Aoraki

The Cloud Piercer, Mt Cook.

Marae

This photo of the marae in Rotorua turned out well. The sky makes me think Papatuanuku is angry.

Zorbing

I went Zorbing.

Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong and me

I'm busy packing my apartment. Does anyone want to buy my car? Someone requested more photos so rather than writing long epics, I'll post a photo and a caption. I'll try to do this more often.

Last week, I was on the North Island. Here's a photo of me and a statue of Richard O'Brien. He wrote The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Hamiltron. I spent two days and thought it was nice. Some call Hamilton the armpit of the Southern Hemisphere, but I'm sure there are much worse places.

In a year of living here, I never visited Auckland. I've been through the airport a couple times. When I told the grad students this, their reply was "Good on you, mate." Auckland is not loved in the South Island.

Grahame Sydney on a Bike

Margee had wanted to bike the Otago Central Rail Trail since before I arrived in Christchurch. We finally biked it on Sunday, February 4th. We rented bikes from Altitude Adventures and hired them to drop us at the Poolburn Gorge. We biked back to Alexandra. The altitude profile of the trail crests in the middle, so it was all down hill for 47 km. We biked to Clyde after and returned on the Clutha River Trail. The ride was a lot of fun and one of the better entertainment values I've found.

We spent Saturday night at a homestay in Alexandra, Marj's Place. It was very nice too. I don't have much to report about the biking, except the weather was sunny and the views breathtaking.

So remember brave Lord Nelson boys, he had never known defeat

And for his reward, they stuck him up in the middle of O'Connell Street - Tommy Makem


I spent January 19th through 21st visiting Nelson. I liked the city a lot. Unfortunately the trip had the feel of that Thursday before going home from summer camp. You upper-middleclass types know what I'm talking about. You know that camp is a lot of fun but you're sort of sick of it. The backpackers I stayed at, Paradiso Backpackers, was swank and crowded. It had a pool, hot tub, and sauna. I didn't avail myself of the facilities though.

I found the exact center of New Zealand as you can see from the first photo. Even more importantly within a kilometer of the center was the site of the first rugby game. I wonder if the correlation in locations is causation? Nelson is close to Abel Tasman National Park, which is one of the smallest and most visited parks in New Zealand. It's known for beaches with hundreds of kayaks parked on them. I didn't visit it, but the surrounding area reminded me of the Oregon coast.

I drove to Takaka with the intent of hiking in Abel Tasman but was side tracked by the Golden Bay A and P Show. It was fun. I saw tug-of-war competitions, horse jumping, and quilts. My best find was Wade who's in the third photo. Who would attached a cross-cut saw to an old two-stroke diesel engine? Do we have the ability to make something dangerous and stupid? A chubber would. Also, if you want to win a prize at a country fair, enter either the jellyroll or silver beet competitions. There were only two competitors for three prizes.

A gem of a national park is Nelson Lakes. I wish that I spent more time than a couple hours hiking around. The last photo is of the park. The Department of Conservation wishes to restore the original ecosystem based on beech sap. Invasive hornets use too much of the sap and native species use other food sources now. I was sorely tempted to rent a kayak and head out.

I've been digging a band I recently heard on KEXP – Bloc Party. I was surprised to see their album at Real Groovy this morning. It looks like you can listen to their whole album on their MySpace page. I like the song "The Prayer" a real lot.

Today is Waitangi Day, the New Zealand Columbus Day. The Wikipedia article is unusually bland.

Tonight make me unstoppable
I will charm, I will slice,
I will dazzle them with my wit
Tonight make me unstoppable
And I will charm, I will slice
I will dazzle I will outshine all

- Chorus to "The Prayer" by Bloc Party

Dark Side of Jade Stadium

I stayed in Christchurch last weekend, but filled it with activities. I played in a beach handball tournament on Saturday, went to the Roger Waters' concert Saturday night, and hiked Mt Vernon on Sunday with Margee.

I'd played European style handball once in Germany, and a bastardized (or betterized?) version was popular in my high school gym class. The gym teacher that would usually run the games was stereotypical. You'd get extra credit if you bled.

My team consisted of novices. It was Kat, Damien, and Philippa. Damien said that his name was not spelled like the antihero's in The Omen, but I don't know how to spell that name any other way. We lost the three round robin games, each in penalty shots. Handball has a retarded rule that if your team wins the first half and the other team wins the second, then you go to penalty shots no matter the total score is. I played goalie. We won our only playoff game and Damien won most valuable player in the novice league.

The Pink Floyd concert was awesome and it was one of my top five concerts I've seen. I don't get out much. Roger Waters was the song writer for Pink Floyd's best albums, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. He went for high production value and his band sounded exactly like the albums. I don't know why I know so many Pink Floyd songs. In high school band, The Wall was a popular movie to watch. I don't own Wish You Were Here anymore and I still knew most of the lyrics to most of the songs. Here's the set as I remember it:

1. In The Flesh (The Wall)
   
2. Mother (The Wall)
   
3. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
   
4. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Part Something) (Wish You Were Here)
   
5. Welcome to the Machine (Wish You Were Here)
   
6. Wish You Were Here (Wish You Were Here)
   
7. 3 or 4 songs from Roger Waters solo career (Who wrote the guitar riffs for Pink Floyd? The solo stuff pales in comparison.)
   
   15 minute break
   
8. Speak to Me/Breath (Dark Side of the Moon)
   
9. On the Run (Dark Side of the Moon)
   
10. Time (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
11. The Great Gig in the Sky (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
12. Money (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
13. Us and Them (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
14. Brain Damage (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
15. Eclipse (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
    Encore
    
16. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) (The Wall)
    
17. Nobody Home (The Wall)
    
18. Vera (The Wall)
    
19. Bring the Boys Back Home (The Wall)
    
20. Comfortably Numb (The Wall)
    

You can see that I was far up in the stands. What you see in the black screen is the video that was playing during the show. The visuals for "Wish You Were Here" were the best. The band stopped "Welcome to the Machine" and a shot of an old radio came up. Hands occasionally fumbled with the knobs throughout the song.

Three things would have made the concert better. First, they didn't play my favorite Pink Floyd song "Fearless." Second, in the second act when they performed songs from Dark Side of the Moon, they should have shown The Wizard of Oz. My neighborhood in Seattle showed outdoor summer movies. (Be careful. The first link is not work safe.) Traditionally, they'd end the season with The Wizard of Oz followed by The Dark Side of Oz. Start Dark Side of the Moon from the third lion roar and the synchronicities are uncanny. When I saw it, they had free beer between the two shows, but you could only drink the beer in the warehouse and not see the screen. You had fifteen to down what you could. Hmmh, maybe I have found the reason for the synchronicities. Three, Dar Williams should have been there to join in on "Comfortably Numb."

The second photo is a shot of central Christchurch from the top of Jade Stadium. I'll finish this entry quoting the lyrics from the second part of the first verse of "Fearless" because I like the song so much.

You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb
The hill in my own way.
Just wait a while for the right day.
And as I rise above the tree-line and the clouds
I look down, hearing the sound of the things you've said today.