A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Thursday, December 27, 2001
As Ronan Keating once sang "Life is like a rollercoaster" and lately mine's been like the ThunderLooper on crack :oS
Fear not though, as only edited highlights are included here, sparing the need for hankies and sick bags ;-)
Managed to have another scrape with doom on a brief hiking trip with my new partner in climb, Jo. We were ascending Wahi Peak (1400m) in the Mount Somers/Peel area, when our somewhat casual attitude to navigation left us stuck in the middle of impenetrable, spiky bush, on a steep slope, 800m high, in thick cloud, at 6pm with noone knowing where the hell we were (least of all us).
Happily, after scrambling back up a 100m or so, we heard a river, which seemed a far better option than the spindly, killer bushes that we'd been swearing at for the past few hours, and after wading down that for an hour or two (With the odd detour to avoid waterfalls!) we came out of the clouds, and ended up back at civilisation - a fence.
Embarassingly, for two experienced outdoor types, we had emerged on completely the wrong side of the mountain, and 10km's from the car. So we were forced to knock on the door of the first farmhouse we came across, to ask/beg for help, and to our rescue came Eileen. A gnarly old country lady who had been busy chopping the tails off lambs all day, and who had the blood stained trousers to prove it, nneeuw! Nuff respect to her though, as we would have a rather dark & depressing walk back to the car otherwise.
I managed to cause further mayhem when we finally got back to Lyndon's house, where Jo is currently living, by dropping my glasses down the back of the shower unit thingumy. Meaning that Lyndon had to dismantle his entire bathroom, at 11pm on a saturday night, after working a 18 hour shift on a rebellious tractor - erk.
Many apologies and beers have since been offered as compensation.
Xmas day was spent mainly at the New Excelsior Hostel, my home in Christchurch for the first few months i spent in NZ. Things kicked off with a Barbie at 5pm, and after a slow start, a variety of drinking games, and water pistol related shenanigans got things going, peaking with a boozy version of Mallet's mallet. I was wearing my new LCFC shirt, my best Xmas prezzie by far (Thanks very much Jane), though sadly this made me a prime target to be picked on during the drinking games :-(
People in the northern hemisphere, please avert your eyes now Boxing day was spent on the beach, playing frisbee, football, splashing about in the sea, getting tanned and eating ice cream - sorry guys, don't want to brag, but i have to tell it like it is ;-)
11:53 am
