Well, great weekend. Was supposed to leave on Friday evening, but the trip was put off until Saturday afternoon, which meant that we headed out for a nice Indian on Friday evening instead :) Great, haven’t had a nice Chicken Korma with garlic Nan in far too long.

So, some interesting news, the people I headed off with for the weekend, are some friends I made here through Florian really. They live in this quite superb old house.

It’s gigantic, and old, and will be very cold, especially when I move in at the beginning of July.. Can’t hardly wait. Told Jim this weekend, he was cool about it, four weeks notice is quite a long time. It’s just going to be great though, living with an incredibly friendly bunch of Kiwis. Sometimes in the evenings they go canoeing on the river that runs across the back of the garden.. The Avon… Wow. So will get to head off and do some white water hopefully when spring comes.

So it was with them that that I headed off to Mount Cook for the weekend. And what a great weekend it was. Cold though. Got down there on Saturday evening, and we decided to just bivvy overnight in the DOC day shelter (you’re not supposed to sleep there.. But with 2 feet of snow on the ground, no one was checking). I slept in Michelles van, as I guessed it would be warmer. Probably incorrect.. This pic

is of Warwick cleaning the snow and ice off the car in the morning. Ice had formed on the inside of the car. It was bitter, and all the more reason for getting a down jacket, something I am getting made up this week I hope from a guy who makes them on the cheap ;) Excellent, and needed.

Did feel pretty sorry for the ducks though.

So off climbing for the day, will have to wait for climbing pics as I didn’t bring my camera up the face, but you can see the crag here.

There is a wee person on it, we were climbing on the right hand side of the pic. Easy bolted routes, but just great fun… I even led a couple of pitches, but like I said, really easy.

Then when the sun went down it was off to cook dinner, and then to the really excellent ‘old mountaineers pub’ they have here. Twee name, but a great place, run by a guy who’s guided in the area for the last 20 years.

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Yvonne is the one out of focus, with Steve on the left. Warick is the one sporting the excellent polypro top, and Michelle is the one looking wholly unimpressed that I’m taking the picture in the first place :) A really excellent bunch of people, I just can’t wait to move in.

Then today – Sunday – I went off for a walk up to a vantage point overlooking cook. I was also breaking in my new boots, but I think they broke me instead. Harumph.

Someone built this snowman sitting down at the vantage point.

There was this Maori legend about the ice too, which I thought was kinda cool. You can’t help but get caught up in the whole impact they have on everything in the country. Kia Ora means Hello (I think, doubtless someone will correct me!), the words get everywhere.. ‘That’s good Kai’ (good food) etc..

Finally of course, this wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory picture of Mt. Cook, which was cloudless yesterday, but I was too far away to get a decent picture..

So yes, all in all an absolutely excellent weekend, thanks to Michelle, Warick, Steve & Yvonne for a really great time. Wonder where the next trip will go?

Well a great week, last squash match of the first round, think our team came in second overall, which is a pretty good showing really. Wednesday was great though, out for my friend Florians birthday.. It was just a nice group of people and, it was funny, kinda hit me that I am settling in here a bit as I knew quite a lot of the people who were there. Yup, nice feeling. Also! Sylvain – an excellent French climber (7a/7b ish solidly) has a van kitted out for touring (i.e. mattress and stove in the back!) got it for $800. I offered to buy it off him (if it’s still running) when he leaves in Sept.. so that’s kinda cool too. Though have not decided how long I will be staying yet.

And today – Friday – am off to the Mount Cook area where hopefully it won’t rain, and we’ll get to do some nice easy sport climbing. Will be great to get away for the long weekend. So yes, all in all a good week, and pretty productive in work too.

Weekend was good.. Friday out with the work crowd, great fun. Beginning to think moving here was one of the better moves I’ve made over here. Saturday was tramping, up and heading Kaikoura direction at the ungodly hour of 7am(up at 6:20 – this is too early for a Sat morning!) The tramp this time was – well – average. Mainly because the wind was hellishly strong. Really not sure how fast it was, but it’s by far and away the strongest wind I’ve ever walked in, really physically pushed back down the path when the gusts came. That coupled with a sorta scree / stones whipping all around the place, wasn’t so much fun. I was quite happy I was wearing trousers instead of the usual polypro and shorts.

You can see in this pic the waves that were formed on this wee lake. Tiny lake, big waves.

mind you, there was a purty view too.

Then out for a couple of pitchers in The Dux a pretty nice local pub which brews its own beer and often has live gigs.

Sunday, quite lazy, though did get a bunch of stuff done, including joining the library at long last. Made a complete fool of myself asking whether they had subdivided the fiction section into non and science fiction rather than just fiction. The helpfull assistant looked at me like I had at least 3 heads but no brain. Been far too long since I’ve been into a library not to look for academic books.. In my defense (not that it is one) the sign on the board just had ‘fiction’ on it. Ok. Bad excuse. Ah well. Aaaanyway, what else, bouldering, bought wrist guards for boarding (most important apparently) and found the bus schedule so it’s all go. Then out to see Elephant which was a film – just exploring high school massacres like Columbine. Not something I need to see again, possibly slightly too arty for me.. afriad I’m just looking forward to the next Harry Potter. This link from the BBC is about Harry getting mobbed by thousands of screaming fans at the launch in New York. His quote was perfect

“It’s astonishing – it’s really, really, really scary but it’s brilliant,” the 14-year-old enthused.

So the weekend was fun, sat night headed out with Michelle – a climbing friend, firstly to her friends 30th birthday party. Great fun, the theme was a 3 year old birthday party. So played pass-the-parcel (have never, ever seen one with that amount of wrappings), and treasure hunt etc. They were a really really friendly bunch of people to hang out with. Then it was on to another comedy gig. It was 4 different comedians, one Scot, one English, one kiwi from ChCh, and a group called the flight of the concords they were excellent. A music / comedy duo, might have to get their CD sometime.

Sunday was pretty lazy really, played squash against Thor and got completely thrashed. Also finished up the work project. ish.

Other interesting news since then, interesting developments with the car, have been bought out of the car which makes sense seeing as I am not living in Memorial Ave any more.. will have to do some research and find another way of getting to the slopes.. actually a little – concerned as to where my ski-pass has gone! Still has not arrived in the post yet! However, apparently if you loose it you can just get a replacement for $5, so if the worst comes to the worst will just do that. The ski season officially opens next weekend.. they’re busy making snow at the moment. Really looking forward to it though. This weekend will be off to the Kaikoura range for a tramp on Saturday.. but a nice easy one this time!!

Odd getting mails from home complaining about just how sunburned you’re all getting… my heart bleeds ;)

Well, fairly worky week. Have been working on this self-help system that will probably go live in the next couple of weeks. Reckon that’ll be an interesting week.. hopefully it’ll not fall over and die ;)

Other than work… well was great hanging out with an engineering friend – Emma..

Pretty impressive, she’s been in the country less than a week, and has found ski work for the season, and has just left today for a 3 week tour of the North Island. Excellent stuff, but really nice having a friend from home around.

So yes, work is getting terribly busy, so much so that we just had to have workplace massages. All the rage over here ;) definitely something to suggest back home, I mean sitting in front of a computer all day, it’s really only healthy to get massages :) hehehe.

The lady who gave them quit the police force to move into massage therapy. And personally, I’m quite glad she did. Though I should have moved the head-rest a little further up as it wasn’t incredibly comfortable for the whole thing.

Did have some awful news though, one of my close climbing friends back home (Claudia) was climbing up in the North of the country (fairhead), and a rock was knocked loose and hit her on the back. There was some serious damage to her back (crushed vertebrae?), but thank God the initial reports that there might be some sort of paralyses look like not being true.. though it’s still terribly serious. And it’s strange being here and hearing about it… just waiting for news and hoping.. Get well soon C and then come visit :) Great place to convalesce NZ!