This weekend it was off to the West Coast for my friend Neil’s 30th. Unfortunately my camera really wasn’t behaving itself too much (have since replaced it!) so just a single photo to show this time (of the Birthday boy himself)
It was a brilliant place to go biking – over at a place called Denniston
It’s an abandoned(ish) mining town with lots of really tricksy mountain biking up on the plateaux. I was walking my bike for at least 40% of the time – I’m just not able to bike down cliffs! Heh, good times though.
Other than that, life has been returning a little more to normal. Snowpool seems to be ticking along reasonably well (phew!), the earthquakes are getting less and hopefully staying that way, and generally things are beginning to settle down a bit more. Long may it last. I’ll try to be a more regular blogger again ;)
Headed away tramping with Maaike for the weekend. First time in a while I’d been able to muster up the energy to get out. Well, that and Snowpool was successfully launched so had some time again ;)
Just a cruisey walk up the Nina Valley and then onto devilskin biv.
My camera is totally dying – definitely time to get a new Ixus I think, and keep the old one for snowboarding / getting mashed about.. really not too happy with these pictures to be honest.
The biv was just a small (new) two person hut. We did have a tent just in-case anyone else was there, but we had the place to ourselves. Games were played, food was eaten, wine was drunk, and for a while, earthquakes were forgotten.
On Feb 22nd when the magnitude 6 earthquake hit, I was in the middle of the city centre on the 6th floor of our building. We’ve not been allowed back in since (though rescue people did collect our bikes from the basement – which was very nice of them!).
Anyway, the city council has been allowing business’ to go back in and have a single run into their buildings to get essential stuff out. I leapt at the opportunity to go back in and have a nosey (stupidly forgot my head-torch which was a little silly)..
Unfortunately I think my camera is dying, and most of the pictures didn’t come out too well (annoying to say the least). My lunch which had been sitting there for 4 months was a little hairy – but I forgot to check the fridge (which was apparently an awesome site). I did take a video on the way in – which you can see here.
So, apologies for the complete lack of regular blog updates. Truth to tell I’ve been working *hard* on getting Snowpool up and running for Australia and NZ (the snow has singularly failed to arrive), and constant earthquakes simply take it out of you. We’ve had 8000+ quakes since September. That’s actually quite a lot…
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.
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