Even more relaxing Sunday...

Its so nice to sleep in after a week of work, we finally hauled our asses out of bed and mucked around watching the Dog Trials (because Emma has done the opening titles for it). I spent most of the day in the lovely sun working on my model yacht (which I have not touched in over a year). It felt good to do something productive and get a project underway, now I just have to make sure I keep putting in the effort and finish the damn thing. Emma spend the day in the sun reading the latest Spoke magazine (which reminds me I must have a read of as well) and playing with Narla and my camera (see the photos of Narla, SO CUTE!! however not too impressed with her chewing on the sprinkler heads!) Also changed my disc rotors and brake pads on my downhill bike to get it ready for another season of DH (yay, so excited especially now that Cory is back, hopefully we can get out together more, and Jeremy if his hip stops playing up).

Relaxing Saturday

Today frustrated the hell out of me, I spent the morning annoyed because I didnt have a clue what to do with my day. In the end Emma and I went for a drive up to the TV tower, had a look at the downhill MTB tracks (within a few mins of the carpark) and then went to Sumner and grabbed a coffee from coffee culture. Here are some pics of the day (me sitting in the car while Emma ran around like a looney taking photos of everything, some are pretty amazing I must say) (a photo looking down part of one of the downhill tracks) (some random downhiller having a crash, haha! i know how that feels!)

Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx

Yay!! It finally arrived, my Garmin GPS all the way from America. So far I have just been setting it up and installing free NZ street maps on it from HERE so if you have a Garmin and want free maps its a good place to start. However Emma has discovered it has games on it (why the hell do they put games on a GPS?) so its being hogged. Until I get to use it and give it a good work out there isn't much else to put on here. To see the official website for Garmin go HERE and to get one off the place I bought mine from go HERE as they were superb and cheap!

Plumper?

Brief post, now who the hell did this to my van? If you have a look at the pic and pay close attention to the website address....something isn't right, god knows how long I have been driving around like that.

Social Club's night out

Today the work social club had a fantastic night out, we all finished work early, went home and got changed. We all met at Lone Star in Northlands mall for a few drinks, a massive meal and a good chat. I think there was about 14 of us there which is a pretty good turn out. After dinner we all walked next door to Hoyts to see the movie I have been longing to see for a long time! Die Hard 4.0. It was your typical Die Hard movie with plenty of action from Bruce Willis and actually a really really good story to it (although a bit far fetched at time) but still it kept everyone interested. The only problem was there was a fire alarm set off in the middle of the film so the entire mall had to be evacuated until the fire brigade reset the alarms and did a sweep of the building. No biggie though, everyone piled back in and the movie resumed. My rating for the movie would have to be a good 9/10 just because I love Bruce Willis and his fantastic tag lines "Yippie kai-yay mother fucker" and the fact it was a good movie. So if you are into action movies then see this one!

Avalanche Peak

Today was an early start, up at 6am and meeting the rest of the guys at the 'usual' spot at 7am ready to head off to Arthur's Pass. We arrived around the 10-10:30 mark and geared up. A short walk up the road and then onto the start of Scotts track for the 1000m vertical height gain (over approx 6km of walking) After about 20mins I was sweating profusely thinking I was about to have a bloody heart attack! but the beautiful views over Mt Rolleston & Rome Ridge made the pain disappear. About half way up we got to the snow and ice so it was out with the ice axe and crampons for the slog up to where we had lunch. There were six of us in the group, and unfortunately one had to turn back as she didn't have crampons, but the rest of us carried on across the ridge (with the weather now closing in) and finally made the summit after much sinking up to our waists in the snow drifts. When on the summit the weather really turned and became VERY windy and began to snow a lot, so we took some pics and quickly made our way down (where I managed to fall and rip a hole in my lovely new Gore-Tex overtrou whick REALLY f*$ked me off!!!) but we all got down safely and headed to the Wobbly Kea for some hot drinks before heading back to Christchurch. Basically a hell of a good day if you can handle the hard work, a must do and I am sure I will be doing it again.

I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry

Brilliant movie, one of those laugh out loud movies. Well all you have to say is Adam Sandler, if its got him in it then its bound to be good! Too bad we didn't get to see it for free on monday (emma had won tickets) but hey shit happens. Not a lot else to say, sorry cant really be bothered writing too much these days unless something really interesting happens.

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EMMA xoxox - sadly this isn't her cake, sorry :o(

Home James...

We decided not to hang around in Hanmer for the day so headed home and were back before lunch time, unpacked our soggy packs and started the massive loads of washing, set the dehumidifier to high and let everything dry out. Today was pretty much spent doing house work and the like, did our chores for the week, went shopping, you know all the fun shit. Sorry, nothing else exciting to report, oh other than its only one day to go....

Failed attempt

Today we were supposed to do a tramp in the Lewis Pass (the first section of the St James Walkway - up to Ada Pass Hut) but the info centre at Hanmer told us DOC has closed it due to avalanche risk etc, so we decided to do a simple tramp to Lake Daniells instead. We arrived and it was drizzling a bit, so we geared up and began walking for about an hour, had a tantrum in the middle of the bush because we both couldn't decide whether to carry on or not, but ended up turning back. Stopped in at Maruia springs on the was back to Hanmer for a look as its meant to be brilliant, however didnt stay long. Finally got back to Hanmer and found a room at the drifters inn (lovely place, except for the heater which wouldnt stay on), and at a discounted rate made it all that bit sweeter. Headed out to 'Saints' for dinner, Emma ate a lamb pizza which is bloody brilliant as she never eats lamb (she must be on the mend). Then pretty much spent the rest of the night lounging in the hot pools.