So, Friday – off up to Auckland, trip up was easy, electronic checkin system is quite a handy thing. Got the last bus from the airport to our hostel, and had a wander around (and a horrid pint of ale in ‘Shakespeare tavern’ or some name like that. Ick. The Skytower was lit up in bluey/purple. Which was quite impressive. Which I also do not have a picture of.

Here’s a picture of it the next day – when we went out to Kelly Tarlton’s underwater experience thing! It was actually quite cool. Kelly was some big underwater buff and wanted to let other ppl enjoy what New Zealand had to offer under water, without actually having to get wet..

It was actually pretty impressive, the highlight being a maybe 100m moving walkway (though you could go around and around) through perspex tunnels. You get an idea of the – resourcefulness of this country through how they made the thing… Japan said they were the only ones with the technology to bend the perspex into the cylindrical shape.. they didn’t have the cash. So they bought massive sheets of perspex from Germany, had it shipped over, made moulds, heated it – and bent the things. And it all worked :) But yes, definitely worth a trip.

Then mini-golf, 1:1 which was a relief ;) Good close matches!

Finally, back to Auckland, and off to dinner, Muscles and Frites in a local Belgian Pub, washed down with Leffe Brun, a quite excellent start to the evening. And then …. to Billy Connolly.

I won’t be so foolish as to try and repeat any of his jokes. It was a real – well – Billy is definitely one of my heroes, after reading his biography and the amount of – well – well what he had to go through to survive – and then to come out and make thousands of people laugh for 2.5 hours straight… Amazing. Classic set – just a stool and a glass of water. Amazing, I would go again to see him anywhere, it was completely worth flying to Auckland just to see him. He got a reasonably bad review by a lot of people.. but I think that’s just ‘cos they weren’t ready for his – language… c’est la vie. I do think though, that comedy is one of the greatest things ever! I love the Monday and Wednesday nights in the International Bar have had some of the best nights there… I mean it doesn’t really matter what sort of a day you’ve had, get to some good comedy and it’s all just good! :) Love it.

Sunday – headed up the skytower. This being New Zealand – the home of extreme everything you can bungee from it.

We didn’t. Nice enough view from the top. A friend of mine – Susanne – gave me a BBH card (Budget Backpackers Hostel) card before I left (which she picked up on her way back through NZ), and it’s been great, I’d recommend getting one actually, they give you all sorts of savings – obviously in hostels (around about $2-3 per night) but on so many entrances too – $5 off the return bus trip, $5 off the skytower, $5 off Kelly Tarltons I think it was too, it’s been great :)

Finally back to ChCh, an excellent weekend.. I really hope I get to see the Big Yin perform again, as it was completely excellent.

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days left.. well after today.. Thursday and Friday.. then off to Billy Connolly at long, long last. It’s going to be great fun. Far better than Izzard I’m quite sure ;) ehem, so yeah.. work has been quite – full – this week. I think Madison told them I had a degree from TCD in software.. so I’ve just been moved onto the IT / Tech Support Queue – which is fine, get to do all sorts of fun things like take control of people’s PC’s, release e-mails, all those sorts of things, great fun.

But hopefully, maybe, with a bitta luck might get some programming out of them too.. not entirely sure if that is going to happen or not, but you never know.. maybe.

This evening off to a casino with ppl from the squash club – one of them is a member (private club apparently) so we’re going up for dinner and drinks. Should be ‘lovely daahling’. Well maybe, who knows. Mind you, he made us promise not to bet, so we’re just going for dinner.. too many friends of his have lost – well.. houses or more :(

So, after recovering after an excellent nights sleep it was off to Castle Hill for some bouldering.. Haven’t been climbing in aaaages so I was reasonably awful, esp when trying to pull up at all on things like this…

Glynn was on form as per usual… though didn’t quite get the V3 he was working on (not this pic)

But a good day, it’s kinda funny the weather patterns here, it was an icky overcast grey day in ChCh, but just pass through the mountains and it turned into a beautiful sunny blue skied day. Which was great :)

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days left until Billy Connolly… can’t wait… have to wait, but can’t.. what a dilemma… ok, will wait, but would prefer not.

Well, nothing of major excitement really, most lazy weekend, had a slight disaster when I got my puncture fixed, went to put it back on the bike and the brakes were too tight to put the wheel through (I’d just dropped the wheel in to be fixed) So, decided to take off the breaks and put the wheel on.

Excellent idea, except that the brakes were of a design I’d not seen before.. and, well, ummmm, a spring kinda sprung loose in a desperate bid for freedom when I loosened them off. Shame, I got the spring (ok, so it didn’t actually fly off but it did uncoil itself…) So… my bike was then complete with a fixed front wheel, and no brakes, so had to drop it in again on the monday.

Oh – had a truly excellent night on friday with Glynn, pool and pints, one of my favorite combinations. Well, ok, so not usually the pints – interferes with my pinpoint accuracy ;) hehe, ehem, joking.. but it was really fun, one of the things I miss about my last (real) job in openet is the pool table that we had there. Still, what can you do.

Sat and Sun were pretty lazy – combined with some fairly atrocious weather, so no climbing..

Killed myself playing squash last night – on monday – I was filling in for Thor who I wasn’t sure was going to turn up.. in the event he did so I shouldn’t have been playing the top player on the other team, only lost by a few points in the final game (best of 5)



Quite annoyed about that one.. then again, he was quite a lot better then me :) next time. However, have really strained just about everything that can be strained.. my back is not super-happy with me, will have to try and lay off the game for a while I think, which is a shame, I do enjoy it! (no kidding)