Genius!

Walking home accross a sundrenched Hagley Park after work today a dude went past the other way riding a mountainbike, which he'd hooked up to a lawnmower engine. Now thats outside the square- it wasn't fast or graceful and it wouldn't add to the Pedometer Challenge, but man I just tip my hat to that sort of outside the square thinking!

Labour Weekend Shennanigans

Ok, hold breath, it goes something like this:

Saturday morning- last ever breakfast at the Chocolate Fish in Wellington. Fly to ChCh do sweet FA all afternoon, then hit the Dux with the boys.

Sunday- Drive to Mt Cook via World Cup final at Tekapo pub, have a wander up the Hooker Valley until hypothermia and avalanches set in. Seriously windswept and challenging landscape today, not much to hang around for so it was back to ChCh as soon as I heard it was 22 degrees at home!

Avalanche Alley- some huge ones lately

Monday- Kepler training in the morning, I suspect the Dux again for the afternoon!

Never a dull moment.

In all seriousness though, the walk up the Hooker was tinged with great sadness for me, it was the first time I'd seen the memorial plate for John. I'm not sure if its the done thing to post it on the web here, but it feels right. Please let me know if you disagree and I'll take it down....

....but for John, Simon, Hamish, Steve, Cam, Liz.... our friends; and all the other souls that are up there in those mountains- we will always remember that if you must bow your head then it can be to a lofty mountain.

Make the most of what we have folks, while we have it. It may be gone tomorrow.

Conference in Wellington

Well I flew up at a hideous hour (ie 5.45am!) and its been a pretty ugly day here in Wellington. Thankfully the conference is at Te Papa so if the sessions are shithouse you have the option of sneaking upstairs for some real art to keep you awake.

Highlight of the day was Rob Sarkies...aka Scarfies, Out of the Blue.. Best hour of business yakka I've ever heard, Sarkies is a dead set Kiwi Hero!

Who says Christchurch is a conservative town?

Shagley Park upon Avon I presume?

Oh No.....

It would appear Christchurch is under seige ....

Every Rose Has It's Thorn

Spent a bit of time in Dunedin for work this week. Always good to get down there, and great to catch up with Chris etc.

However, it disturbs me a little bit that a certain Rodent from Papamoa may have been in town...

The All Blacks Make the Trip Home

They are taking the long way....I don't blame them. I understand thats Daniel Carter in the basket.

Its All Black

Oh dear. I told ya...if Hayman lost the beard the AB's lost their mojo. I even told the TV 3 camera crew at the pub where we squirmed our way through the loss this morning, god I hope that doesn't get on tele!

I wonder if the Pink jerseys might have helped.

Oh well, summers here, its the cricket season now

All Black Jersey

I've sorted out the Grey/ Silver vs Black debate with a jersey that clashes with no other nations. You may have noticed it before.

Failing that theres always this one:

Local Body Elections

Have you voted yet? I can't find this party on the Christchurch political landscape...




Grabs the attention though

Full story here.... its actually quite interesting, not as salacious as you might think

Big Day Out 2008

First announcement today...ARCADE FIRE are coming!!!!! Neon Bible is one of the best albums I've heard this year, stopped me dead in my tracks in a similar way to Hot Fuss by The Killers 4 years ago.

I know where I want to be on Jan 18th...

Global Warming

( www.hagenstoons.com)

I saw a naff report today that Sydney will be 5 degrees warmer by 2070.

Great, I can nip over there for my 98th birthday and enjoy the 45 degree heatwave, can't wait.

Zimbabwe Still Cries

Back in March I posted this link tragic state of Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

The latest is even worse, the bread basket of Africa continues to cry into its barren and starving navel. Someone find oil or nukes there soon, please, so the American Idiots can practice "regime change"?

Inflation in the the thousands per annum, interest rates running at 800%. Unreal.

A couple of weeks ago Zimbabwe beat the Aussies in the cricket. Ordinarily that might have been worth celebrating, but given Mugabe has made the cricket team his own political toy its just a crock of shit, such a sad sad state of affairs, when you can't even bring yourself to applauding a team for beating the Aussies!

Full Story here on Stuff.co.nz

Atiu Part Three- Coffee and Leaving

The Edge of the Deep Blue Sea

Well I only had a grand total of three days on Atiu and it wasn't enough. Reading the visitor book at Are Manuiri it was notable that even people who spend weeks and weeks there think they didn't give it enough time!

For the last day and a bit I did a lot of walking. Plenty of wildlife- local doves, kingfishers, even one of the worlds rarest parakeets, the Kura, which has just been reintroduced to Atiu. No humpback whales though, unlike the day before I arrive. Scariest thing was probably the crabs- big ones, little ones, fiesty ones, chicken ones. You do not want to accidentally step on a Coconut Crab while hopping round the Makatea- these things know how to husk and open coconuts with their bare claws!

Makatea at Oneroa Beach

For the last night Marc and I went down to Roger Malcoms bar and watched Canterbury win the Ranfurly Shield off Waikato- something I wasn't expecting to do on a tiny island 4000km from home! We won't mention the fact that the Shield is gone already...thats a whole other tragic story!

It was a bit of a sleepless night the final night, which meant the Coffee Tour with Juergen was fantastic timing. And Andrea's Art Studio was particularly inspiring, my wall hanging is in the post as we speak. Thanks guys for your hospitality!

Tony and Juergen

It was with great reluctance that I left Atiu....but looking back a month later it is still indelibly marked on my mind (and I still have some imported coffee left!)

I leave you with a couple of website links to look at if you want to know more about Atiu. I completely recommend it!

Juergen and Andrea's site

Roger and Kura's site

Be sure to read the fine print when leaving Atiu airport customs....(click pic for blow up)

One more post to come on the Cooks series...the return to Rarotonga. Walks, climbs and the mighty Tumunu restaurant...standby!

Summer is here

Daylight saving has arrived, the cricket season arrives on Saturday and I'm back on home pitches. Cannot wait!

And Kepler training is ramping up...at work we have a Pedometer Challenge going for the next month, each 10,000 steps = 8km. We have a team of six, called The Muffin Stuffers (I did not pick the name!) and "Studmuffin" is aiming for 16,000 steps per day. They measure our distance against other QV offices around the country up State Highway 1 from Invergiggle, and we are aiming to make it to Cape Reinga with our team- where of course we will begin walking on water and carry on to Rarotonga!