Tis great having Irish friends in New Zealand.. So it was off to Arthurs Pass for the weekend. Maaike and I headed up a little early and went biking.

The evening was spent drinkin’ and laughin’ and playing Mafia / Werewolves and Villagers. Definitely has to be one of my favourite games.. and it was entirely satisfactory killing off Maaike in the last round (I was a werewolf) and listening to her whispered suggestions of who the werewolf might be… That said, she killed me off pretty damn quickly when she was a werewolf, still, such is the mores and wants of werewolves.

I left a little early to get back and finish working on Snowpool. Still, it’s pretty much done and dusted now and ready for the new season. Excellent.

ok ok ookkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy I’ve been a wee bit slack on ye olde blog front lately. Guilty as charged. Still, you try to find another (non professional) blog from someone born in Shankill, Ireland in 1979 which is about New Zealand and has been updated more regularly than this one. I think not.

Anyway, I have been really busy (too busy some might say. Those some might be people’s who’s names start with an M and end in aaike. Fair cop too really I guess. I’ve been working hard trying to get Snowpool up and running and completely rebuilt using the latest web framework – Ruby on Rails. Quite the learning curve for me, but the development server is live at : http://snowpool.heroku.com, and I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking.

Anyway, now for a big catch up over the last – almost 3 months. In no particular order (except chronological) ;)

My Aunt Mary came down for a weekend. It was Maaike and my Christmas present to her. Basically she’s been threatening to come visit for years.. but it *never quite happens*. So we took matters into our own gentle hands and bought her tickets down from Palmy.

We had a lovely time out at Akaroa, eating cheese, drinking wine, playing mini-golf (not as much fun as last time somehow) going for a walk at the Hinewai Reserve and altogether the weekend was over far too quickly. The only disappointing thing was that ChCh didn’t put on a decent earthquake to show Mary what it’s really like. Sigh ;)

Another weekend we went out to visit our friends Mike and Heather. They bought a chunk of forest to farm and live in. It’s wonderful. They have chickens, turkeys (unfortunately the odd stoat too), water, electricity, internet, veges… and a perfect place to play hide and go seek.

And they have an outside bath.
1) Take an ordinary bath & fill it with water
2) Light a fire underneath
3) *put a plank of wood on the bottom (else your bum gets fried)
4) Enjoy

And a quick video

Glynn and Jayne were down for a visit, with their little Isla. Isla is now walking, and talking a lot more. This is change.

Isla did make a beeline at the end of the night towards the Isla(y) malts..

Can’t blame her myself.

Finally for this catch up, was a trip (over Easter) with Maaike, Ivor and Berit to Mt Cook NP. Got some climbing in on real rock again. Rock which hasn’t been munched by an Earthquake. Great to be out there again. Ivor led me up a 3* multipitch.. it was wonderful to be “out there” again. Need to get back into climbing I think. So much to do. So little time.

On the way back from Tasmania I stopped over in Melbourne for 24 hours to catch up with my friends Heather and Katrina. It was all too short a time, but a happy one, perfected by regaining a second scrabble trophy (there are only two) from Katrina. My first ever double double word. Yes, a double double word. Not quite the triple triple word that Thomas once pulled on me (sealings, lucky guess if you ask me), but still, magnificent.

It’s really quite upsetting and frankly disturbing when good people move away. In fact, it’s one of the most upsetting parts of the whole earthquake saga. Obviously I’ve nothing to complain about really, I have some friends who are in far far worse positions…. but moving to another part of the city is really quite disruptive. Especially after moving out from the community that was 39 Fendalton road. I realise I’m repeating myself here, but still, it’s true. The friends you used to be able to just drop in on are now in another part of town. It really does take some getting used to.

After the wedding we headed off to explore the Tasman peninsula. Carole had been here before and highly recommended the walk to the Totem Pole, an absolutely classic rock climb, which, if I had fingers, guts and time would be fun to climb someday.

It was a beautiful walk out there. Now, Mick has been promising to go on “a walk” with Domhnall Glynn and I for *years*. There’s always talk of the mythical “walk”. Here, for the first time *ever* on video is captured Mick. Walking.

He takes his sunscreen very, very, seriously. Which is a good thing. There’s a whole lot less ozone down here.

Anyway, it was a lovely walk with Tall Neil (not that he’d be that in The Netherlands), Mick, Carole, Andrew, Glynn&Jayne&Isla, Eoin, Maaike and I. It was great to be out there… my feet were somewhat itchier by the end of the trip.

Here’s a video looking out over the totem pole. It would be a perfect climb to do. But methinks I need to get back climbing twice or thrice a week for a while before I’d be able to tackle something like it.

Dah dum de dum…. dah dum de deee.. What a lovely day. Domhnall and Gill hired out The Cascades Colonial, a stunning venue out on the Tasman Peninsula. The day was blue skies (most of the Irish had t-shirts on their heads to ward off the Ozzie sun (which is quite a hot sun)).

Glynn & Jayne and Isla were over… and great to see them. Mick and Tall Neil (not that he’d be called that in The Netherlands), Carole & Andrew & Eoin.. it was quite the crowd from Ireland really – as well of course as lots and lots of family and friends.

The ceremony was simple and the bride simply stunning… the didgeridoo was played as Cormac (Domhnall & Gills son) brought the rings up to the alterythingy (a bicycle & double kayak).

Heard some very interesting stories at the speeches.. won’t say much.. but Gill was (is?) banned from national parks in Australia… fantastic… I mean really.. should finished bush fires get in the way of a good 5 day tramp? I think not. And so does Gill apparently.

An eve of merriment, excellent food, live ceili band, more merriment, playing the dig round a fire… all in all it was wonderful. There were tears (mostly Domhnalls, but he’s a total softie ;), much laughter, and yup, it was great. Pictures here and here

Well, congratulations to Domhnall and Gill – and thanks for the awesome party.