Summer nights

Last night: Outdoor concert at the botanic gardens. Was a stunning evening - warm, still and humid. Even when I got home at 11pm it was 23 degrees and 79% humidity.

Tonight: An evening at the InnKeeper of Newlands with a whole bunch of friends and clingers-on, eating pizza and watching a procession of drunk people pull their car up to the door of the pub and stumble inside to purchase a bottle of take-away booze before stumbling back out to their cars to drive off. Ahh Newlands. At 10 minutes to closing time, rather than awquardly asking us to leave, the staff just turned the lights off. Quite effective really.

Oh, hang on a minute.. here we go...

I finally bit the bullet and went for my first helicopter lesson today. Pictured is a Robinson R22, the kind of chopper I flew today. Yes, it is smaller than my car.

Along with my instructor we took off from Paraparaumu Airport and headed north to Waikanae, where I got some time to get comfortable (sort of) with the controls. Helicopter flight is much more challenging than fixed-wing, I found, with so many different variables. Basically there's 3 axis in flight and in a helicopter all 3 of them require constant attention, while a plane by comparrison just about flies itself.

On return to the airport, I had my first attempt at hovering. This is the most challenging part of helicopter flight, which required me to concentrate harder than I have ever concentrated before. Within moments of taking over the controls in an already established hover, I had thrown the helicopter into a wild 'pendulum', as if god was dangling us from a string! I was all over the place. I was surprised no one called *555 to report a drunk helicopter pilot. My next attempt was a bit better, and I did manage to hold the machine straight and level at about 10 meters off the ground, albeit with a slight forward wander. And then before long, just 40 minutes and 250 dollars later, my flight was over.

While I was in P'ram I caught up with my coast-friends and went to the beach, before heading down to Wellington to get fitted for my groomsman suit. (The toaster, at this stage, was still set to 3 - medium brown.)

In other news, I found out today that I will be moving into an apartment in the city. Went to look at it the other day with a couple of friends from work. We're going to be flatties, and man the place is flash. Spread over three stories it has three bedrooms plus a study, 2 bathrooms, 3 balconies and an outdoor courtyard. It also has one of those kitchens with an island bench. I know! See photos below. Move in date is Feb 9.

One more day off tomorrow, and a mammoth bike ride is planned. A couple of workmates and I are going to conquer the Rimutaka Incline track, again Sharon!

And then theres one more week of work before I have two weeks leave. At this stage planning to have a few days down here then begin the Great Roadtrip of 2008, which really isn't as great an undertaking as the title suggests... Its really just another trip to Auckland , but with the added twist of ending up in Rotorua for the wedding of Mike and Raych on Feb 2.

Been neglecting the blog a bit lately, I was planning to do one of those New Years messages, you know how middle aged people put out their annual Christmas letter... But I don't see much point in doing that now, its 14 days into the new year. Bottom line is 2007 wasn't the best year ever, but it had its moments. I hope for more of 2007's adventure and less of its shit in 2008.

Anyway time waits for no man, thanks for reading and have a great time.

Beggs and Anderson in America - The Movie!

Well, it's finally out. Two months late is better than never, right?

Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you all are having a great day.

Return to Siberia

It was a few nights before Christmas and I was in the last hour of my shift getting ready to go home, when with an almighty rumble came a major earthquake. It even felt big in Wellington - the building was rolling for about two minutes - and it was obvious that it must have been big somewhere. Within seconds, as the earth came to a stop reports started coming in from Gisborne of houses down, gas leaks, fires, and people stuck in elevators. It sure made for a quick last hour of work!

I cycled back to Siberia Bend on the Rimutaka Incline track, this time going a bit further and doing 26km all up. At one stage I hit 32kph acording to the GPS, which is pretty good for me on a mountain bike. Friends are trying to talk me in to doing the ride around Lake Taupo next year - somehow I think I might need a bit more practice first!

The column you can see to the right-of-center used to hold up a bridge over the creek bed, the site of the only major accident during the 77-year operation of the Incline railroad, when a huge gust of wind blew a train off the bridge and into the gully below. It is called siberia for its inhospitable environment, and even on a nice sunny day there is an eerie chill in this gully and in the tunnel leading to it.