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, July 04, 2002
Sorry for my webslackness lately. I have actually been doing some fairly fun stuff recently, but just haven't got around to yakking on about it yet. Mainly due to working long hours getting my software finished off before i leave the country, combined with laziness.
The best thing i've done recently has been snowboarding. Although at times during my first lesson at Mount Hutt i must admit i absolutely hated it, and became utterly frustrated. I was doing exactly what the instructor was saying, but would my blasted snowboard behave? No. Did i continually spin around completely out of control? Yes.
Happily though, after a couple of painful hours, i finally managed to control the fupping thing, and string together a series of controlled turns, hurrah!
As well as Snowboarding being fun, the whole day was made even more exciting by the highly entertaining driving of Greg "Snake" Chalmers. Toyota Starlets probably aren't designed for rally style driving, but Greg seems to get the most out of his. On the way to the car park, 1600m up the mountain, we overtook numerous other cars, including 4wd's, and did we bother with snow chains? Pah! Was i shitting myself? Mais oui!
Mount Hutt Access road
Driving back down was even more extreme, as we were running out of petrol, so had to turn off the engine at every possible opportunity, leading to a major decrease in the effectiveness of the brakes. Slightly alarming when hurtling down towards a hairpin with a couple of 100m drop on the edge of it. Once again we made short work of the girly 4WD's on our descent, but when a slight misjudgement trying to overtake a bus caused us to do a 180 spin, most of them re-overtook us. No doubt making them feel happier again about having splashed out thousands of bucks on their Range Rovers. Ho hum. All rather stupid i know, but along with the full on Trance tunes * that Greg insisted on playing whilst driving up the mountain, actually quite a lot of fun.
* While driving Greg has Mountain music (Trance, Hi-tempo Hip Hop) and plains music (Ambient, Prog etc). Good to see some thought being put into driving choons.
I also had a Paintballing session with "the lads" from work at the weekend. War is hell - I have the bruises to prove it.
Michael, Emma, Phoebe, Jo, Al and I are all off for a long weekend in Queenstown tomorrow. Obviously including plenty of snow related activites, at the Cardrona skifield. Recommended to me as "ideal for spazzes" by my own snowboard ninja sister.
It's my last weekend but one in NZ, and my last big road trip in NZ. Driving around, checking out the amazing scenery (Whilst trying not to plough into oncoming vehicles)has been one of my favourite things here. And my favourite drive by far, is from Christchurch down to Queenstown, via Lakes Tekapo & Pukaki and Mount Cook. If you need a second opinion, just ask Sanjay, he'll vouch for it's gorgeousness. I'm looking forward to it even more than usual now, as i got a stack of new CD's out from Christchurch library today (Throwing Muses, DJ Krush, Divine Comedy, Flaming Lips and, er, Groove Armada) Let's ROLL!!
