A few pictures from last weekend, walking about in the hills above our house.

It’s great – a 40 minute walk from front door brings you up here… One of the challenging things post-quake has been finding outlets for energy.. a lot of the tracks are dangerous with rock-fall hazards etc. ChCh is getting back on its feet though – which is great… but it is slow work.

This weekend just gone, Maaike and I flew up to Wellington to see Glynn & Jayne, and also the Irish comedian Dylan Moran. He was definitely funny – though I had less gut-wrenching laughs than I have had with others. I think this might have been down to the acoustics of the theatre (he talks very quickly), and I was also expecting more topical / political humour. Still, an excellent excellent evening. In a parallel dimension, I would love to be a standup comedian. I think.

Oh, Maaike and I also went for a walk above Wellington. I love that you can be right up with a good view in literally minutes walk from the city centre. Wellington really is a nice city, even if she is sitting on a time-bomb (big overdue quake!).

It was lovely seeing Glynn & Jayne. Their daughter Isla isn’t getting any smaller, or quieter. Which is all right and proper for a 1 1/2 year old. Does bring it home the sacrifices one makes from *not* being in Ireland. That said, I read the Irish papers daily, and while I’m sure it’s not as bad as the papers make out, I’m still quite happy to be in New Zealand, and not in a country which must be going through such a harsh transition. I think I’d take earthquakes over mountains of debt any day.

Still, we do have houses like this all over the place. Which is less than ideal.

So.. from September 3rd -> 23rd I will be off at Outward Bound. It’s basically a personal development course run through the outdoors. It involves things like getting up at 6am and going for a 3km run and then jumping in the sea (which is cold). And that is just for starters.

I’m excited and quite nervous.. but definitely more excited than nervous. Thing that’ll happen:

• Teach you how to sail, then put you and your 12 mates in a boat for 4 (more?!) days… on your own… in the sea.
• Teach you how to navigate – then off on a hike/tramp for 4/5 days
• ditto kayaking (I think)

So yeah, lots to do.

Now – we are allowed (in fact, encouraged) to send & receive postcards / letters. These can *totally* include things like:

1. Stuff you have learned in life and that you think I’d like to learn too….
2. Fig Rolls (you can’t get these in NZ – and I miss them like you wouldn’t believe on hikes!)
3. Chocolate
4. Letters containing deep thoughts about life, the universe, and everything
5. Letters containing jokes, frivolaty, and no deep thoughts
6. Pictures from your latest holiday
7. Pictures from another holiday / your new house / family members / scuba diving, kayaking, extreme planking… whatever it is

These letters, postcards and packages should be sent to :

Patrick Davey
M561
Outward Bound School
Private Bag 403
Picton 7250

It would be absolutely lovely to get them. Anyone who does write will get at least one postcard in response within the next year :)

More snow across New Zealand. Stayed home for two days this time!

It’s all very pretty of course, and it is, but it’s all quite wet and … gritty!

It was however, an excellent reason to head to the hills to go snowboarding. Headed off to Mt Olympus for the day yesterday. Shelly & Paul (the newlyweds), Dan & Candance, Pauls Dad, Mark and I .. Olympus is a great little club field. It was really hard work as there was tonnes of snow, but it had compacted a bit and had been a little cut-up before we got onto it. It also took us until midday to get to the field as they were only letting high-clearance 4wd cars (with chains) to go up the access road. Still, worth it once we got there.

And there were some stunning view on the way back.

In other news just in – am off to do a 3 week outward bound course in September. Letters (and chocolates etc) would be gratefully received. I’ll send around the address soon. I’m not actually joking here, it would be lovely to get letters/postcards :)

We had snow in Christchurch the other day (quite rare). It was crazier than usual cycling on the streets (I waited three days to go to work and should have waited four!).

Unfortunately – it didn’t mean more snow on the ski fields as the snow pretty much bypassed them!

This weekend was the wedding of Paul and Michelle (Shelly). The weather had been completely miserable all week, but cleared up beautifully in time for the big day.

Security was tight for the event.

Ok, kidding, there wasn’t any security, but it looked like there was! In New Zealand (as opposed to UK/Ireland) people can get married anywhere, and they simply have to have someone with a marriage license to actually marry you. In Ireland there are only certain places you can get married. So, thus it was that Shelly and Paul chose the fairly magical Castle Hill to get married.

It was a little chilly, hence lots of people wearing down jackets – but there were nibbles and mulled wine, and generally it was perfecto.

The beautiful bride arrived, and didn’t worry at all that her lovely dress was getting a little muddy. In fact, I think Shelly quite enjoyed the fact :)

It was a simple affair, with poem readings (The Snow Leopard and the hedgehog went to sea….), merriment, some interesting vows (promising to take responsibility for ones own health… quite an interesting one and I definitely want to quiz Shelly about it!), and, of course, the happy couple.

As per usual, the flower girls attempted to steal the show… but fortunately not jumping off the rock for attention ;)

Back then to the Bealey Tavern – where the first wedding event they’d ever hosted was held! It was very prettily done up. Shelly had lots of help from her friends out in Sumner – the programmes were printed up, the cake was made.. it seems to be a hallmark of Kiwi weddings that everyone rows in and helps put the event together… very good way of doing things. I reckon.

Just to point out – on the cake, Shelly is tellymarking, and the pattern on the ski’s matches her real ones.. “Lovers Lane” and “The Plunge” are two ski runs here… very cool.

Shelly had asked me to be her MC for the evening. I was *quite* nervous, and definitely shaky at the start, but warmed up. I think that the best speech of all was the best mans. He was nervous (or said he was)… and it was his first time. He lined up 5 shot glasses at the bar and drank them all, one after the other. Then he said he’d taken a leaf out of the grooms book and that it was, in fact, just orange juice. Excellent excellent trick – one I shall definitely copy someday!

So the wedding was a great success, dancing into the wee hours.

The next day – we managed to get a days skiing in at Cheeseman. It was pretty crowded, but still, fun to be out and about again.