This weekend it was off to Cheeseman ski field for the weekend – this time to celebrate Mark & Kate’s wedding. Well, technically they’re already married, but, as they’re Irish & English it’s a logistical nightmare ;)

Lovely weekend. Maaike and I tried skiing for the first time (unfortunately no pictures). I found it… terrifying, frankly.  That said, I think I’m going to ditch boarding for a while and try this skiing lark.  It seems to lend itself (in a year or three) to back-country trips… and I’d love to have a go at some easy multi-day trips.  That’d be fun.

Some pictures..

Looks to me like Mark has better style ;) at least in cake form! That said, I wish I was 1/2 as good as Kate is at skiing (in non-cake form).

Also I went for a short walk…

…while Maaike cycled 104km home. ‘cos she’s like that sometimes ;)

Hmmmm, this monthly posting thing seems to becoming a habit. Will have to work on that.

So, this month, started off with a ski trip to Cheeseman with Maaike, Ian & Lucy. Snow was pretty good, it was quite a busy day really. Ian was trying out his new GoPro 2… some day, when I’m grown up, I might have to get one of these (it’s the fancy camera on his helmet)

Maaike and I spent a day helping our friend Olli move house. She has been red-zoned and finally the time came for them to move. Pretty efficient packers I must say.

Next it was my cousin Benjamin (from the Caymans) visiting. Was so funny to meet up with him as I’ve not seen Ben since he was… 10? 8? anyway, a really really long time ago. So there was that moment when he arrived into the international terminal when we were both looking at eachother thinking “is this my cousin, should I keep on smiling, what if it’s a stranger…”.. but yes, excellent to meet him properly. Ben is here for the “Ski season” (which really has mostly failed to materialise), and stayed with us for a week before heading down to Wanaka to get closer to the bigger ski fields. We spent part of the weekend around town, going to the new earthquake exhibition at the museum.. found an awesome little cafe (The Astrolounge).. complete with stars drawn on the pavement to bring you round the back of the house, and a petonque set. Great.

The cathedral (and a whole lot more) are still blocked off, which you can see… and also had a quick spin through one of the slightly cool areas which has popped up – The Restart Mall… everything built out of shipping containers. Hopefully not too much an earthquake can do to those!

Ben also came to our friend Ang’s midwinter christmas party. Basically a kiwi favourite of a Pot luck dinner (where everyone brings a dish). Quite a change from last year (2 babies present).. but a lovely night.

Finally, got snowboarding with my friend (and climbing partner) Chloe to Porters. The conditions were marginal at best… it was definitely pretty icy.

Finally … a poll… what is most badly wrong with this picture.

[poll id=”2″]

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!)