Okay so tonight I am back in Palmerston North. A whole day earlier then planned but I should be able to get more work done up here then in Wellington.

I came back up to Palmerston North with two other friends and because the weather was good; we decided to go over the Rimutakas and through the Manuwatu Gorge (see yesterday’s blog for other comments).

Looking South from the top of the Rimutaka Road

A zoomed shot looking south.

Brad on the top of the Rimutaka Hill looking to the north.

Brad back in the car before driving off. Looking sideways at friend who is taking a photo of him drinking water. How odd.

Snow, glorious snow on the top of the Rimutakas.

The wind turbines (Tarauras) as seen from Woodville.

The amazing Manuwatu Gorge.

Check out these two photos from the Mount Ruapehu website.

They are chairlifts buried in nearly four meters of snow. It is just nuts! I am hoping to go skiing again on the trip back up to Auckland.

Well today has been a very long day.

I left Wanganui at 10am with the plan to be in Wellington a little after 1.30pm.

Normally it takes a little over two hours to get to Wellington from Wanganui but because I had the day spare I decided to head through the Manuwatu Gorge and Rimutakas for the fun of it.

My new GPS unit had a fun time trying to workout how to drive through the Gorge. It was determined to get me to drive to Palmerston North first, even though I had been told to go through Fielding, Bunnythorpe, and Ashurst. Normally when you go off the course it has plotted for you it just finds a new route. But not this time. It was determined that I turn around and go back to its planned route. When I didn’t it did everything possible to get me to drive through Palmerston North including just before the Gorge telling me to turn right and drive to Palmy.

The Gorge was abosolutely amazing to drive through. I would have loved for someone else to be with me to take photos. I will definately have to come back in summer with someone. Once through the Gorge I headed to Woodville and down State Highway Two to Mangatainoka where the Tui Brewary is located.

At around 12.30pm I stopped for lunch at Mc Donalds in Masterton. I got quite annoyed at the wait for a cheeseburger - it took twenty five minutes to be served.

Jumping back onto the road I headed south and through the Rimutakas. Again that was great fun - but I wished that I had someone else to take some photos. Although, it was slightly frustrating being stuck behind a slow moving car and then a truck.

Coming into Wellington I headed through Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt. If I was to ever move to Wellington I would live there. It looked like quite a nice place to live - particularly Lower Hutt.

I eventually arrived in Wellington a little before 3.30pm. Yes it had taken more then 5 hours for a trip that should have taken a little over 3. That was primarily due to Mc Donalds being useless, stopping briefly at the beer factory, and slow cars on the road with little room for passing.

Stayed tuned for the journey back on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday…

Okay. So I did manage to get up at 4am and get on the road by 4.20am.

Admittedly it was a struggle to stay awake until some light appeared at 6am, and the torrential rain heading south was not much fun. But it lifted around 2 hours into the trip.

I got to National Park village at 8.45am. This was a little later then I hoped for but I had to travel slow through the rain and play it safe. The really freaky thing was the snow on the road at National Park. The following photo is taken heading to Ruapheu just a little after National Park. Note: This photo is of a state highway. NOT the mountain road.

Once I got to Wakapapa Village I had chains fitted to my car.

As you can see from the following photo they were certainly needed:

On the chains I had to travel up the mountain at 30kmh max. This meant that the trip to the Top of the Bruce took close to an hour. I managed to get my tickets and gear at 9.40am, and got onto the snow at 10am, a whole hour after I had planned.

Because the weather was bad the upper mountain facilities were closed. Therefore I decided to get an intermediate lesson. I was fortunate enough to be the only one interested in this lesson so ended up with an hour of private tuition!

The lesson lasted until 11am, when they closed all but the Happy Valley beginners area of the mountain.

The amount of snow on the area (Rockgarden) where the lesson was had was amazing. The snow was so thick that it was a stuggle to see where the slopes and paths were and where the rest of the mountain was. However, this didn’t matter too much as there is a 3m snow base! The depth of snow was so impressive that on some slopes you sunk about ankle deep in fresh snow despite being on skis.

The weather was terrible on the day. But that didn’t matter too much. I have been in worse tramping. It was around -2, 50kmh wind or so (so very very cold wind chill at least -10), and visibility at 50 - 100m.

My car at the end of the day. Frozen.

My car was very nice and warm. Not.

Brad after a day on the mountain. My new goggles and overpants rocked.

Yes there is a building under all that snow.

Coming down the mountain there it was almost torrential snow. Quite fun. But a little scary at the same time. Especially as my chains had been taken off when this shot was taken. Look at the snow on top of the jeep in front.

After the day I stayed at Miro Lodge in Ohakune. Which was alright. I was a little disappointed not to wake to snow in Ohakune in the morning. And next time I would love to take someone else. You get bored by yourself after a while.

Okay the weather is packing in for the weekend so if I want to go skiing I must do it tomorrow.

That means a 4am start to my day.

It is currently 9.15pm and I still have to complete packing, take a shower, load the car, and go to bed. So long Auckland, the Internet, and work for at least the next week and a half. I don’t even have a date that I will be back. It is so great!

http://tvnz.co.nz/content/1580637

The link above is to the TVNZ Olympics Message Board.

But unless you want to be disgusted at the attitude of the majority of posters I wouldn’t recommend clicking on the link.

TVNZ is doing an amazing job covering the Olympics. They have four channels of coverage (TV One, Freeview Ch20 and two online channels).

But despite all this people are still complaining. I personally enjoyed the NZ vs Brazil soccer game which was aired on TV One (the main NZ channel).

New Zealanders need to get a grip and be thankful for how much coverage they are getting for free.

TVNZ surely paid top dollar to get the coverage, Sky TV would have been surely trying hard to out bid them.

Imagine the Olympics on Sky. a) Not everyone could get it - Sky costs, TVNZ is free. b) Unless you paid more it would not be in High Def. c) You would not have four channels of coverage - three channels at the absolute max. d) You would still have ads - like the live Formula 1. e) People would still complain.

http://www.makeitfly.co.nz/default.aspx

Make it fly was designed with one thing in mind… to put your creative tendencies to the test, to push them like they’ve never been pushed before, to answer the age old question … how far can I make a aluminium drinking can fly? You’re limited only by your imagination and a budget of 20 bucks.

This competition is the sort of thing that makes me wish I was still at school… It is so cool… They should extend it to the general population as well.

I’m sure with $20 you could make a pretty good plane.

I am thinking… 20 - 30 cans (you can get an 18 pack for around $10), all cut to form a large biplane that is held together by duct/cloth tape and toothpicks. That is my pick for how you could design a decent flying machine.

I am a bit late in blogging this because I was away. But these were the conditions that I had to contend with when heading to the airport last Wednesday morning as a second large storm hit.

A bridge on SH17 between the Albany township and the Albany Tavern was underwater earlier today but reopened by 6.20am.

All lanes of Oteha Valley Road were flooded on the eastern side of the motorway but the road was passable, police said.