Okily.. slight catch up post here.

In no partiuclar order. We had snow again in Christchurch.

And a reasonable start to the ski season, however, that has been followed by rain – about the worst possible thing that can happen to a ski field really. Anyway, that’s getting into July territory.

Also, went to see Ireland get oh-so narrowly beaten by New Zealand when they played in Christchurch. Really was a good game, and I felt quite proud to be Irishish, and a shame they lost. Most kiwi’s thought that Ireland deserved it.. (that said, they got munched 40 or something nil in the next game)

I also felt a little sorry for Brian O’Driscoll who is, I guess, retiring as the captain of the Irish team at somepoint sooner than later. My favourite picture of him is this one…

Taken in the childrens hospital in Dublin. Awesome.

Anyway, on to Flight of the concords.. Last saw them in May 2004 with shelly. It was in a much smaller venue (1000 people?).. I remember Shelly having a bet “first one to laugh looses”. I lost. In about 10 seconds. Maybe less.

Here they are playing in 2012.. slightly larger crowd. It was great to see them, but, to be honest, I thought there was a little too much repeated material.

I have also been doing an 8 week “mixology” course, which I have now passed. It means I can make (and create) cocktails. Maaike, being a CPIT staff member, means I get a *bit* of a discount on the course.. It was really good fun, learned a lot, drank mostly in moderation… and generally had a brilliant time.

The cocktail there was my creation. I won’t give the title of it for fear of upsetting mother ;)… but here’s the recipe card should you want to try it out.

Quite drinkable if I do say so myself.

Lastly for the month, it was off on the Heights of Winter rogaine, with Maaike and Clare. Clare, who is 5? months pregant was happily beating us up hills. Frankly, I feel that’s a little out of order.

Good to get out and stretch the legs!

So… I’ve been busily working away on Snowpool for the last while. It has been reasonably active this season, though the weather could provide a little more snow.

I was lucky enough to be allowed to have a stand at the recent Banff film festival (worth watching the intro if you’ve never seen it – with the sound up)

It has been quite the learning process, and, while there have been ~130+ carpools so far, and 460+ users… there’s definitely room for growth. That said, there are quite a few more people using the site than have logins (as it’s not required to have a login to use it).

One of the learnings has been.. how Facebook crops photos’ (annoyingly!)

It’s good though – quite a few of the bigger snow sites around are now using snowpool calendars and widgets (some more successfully than others it’s fair to say!) http://www.chillout.co.nz/snowpool/ and http://snow.co.nz/mthutt/snowreport/

and some of the ski fields have been sharing bookings on Facebook.. which is nice!

So yes, quite a long way still to go for complete world domination in the carpooling to ski fields world.. but getting there!

Oh – if you’ve not seen it, check out our intro video!

So, it was Queens Birthday weekend and time for an adventure (though I admit I was sadly tempted to be lazy and work on snowpool…. that site is taking over my life ;)

Anyway… off to Fox Glacier on the West Coast to climb with my old flatmate Mark Tynan, Steve, Michelle, Amy, Rachel and friends.. Rachel and I drove down after work on the Friday.. quite a long drive – and then straight into packing for climbing the next day..

I must admit, I found it pretty chilly on the glacier. I’d basically decided to just be lazy (read my book, write my diary etc.).. but was happy (in retrospect!) to have my arm twisted into having a potter about on the glacier. Fortunately I have the same foot-size as Steve (give or take) so I got to borrow his gear as he was off hunting. Rachel and I just did some top roping and then went for a wander about on the ice.

Next day – Sunday – I took it easy and finished my book (Treasure Islands – well worth a read – all about tax havens… sounds boring but is utterly fascinating).

Then on the Monday – back out to the ice, only this time I was prepared. I wore 3 layers of merino, a down jacket, and an over jacket. I was warm enough.

These pictures are all from Mark Tynan (thanks Mark!)… the last one is *slightly* photoshopped ;)

Actually quite fun – could almost do it again (with better gloves perhaps!)

Apologies – this blog has taken a complete hammering while I’ve been working away mostly on Snowpool. My bad… will try to do more exciting thing and be a little more regular keeping updated.

Up to Palmy for the weekend. It was Maaike and my present to Mary for Christmas (we’d head up, take her out etc.) Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures… but we had some nice snow to look at on the way up..

We had a lovely weekend, and took a quick trip to . It’s a nice little studenty town on a river.. (has claimed a fair few lives that river!)

That’s the Waimarie there. They resurrected it from the bottom of the river. Seems they did a good job :)

Also saw glass blowing in action. That was fun. If we’d have time we’d have given it a go (unfortunately it books up, and you need the weekend)

Finally.. also had my Thirty Third and a Third birthday party. Lots of fun. People came as Dirty Trees, and turds…

A really good night.

So the other weekend it was my old flatmate’s birthday, and he elected to go for a tramp (before some fine beers were drunk later on that evening).

Little mount peel was the venue of choice.. it’s here.

This is what it looks like on the way up.

And this is the view from the top

There’s a little shelter at the top where we had lunch – nice wee spot.

And a small waterfall on the way back.

It was excellent to get out and stretch the legs..