Splish splash

This weekend we have Len & Val, Joanne's dad and step-mum, staying with us. It's the first time they've been down to the see the house so it's been very exciting showing them around.

Neither Len nor Val have ever been up to Hanmer Springs so we decided a nice trip up there would be good for a wander round and a dip in the thermal pools.

We drove up to Amberley, which is just short of halfway between here and Hanmer, and stopped at the Nor'Wester Cafe for lunch. It was a recommendation from Gabi at work and none of us were disappointed. The 'windjammer breakfast' was excellent (apart from the sausages being beef not pork, of course!) and everyone else seemed to enjoy their food too.

We continued our drive as and turned inland as the Canterbury Plains gave way to more rugged, barren land. We were all struck by just how dry everything is. This summer has been quite dry but now I see why I hear at work that farmers are bleating on about drought. It's quite amazing to see paddock after paddock of straw-dry grass before suddenly one lush, green, irrigated field flies by.

Did you know that the UK is ranked 51st in the world in terms of national population density with 246 people per square kilometre? In comparison, Nuzziland ranks 203rd with 15 people per sq km. Driving north for an hour and a half today I can believe that. Until we arrived in Hanmer, that is. Where everyone within a one hundred mile radius had congregated. Despite that the thermal pools weren't too busy and we had a very relaxing hour sitting in the water, par-boiling nicely, with the mist over the mountains adding to the ambience. I think I actually nodded off for a while too, which worried Joanne when she came back to find me slumped in the pool, eyes closed and stationary.

A slice of carrot cake and a wander round the town preceeded the drive back home. The sun came out too to give a whole different view on the scenery. I wanted to stop to take a photo of Frog Rock, but there wasn't anywhere to pull over.

In hot water

The definition of caution - driving your boss's car in a hurry with him sat in the passenger seat next to you on roads you've never driven in gale force gusty winds. The drive to Hanmer Springs for this work off-site conference was interesting, I can tell you.

Hanmer is a really nice little village tucked around in the foothills of the Southern Alps, famous for its thermal pools. It’s got a really Alpine feel to it. Maybe it was the chalets, or the pine trees and mountains, I don’t know, but it felt familiar somehow. The sunshine we had for the two days certainly added to its appeal. A strong wind blew for most of the time we were there but it wasn't a problem as we weren't there for recreation, I guess. And the one time we did have some spare time, before dinner last night, the wind dropped so I got to wander around and do the touristy thing with my camera. I didn't have time to visit the thermal pools though, which was a shame. Joanne and I will definitely head up there for a weekend at some point though, so we'll do all that then.

The conference was interesting. I think the main thing to come out of it, for me, was the chance to meet some of the people who work around me in head office and for them to meet me. In the course of the everyday work environment I don’t really have cause to interact with the finance or supply or admin teams so it was good to hang out with some of them a bit.

The theory behind the conference was mainly a thank you for the work the people there had put in over the past year. In addition there was a suggestion it was a strategic conference for us all to discuss company strategy. Given the people that were there it was perhaps inevitable that the outcome of the discussions took a more operational tone. It was probably more beneficial that it did really though. I'm not sure how much strategy, if we'd come up with any, would have been adopted by the management committee. I guess another thing to come out of the conference, for me, was a better understanding of how what each team does all fits together and how it interacts. I also learned that the marketing and sales teams, the two teams I am part of, are not particularly favoured by the rest of the company. Everything seems to be either the fault of the sales team for not selling or the marketing team for not communicating properly, either internally or externally.

The whole time away, as good as it was, could have been better. It was kind of spoiled by my having one of the worst night's sleep ever last night. It rivalled the night in Hull after 6 cans of Wild Brew or the night in southern Spain at Joanne's relatives' for lack of sleep, but this time wasn't self-inflicted. I not sure what caused it, but it wasn't the one and half glasses of wine or the Baileys. It really must have been something I ate, but I spent all night in alternating hot and cold sweats flitting between the bathroom and the bedroom. Not pleasant. And we're out to dinner tonight too. I hope we're not having anything heavy.

It was strange driving back today, arriving at the outskirts of Christchurch and thinking "I'm home." It's the first time I've felt that. It's good to be home though, and to see Joanne. Last night was the first night we've spent apart since we moved here.

Ooh, and changing tack just slightly, Bon Jovi is playing here in January! We are so going.

Japanese macaques

One of Joanne's colleagues, Kirsten, had a birthday last week and to celebrate she booked two holiday homes up in Hanmer and invited loads of people along. We were some of those people. In total I think there were about 16 or so of us between the two houses.

The weekend began on Friday evening with a nice tapas meal in a little cafe place in Hanmer and then continued with a brunch of pancakes on Saturday morning. A couple of hours spent relaxing in the thermal pools followed. There's something quite enjoyable about sitting in warm water with only your head exposed while cold winds blow around you and raindrops splash down onto the pool.

The weather cleared a bit in the afternoon and while Jo went back for a nanna-nap and the others lazed around a bit I decided to take a ride out into the country with my camera to see what I could find. I wish a photo could do justice of the scale of the Nuzziland countryside. I really don't think you can fully understand just how BIG everything is unless you're stood there, soaking it all up. It's just on a different scale. I remember when my dad was here earlier this year and was about to go on his South Island bus tour that I told him about this, that however many postcards you see, or shots on TV or shots in books, unless you're actually there, you cannot understand the sheer hugeness of it all. Once he stood at the foot of Mount Cook and floated along the Sounds he understood. Everytime I head out into the Nuzziland countryside I understand again.

Round every corner was a new photo to take, a new angle, a new way or seeing things lit. But driving along means you're limited to when you can stop. Especially when there is a police car behind you, as I had for a few kms yesterday! But when I could stop I did, and I headed along a few side roads to see what I could find too and got a few interesting photos, I think. I need time to look over them some more to work out if everything's worth keeping.

In the evening yesterday we all headed over to the other house for a big barbecue. It was one of those barbecues where there's way too much food and way too much alcohol. It was all going well until two of the women decided to take a kayak they found in the garage of the house down to the pond at the bottom of the garden. Bear in mind it was around 10-ish at that time. And they'd been drinking since way earlier. How no-one ended up going for a swim I could not tell you.

This morning began with a spot of brunch after cleaning the house up. We all headed into the town to a cafe for some food. I was sorely tempted by eggs benedict but the Highland FLing could my eye in the end. And what a good choice it was. A healthly bowlful of porridge sitting over a rhubarb compote, topped with bananas, brown sugar given the blowtorch treatment and a dollop of cream. That is how to eat porridge.

Next up, while some of the ladies went for a wander round the shops, the rest of us headed to the crazy golf course, or mini-golf as they call it here. The weather today was pretty spectacular and I don't think I've played crazy golf in a more spectacular setting - beautiful blue skies and snow-capped mountains in the background. It even beats that one in Great Yarmouth I played on during the boating holiday with the lads. But unlike Great Yarmouth, I didn't win. I didn't come second or third. I was definitely last. Well and truly last. It was embarrassing. At least I could claim a Holt victory though, supporting my wife's magnificent performance, ignoring the fact that she put me to shame.

Playing catch-up

Isn't it amazing how there is no time to write anything when you're busy? You're either doing something or are too tired after doing something to write about the something you've been doing.

Since I last wrote:

• The summer football league has started. In the three games we've played so far I think we've scored 2 and conceded 25 or more. I told you it was going to be difficult. I don't approve of ungraded football leagues.


• I've figured out I can access the company network from home via my work laptop and our wireless network meaning I can work from home when I need a day of peace and quiet to get on with something particular. It was my boss's idea too!


• I had another meeting to go to in Wellington and yet again didn't get further than the conference room of the golf club across the road from the airport. At least this time our plane took off and circled over the city so that Gabi could point out the sights for me.


• The new Exploring Discipleship course started. It was a great night and all seemed to go well. I was going to say it went smoothly but that would ignore the fact that Ryan was meant to do the talk, was ill and so I had to step in at late notice. Apart from that it all went smoothly. And was very encouraging.


• We had Kirsten who is one of Joanne's workmates over for dinner along with her husband the other Saturday along with Lisa & Steve and Lisa's brother who is in town from Sydney. (Roast pork, roast potato and kumara mix, broccoli & cauliflower cheese followed by chilli chocolate self-saucing pudding and icecream)



• I spent two days (getting back today actually) in Akaroa on a work conference. It was the same head office work conference that we had in Hanmer around the same time last year. It was the first time I've been to Akaroa and the sun's shone so it was good to get a bit of a sense of what everyone raves about. Sure, it's a nice little town (in the middle of an exploded volcano) with some French street names in line with its history but I still don't quite get why everyone thinks it's so amazing. The accommodation was better than sufficient, the conference venue was impressive, and the winery we went to for dinner last night was a lovely little spot.

This weekend we're going to Hanmer for the weekend. Kirsten (see above) has organised a whole group of us to go up there. I'm not sure the weather's going to be spectacular enough to do much outside but even in the rain the idea of relaxing in the thermal pools seems inviting right about now.

Completely out of my comfort zone

Last week I got to travel with work a bit again. Around this time of year, around the country, we organise lots of shareholder meetings where the farmers who are shareholders can come for a feed and a presentation from the CEO and the chairman about how the co-operative is going, what's happening in the global market, how the last year went and plans for going forward. Kind of a state of the union address. It is felt that us in the marketing department at head office (which I kind of am, as well as being kind of not) should go along to one of these shareholder meetings each each year to meet the farmers and see what goes on and stuff. This year I chose Oamaru.


Oamaru is about 3 hours south of Christchurch and is famous, at least in post-European settlement times, for its many heavily-carved and ornate limestone buildings. There's also a penguin colony just near the town but I didn't get time to go and check out the little fellas. I did get an hour or so of tourist-time though and I took the opportunity to head about 25 minutes south on State Highway 1 to see the Moeraki Boulders.

The boulders are mostly spherical, large stone boulders which lie partly submerged along a beach. Totally out of place, there are all sorts of weird and wonderful tales about how they got there. Of course there are the geological explanations but I think I prefer the one told to me by a farmer called Brod a few hours later over dinner at the shareholders meeting. His idea, completely without evidence, is that a Chinese junk, pre-European settlers, was wrecked on the coast at Moeraki and the boulders were the ship's ballast rocks that split into the sea.


The weekend just gone was definitely memorable. Joanne and I along with three other couples from church (Chris & Jacqui, Mark & Hannah and Dan & Katherine) went on a tramping weekend. To clarify, a tramping weekend is a walking weekend, rather than one spent hunting hobos. The plan was to drive about three hours or so north west of Christchurch, past Hanmer where we were last weekend to a little spot called Marble Hill, between Springs Junction and Maruia Springs. We'd then leave the cars and wander off into the woods to a little DOC hut on the edge of Lake Daniells. Which we did.

We were led to believe it was going to be an easy walk in, about 9km, about two or three hours or so, and for the first half this was true. But then it got a bit swampy and progress slowed. Then it got really muddy and progress definitely slowed.


But, after about about two and a half hours and a couple of scroggin stops we arrived at the hut, at the lake. And what a beautiful spot it was. A still lake reflecting the wooded mountains that surrounded it. Words cannot describe it.

I think it was shortly after arriving at the hut, while I sat dangling my feet in the icy cool water below the pontoon, that reality hit home. Here we were, in the middle of the wilderness, in a little wooden hut with no electricity. The closest I came to camping as a kid was spending a night in a tent in Mark or Darren's gardens where we could run indoors if the weather got too inclement. And I've not camped since then really. I am not sure three nights at Reading festival count, especially since we went back to Kate's mum's every morning for a shower and a fry-up. So, the bottom line is that this was all kind of new to me. I was just grateful that the others we were with were a lot more seasoned than me, the tramping virgin.

They took care of the food, knocking up a really substantial meal of couscous with salami, mushrooms and rehydrated veg in a tomato sauce over the little gas burners they'd taken along. These huts, you see, and the one we stayed in was supposedly a nice new one, don't have anything really. There are bunks, cold running water and a roof. And that's pretty much it. You take everything you need in, and everything you need back out again. Some people do four or five day tramps walking from hut to hut to hut, carrying all their food and clothing for five days with them. So one night in the comparative luxury of the Lake Daniells hut was nothing really. But it didn't feel like it to me. It was meant to be quite a popular track and hut, quite busy most weekends we'd heard, but we had the place to ourselves. Perhaps it was because it was election weekend. It was just so peaceful. The lake was so still and so inviting, but so cold following the unseasonal snowfall last week. I definitely wasn't brave enough to join Dan and Chris in the lake, fishing, up to their waists. Especially after I'd seen a gigantic eel swim on by.

And almost as soon as it began it was over. We woke Sunday morning, had a bit of brekkie, packed up, cleaned the hut of what mess we'd made, and headed back to the cars. A whole weekend in the bush and I only got bitten once by sandflies. Maybe there is something in the marmite myth after all.

On the way back to town we tret outselves. We stopped at Maruia Springs and had a good long soak in the thermal pools. Just what was needed. Even if the 'medicinal' black algae floating in the water looked like a cross between Harry Potter's dementers and the Nazgul. There truly is nothing like sitting neck-deep in a hot natural spring, surrounded by tree-covered misty mountains. I most heartily recommend it.

All in all, the weekend was brilliant. We got to know the others a whole lot better, in beautiful surroundings, and it's not a bad thing to be pushed beyond your comfort zone once in a while.

Shocker

I am having trouble comprehending the fact that there are no moles in New Zealand. Joanne broke this to me the other evening. It just seems a strange concept, not having moles. She'll be telling me there are no squirrels here either next.

Have I really not written since Sunday? It really has just been one of those weeks, I guess. Just non-stop. And when I have had a spare five minutes to relax I've just been exhausted.

On Monday we had someone come round to discuss wills and powers of attorney. Cheery stuff. Then I had a run around in the park playing touch. Let's just say last week's bright start was beginner's luck. Tuesday we had bible study group round at Lisa and Steve's. Wednesday was a quieter evening, but I was shattered so just crashed. And then last night was 5-a-side again (we won 12-3, but the team were a bunch of novices who it seemed had done little more than kick a hackysack round in the park) after climbing up a ladder to put empty suitcases in the loft.

Joanne's been busy though. Most of the crates we bought at the weekend are now filled and we're down to our last ten boxes or so. This weekend we're probably going to head off to the refuse centre at some point to dispose of all empty boxes and used packing materials. She's done a great job. I just hope she remembers where she's put everything!

We've got a three day weekend this weekend, which is nice. Monday is Labour Day, a day that celebrates the event of the eight-hour working day. It's just a shame that hasn't filtered down to the place I work, eh? Although, to be fair, my boss does insist we get away from the computer at lunchtime and insists we take morning and afternoon tea breaks. I do wonder whether that's for our own good, or to aid our productivity levels though. Speaking of work, and my boss, my appraisal didn't end up happening yesterday. There's some secretive company business stuff going on that needed urgent analysis doing. I got involved, my boss was involved and so we postponed. No return date has been set up yet though. On the plus side, the longer we leave it, the more we'll have to appraise.

We've no real plans for the weekend really. We'd hoped to get away, at least for a day, but with my gym induction tomorrow, trips to the refuse centre and shopping for book shelves, the walk-in wardrobe being fitted, the rugby final and church on Sunday and potentially kayaking with a guy Rick from church and footy on Monday there doesn't leave a lot of time for days out. Plus I've a few boxes with my name on them that need emptying to prevent me ending up in the dog house.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday we have an off-site office conference. Supposedly where we're going, Hanmer Springs (described as an alpine thermal holiday resort), is pretty idyllic. Why are conferences, when you spend hours inside rooms being talked at, always held in idyllic places. I remember the Cocoa one last October. The place was gorgeous. Not that we got to enjoy anything other than the inside of the Chiltern Suite though.

Winter wonderland

In the words of Hubert J. Farnsworth - good news, everyone! 88cm of snow fell at Mt Hutt today which will be great for next week. Not sure if I mentioned but Jason is arriving here for a few days on Saturday (on the way back home after almost a year in Chile doing missionary stuff) and Monday and Tuesday next week we plan to take him skiing, reliving the Bulgarian snow adventure we shared back in early 2007. The bad news is that unless the weather clears a bit and they have time to perform what they call 'extensive work' on the mountain it is unlikely to be open by Monday. Fingers crossed, eh?

I just got back this evening from Hanmer where I've been for a work meeting. it was pretty full-on really but it is so nice up there, and it's good to get away from the desk for a while. Last night before dinner we had time to head to the hot springs too. There really is nothing like lazing back in an outdoor hot pool at night when it's cold out. So exhilerating. It brought back happy memories of all those February half-terms at Center Parcs we had growing up.