further from the squash courts, but reasonably close to the climbing gym! – well probably fairly equidistant from Memorial really. So yes, all in all, it’s a grand old place. Hopefully will settle in easily here and get to stay until November… it’s actually pretty incredible the amount of rubbish I seem to have accumulated already – and I meant to travel light ;).

Finally, headed out to see Secret Window – Johnny Depp, Stephen King adaptation. Quite a scary movie really, and not a happy ending, but still, an excellent film.

Well, what a weekend, left on Saturday morning for the tramp, picked up from home, which was great :) It was a great tramp, have said I will write a trip report for it too for the tramping club. Apparently there’s a bar of chocolate in it for me! It was a wet trip. A very wet trip.

This was after about 2 mins into the trip, and it pretty much went like this for the next two days.

The first day definitely felt like the longest (though it wasn’t of course!) We were basically following a river crossing backwards and forwards for the first couple of hours.

But it felt like an age before we finally saw the hut we were to stay in poking out of the trees – hehehe, our leader – Sylvia – who is great – got quite the slagging after saying there was just 1km left until the hut (I doubt it was more than two – but the terrain was pretty awful so it took a while) So yeah, the hut

It really is such a great system, I got the hut pass a while ago – $60 or something, lasts for the year, the huts we stayed in would have been $10 a night… it’s great though, you get your own bed (so no need to carry a thermarest… though that’s not a bad idea!) they all have tabletops, the better huts have tables and heaters – the one we were in had a stove, which was lovely. Spent the evening playing cards, excellent. Oh, a nice brie and tux biscuits after a long days walking goes down very well!

–Sunday–

So up and away, this was the longer day – walking from 8am until 5pm, but it felt easier, the terrain was quite varied over the course of the day – part of it was close to a mountain called ‘broken mountain’. The site of some massive earthquake that pretty much split a mountain in half. You end up with a lot of scree

Then it was off up a pretty steep gully and to a tarn.

Off down to the second hut (still with wet feet for the day!) This one was pretty much the same as last night – except that all the wood was wet, and so we didn’t really have a fire.

–Monday–

Hiked out, it was nice to end on a pretty easy walk out – again really different terrain too

It was a great weekend though, thanks to Sylvia, Amber, Geoff, Thor, Jana and Fraser for a fun weekend. Hope to get away with them again sometime, I really do think the CUTC is going to work out. Really looking forward to the Mountain Skills course they run too!

Other than that, well moving out this week sometime, though I had forgotten that Maeve has the car for the week so not quite sure what to do about that one! Harumph, will see…