It was a long weekend in Christchurch, so Maaike and I, not having tramped for a _very_ long time, headed off to do the longish (67k) but flat, St. James walkway.

It was markedly different from the hike we did in for Mike Carrigans stag night, the snow had receded quite a lot in just a few weeks.

One of the huts (Anne hut) had burned down, so we had to structure our tramp with e 22km Day, a 30 km day and a 15km day. The first day certainly felt like the longest – my legs just aren’t used to walking that far at the moment!

Our high point for the day was passed without needing to resort to oxygen.

The walk would actually be quite treacherous in midwinter. There are lots of avalanche paths crossing the track and it would be distinctly uncool to be caught out in one. At this time of year though, the danger has passed (so we were safe mum ;)

The station has had wild horses on it for years. They’re let roam, and then every so often are rounded up and sold. There were horse skulls everywhere, and we caught our first sign of the beasties just before reaching our hut for the night.

All in all, it was an excellent start to the tramp.

Flew up to Nelson for this years backgammon championship. I’ve not been playing quite as much as last year but still loved the trip. Unfortunately quite a number of competitors pulled out at the last minute, so there were only 6 people competing in the end.

Pip (left above) was the winner *again* this year. We had a close match in the round robin (9:8 to me) but she fairly and squarely beat me in the semi’s.

Other than backgammon, life has been quite busy… I’ve been studying Drupal in preparation for my new job (starting Monday 21st). There’s a massive amount to learn (which is why I took the job!).. While I’m sure I should be up to the task – there will no doubt be a huge amount of rapid learning to be done on-the-job. It’s the first job I’ve had which has a three month probation. Mind you, the only reason a probation would be used would be if you weren’t up to the job – in which case, would you want it anyway? (Well, ok, that’s probably not strictly true for all job types – but I think it is true for me!)

Earthquake t-shirt sales tick along. Doing one final order in a couple of weeks time. It has certainly generated enough to pay for the new Snowpool design

Hopefully that will be going live in a week or so. Kinda needs to get up there soon as the Northern Hemisphere is inexorably moving towards winter, while we, are moving happily into longer and longer days ;)

For the last few years a lady (Nora) has been organising evening rogaine series’ in the evenings. A rogaine is orienteering where there’s no set course.

This year Maaike has been doing a kayak (rolling) course on the Wednesday evenings – so I took to the hills with Amy (who is now en route to Antarctica) and Michelle (who isn’t).

These pictures are from the final course – and it also happened to be the actual day of Michelle’s 30th – what an excellent way to spend it.

It was a beautiful day up in the Port Hills.. there was one view (which I didn’t quite make the time to take) of the top of Castle Rock which fell down in the 7.1 earthquake. Quite the scar.

Had a lovely weekend. Started on the Friday with a trip to see an excellent band play (Trinity Roots). They were excellent, and played for 3 hours straight. I think I was more knackered at the end of it than they were. Honestly, this continuous learning & holiday thing really takes it out of one ;)

Saturday Maaike had some kayaking on?! I think?.. honestly it all fades so quickly! But I headed to close to Akaroa and hung out with Shelly and some of her friends at her parents place. They’d collected mussels in the kayaks so we had a delicious dinner.

On the Sunday went for a paddle out in the sea. It was flat calm heading out..

.. but the wind really got up for the way back and there were some decent waves. I was actually a little scared.. there were just two of us on the way back – and neither of us could have properly rescued the other (I think).. and I’m not sure what my roll would have been up to. Time to get some more practice in.. fun and bleedin’ games! I was *very* happy to reach shore again. I’m sure it was perfectly safe, but yeah.. I definitely found it a little scary.

Anyway, Shelly’s parents have sold their farm and bought (well, are building) out on the peninsula. It’s a beautiful place – this is the view from their front door. Completely stunning.

Had a lovely time (except for the scary bits)! Thanks Shelly!

After finishing up with the MED it was straight up to Kaikoura to spend the evening with Val and Dom. It was great to see them again, Val just back from guiding in the Arctic. Very cool. Well, very melty I suspect.. :( I wonder how long it will take before the human race will look back and think that sticking flags under the ice and getting very excited about the oil & gas prospects was just a tad short sighted.

Anyway, ehem, the next day drove up to Picton and met the wedding crew at the train before getting a boat out to Ships Cove (where cook first landed in NZ). The plan was for the younger guests to bike/run from Ships Cove through to the wedding proper at Furneaux.

It’s a very steep ride out of Ships Cove and most of us pushed our bikes quite a bit. While I look completely relaxed in this photo I was, in fact, utterly utterly knackered.

Mike and Heather would have to be probably the most relaxed couple in existence. Just before their wedding (5? days, a week after Heathers’ mum broke her foot) they were told they had to get out of their house immediately. Such is the wreckage of Earthquakes. Anyway, a work party was ushered in, and all was well. But they took the news magnificently! I suspect they were very happy to get away to the sounds and just relax (as much as a couple can before getting married!)

They had put a huge amount of effort in. Everyone had a bag with goodies from either the US / New Zealand themed around a national park, lots of puppets from the animals you would find there too. Here is Michelle with a Praying Mantis.

And a picture of Maaike and Sylvia.

All too soon it was time to leave and bike out again.

Congratulations to Mike and Heather – best of luck for a long and happy future together. I’m quite sure that if they can get through the stress of being evicted whilst in the maelstrom of organising a wedding that there’s should be little to daunt them now.