This weekend it was up to Palmy to see my cousins, especially as my cousin Thomas was over from the UK. It was a lovely weekend, managed to sneak in a few games of Settlers, eat lots of lovely food, see quite a few netball games (Hannah’s kids play a lot in the school leagues)… yes, lovely trip.
Also, after many many years in the country, I got around to getting Citizenship. It was a nice ceremony and I did like how they said that you should bring your culture to NZ not renounce it (in marked contrast to the way some other countries want it)
There isn’t really much of a difference between permanent residence and citizenship in NZ. I already have the right to vote, work and stay indefinitely, but it does mean I could legally work in Australia (I don’t particularly want to), and it does mean I could run for public office (I don’t particularly want to).
Also, I got a native plant (a cabbage tree) as part of the ceremony, which was nice :)
I do love the sunsets we get in Christchurch. And I do love the timelapse website I put together… happpy days.
Anyways, the TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement… they call it a “Trade” agreement, but there’s certainly a huge amount of overreach in it. NZ has a right leaning government in power, and they would certainly like to sign it if they can (it seems). The main thing I do not like about it is the ISDS clauses which basically allow foreign corporations to sue *governments* in offshore tribunals for lost earnings. E.G Australia passed a law making cigarettes be sold in plain packaging, they are currently being sued for this. We can expect more of that if the TPPA is passed. But it’s the insidious nature of the thing I don’t like, what laws would a country not even try to put in place because of the fear of being sued. It’s a horrible provision and there are many other things which I think are a bad idea (longer copyright terms, software patents (which we don’t really have in NZ))… so no, shouldn’t sign. Went protesting:
In the rain. Our prime minister who I have very little time for, dismissed the tens of thousands who protested, as “misinformed”… well, of course we’re misinformed.. the text of the TPPA is secret so we don’t actually have any idea what is being negotiated. Also, the government has, in my opinion, been deliberately misleading as it does NOT openly say that the TPPA is signed by cabinet and not run past parliament. So yes, lots of reasons to protest.
For the last few years our friends Steve & Michelle have organised a weekend with friends down in Twizel. It gets bigger and bigger each year, this time I think there was 40+ people. A really great weekend and very well organised. Managed to get two days skiing in, one at Ohau, I do love that field..
I took a ski lesson. So. Many. Things. To. Practice !!! It’s endless… I do sometimes (ok often) wish I’d taken up skiing instead of boarding back in the day, that said, it was nice to learn from scratch at the same time as Maaike. And I’m not even jealous* that her technique is way better
Second day went to Dobson. Their coverage wasn’t quite as good, but still more than enough for a day.. The top t-bar wasn’t even going. I remember a few years ago when Dobson opened at the end of May with decent cover. Climate change? Just a bad season? El Nino? Not great that’s for sure.
And then this weekend headed off to Mount Olympus for the weekend. Left on the Friday night after work, which meant arriving in the dark and getting the rope-tow up to the lodge in the dark. It was actually fine! even with my basic head torch. It’s a really excellent deal actually, it’s $120pp/pn I think, but that gets you bed + breakfast, lunch & dinner.. a very good deal. And it’s good food.
Woke up to 20cm of fresh powder and awful awful visibility.
But then the sun cleared and there was fresh powder to be had everywhere… I have a lot of perfecting to go on my powder turns.. seeing the neat little jumps the better skiers tend to do… yes, lots to learn. Anyway, some pictures & video’s for you:
I also brought the raspberry pi up the hill to take a timelapse.
I unfortunately didn’t properly check the script before going up the hill and I’d left in the daytime check… and unfortunately the pi doesn’t really keep time when it’s not on the Internet (it has no on-board clock) .. so for the powder day, well, it thought it was night-time :( very unfortunate. Still, sort of mistake you only make once!
Well, a really lovely weekend, learned a lot, had heaps of fun – a really really good group + weekend. Many thanks to Mike Plank for organising!
Two days, no, three days of skiing so far this Winter. First up Cheeseman, even had oh, 10cm of fresh or something, lovely. Skills have certainly improved since Japan, but I’m still desperately in need of a ski lesson!
Next up it was Broken River.. Maaike’s first time? back on rope tows since getting badly pinged off them last year at Broken River. So much easier on ski’s are the old nutcrackers. Here you can see a video – easy as :)
And a few pictures from around… the basin here (Alan’s Basin) is a black – and we all (pretty happily) got down it – a marked improvement.
And finally, Glynn & Jayne & Isla & Emmerson were down for a week, and Glynn and I sneaked off on the Friday for a ski at Mount Hutt. It was pretty firm conditions but had a lovely day. It’s great being in an industry (and working for an employer) who is happy to let you switch around the odd day when it suits (I just worked the Saturday instead)
Quick trip up to Wellington to catch up with Glynn & Jayne & Isla and Emmerson… always a treat getting to hang out with them (and no, I’ll never ever ever forgive Jayne for moving Glynn up to Wellington!)
Pancakes for breakfast, they’d just ran out of gas, so Glynn cracked out the MSR, ever the resourceful one!
Went for a quick wander up to the wind turbines, which affords a great view out over the surrounds. Very nice.
There were so many awful stories, we’re so lucky that at the moment at least, we don’t have conscription etc. That said, we do seem to be doing a decent job of destroying our environment, which may very well lead to more deaths, admittedly over a longer period.
Anyway – lighter things ;)
Had a lovely time geeking out with Glynn, showing him some of my favourite vim tricks, and seeing some of the interesting containerisation technology he’s been working on as part of Solaris. Very cool.
Finally, had a very enjoyable hour or so playing mariokart for the N64. I’m very tempted to setup my Raspberry Pi as a Retropie. A project in the making.
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