So, Paddy back in Ireland has put together a video of the flight into the Heaphy Trip that we did a few months ago, and of some of the biking itself.

Damn that was a fun trip – I definitely miss having Paddy & Beck around… Still, rocking trip!

So, spent a few weekends working on Snowpool things. Maaike skipped off to see Amy in Melbourne with Michelle. While she was off I got some practice in at “Gap Golf”, which is a 9 hold mini-golf course set up around the City Centre by Gap Filler.

Neil & Fran and I played through. It was … odd, to be back in the city centre again. Definitely walked down roads I’d not been on in over 2 years. I suspect that I’m not alone in having a pretty large mental blind spot when it comes to the city centre. Not for any particularly good reason, it’s just that it’s so badly damaged and has been being demolished for so long that you just get settled into a new routine of finding your way around and just ignore it.

Anyway, all in all it was great to have a walk around, and the golfing itself was great. Neil prevailed against some strong opposition from Fran and I! Rematch!

Lazy weekend this one, I seem to have missed one out where I went mountainbiking on the Queen Charlotte with friends. Unfortuantely, while I had remembered to _charge_ my go-pro… I’d left the SD Card out – so no photos.

Anyway, lazy, or slightly lazy weekend. Mike Carrigan organised a short day tramp up Mt. Alford. It’s here:

It was an hour and a bits drive away from ChCh, and then you’re into the foothills of the main divide. This picture is looking towards Mt. Hutt ski fields… here’s hoping they have a great season this year (I’m getting quite excited I must say!)

This is the view from the top

I must say though, it’s so nice to be able to just get out and up a hill for view so easily… it’s definitely one of the nice things about ChCh.

Other than that, work is busy. I’ve been working a little on a photo competition subsite for snowpool, It’s pretty much finished now (ok, I’m writing this in May…). I’ve managed to round up some prizes from local shops so there should be a few giveaways. Hopefully it sees some use and, in some way, helps to spread the word about Snowpool itself a bit more.

Another trip to the Otehake Hot Pools..

Fun fact, on the old topomap series, the red x *literally* marks the spot of where the hot pools are.  Why they removed it in the new series I’ve no idea.

Alex, Maaike & I headed in for a quick weekend trip. It’s only a 4-5 hour walk in, especially if you walk up the river rather than taking the high water track.

There had been quite a bit of wind in the last few …. months?! I’ve no idea how to judge these things. Well, ok, maybe some sort of weed growth, but I didn’t check OK ;) heh… anyway…

there were some trees down.

There were also beasties (spider – anyone care to name it?)

Unfortunately and it’s really pot luck with Otehake, there was another group there (maybe 10 people?). Still, they were a nice bunch and the hotpools are large enough for everyone to fit in.

So, I’ve definitely been enjoying my first 5 months in the new job at Resolve Digital. Very nice bunch of people to work with, interesting work done properly.

Anyway, we had a little bit of time between projects and our directors asked us for suggestions. I suggested we make an iPhone app for Gap Filler… and we did.

There’s a full write up at http://www.resolvedigital.com/work/gap-filler. But it was fun putting it all together, learning some iOS.. Really nice to be doing charity work as a part of “work”.

So, if you have an iPhone… just search for “Gap Filler” and download it – let me know what you think :) If you want to program an Android version.. you can always talk to the API, it’s at http://gapfiller.herokuapp.com/