Weekend wanderings

Long weekends are great times to climb mountains. So I jumped in Carol and Richards "Blue Lady" and off we headed to Taranaki. A vigorous climb to the 2000m mark up the flank of the mountain saw us arrive at Fanthams Peak and Syme Hut, where we were treated to a fantastic sunset and view of the Comet McNaught. View from the hut looks pretty much like this.














Next morning was a different story...the weather did not comply so after nearly blowing into Comet McNaughts' orbit we hightailed off the mountain and went on a wee road trip through the Forgotten Highway.




















A real gem, one I'd never done. Highlight has to be the Republic of Whangamomona...this place is just dripping history. And yes its a dead set republic, complete with a president! This I assume is the Parliamentary Building....



















Just up the road we found the highest waterfall in the North Island, quite randomly really. At 82m still pretty much a small trickle by South Island standards, but very pretty nonetheless.

So from there it was up the road to National Park for a night of Jacob Oram watching. Is it true that Chris Cairns is now the poor mans Jake?

The final stanza in the weekend was an assualt on a misty and windy Mt Ngauruhoe...which once we'd summited decided to become decidedly unwindy and very sunny....Oh well we got nice views on the way down that were much better than the inside of a cloud!


View from the summit next to the seriously imposing crater rim.........



















.....and view from the bottom. Dammit!

The Razor Review...Big Day Out 07

It was a much anticipated BDO this year. For heavens sakes, The Killers were enough of an enticement on their own, especially with the NME quoted “knicker wettingly debonair” Brandon Flowers there to attract half the female population of Auckland to the front 300 rows.

It was sold out this year, which made moving around a little trickier than last year, but that was cool. You just had to plan a bit more and spend less time at Lillyworld if you know what I mean. As the event approached I decided this was the strongest lineup I had seen and it was a must see….as evidenced on the much maligned Trade Me.

So, we arrived early enough to beat the queues, and it was off to a flyer and straight to the Boileroom to be warmed up by my future wife Ruth and her band Minuit.

They were slow to get into their stride, no doubt due to the fact that most Minuit gigs start at 1am, rather than midday. Having said that, in the tent that is the Boileroom it is perpetually 1am in the morning. Anyway, Ruth and the boys eventually climbed into it and finished off with a brilliantly uplifiting version of I Hate Guns, which threatened to lift the roof off the tent and let the nasty daylight shine in on all the vampires.

So, it was off into the bright bright sun and the main stage where I caught the end of Eskimo Joe, who seemed solid enough but a little overwhelmed by the still filling stadium. They did however underline the sound problems that the Blue Stage was to experience throughout the day. Not for the first time I lamented the lack of a decent stadium in Auckland, and wondered just how it was that U2 pulled off such a perfect sound in this place.

Next on the big stages was the hard out metal of Trivium. I positioned myself in the moshpit with the Emo’s (that’s Emotional Rock for the uninitiated…basically the new Goths) who were clamouring already for pole position at My Chemical Romance. After reconnecting with my Westie upbringing I thrashed out til the lead guitarist embarrassingly unplugged himself. The metal equivalent of wearing a nice green cardie on MTV!

From there it was off for a breather at Lillyworld with Rat and Kiwipanther before heading off to the smaller stage to check out one of Flying Nun’s finest, Dave Kilgour. And a very nice set he played as well, to a respectably aged fanbase, the first real chill out moment of the day. I caught 5 mins of Hot Chip in the Boileroom, then dashed downstairs to see what all the fuss was about with the Emo’s (Real life Halloween Emo Attached!).

And by now was it a hot fuss down there (sorry Killers fans!). Tears were streaming….yes, real tears…. On the faces of numerous MCR fans who had missed out on getting up front. Now that was just silly. The band themselves were pretty good- I’d love to see a full set with a good sound setup, there was enough of a Pink Floyd-meets-Queen-meets Green Day feel about it to make me hang around, and dammit, I may even have to buy The Black Parade now. Gerard Way made a solid if whiney frontman but carried the band well.

So enough about the warm ups….now it was time for the real bands…..Kasabian, Killers, Muse, Tool all one after the other over 5 glorious and exhausting hours. Kasabian were the highlight of the day, sneering arrogant rock and roll attitude (“I’m the King, be my Queen, bitch”) backed up by a truly spanking and innovative Chemical Brothers meets Beatles backbeat. The first truly must see gig of the day (ably set up by electronica of The Presets I must add, who must have loved playing to a rock crowd!). The future of British rock is in great hands with these guys. Needed a cooldown after that, a couple more quiets at Lillyworld, a feed, and dessert was Peaches (mmmm Peaches, yum!) in the tent for 10 mins before hightailing down to get in position for the main acts for the night.

The Killers, well outside of U2 they were my most anticipated act of the year. How cool was it to see both within 2 months? Well……from all accounts they WERE good, but sadly I got trapped in one of the sound holes at this dreadful venue, and was unable to hear any vocals or guitars. But from all accounts it was an outstanding set if you could hear it…and yes ladies, Brandon is a very energetic dynamic frontsman, and it was fantastic to see him extolling the virtues of Bearduary!

So, I was feeling pretty hacked off at this point but that was soon blown away by the gobsmacking talent of Matt Bellamy and Muse. You don’t stay disappointed long at the BDO, unless you are a Scribe fan (yes folks, if you do hip hop then DO NOT stand in front of thousands of Killers fans and lose your voice…ouch!) Anyway, back to Muse. Talk about outstanding, the only thing missing from their space rock virtuoso set was Halley’s Comet- this was the second absolute drop dead must see moment, although I’m not sure that my colleague Rat (pic attached) saw much of the band from his cramped viewpoint. Life is hard sometimes. Muse are Radiohead on speed, truly a must see- come back soon!!!!

So that leaves two more acts, and they couldn’t be more removed from each other. First up was Tool, who stole the night away in a fearsome manner. Tool are like a religion, if you are into them that’s great, it’s like going to church. If you aren’t into them then Dimmer was for you, and I was bummed to miss Dimmer, but international takes precedence over local sometimes…Tool bludgeoned, crafted and artfully delivered their way into Big Day Out history with an outstanding display that completely satisfied the worshippers at the altar. Wow.

So off we went to round the night out with the folk-rock of the Violent Femmes, who had a bloke called Don McGlashan in their horns section. Nice, mellow and laid back way to wind down after 13 hours of charging around. Sing after me….”I love American Music….” On that note we went home and slept. Eventually.
So in summary, BDO 07 lived up to all expectation with the exception of the sound problems. Will I go next year? Not sure, lets wait and see if the lineup measures up and if they improve the venue. But this year was the best one of the 4 BDO’s I’ve seen, no argument.

Beard-u-ary

Having bypassed Movember I decided to have a late run at the caveman thing.















Possibly my grumpiest photo ever!

A number of possible reasons have been suggested for this behaviour, all of which could be construed as plausible:

a) Identity crisis

b) Laziness

c) Chick repellent

d) Lost youth (Big Day Out uniform)

e) Genetic malfunction

f) Can't possibly mention that here

g) Natural Sunscreen

***********

So, as the 31st of Bearduary looms a decision must be made. To shave or not to shave...that is the question for The Razor?

I'm gonna see if I can work out how to put up a poll on this thing to gauge popular opinion......haha

It wasn't like this when I worked for the Council...

Aussie councils pay PIs to have illicit sex
By CLAY LUCAS - The Age Thursday, 25 January 2007


Melbourne councils are paying private detectives to have sex with prostitutes, to gather evidence against illegal brothels.
Melbourne City Council and Yarra Council yesterday confirmed they had paid private investigators to approach prostitutes, and in at least 17 cases, investigators had sex with them.
Other councils across the city confirmed they had also paid private investigators to visit illegal brothels, but stopped short of confirming sexual services had been provided.

Full article here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/3940128a12.html

Staggering Survival Story

I can't beleive how lucky this bloke is, for those who climb this will seem a pretty incredible chain of events (Source: Stuff.co.nz)


Falling rock saves 3rd climber in double tragedy

A falling rock is credited for saving the life of a Japanese climber whose two companions fell to their deaths on Mt Cook last night.
The bodies of a 53-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were recovered this morning after they fell some 450-500m on to the Upper Linda Ice Shelf about 9pm yesterday.
Police said today it appeared a rock the three climbers were anchored to gave way as they abseilled down the mountain.
A falling rock sliced off the survivor's strap, separating him from his companions and saving him from being pulled down with them.
The 28-year-old male survivor immediately descended to call for help and raised the alarm at the Plateau Hut about 1am.
Constable Carl Pedersen, of Twizel police, said the survivor was traumatised and helping police with their investigation at Mt Cook village.
The three climbers were members of a Japanese climbing club and had known each other for about four years.
Members of the Department of Conservation Alpine Rescue Team located the two bodies on the Upper Linda Ice Shelf at an altitude of about 3500m this morning.
They were taken to Mt Cook village and were expected to be removed to Timaru for post mortems later today.
Police said the identities of the dead climbers would not be released until next of kin in Japan had been informed.

Big Brother can find us any place, any time

Most of us have heard that its possible for the police to track a cellphone's location even when its turned off, due to the transmitting device within the phone. What I was staggered to learn today is that there is a website where you can input anyones cellphone number and Google Earth software will be activiated to pinpoint that phones current location. Scary!

The website is: http://mobilebacktrack.com/

Go on, put someones phone number in and test it, the results surprised even me! Dont forget to put the country code in first ie 64 if in NZ.

You can run but you can't hide it would seem......also very handly for idiots like me who are always losing things like phones!

Welcome!

Ok folks, here we go, welcome to my first attempt at blogging. Like everything else technological I'm about a year behind the trends so bear with me. I promise to put something interesting on here soon once I work out how to drive the thing properly.

Life is busy at the moment playing musical houses, working through the climate's attempt at summer, and fitting in a bit of cricket watching amongst all the mayhem.

2007 is going to be a transitional year punctuated by no less than 6 weddings (at last count!) and a few crazy runs up mountains. This is where I'll keep you up to date. First thing to look out for, when I get round to it, will be the Razor Review of the Big Day Out last Friday.

Arohanui,
T.