Church camp and riding

Back in November our church had their annual weekend retreat. It was at a small retreat center out near the mountains about an from Christchurch. We only went up for the day. We took about a three hour tramp (a.k.a. hike).

I had signed up to do a 10k road run the next day, but I thought I would be a stud and climb 1500 feet the day before. I was a bit of a wreck on the run, but I finished and was alive still. No pics of that sorry, too tired.

Innes and Charisa at the top of the little mountain we climbed.


Innes' father, Rex setting up a panorama to stitch together later.


We climbed to 1048 meters (3400 feet) from we guessed about 2000 feet. No idea actually.



A couple weekends later I took off on a ride. I headed north along the coast and stopped in Blenheim overnight. I stayed with a family I met in Christchurch several months earlier at a motorcycle track day. They are Richard and Mandy and their kids Cole and Chanelle. They just became NZ citizens. They moved here from Zimbabwe 5 years ago. They have some interesting stories about that country and Africa in general.


The following morning we joined up with a couple hundred other riders for a poker run. I didn't stay with them for the whole run. I split from the group and headed northwest to Nelson.


Then I headed back south into the mountains and stayed the night at the little teeny town of Murchison. The pic above is the view from my hotel room. Of course there is a sheep, but also the local hound dog sniffing my bike.


On the road from Murchison to Springs Junction. I want to take Charisa there. To see why look closely at the sign.

Another lovely scene in New Zealand.

A smelly man and his motorcycle.

Unfortunately, I end up putting these photos on the blog so long after I take them I can't remember the names of things. I think a little notebook might be in order. These falls were just a few miles up the road from Murchison. I stopped and sat there and enjoyed them for a good while.

New Zealand sport

http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4265414a6009.html

more fun

Charisa recently turned 30! Holy smokes!

We had nice little (not so little, probably 50-60 folks) get together at a really cool place in downtown Christchurch called Fat Eddies. It was also our friend Adam's birthday a week before, so it was a double birthday party. The four following pics look like someone's living room but that is actually the upstairs of this place. It is a really nice place to hang out and socialize.


Above, Charisa chatting with Caroline Shorter, one of her coworkers and now good friend of ours. She stayed with us for a week while she was in between places.


Rex (left) and Liesl (chair) are a couple from our church. The gal in the back is Rachel, she goes to the home group we used to go to. I don't know the gal on the right.


Me and Raik, sie German I worked with at the window factory.


Charisa with Mark and Hannah Lewthwaite. They are the lovely folks from church we stayed with for a few weeks before we moved into our place. We are now taking a tango class with them. Quite a fun time.


Charisa's main party at Fat Eddie's was on the Friday before her birthday. Her birthday was the following Monday and she wanted an American breakfast. Drexels in the city serves big ol' American size pancakes and waffles and fortunately they have gluten free ones as well, so Charisa can actually eat them and not just stare at them. So we had an early breakfast before work. This is Mutita, another friend/coworker of Charisa's.


Once again Mark Lewthwaite, this time enjoying his jam and toast.


And the lovely couple. Me sporting some nice puffy allergy eyes.


Here are some photos of the drive we went on last weekend and where the videos of the dog came from. Banks Peninsula is very beautiful.




What teamwork! Charisa helping the cat find something under the chest.


They'd knock if they could.

More energy

More excitement of chasing a stick.

PURE ENERGY

I've come to the horrible realization that I am a typical dog owner. I laugh at all the stupid things he does, I tell people about them, and I put pictures of them on the internet. So sad I know, but oh well. But, I do try to restrain myself and I don't call them my kids. They are still animals, but they do cause a lot of laughs and smiles in our lives.

Speaking of laughs and smiles, I ran across these photos of a mastiff on Flickr. Mastiffs are gigantic dogs, but extremely mellow and docile. This guy takes some wonderfully timed pictures of his mastiff that are great. You must take a look: http://flickr.com/photos/26158860@N00/sets/72057594060986833/

Charisa and I took a drive this past Monday. I always have Mondays off, but it was Labour Day, so Charisa was off as well. We decided to just wander and explore. We hoped to find a lonely, quiet beach to relax on let the dog run around. Being that there is only 4 million people to share many thousands of miles of beaches, it's usually not too hard to find a little lonely beach. We drove around on Banks Peninsula and eventually did get one all to ourselves.

The video shows the dog, Henry, and his enthusiasm for fetching and water. I chucked rocks and sticks for him for nearly an hour before he finally slowed down a little bit. Meanwhile, Charisa sat in a chair and read her book. I sat for a bit as well, but I like seeing how far and how long the dog will swim. He lets out this little yelp of joy at the exact moment you throw the stick and he is taking off to retrieve. It's quite strange really. He only does it when we are at the beach though.

22 September 2007

Hi all. It has been a long time as usual.

It has been what feels like a long winter. Maybe that is because our house is old and drafty. We've improved that a bit though. We added underfloor insulation and put in a pellet stove to replace our wood insert. I procrastinated a bit on arranging all that, so we suffered with building fires and using our little space heaters for a few weeks of winter. Once we got the stove in we were much happier and warmer. Those stoves crank out the heat and all that flick of a switch. Now we have to add a heat transfer system to move the heat around the house better.

Charisa and I are still enjoying our jobs and the people we work with. We even had one of Charisa's workmates stay with us for a week because the flat she is moving into wasn't ready yet. We also have a fella from Auckland staying with us. He is a PhD student that is working at Charisa's company as part of his research and will be with us for three weeks. He is from India and is cooking a lovely dinner for us right now. I can't wait.

Recently my work sent me and all my workmates to Auckland for a weekend design conference. The conference was great and inspiring. Representatives of design and multimedia companies from New Zealand, Australia and England spoke over the course of the day. It's always nice to see what is possible when people let loose and get creative. It can be discouraging as well, because it is hard to get clients that let us go for it and take risks with our work. Hopefully we can find some that do. The weekend was also interesting as all of us from work spent so much time together. Some people got a bit testy with each other but no major temper tantrums or standoffs occurred.

Here are links to some of the presenters:
UVA - amazing light and sound production company in London. Check out some of the videos of their work.
http://uva.co.uk/

Madethought - design firm, also of London. Very nice work for some very high end clients.
http://madethought.com/

3 Deep Design - Some Aussies with pretty stuff too.
http://www.3deep.com.au/projects/

On the homefront, we've enjoyed getting to some of our neighbors better. Graham, who lives next door is a friendly old chap, formerly of Scotland. He is a landscape designer and is helping us getting our yard in order. He literally is a Godsend. We don't have a clue of what to do with the yard. In pseudo-exchange I have been helping him learn how to use his first computer, a brand new beautiful iMac. Landscape designers generally don't have a need for computers, so at 65 years old this is his first experience with one. So, it is proving a good challenge for me to teach him this brand new world of computing. He is also a proficient photographer has a good digital camera, so that is common interest interest that we share. That is his main use for the computer.

We've also been getting to know the couple across the street, Mike and Yamille (pronounced Shuh-meel). Mike is a Christchurch native and Yamille is from Argentina. They are the same age as us and also have no children. We are trying to convince them to take Tango lessons with us. Well actually it is Mike we are trying to convince. Yamille is very keen. We've already convinced our friend Mark and Hannah to take the class with us. We are hoping this style of dance will be good for Charisa and I. Charisa loves dancing, but is so much better at it than me. It is hard for both of us to enjoy it equally when she is getting bored with my slow learning curve. We took a two hour intro class last year and I took to it quite well, so there is hope.

Also, some news on the motorcycle front. I have sold my 1998 Honda VFR800 and purchased a 2001 Honda VTR1000 Firestorm. It's a similar bike, but lighter, more torque, more CCs, and more wheelies, so not I guess not really similar. I had some problems with it for the first week and to haggle with the dealer about it. But eventually it go fixed and all is well and I am thrilled with it. I went on a ride today with the husband of one of Charisa's coworkers. They are from the UK and have been in NZ about the same length of time as us. It's nice to finally have a riding buddy. We are at a similar skill level and enjoy each other's company and had a great time. My new bike performed wonderfully and does better in the twisties than my last bike, which is the main reason I switched. There are so many nice backroads in this country that have many more tight turns than I thought possible.

And some photos.



Overlooking Akaroa Bay. Just a short 30 minutes from driveway. Not bad eh?


The new ride.


In Akaroa, the final destination of our ride, we ran into some of my workmates. From left: Simon, Colin (a Texan who worked with us for 7 months and is a couple weeks from heading to Thailand and then back to the States), Brett (he didn't experience the '80s and so doesn't realize the '80s fashion revival is a bad thing), and Brett's girlfriend Petra (she's from Sweden and actually doesn't work with us).


Yes that is a bowling alley. Charisa's work had a bowling party a couple weeks ago to celebrate some new work coming in. That's James admiring his handywork. Looks ecstatic doesn't he?


There's more of her workmates.


Henry with some part of a dead cow.



Here is a link to some other photos of mine on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6980&l=2c7bb&id=528281812

We would love to get updates on all y'all.

Dolphins

This video is from when Jeff and Sue Thomson were visiting. There is a picture back a ways of us in those lovley wetsuits. These are the little fellas we swam with in the Pacific - Hector's dolphins. They are native to New Zealand and are the smallest dolphin species and are very friendly. Sorry I couldn't get pictures of us swimming with them, because we were busy swimming with them. Go figure.

The water is so full of minerals and nutrients that you can't see down further than a couple feet. So, the only time you saw the dolphins was when they surfaced right next to you which was fun and nervewracking at the same time.

It was certainly an amazing experience. I have had friends swim with dolphins in captivity and thought it was pretty cool. But, I must say swimming with them in the wild is one or two notches up the cool scale.

Oh, when I say swimming, I mean more like bobbing in the water like a beach ball. The wetsuits were 5mm thick and very buoyant.

more stuff wow!

And some more pictures. Not much of storyteller these days, at least with words.

Dog and cat being friendly.


On another ride somewhere.


New Zealand rest stop. No kidding, there was as sign for it. Of course the sheep ran away before I took the picture.


God's sun shining on my motorcycle.


Friend Aaron.


At Adrian and Allie's wedding. Ross sneaking into the shot.


Allie and Adrian.


Before we had the cat, Henry slept with Charisa on occasion. There is only so much sun that makes in those windows.


Guess where went? Charisa had a conference to attend in Sydney, so I flew at the end and we made a long weekend of it. Beautiful city. It had been a long time since we had been to such a big city. It felt strange and awe inspiring for awhile.


Bondi Beach, a fancy schmancy area of Sydney.


Also Bondi Beach.


View from gondola that takes people up the hill to the zoo. Not bad eh?


The goats have a nice view as well.


They have one bling giraffe at the zoo. Can you tell which one it is?


My goodness, a full grown Komodo dragon is huge! I had no idea how big they were. The one in Seattle's zoo must be just a teenager. It's no where near this size. I wish we had something in the shot to give some scale, but Charisa wouldn't jump and the dog didn't come with us.


Awww...


Here are some of the gentlemen I work with. We had an awards dinner to go to. We weren't contestants though. Our company sponsors one of the awards.


Man does it look like I am losing my hair or what? I don't think I am.


This is not a joke or a test or a Photoshop trick. This the wallpaper in the lounge of our companie's office. Wow!


For our ninth anniversary we had a weekend away in Akaroa. We lounged around most of the weekend, but we did rent the kayak for a couple to feel a bit adventurous.

It's been soooo long

It has been so long since I have even thought about this old blog, I am not sure where to even start. I guess pictures are a good start.

Jason and Charlie at the southernmost tip of the South Island of NZ.


Me and Charlie taking a break from the bus ride to Doubtful Sound.


On the boat in Doubtful Sound. We are all so photogenic.


This is what 30something married couples do in New Zealand, bounce a big trampoline like thingie at a campground. We ran all the littler kids off.


Jason sporting his Crocodile Dundee outfit. We didn't tell him it was New Zealand not Australia.


Jason in front of the clay cliffis in Central Otago. These cliffs are made of a really soft clay, so they erode very quickly giving the extreme look. Luckily in doesn't rain much in the area, so they will be with us for awhile.


Me and Nate looking enthused at the Mt. John Observatory above Lake Tekapo.


Random pet pic. Taking a break from some office word processing.


Mr. Jeff Thomson at Castle Rock in the Southern Alps. Hint: watch the final battle scene of The Lion, Withch, and Wardrobe, you might recognize some of the rocks in it now.


Charisa and Sue laughing at some unknown comic.


Charisa and Sue looking for the White Witch's grave.



Sporting the 5mil wetsuits before we go swimming with some cetaceans.


Where are the cetaceans? Just some lost bobbing humans.


They are smiling because we did swim with cetaceans.