New Years in Cairns

Last night was New Year's Eve and I was in Cairns, Australia. Pretty sweet place for New Year's. Most of the people who were on the dive boat met at PJ O'Brien's for drinks at 4, then we went out to the clubs and bars after that. At midnight we ended up at the pier for the fireworks. I went back my hostel and went to bed after that because it started raining at about 12:30...

Today is New Year's Day. I got up early and had breakfast at a little cafe in the city centre then I have been walking around taking some photos since. Relaxing day, but hot and sticky. I think I am going to go to the lagoon and do some swimming after I finish this.

For tomorrow I have booked a waterfall tour of the Tablelands. There are all kinds of waterfalls up there with cliffs to jump off into them. That should be pretty sweet. After that I am going back to Brisbane.

New Year's Eve in Cairns

I am back from my 4 day liveaboard dive expedition out to the Coral Sea. That was amazing. We were about 100 nautical miles farther than the outer Great Barrier Reef. It took 15 hours to get out there in the boat. I felt a little sick on the way back in, but never ralphed, so that was cool.

We fed sharks, dove in some amazing coral, Checked out the 4000 meter drop off the edge of the continental plateau. Really awesome. Cool people on the boat too. We are meeting at a pub in 30 minutes to hang out. Not sure what the rest of the evening will entail yet.

I will be in Cairns for another few days. I think I might head up to Daintree or out to the Outback on the 2nd.

I do have a few pictures... Here is a sampling:

Brisbane's city lagoon:


Cairn's city lagoon:


Sunset on the Coral Sea:


Rum Runner II:


Dive briefing:


View of the Rum Runner II from the top:


My dive buddies:


Shark feeding before we jumped in to feed them more:

Coral Sea here I come

Well, I spent the day yesterday wandering around Brisbane. I went to the Queen Street Mall. That was pretty cool. Walked around the Botanical Gardens as well. Took the CityCat all over. It is a really cool idea. A service that takes you up and down the river that is used like a bus. My hostel was about 6 blocks from the river, so I walked to the Brisbane River and took the CityCat into the city then took it back again and it only cost me $AU3.60.

At night I went to the movies with some people I met at the hostel and saw The Incredibles. Good times...

This morning I got up early and caught a bus to the airport and flew to Cairns. I got my dive stuff sorted and ate lunch. Now I am just waiting to catch the boat out to the Coral Sea. Can't wait... It is really hot and humid here. Supposedly the humidity isn't as bad out at sea... I hope not, but I need to go get some motion sickness medicine!

I just found out today that my grandma has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it has moved into a lung. Very sad. I will have to get in touch with her when I get back to land later this week.

Merry Christmas

Ok... so here is my Christmas holiday so far...

Friday:
Left work and went with Hamish to Kinloch, near Taupo. Met some of his family's friends and stuff like that and just hung out around his place for the evening.

Saturday (Christmas):
Woke up and had a mean breakfast barbeque and just lounged around most of the day. Then we went over to his friend's house for a big Christmas dinner. Played some weird French game that is like bocce.

Sunday:
I drove home from Taupo and got really sick along the way. I must have had some food poisoning. It kicked my ass. I ended up cancelling my flight to Brisbane and just stayed home because I was way to sick to travel.

Monday (today):
Got up at 4:15am and got a taxi out to the airport to catch a 6:35am flight to Brisbane. I am here now and feeling much better than yesterday. I still have a bit of a headache, but I am not sure if that is just from a lack of coffee. :)

I am in the Brisbane CBD right now and I am going to go walk around a bit more then head back to hostel and probably just relax and crash out early so that I can get off to catch another early flight up to Cairns tomorrow...

Christmas Eve is upon us

Well, my first summer Christmas and the weather sucks. It has been bad for a few weeks now. Hmmm... I heard Kiwi summers are nice. At least it should be good in Australia when I go there in 2 days.

Last night we all left work at 3pm and went to Spirit'd for drinks and pool. After that a bunch of us went out to Le Dome for dinner. That place has the most beautiful girls in Hamilton working at it...

Tonight, Hamish and I are heading out to his parents' place in Taupo. Maybe the weather will be ok there tomorrow so we can go out on the boat.

Soak in the heat

I went home from work last night and nobody was there. I cooked dinner and watched the Simpsons. Then, since I was bored, I decided to drive out to Kerosene Creek, south of Rotorua, to have a soak. Ended up getting back a little after midnight, but a good night.

Errands Day

So this morning I have spent most of the morning drinking coffee and running errands. I left work about 10 and went to the dive shop to try to get a copy of my Open Water Dive Certification. They say that PADI doesn't have me on record. I went over to the shop I got it from and they say that they will check their records and find me. Then they will have to look through it and make sure that I have completed everything and issue me a new card. I hope they can find my papers so that I can dive in Aussie...

Last night I booked my diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I am heading out to the Coral Sea with Coral Sea Dive Company on their 4 day trip. I should be able to get about 10 dives out there. I can't wait.

After doing that this morning I went to the travel agent again. I reserved seats on a flight on April 3rd leaving Auckland and going to Nadi, then another flight on April 9th leaving Nadi going to LA. Now all I have to do is change my domestic US flight to match up with those dates. My work is going to pay for the difference in price of the new tickets... Stoked!

So much work to do to get all this sorted. Once I get back from Australia it will be time to start working on booking my trip to Southeast Asia!

tiring weekend

Back at work once again after a short weekend. Too bad the weather was such crap.

Last night after I went home I just watched Sweet November then went to bed. Weird movie...

This week I need to figure out what I am going to do in Australia and try to book some stuff. Also, I need to sort out my plane tickets to the US before I leave at the end of the week!

Damn weather

This is two weekend in a row that the weather has sucked so much that I couldn't accomplish any tramping. This morning the weather looked decent so I took off for Mt. Te Aroha. As per Ben's recommendation, I went to the Wairongomai Valley to start the tramp instead of the main track from the town.

It was hailing really bad before I even got there. The hailstones were about the diameter of a dime. After I drove through the Te Aroha township it let up and was sunny. So I figured I would set off and if things got bad I could always turn around. By the time I got to the Buck Rock track intersection with the High Pack Track the wind had picked up and it looked like some nasty weather was coming from the south.

I went up to the top of Buck Rock. After that I just went back to the car and came back to Hamilton. I didn't want to battle the nastiness up there... Here is a shot looking out over a slice of Buck Rock towards the Waikato:

Te Aroha day

Just got off the phone with Ben and Mel and I am heading off to climb Mt. Te Aroha. I am going to try to take Ben's suggestion and do it via the Wairongamai Valley since I did the normal summit track last time.

Sounds like things are kinda hard for them in the States. They are working a lot and not getting to ride much. I think it will settle for them a bit once they get into a groove.

Yesterday I stayed home pretty much all day and made spaghetti sauce and meatballs. Came out really good. I will probably be having that for dinner a few nights this week... maybe lunch too.

At night Sashan came over and then we went to a show at Sohl. This Night Creeps and The Crazy 88s played. It was cool to go enjoy a show, but it didn't even start until midnight and I was really tired by the end.

Time to go pack and lunch and head off for Te Aroha. Here are the pictures from last time I climbed it: here.

should I go tramping today?

That is the question... Looks like rain and hail, but I still want to do some tramping. I figure I will wait and see if the weather clears up by mid-arvo. If I go I will do Pirongia.

Came into work to check the weather... I need to leave now.

free is good

One of our customers is here in Hamilton this week, so I went out to dinner with some work mates to take him out. We hit up the Sahara Tent for some excellent Turkish foods. I need to go there more often. A few years ago my mom and I couldn't find any turkey to eat on Thanksgiving when we were here in Hamilton, NZ... so we went there for Turkish. Corny huh?

I guess Hamish couldn't get the SkyTV connection switched to our house, so we are losing Sky as of today. Bummer for us, but it will save me a few bucks a week.

Well, I have no plans for this weekend. I was originally going to go to Gisborne with Marty and Simeon to visit Kenny, but Simeon is stuck in Auckland. Maybe I will go up to Auckland to see him. The weather is going to suck for the second weekend in a row, so I guess there is no tramping. I still need to do Pirongia. That is going to have to wait until after I get from Australia now. Maybe Si will be back in the Tron to do it...

airline tickets suck

Current music: Jets to Brazil - Wish List

Last night I went over to Jeremy and Brooke's and got my bond back from them... Brooke was annoying as usual. After that I hung out at Sarah's and played hide and seek with Jack for a little before going home and just chilling out.

Today I tried to get my tickets back to the States sorted out. I have been given the run around like crazy... STA Travel US -> Qantas -> Qantas US -> Qantas NZ -> STA Travel NZ -> STA Travel AU -> STA Travel US -> STA Travel NZ. I finally know what I have to do and that is to pay $US25 to get my ticket changed...

Back to work.

Weird Christmas Summer

Current music: Mogwai - My Father, My King

Last night after work I stayed around and called Ben and Mel over Skype and talked to them for about 45 minutes. It is crazy to have them actually be in Vail and hanging out with my friends... Just think, only about 8 months ago I met them and moved in and now my friends in a different country have hooked them up and have invited them in to hang out and such. It's a good feeling to know that your friends get along with each other and will help each other out.

Ben and Mel are pretty homesick at the moment. I am sure they will settle in and do better soon. It must be hard to not be able to call anyone or anything like that. I hope they get their phone situation sorted.

Back in NZ the flat went Christmas tree hunting last night in Tamahere. It is really weird to go Christmas tree hunting in shorts and jandals and have Hamish in bare feet. Ha! Anyway, we got a tree and got it all decorated. Pictures: here.

more from Raglan

Last night I went home from work and the weather was so nice. Sat out in the sun for a while with Amanda, Olivia, and Hamish. Hamish and Amanda went over to Hamish's parent's house for a bbq so I decided to go out to Raglan for the sunset. Just as I got there some clouds came in on the horizon, but it made a really good sunset. I ate some fish and chips and walked on the beach:

Photofriday: Reflections

I missed the reflections challenge on photofriday.com, so here is the photo I would have entered. It was taken at Lake Matheson on the South Island of New Zealand on the 6th of August 2004 when I was there with my parents:

Cruisy weekend is over

Back at work after a pretty cruisy weekend. Watched Photo Booth last night. Damn, that dude was in the photo booth for way too long. It could have been a 30 minute tv show instead of a 2 hour movie...

I got Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird running off my USB key now. That is gonna rock when I am in Australia. All I will have to do is plug it in when I am at an internet cafe and there is all my data... I love it. Just hope it works well when I am travelling... It would be cool to get Sunbird working like that so I could have a calendar too...

I want to go tramping

I was planning to hike Pirongia today, but the weather is kinda sketchy. I decided to flag it. Maybe I'll head up there next weekend. I decided I would work on my travel plans and stuff. Not going so well. Stupid Qantas is giving me problems about changing my tickets. I might have to go up to Auckland to take care of it...

Other than that things are going well. Rang a few people in the States this morning... Talked to Shaun and my mom. Well, time to finish off my Christmas shopping even though I probably still won't be done after I try to finish it up today. It is one of those never ending things. Ugh.

GnuPG

Current music: The Promise Ring - All of My Everything

Well, I finally got GnuPG encryption and signing working on my emails. For those of you who actually receive emails from you, they will now be signed. If you would like me to also encrypt them for you, let me know... I am still kinda new to it, so...

Seems pretty cool and gives the people I send email to a bit more confidence that it came from me. When I start travelling again I may not be able to always have digital signatures anymore... I am going to try to get a USB keychain device and have Portable Thunderbird and Portable Firefox so I will able to keep using them...

gone to Denver

Last night I went home and just chilled out with the flatmates. Watched some TV, did some work on the puter... Talked to Hulsey on the phone too. He was picking up Ben and Mel in Denver today at the airport. So, when I got in to work this morning I rang them and talked to Ben and Mel... Bad storm has hit in the mountains, so they are gonna have plenty of freshies up there at Vail!

taking the whole world on

Current music: Rainer Maria - Ears Ring

Gareth and Sarah had a BBQ last night for Sarah's brother Will's going away party. He is going to Heavenly to work as an instructor for the season. He just finished his season at Treble Cone... Sounds like a good life huh?

Battled with alsa all morning on my desktop PC at work. Finally got it working again after recompiling all of it. For some reason it simply decided to stop working. I think something in a Debian upgrade broke it.

I need to call Qantas today to change my tickets for leaving NZ. I am going to head back to the States for a few weeks before going to SE Asia. That way I can bring lots of stuff home and repack everything since I won't need any of my warm clothes in Asia and the European summer. Now I just have to figure out how I will get all of that stuff through Fiji.

Stupid alignment

Current music: Hot Hot Heat - Bandages

Last night was pretty average. Went home and did laundry and hung out with the flatmates. Having Sky is pretty nice. Damn Xscale alignment problems are giving me problems... I have most of them sorted out now I think.

I have been using gthumb for organizing my photos lately. I am loving it. Really does a good, clean, fast job of things. I do want it to play music like iPhoto though...

We've got Sky

So we now have SkyTV in our flat. Only costing me $5/week, so that is pretty sweet. I stayed at work until almost 9:30pm last night. I just felt like working, so I didn't leave. Watched Death to Smoochy when I got home. That was a wierd movie...

Not really an exciting week so far...

Back to Greensboro

Greens-boro is the place to be! Greens-boro is the place for me!

So glad to be out of the Cambridge Road flat. Back with Hamish, Amanda, and Jo... We had a big party on Saturday night for Jo's birthday and sort of a Welcome Back Lenny party. It was great. Good bbq, and all...

I moved in the morning on Saturday... one car load. Easy as...

Sunday we went out for a flat breakkie at Flapjacks. I love that little cafe. Brings me back to the College Hall days when I went with Brooke (King, not Colling), Hannah, and Bel. Then I went to Christmas at the Lake with a bunch of work mates, then to Jeremy's to hang for a while after.

Another good weekend...

EFTPOS sucks

When I got my WOF yesterday, they charged me twice because the first time the EFTPOS machine said it was declined, but my bank thinks it wasn't. Lame... Now I have to go back over.

Last night I finished reading The Da Vinci Code so I took to back to Aimee and got a new book. I don't remember what it is called, but I haven't started reading it yet. Instead I watched Boys Don't Cry. That is a pretty disturbing movie, but really good. I wonder if it was based on a true story.

I got an email this morning about some of the wxWindows work I did on UDP sockets a year ago. Interesting... I am glad people are using it. I sent the guy back some info answering his questions on how to use it... For the record, here is how it is done:

1. get a new IPv4 address, then set the port you want to broadcast on, then set the address using the AnyAddress method. This sets it to the address of the local machine (so the responding machine knows where to reply)

2. get another IPv4 address and set that to the same port and set the hostname to the network broadcast address, 255.255.255.255.

3. Now comes the good part. Get a new Datagram Socket using the first addr and set some options including SO_BROADCAST flag. If you don't have this flag, then it can't broadcast. I was setting the SO_REUSEADDR flag as well, but that is up to you. Set up any notifications and event handlers you want. Then using the broadcast address you set up before, SendTo.

wxIPV4address *addr = new wxIPV4address;
addr->Service(MY_PORT);
addr->AnyAddress();

wxIPV4address *otherAddr = new wxIPV4address;
otherAddr->Service(MY_PORT);
otherAddr->Hostname(0xFFFFFFFF);

m_sock = new wxDatagramSocket(*addr, wxSOCKET_NONE);
const int optval = 1;
m_sock->SetOption(SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, &optval, sizeof(optval));
m_sock->SetOption(SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &optval, sizeof(optval));
m_sock->SendTo(*otherAddr, myMsg->GetMsg(), BROADCAST_MSG_LENGTH);

Movie night

Last night we had movie night in the board room. We got some pizza and 6 DVDs for $11 then did it up. We watched American Psycho II. Not really good, but I enjoyed it.

My list of things to do never seems to get any shorter. I have to ship things to Ben and Mel, get Aussie visa, get tickets from Brisbane to Cairns, move... There are probably more that I can't remember. Right now my car is getting a new warrant of fitness. It better pass...

Well, I have a lot to do here at work so I had better get back to that.

Raining again

It has been a pretty rainy spring. Raining today again. Last night I just went home and read and took and nap, and read some more. Pretty boring night.

I think we are going to have movie night in the boardroom tonight. I hope Darran brings his Heathers DVD.

Bummer for the new girl

Last night when I got home from work I asked Brooke straight up, "Why is it that you feel uncomfortable living with me? I would like to know so that I can learn about myself." She says that I have a poor and condescending attitude towards living in the flat. I asked for specific examples of anything I did to make her feel that way and she could come up with none. I knew she had no reasons. Ha.

The new girl that is moving into the flat (not my room, the other one) started moving some things in last night. We had a chat and I told her that I was moving out. She asked why and I told her that Brooke and I don't get along, but I wouldn't give up anything else. I wanted to tell her not to move in, but I am not that mean. I couldn't do that to Jeremy. I do feel bad for the girl because she seems really cool and I hope it works out for her there.

Damn, I need to get a new WOF for my car. It expires today...

Wow, that was a weekend

This weekend was one of the best non-tramping weekends I think I have ever had. Just as things started to look like they might take a turn for the worse at the end, they got better still. Weekends like this one make me want to stay in NZ for good.

Friday was Agi Graham's art show at the Art Post in town. Agi is my CTO, Ian's wife. She had some excellent oil and water paintings. I would love to purchase one, but they are expensive and I don't know how I would get it home to the States, if I ever go (see above). After that we went out for dinner at Sohl and then to Jo's 21st. Jo is our new office manager at work and whoa, she has a crazy side. At about quarter to 12 we left to go to the Rocky Horror Hamilton show. I guess the guy who wrote Rocky Horror Picture Show used to live in Hamilton, NZ and used to frequent a theatre here that gave him the inspiration to write it. They unveiled a pretty big statue of Riff Raff after putting on a live show right in the middle of Victoria St. Good times that night.


I got up early on Saturday morning and packed up my stuff to go to Whangamata for Mel and Ben's wedding. I got over there in the early afternoon and we hung out for a while then hit up the wedding. It was a fun time. The ceremony was great. Matt sang a Van Morrison song at it.
The newly weds leaving the church:


Then on to the reception afterwards. There were some fun new people to meet there and we partied it up. It was good to hang out with Hamish and Amanda again. I realized what great people they are and I was starting to wish that I had never moved out of their flat. It crossed my mind a few times that I should move back in there, but I don't know how to come to ask after leaving them so abruptly the first time. After the reception we went to town and kept it alive until the pubs closed.
Ben and Mel at the reception:


More photos from the wedding here.

Sunday we all got up and went to the boat club in Whanga for brunch. An excellent meal and great to have some final words with Ben and Mel before they leave. I went back with Ben and Mel to the place Ben's family was staying at then over to Mel's parents.
This is the view from the place Ben's family was staying in Whangamata:


Then we all headed out to Auckland to the airport to see them off. Everyone was crying and stuff as they left on their honeymoon to Fiji, then on to the States to live and work in Vail for a while before they travel and work in the UK and Europe.
Here is a shot of them in the airport after they had gone through customs. We could see them downstairs and we talked to them on the phone for the last time before they left:


Everyone is happy and exicted for them and I am sure they are going to have a great time on their travels. I can't wait to see them in the future. I am sure our paths will cross more! I can't believe their wedding came so fast and now they are gone. It seems like I have known them for years, but really we just met about 7 months ago. I loved living with them and I feel really priviledged to meet such fantastic people. Damn, this is bringing me to tears. I love the two of them and can't wait to see them again.

I drove home from Auckland and stopped by Sarah and Gareth's place and had a yawn to them about the wedding and stuff. They were up in Whitianga and Hot Water Beach for a party this weekend too... When I got home Jeremy was like, hey, come in here for a minute. So I go in the lounge and he breathed real heavy and say, "I am gonna have to ask you to move out." We had a little chat and he says there is nothing specifically that I have done wrong, but sometimes people don't get along. Ha! Brooke is such a pansy... Makes Jeremy do her dirty work. Well, I will have a chat with her tomorrow I think. I just need to find the words... This is where I thought the weekend was gonna start going downhill. Jeremy said that he would give me two weeks to move out. I was kinda surprised by that. That seems like a pretty short amount of time. So I figured there is no better time to call Hamish and Amanda than now. So I rang them and talked to Hamish. He said he would talk to the girls and see what they reckon. He called me back in about 2 minutes and said that they would love to have me come back and it is Jo's (different than the one whose party I went to Friday) birthday next weekend and she wants to make it a "Happy Birthday Jo/Welcome Back Lenny" party. I was so stoked with that, I know that I will enjoy living with them again. So I am going to move out of here this coming weekend and leave them high and dry for a week's rent I think. Otherwise, if they want the whole two weeks rent, I will stay out the two weeks just to piss off Brooke. Good times.

This weekend really couldn't be better. I am loving everything about it except that Ben and Mel are gone and I am not going to see them for a long while.

Update:I talked to Jeremy and he wants me to stay for the whole two weeks because they need the money, but if I want to move out sooner they won't ask for the rent for the weeks I am not there. I am gone this weekend.

yaRs 2

Went out to Raglan last night and had fish and chips in the sunset for Thanksgiving. Sat out at the point and watched some surfers rip it. The waves were a good 3-4 feet, so it was good watching...




More photos here.

Everybody is leaving

It is the end of the year and people are all moving out of Hamilton. Some will be back and some won't. Kinda weird. Harris is going to Egypt I think! That is crazy. Si is leaving today to go to the Naki for a while, but he will be back in January to do some tramping...

Went to Tralee last night to see the guys and give them a hand moving some stuff. Today is Thanksgiving, but I don't really have any plans for that. I think it will just be a normal day. Maybe I will go out to Raglan for some fish and chips in the sunset if there is one.

Tomorrow should be good. Ian's wife has an art show, there is a hardcore show at Youth Zone, and it is Jo's (work mate) 21st. I think I will hit up the first two. Then Saturday is Ben and Mel's wedding in Whangamata. Good weekend coming up even though there is no tramping involved.

Stupid power outages

So, I have had an exciting week since I came back to the North Island. Yeah right!

Monday I worked then went home and wrote some emails and stuff. Tuesday I worked then went home, went to Si's and hung out, went home and worked on photos for my album. So here I am today. We had a power outage this morning at work. Sometime during the night it went out and took out all of our servers and everything. Very inconvient. It is all up and running again now.

I used Skype yesterday to call my mom's landline. I had used it before for PC to PC calls, but never PC to landline. It worked really well. She heard an echo of herself, but to me it was perfect and it only cost 0.28euro for the 15 minute call. I am not complaining!

Ok, so I am writing this again

Current music: Brandtson - Dial in Sounds

Sometimes I hate Blogger... here goes again, but this time I am just writing a list of what I did.

Wednesday:

• Dinses arrived late from Auckland after being held up in customs
• Took the Desert Road to Waiouru and camped along the side of the road
• Slept terribly because of the trucks going by all night

Thursday:

• Left for Wellington at 5am
• Got the ferry to Picton
• Sun shining on ferry and the trip was great
• Drove to Nelson
• Decided on Mt. Owen for our tramp (filming location for Lord of the Rings)
• Stayed at Paradiso and spent too long in the spa (God, I love Nelson!)

Here is a shot of the other Interislander ferry as we were crossing the Cook Straight:


Friday:

• Took off early from Nelson and went to Kahuranga National Park
• Started the track on the Blue Creek trail to Granity Pass
• Soon above the treeline with good views
• Stayed at the hut in Granity Pass
• Dissappointed to learn Mt. Owen was another 3 hours
• Watched sunset from the ridge towards Sentinel Hill

First time above the treeline near Billie's Knob:


Granity Pass Hut:


Watching the sunset:


More photos here.


Saturday:

• Tried for Mt. Owen summit, but weather came in
• Went back to the hut for lunch
• Met some people from Christchurch including a geologist
• Walked out with the Christchurch people with geology and biology lessons along the way
• Stopped below Billie's Knob for great views up the Blue Creek valley towards Granity Pass
• Drove to Maruia Springs near Lewis Pass, but they were closed
• Camped near Lewis Pass on the fault line

Weather coming in on me and Cole:


Views up the Blue Creek valley towards Granity Pass:


More photos here.


Sunday:

• Hit up Maruia Hot Springs
• Drove through Lewis Pass to Christchurch
• Went to the Christchurch Christmas parade in November
• Did some shopping
• Went to the airport
• Took some pictures of Mt. Taranaki from the plane

Lewis Pass:


Christchurch:


Mt. Taranaki:


More photos here.

Damn Blogger

This morning I wrote a super long post about my weekend adventure. Blogger had problems and it never got posted. Now it is gone. I will have to write another one, but it will most likely be more brief since I already wrote it once and I am not in the mood. I don't have time to do it now, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Ugh...

There are pictures up. So, for now feel free to check the pics and tomorrow there will be story to go along: Mt. Owen trip with the Dinses

last day of work

Current music: Loveline - 20041028 (w/ Jimmy Eat World)

Today is my last day of work... for the week. The Dinses are arriving today and I am heading down south with them. Should be a good trip. I have a few concerns about them being really tired and not making the ferry, but I am sure we will make it.

Last night I just hung out around home. Jeremy and Brooke had some people over for a "dinner party". What is with them trying to act so "grown-up"? Gay...

Not sure where we are gonna go hiking. I want to go to Arthur's Pass, but the weather there might be a bit crappy. Rain with snow above 1100m. No good. Maybe we will hit up the Nelson Lakes area. There are a few mountains around there I am keen to do and it would be less of a drive anyway.

Ok, time to wrap up some stuff to ship off to the customer today.

Winter is over

Well, I managed to get two photos published on snow.co.nz. They are here and here. Now i have to work on getting stuff on surf.co.nz.

Last night Simon and I came into work and watched Adaptation on the projector. That is an excellent movie. I am still not sure which parts of the movie actually happened and which were part of the screenplay he was writing, but it was cool. Strange that it had the same girl in it as Donnie Darko. I seem to always do that. I get two movies that have the same person in them without realizing it. Last time i watched Donnie Darko I also watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the new one). Both of those have the little boy in it... Weird.

nice relaxing productive weekend

Current music: Billie Holiday - The Same Old Story

Friday night was pretty cool. Everybody came over. We had a bit of a bbq and chilled around all night. After all of Brooke's friends left she became really weird as usual. She started cleaning up everything, but all my friends were still there and some of Jeremy's. She actually told Kenny that a beer bottle was his and handed it to him to take care of it... Kenny wasn't drinking beer. Funny as. Then she asked Simon, "You are still here? When are you gonna leave?" I was sitting right there and I asked her what she wanted them to leave for and she said she wanted to go to bed. I said fine, then go to bed! A minute later Joel walked out of the toilet and I said (right in front of her), "Joel, what the hell are you still doing here? When are you leaving?" She was pretty pissed off... ha!

Saturday morning Jeremy and Brooke left to go to the beach for the weekend. I went into town and did some Christmas shopping then went and found Simon. We went up to a mountain south of here between Te Awamutu and Cambridge called Maungatuatari. We didn't even start hiking until about 4:30pm. I love having the long days again! The view from the top was pretty much nil. It was shrouded in trees, but there was a trig so we climbed up that and got some views:


After that we came back and got cleaned up then went into town for Natalie's 21st and the Most Precious Blood show. Pretty good 21st. Awesome show. I miss hardcore shows. The ones here normally suck, so it was good to have a big band come in for a rocker:

so hard

Current music: Mineral - For Ivadell

Why am I finding it so hard to concentrate on work today? So far, I have been fooling around with my Neuros and loading new firmware on it and fixing up my multimedia buttons on my keyboard to work with Rhythmbox.

Must get back to IMA multiplexing multiple links in multiple groups... ugh.

Party tonight

We are finally having our flat-warming party tonight. Not gonna be a big one though. Hung out at home last night and worked on getting photos together. I am gonna have the best photo album when I leave NZ... Went over and visited Si and Harris for a short time too.

I think Si and I are gonna do some tramping this weekend since the weather doesn't look like it will be good for snowboarding.

Definitely time for some coffee. I think we are out of the Papa New Guinea blend. I will have to settle for the house stuff from Rocket Coffee. Oh, and I need to buy my plane tickets back here from Christchurch for next weekend...

Movie nights in the boardroom

Current music: Piebald - King of the Road

A few weeks ago someone at work mentioned the idea of having movie nights in the boardroom here at work using the wall projector and a laptop. Last night we finally did it. We watched one of my favorites: Donnie Darko. That was a good time. I suggest it for other companies.

This morning I went upstairs to get my yogurt out of the fridge for breakfast and it was sitting on top of the fridge... warm. It had been there for quite a while. Damn... I just bought that container. Inconsiderate bastards here at work.

Marty hasn't gotten back to me about going to Auckland for the show tonight. Maybe I should txt him.

Stupid brakes...

Current music: Death Cab for Cutie - Sleep Spent

I had a bunch of brake work done a few weeks ago. Now every time I touch the brakes they make a really terrible sound. I just brought my car over to the guy and he said it is under warranty, but he can't get to it until 3, so bring it back then. I want my car to work...

Got an email this morning from Bubba. Most Precious Blood is playing in Auckland tomorrow night. I might head up there for that. Trying to get Marty to come with me.

Went home last night and just hung out and relaxed. Read my book and worked on photos. I have two photos now that I am gonna give to my brother for Christmas. He loves the poster of Mt. Ruapehu erupting that I gave him a few years ago so I figured I would keep it in the same vein. Since he doesn't read this, I guess I can post them here for you all to see...

I took this one during the sunrise on the morning of the 27th of June from the National Park Backpackers parking lot looking out towards Nguarahoe and the northern flank of Mt. Ruapehu:


Then I took this about a week later on the 4th of July from the side of SH4 in National Park Village. It is nearly the exact same image, but a completely different scene:

Need coffee please...

Went home from work and sat in the sun and read a book for a while last night. Finally ordered Simon's camera from a different place because fotoconnection sucks. Hung out at Sarah's for a while. Damn... Daryl is gone to Australia. I didn't even know he was leaving. I will have to visit him when I am over there.

Photofriday: Radiant

Went out to Raglan last night for the sunset. I thought this shot of some surfers walking up the beach in the sunset fit well in the photofriday.com challenge: "Radiant".

Finally not sick

I went home from work on Thursday really sick. Not sure what did it. Everything was coming out both ends with full force. Not fun times. I went to the doctor on Thursday night because I was completely dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. That was miserable. Stayed home from work on Friday and by Friday evening I was starting to recover.

Saturday morning I could finally start eating again and I felt almost back to normal. I didn't play paintball for Ben's stag though because running around would have made me vomit more... Yuck. Everybody came over to our house for Ben's stag bbq and party after that. Fun times! I will have pictures coming soon... Not too many though. Don't want to get anyone in trouble. We did set off a huge firework though. The neighbors were pretty pissed off. Eh... they are over it.

Did some Christmas shopping today and got some good stuff. The weather is awesome and I am gonna go back home and chill out in the sun.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Current music: Piebald - King of the Road

So... Bush won. My prediction was wrong. Well, now we have nothing to look forward to. Oh yeah, we didn't before either. Kerry would have been nearly equally as bad. Hillary will run in 2008 and she is much worse than Kerry. She runs in the same circles. Yuck.

Last night I just went home and chilled out. Watched the election, the Simpsons, and the last episode of bro'Town.

I think we are gonna be filming the last bits for Simeon's film tonight. I think I will skip rock climbing. Too busy and still a bit sore from beating up my body tramping and snowboarding...

Now there are multiple cougars...

After work last night I went home and we had two girls come by and look at the flat. One was pretty good, but she can't move in until December. The other was only 17! We told her that would be a problem...

Simeon then txt me to go shoot his video over again. He wanted to do it again, but without the rain this time. I guess the rain kept getting in the lens and stuff like that. Simeon, Larry, and I went over to the Bunnings Warehouse carpark again and filmed. It only took a few hours. I think this is gonna look pretty cool when it is all put together.

The election is going on right now. I think Kerry is gonna take it. For the record that is my prediction at 8am NZDT on November 3rd. It is about 2pm on the east coast of the US right now and no "formal media predictions" have been made yet.

I have my laptop sitting next to my work desktop and it is on the CNN website. It refreshes periodically. I am anxious.

Good Halloween for me

Some hot cow sent me pictures of herself...

Turoa sequence photos galore

Here are those sequence photos I promised:
Lenny - indy grab over rock cliff above Clarke's Mistake(2.7MB)
Lenny - steep windlip cliff on Clay's Leap(2.7MB)
Lenny - "birdman" over rock cliff above Clarke's Mistake (2.1MB)
James - dropping the Fingers (2.3MB)
James - dropping the Fingers again (1.1MB)

So last night I pretty much just went home, took a nap, put together these sequences, and watched Van Helsing. That movie was pretty lacking...

Enjoy the photos!

James on Clay's Leap

I took this sequence of James yesterday at Turoa skiing Clay's Leap. More sequences to come soon!
James on Clay's Leap (1.5MB)

Good spring days in the snow

My plans changed quickly on Friday evening and before I knew it I was in Ohakune.

Saturday was cloudy, but good riding. Clarke's Mistake was definitely the run of the day!


Sunday morning was beautiful. It started icy, but quickly softened and by the afternoon was a fantastic day to be down there. There were so many cliffs to jump off:








What a weekend at Turoa... Saturday, Sunday

Ready set snowboard!

Ahhhh... Friday. In need of a coffee. Did necessary things last night, nothing exciting... Laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

Talked to Lori on the phone for a while. I miss that girl.

Sucks that the lunar eclipse didn't happen in this part of the world. Oh well, it was cloudy last night anyway so we couldn't have seen it.

Gonna miss the noodles

Ok, so last night we had a big work party. We hit up a place called Styx down near Te Awamutu. It was a fun time. The food was really good. They gave away 4 vacations to employees, alas I didn't get one.

I just ate some lunch at one of the noodle bars in Hamilton. When I leave this place I will really miss them. It ahs become one of my favorite meals.

I am looking forward to this weekend. Gonna hit the slopes and do some good spring snowboarding in the park... Whee.

Rest is key after a long walk

So yesterday I just went home from work and chilled out. Watched some TV, read some of my new book, Snow Blind and then went to bed early. My knee is really buggered from walking so far, but it feels much better today.

There was a pretty awesome sunset last night at my house. I went out in the backyard and took some pics of our yard in the sunset... there was a rainbow too:

Mt Manuoha and Lake Waikareiti track in Te Urewera

On Friday I took off from work a bit early and went out to Rotorua. I stayed the night at Marty's. He has a nice flat and some chillin flatmates.

About 5:30am I hopped up and headed out to Te Urewera. It is a 3 hour drive to Waikaremoana from Roto-vegas on a dirt road so I got there around 8:30. I had to wait around to be picked up by my transport. He was supposed to be there at 9 to take me to the Mt. Manuoha track, but was running late and didn't come until 10. Finally I started the track at about 10:30.

It was a steep climb through dense bush for about an hour. After that I was on a ridge that steadily climbed for about another 4 hours. I passed a group along the way. The track was meant to take about 6 hours to get to the Manuoha hut near the Mt. Manuoha summit, but I was there at 3pm after only 4.5 hours. The track was easy to follow most of the way, but at one section I thought it went out onto a big land slip, but really it turned and went back into the bush. I ended up finding the track again and things were sweet... Here is a picture of the dense, mossy forest I had to deal with:



That night it started raining. I was in the 6 person hut with 5 other guys and we had the fire going, so it was nice and warm. We cooked up our dinners and then went to bed.

We all got up about 6am and made some breakfast and coffee. I had a long walk ahead of me. The signpost said 8 hours, but I knew that most of it was downhill. I was at 1392m (the highest point in Te Urewera National Park) and I was heading to Lake Waikareiti that was at 896m. It was raining and very windy. The other guys were only heading to the silted lake near Kaipo Lagoon which was 6 hours. I set off at 8am. It was cold on top of that ridge. It was somewhat under the canopy, but the wind was coming through steadily. I didn't stop for a break until 11am. It was too cold to stop. I was bundled up in rain gear and just kept eating GORP from my pockets as I moved along. I had read that this part of the track was for experienced trampers only, but I didn't realize that it wasn't a track at all. This was only a marked route with markers on the trees, but no trail. It was difficult to follow. I was wading through knee to waist high ferns the whole way.



Eventually I reached Lake Waikareiti. It was 1pm and I had done though 8 hour trek in only 5 hours. I was exhausted and my right knee was really starting to hurt.



The lake was really beautiful. Because of the high winds the clouds were really cruising. Rain was coming on and off. I dried out and hung out with the people there. There were two familes and two other couples. Some of them had rowed across the lake and had some row boats there. One of the fathers asked me if I wanted to go with him and his son out for a look at a lake on one of the islands within the lake. I went. It was pretty weird to step onto an island, walk up some steps and see another lake...

They caught several fish that day as well. Some brown trout and some rainbow trout. We cooked those up for dinner and I got to eat quite a bit. Excellent fish!



That night we all sat around and talked. They were a really fun group of people. The sunset had a little bit of color in it...



In the morning the two families left early. I left about 45 minutes later. It was a pretty easy walk out and I had some excellent views at one of the bays:



By the time I had finished the walk and got in my car to leave it was 1pm. I had about a 5 hour drive back to Hamilton. It was a gorgeous drive for the first 2 hours on that dirt road along Lake Waikaremoana:



I stopped in Rotorua and had dinner with Marty. That was pretty much the conclusion of my Labour Weekend to Te Urewera...

First Day
Second Day

Ready to hike

So... the last day of work before a 3 day weekend. Should be great tramping weather this weekend so I am looking forward to it. Last night Si and I climbed at the gym for a while then hit up the Chinese takeaways.

I went to Pak N Save and got groceries for tramping. I am ready to hit the road after work. I am gonna head out to Rotorua tonight and stay at Marty's house, then get up early in the morning to go off to Te Urewera.

Time to go make some coffee...

It's been a long long time

Well, Tuesday night I went over to Sarah's and talked to Simon about doing some tramping this weekend. He can't so I guess I am just gonna go alone. Nobody else wants to go either.

Last night I went out to Raglan for the sunset. I love it out there. I took some pictures... here is one of my favorites:


I have been getting people telling me they are using my photos as their desktop background. Let me know if you want to and I will send you a much higher quality image.

So, this weekend I am gonna go out and do the Manuoha-Waikarieti track near Lake Waikaremoana. It is a three day track. I haven't been on a long tramp since May, so I am really looking forward to it. The weather is gonna be really good this weekend and I will miss some snowboarding, but it will be worth it.

More than 6 months

Current music: Massive Attack - Rising Son

So, I have been in NZ now for 6 months and 4 days. Crazy huh? I am still loving it here, but I am looking forward to going back to the States to see people. I realize that is still a ways away though.

Headed up to Wairere Falls (largest on the North Island) on Saturday. Walked to the top of them. Really cool looking out over the falls at the Waikato. Here is a picture... there are more at http://photos.colorado.edu/~lenny/nzlife/20041016


At night I helped Simeon shoot some of his video with Larry and Kenny.

Sunday morning I got up and had to do something. Couldn't go snowboarding because the rain had destroyed much of the park at pipe at the mountain. They are rebuilding it, so hopefully later this week or next week. I decided to go out and do Mt. Pureora again. I still hadn't been up there in clear weather. It is an amazing view... Taupo, Ruapehu, the Waikato...


Finished the filming os Simeon's video late last night. Here is a shot in mod-production: