First Day of Winter looms

I've never seen so much snow about in May. This week in particular is snowed in some highly unusual places, like Rotorua, Wellington, Blenheim.

Seems to have bypassed ChCh today but we had some earlier in the week and another good fall weeks back. Makes you wonder what sort of winter we'll be getting, what with it starting tomorrow and all!

Pic attached from Naseby, Central Otago, three weeks ago. God bless the South Island!

Everest Epic

Well, he's done it!

Glenn has nailed the worlds most epic marathon in the Himalaya's. Read all about it here...

The hard way too by the looks of things.

Standing ovation for that man folks!

Kea Busts Out of Fiordland Penetentiary!

Fun story at stuff.co.nz...Kea steals Passport

The single most amazing animal I have seen, it scares me there may be as few as 1,000 left. I reckon these birds should be our national icon, not a flightless near blind bird that forages in the dark of night. Give me an irrepressible mountain flying brainbox over a kiwi anyday!

UFO invasion

This stunning picture is linked from metvuw.com credited to Pam Blackwell

Stunning stuff!

As an aside, it looks like snow is a possibility for ChCh on Sunday....

Madman Marvin

Good luck for the Everest Marathon to my arch-nemesis! I would love to be there, but that would involve being in two places at once.

Keeping a weathered eye on his blog for a report in the next week or two...
http://www.knockthebastardoff.blogspot.com/

Now Here Is An Inspiration

Check out this bloke at Stuff.co.nz, hats off chap!

His own site is at www.7in7.org.nz/

Winter has its grip

Its been a wild week. Snow, hail, thunder, sleet, gales, heavy rain...and the weekend looks even worse!

Go the Crusaders
Go the Hurricanes

Now, I'd better check my bank account and see if the bank has credited me with my $10,000,000.

Thursday

In the old days it used to be THE drinking night
Not any more, clearly

Fingers Crossed

From Stuff.co.nz- Go Crusaders!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jerseys with the appearance of falling on ones sword is still not the greatest look though!

Is it a Full Moon?

Not every day you have an upside down taxi at the end of your driveway.

As if the adrenaline wasn't already flowing enough from a fist raised yellfest at the TV from the Auckland V Canterbury rugby cliffhanger, some drunk woman decided to take on a taxi driver, and the story is hazy but it sounds like she stole his cab, tried to run him over and ended up totalling the cab at the end of our driveway.

Action!

Thankfully it appears there were no injuries, and the losers have been caught by the cops after fleeing on foot.

The Routeburn Classic 2009

The first snowflakes fell about 5 minutes before the race start. True to form. But then its called an "Adventure Race" with good reason....so off we went with a couple of raucous keas squawking us on. Or were they laughing?

The Routeburn is my favourite race- I think because its a bit rougher, a bit more of an alpine experience and just the right distance that you don't feel like you are completely killing yourself.

It was definitely winter from there. From Lake McKenzie hut to Routeburn Falls we were in serious snow and at times ice- at times I felt like I should be diving for an iceaxe, running without even a bag on my back as I was wearing all my gear- well it made me feel strangely exposed, but definitely free to charge!

This years finish line felt good. About 5 and a half hours, and I had a strong finish for the last 10km once out of the ice. I reckon the snow added about half an hour to times (not to mention the endless clicking of the camera) so the target of 5 hours might well have worked in snow free weather.

Some great stories were shared at the prizegiving, none less than the woman who came last ("The Worlds Slowest Indian" award), who had never seen snow before starting! I think she enjoyed it, but talk about a baptism by fire!

I'll be back next year for sure. In the meantime you'll just have to live it vicariously through a few photographs-:

As always just click on the pics for bigger sexier versions :)

The Lads Birthday

Belatedly...heres some pics in lieu of the big birthday a couple of weeks back. I really have no idea where the time goes, but Joshua and Jordan had a wonderful day, despite deciding that sleep was an optional extra. Party animals!

One already...gulp. We now have two crawlers. We wouldn't trade them for anything!

Another Midweek Viral For Your Viewing Pleasure

Weather for Raceday

It would be fair to say its looking marginal...seems to be a recurring use of the word "snow"! Maybe we should pack ice axe and crampons.

Fri 8
Showers with snow down to 700 metres, clearing during the day and fine spells increasing. Cold southerlies.

Sat 9
Fine with frosts at first and light winds. Rain and cold southerlies developing in the afternoon with snow lowering to 400 metres.

Sun 10
Showery with snow down to 400 metres. Cold southerlies.

Mon 11
Showery with snow down to 400 metres. Cold southerlies.

Tue 12
Snow with not much wind.

Flight 666

Saw it, loved it. I feel like I've been to church.

You have 2 more days to get to your nearest cinema, otherwise its out on DVD and accompanying double live album later in May.

Come to Razors house and watch it anytime :)

Up The Irons!

Routeburn Classic

One week to go. My favourate event...here we come!

Really really keen to break 5 hours this year please!