I have now been in Sydney for 11 days and every night I have planned to blog about the first few days here and every day I have been too tired or too busy. Tonight I am in the too tired camp but have decided to force myself to give an update and get over and done with it.

I arrived in Sydney two Saturdays ago at 8.30 in the morning, after leaving Auckland at 7am (which meant a 3am get up time for the flight). We arrived into Sydney at the same time as about 10 other flights which meant it was chaos trying to get our bags and get through customs. In the end it took close to an hour and a half to get out and into the rental car hire queue. The rental car I got was a 2009 Toyota Corolla and by far the smoothest and nicest car I have ever driven.

The first few days in Sydney were spent getting my new flat/apartment set up. It is amazing how much money you can spend in just getting the basics – like food, cooking equipment, and basic furniture. In between all this chaos I also managed to do a few things that got me to see a bit of my new home these included:

• Going to Opera in the Domain with a friend who I had not seen in 9 years.
• Going to Hillsong Church
• Going to Penrith – driving at a speed limit of 110kmh is a new experience.

The second part of my first week here was spent sorting out things like insurance and the like. The most interesting part of this was sorting out Medicare where I had to make a signed legal declaration that I had moved from NZ for good and was living in Australia for the next few years – the guy at the office didn’t seem to believe me even though I had all my uni forms with me! Thought I was some crazy kid on holiday. I also managed to get a cellphone and internet set up. After terrible customer service from Optus I went to Vodafone who set me up with this awesome mobile broadband USB stick which is faster than my old wired broadband in NZ. Although a much smaller data cap so I have to take care about how much data I use.

My second weekend in Sydney was spent having fun in the rain as some of the heaviest rainfall in years hit the city. On Saturday I went out to Bondi Junction shopping mall. Bondi Junction is massive. Imagine the Albany Mall and times it by 2 just for the ground floor, and then make it seven stories high. There is something like 450 shops in the mall. And you know what. I walked through the entire mall and only went into 2 of them! They were nearly all clothes shops – the last thing I need when I am trying to get set up for uni on a budget. On the Sunday I decided to look through town and found this most amazing hobby store in the QVB mall called Hobbyco.

Monday and today was spent at Uni. There is nothing that exciting to report here about my course – Mostly what I was expecting with a few minor hiccups around enrolment. What is amazing though is the size of the campus. Having come from Massey Albany with only around 6000 – 7000 students it is so weird to be on campus with close to 50,000. There is a sign at the front gate that welcomes the 9,000 new first year students! Almost twice the numbers of the entire Massey Albany campus.

The one thing that I will get sick of very quickly, and already am, is having to catch the bus to campus. I have not had to use public transport in years and while the Sydney transport network is far better than Auckland – I love the underground trains, the buses remain as noisy, as crowded, as bumpy, as slow, and as annoying as ever. Given that I have no plans, or money for a car for around a year I guess it is something that I am going to get used to – I just wish there was a train to campus rather than a bus!

P.S. I may have used to complain about the humidity during summer in Auckland but it is nothing compared to heat here. Last night was 25c overnight it makes it so hard to sleep!

I have now been flatting by myself for a week. It is an interesting experience. So far I am enjoying most of it. The room/flat that I am in is probably close to half the size of my entire old flat that had 3 people living in it. It is so nice to be able to move around!

The one major downside to flatting by yourself though is you are the only one to blame for any mess! It particular I keep on getting grumpy that the toilet seat has been left up and that dishes have been left in the sink. I want someone to blame. I am in denial that I am the cause of the mess. But I can’t escape it. So I get grumpy at myself. It is weird. I swear I am going to create a sign on the toilet that says make sure the seat is put down after use or else… I will just have to work out what the punishment for the or else is… I wonder if the clean me can win over the lazy me.

Good news:

I have arrived in Sydney and getting set up before starting university next week.

After four days of being in the 90s (aka the stone age) I now have a mobile phone and mobile broadband internet – it is quick too:

I have many photos to sort through and put online at some point as well as that a much larger blog to write detailing the first few days of my new life. In the meantime I will leave you to wonder how I managed to drive 600km in a rental car in 3 days without leaving Sydney.

I have been asking this question myself over the last few days and had quite an interesting discussion with a true friend yesterday about it.

Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Live Journal and others have given us these great tools to keep in touch with people – often long lost friends from school and others who are on other sides of the planet. However, as all of these sites proudly boast lists of friends and in particular the number of friends that each person has a silent competition has formed for who can amass the greatest number of social network friends amongst their peers. Or this competition existed at least until about early 2009 when the opposite competition became the game, that is to remove or defriend as many people on your contact list as possible. I know people who have removed over 500 people.

All of this adding and removing of friends in the virtual environment appears to have weakened the true meaning of friendship in real life. Now instead of building relationships and friendships with people through social interaction and communication we are typically bumping into people and then adding them as a friend on a social networking site and getting to know them that way. This is all very good if you are some sort of paedophile but for most normal people it is very unsatisfying. This is probably a primary reason why once the initial fad of adding as many random people as possible had worn off as the reality of having a whole lot of strangers knowing your intimate details and stalking your photos became a very good reason to participate in defriending as many people as possible.

But from my own experience this natural selection process of stabilising the behaviour of most people in online social networking has also crossed into the real world and now people who are considered close, good, trusted and loyal friends are participating in the behaviour of defriending true real life friends just because they can, completely not aware of the physiological or emotional difference that comes with it.

I have just gone through, and I guess that because I am writing this, I am still going through the process of someone trying to do this exact process to me, the only thing is it is a whole lot harder to do in real life than a virtual environment. Until early December my best friend was someone I had known for six years and over the past few years had become someone whom I have shared a number of good life experiences with – tramping, skiing, and the like.

However, in early December their new partner (whom I have never met) decided that they did not like me because of my sex and the color of my skin – yes racism is alive and well in New Zealand and it is not your stereotypical situation either. Because of this my [former] best friend decided to defriend me in real life – that is to completely block me in the virtual world from social networking, instant messaging, email and the like. But also in the real world including (and I am not making this up) having someone who I do not know try to lay a complaint that I was harassing them – a brilliant attempt at character fraud and defamation (too bad the person handling the complaint saw straight through it). So far I have not responded to the bait for a good old fashioned grudge war – I guess this blog may be the initial punch.

The thing that really gets me about this whole situation though is how silly it is. But on a higher level just how much the concepts of friendship have been altered and blurred through the use of the online world. Maybe the defining moment of the last decade is not terrorism but how social networking has weakened the true meaning of friendship.

It is amazing how fast a year, and then a decade goes by. I have spent almost half my life in the noughties and the events of the decade both locally and abroad will forever change me.

2000 of course was the start of the new millennium and despite it being 10 years ago I still remember the New Years celebrations well. In Auckland it was pouring with rain the entire night of New Years Eve there was fireworks launched off Sky Tower, the Harbour Bridge, boats in the harbour and a number of other buildings in the central city. Unfortunately, the rain did extremely well at ruining the party and all you saw was glowing clouds but no fireworks. However, early the next morning my family went out to Okahu Bay to see the first dawn of the new century. The rain clouds cleared just in time for an amazing sunrise shared with thousands of other Aucklanders. 2000 was also the year that I started high school.

2001 will for a long time be remembered as the year that the entire world changed. The terrorist attacks on America changed the world and no longer could you trust anybody as being the person they said they were. I remember waking on the morning of September 12 2001 to my mom’s radio running the news this was not unusual except it was 5.30 in the morning and not 7. Furthermore the news was turned up loud talking about attacks on America. As I lay in my bed I thought world war three had broken out. 2001 was also the year that I hurt my cartilage in my knee mucking about at school, an injury that still mucks with me today.

2002 must have been a pretty boring year as I cannot remember much from it. I believe this was the first year that I tramped to the Pinnacles but I am not sure on this.

2003 was the year that I started maturing from a kid to an adult. On April 27 I was baptised beneath Hunua Falls. I late May I started working at my first part time job as a checkout operator at the local supermarket.

2004 started fantastically well when I tramped to the top of Mt Ruapehu. It remains the best thing I have ever done in my life. 2004 was also my final year at high school.

If 2003 was the start of maturing to an adult then 2005 was the coming of age year. I started university and started to independently set my own direction in life. I also tramped the Tongariro Crossing for first time in complete white out and terrible weather conditions. An experience that still haunts me to this day.

2006 was the year that I moved out of home; it was also the start of my involvement in student politics. Other than that I can’t remember much else of what happened.

2007 saw me serve as the Vice-President of the students’ association, it was also the final year of my undergraduate degree at uni.

In 2008 I served as president of the students’ association. It was a good experience and allowed me to gain a lot of life experience.

2009 can be summed up in three words: first class honours.

2009 has been a very odd year for me, a year of many highs and extreme lows. Of trials and triumph, of hurt and pain, of joy and euphoria, of sorrow and misery, and of anticipation and expectation. And while the fifty words I have written as an introduction may be nothing more than cliché they compactly summarise my feelings at the end of one of the most dramatic years of my short life.

My year started in January (as all years do in the Gregorian calendar); at the time I was exhausted after a year of intense stress serving as President of the Students’ Association at University. The experience of student politics had left me very bitter and in a way messed up. I was in a state where I wanted to be left alone to my own devices and at the time I was actively working to avoid people and block out the year before. I managed to find some space and time to myself in the middle of Parachute music festival in late January. It is ironic that I can find solace in the middle of 30,000 people but sometimes being around people but not knowing people can be a good form of rehabilitation.

February was a much more exciting month. I spent a number of afternoons and evenings perched on the top of North Head watching America’s Cup Class yachts race in the Auckland Harbour for the first time in more than five years. Later in the month I left NZ for the first time in my life to spend two days holidaying in Melbourne. While I was over there I set myself a goal of moving to Australia to study in 2010 (a goal that I am pleased to have achieved). However, February was also the start of an intense drama in my life that carried on as a drawn out and ridiculous soap opera until mid December. For the last two years I have been going out with on and off with Malaysian Girl. However, I was not comfortable with this and after picking Malaysian Girl up from Auckland Airport at 5am one morning after flying back from holiday I explained that I was sick of the games and I wanted things to either be going out or not going out. Unfortunately for me I was not firm enough and the games continued for another 11 months.

The memories of March, April, and May are all lost in a blur. In March I started my honours degree and for the semester I put my head down and didn’t lift it to breathe again until June.

June will be remembered most for the marks that I achieved on my first semester papers. Although I have always been relatively smart and typically get good grades I have never been a straight A student, however, this changed in June when my marks for my first semester came back with 2 A+ and 1 A grade. To celebrate I went skiing at my happy place, Mt Ruapehu. The first day of skiing was in typical Whakapapa misty shit, but the second day was a beautiful bluebird day on the slopes of Turoa after 10cm of overnight snow fell.

July saw university restart for Semester Two and the rest is a blur.

August was the beginning of the end for any friendship or future with Malaysian Girl. As mentioned I was not firm enough with stopping the game playing back in February and by August it got to the ridiculous situation where I was being played off against someone else of closer ethnicity. I didn’t have a hope and within two weeks of being told that Chinese Boy was on the radar I was flicked off like an ant that tried to follow the wrong pheromone trail for far too long. This left me in a state of intense distress and the pain of how I was treated by someone who I really cared about still leaves a bitter aftertaste even now. August also saw a nice weekend away in Christchurch skiing at Porters Ski Area where I rocketed down a 400m vertical double black diamond run, not once, but twice, it is an awesome way to get the adrenaline pumping and one of the absolute highlights of my year.

In comparison to the hell of August, September was like being in another world. Early in the month I was successful in being awarded a travel grant to fly to Sydney to visit University New South Wales (UNSW). Having spent the last five years studying at the awesome but tiny Albany campus of Massey University the experience was eye opening. I also began an ill-fated relationship with West Auckland Girl.

October was a month where the hell of August began to set back in. As the end of the semester and exams drew near I began to have nasty panic attacks (something I have been fighting for two years). In an urgent bid to get my head back I decided at 2am one morning to drive to my happy place, Mt Ruapehu for a day of skiing, this was great until a) I hurt my leg and b) four days later the panic attacks were back with a vengeance. October also opened my eyes to just how bad an employer can treat a staff member and after my workplace fired a staff member and close friend on the basis of unsubstantiated and circumstantial claims shit really hit the fan. On the morning before one of my final exams I had a massive panic attack which spelt the end of my part time work, but fortunately for me I somehow aced the test.

If there was one month that was a bellweather indicator of the rest of the year it would be November. The main stress of the month was getting my thesis complete and handed in on time. No easy task when your supervisor is on the other side of the world and because of all the dramas of August and October in particular there had been little progress on it since July. In the midst of the stress was the ending of my relationship with West Auckland Girl – the second breakup in 4 months, and when I have had less than 5 serious relationships in my life it was quite a blow. However, the good thing to come from the month was starting to play summer Hockey. I am completely useless at team sports – especially ones that involve hand and eye coordination so I was stoked to score a goal in my second ever game (and since then have only scored one more).

The final month of the year, December was by far the best, all because of a few simple words: “first class honours” and “full PhD scholarship”. Despite all the trials, challenges, pain, and torment the year had thrown at me I had made it through with a few battle scars and a massive piece of treasure at the end. In hindsight there are things that I would have done differently, there are still many things that I am very bitter about, and there are things that I am sorry about, however, in saying that you cannot celebrate the good times until you have first felt the pain and suffering of the bad times. Now the question is what does the new start in life hold?

The last eight days have been simply amazing. For most of the past year my life has been like a giant jigsaw puzzle. A whole lot of pieces messed up, some missing, and some from the wrong puzzle set. But this week they have all slotted together perfectly and the result is simply awesome.

As I blogged a week ago I achieved first class honours for my honours degree. This was the centre piece to my future. I had applied for PhD programmes at Massey University, Monash University, and The University of New South Wales, however first class honours is the prerequisite into all three universities.

The next piece of the jigsaw was non conditional acceptance into the PhD programme I had applied for at The University of New South Wales – I got this on Tuesday. This left me with acceptance into the programme I wanted to do but no funding to actually do it.

For funding I had applied for the relevant PhD scholarships at all three universities. I was not expecting to hear back from any of them on the results of these scholarships until Monday next week. However, to my surprise around midday on Friday I got an email informing me that I had been awarded a scholarship for Monash. This was great news, although Monash has been my backup plan to UNSW, at least going into the weekend I would be calm that no matter what my future had been secured for the next three years.

Then even better news came at 6.45pm on Friday night. I got an email informing me I had been awarded the Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship and an Engineering Research Award scholarship at UNSW. This is exactly what I wanted and will allow me to complete PhD at UNSW, Sydney. The total combined value of these two scholarships over the next three years is in excess of $110,000 NZD. And is the best Christmas present anyone could get. It is as close to winning lotto as I will probably ever get – (especially as I don’t pay as the stats say it isn’t worth it!).

To make the week that much better I started a new job on Monday which runs until the end of January. I am working as a Web Monkey (yes that is the job title) for Mighty Ape – if you need Christmas gifts avoid the malls and shop online.

I am so stoked with the way that all of this has fallen into place. The last year has been incredibly tough on so many levels but to finally see the rewards at the end of it is such an awesome feeling. I have a new jigsaw to sort out now – planning and moving to Sydney in less than 7 weeks, but I am now sure that jigsaw will fall into place a lot more smoothly.

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Psalm 103:1 NKJV

And if you read this expecting a blog about a real jigsaw puzzle check this out: Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzle: Bombardment of Algier (9000 pc)

It is currently 1am as I write this and unless I am sleep blogging I am still up.

There are two reasons for this. The first is my desktop system is currently trying to work through the process of building Google Chrome OS from source – I will blog on that when it is complete. The second is my mind going nuts about what the future holds.

I have yet to really blog in detail about the last few months of my uni career as I am yet to receive my official results so I do not know if I should rejoice or cry. However, I feel like I am at a major turning point in my life.

At the start of this year, after visiting Melbourne, I set myself a goal of getting a PhD Scholarship for next year. Throughout this year I have worked towards that goal my working my hardest and producing some of the best assignments and research I can possibly deliver. I have had much pain through this process mainly through stress and anxiety which have both at times felt overwhelming.

Now I am at the point where five days ago I handed in my thesis and now I am in limbo for the next two weeks awaiting the marks of this and three other papers. While I have hopes and expectations of good grades the wait is agonisingly painful for someone who always wants to know now what the outcomes are. And that brings me back to PhD scholarships in three weeks from now I will know if and where I will be studying next year – Auckland, Melbourne, or Sydney.

If I am successful in getting either of the two Australian based scholarships it is more than likely that in ten weeks from now I will be living in a different city, in a different country, without any family or friends immediately around me to support me. It is a scary prospect. On one hand it is a very exciting opportunity for growth and development. On the other it is the point at which you realise you are no longer that kid who always wants to grow up and see the world, instead you realise that the world is a very different and somewhat scary place from what you imagined.

One of the scariest things about growing up is money. As a kid my parents always told me that money doesn’t grow on trees. But somehow I never quite believed them. Throughout my undergraduate years at uni I was never a rich student, however, I was never poor enough or dumb enough to drive myself financially into the ground either – although I did come close on a number of occasions. Now having just finished my honours degree and looking out on this exciting and rewarding opportunity ahead money is suddenly a huge issue again. Most importantly where do I get the few thousand dollars from that I require to move country? It does not cost a lot to move across the ditch, however, it does cost more than I currently have and with no fixed job it makes for an interesting scenario.

The next ten weeks are going to be interesting. Normally I look forward to the summer holidays – as a chance to relax from uni, get out and enjoy the sun, and spend time with friends. However, this summer is looking very different, it is a summer that I would rather just hurry up and finish, I have a burning passion and desire to reach that goal that I had at the start of this year. The outcome of this goal is now out of my hands as I await the results of my efforts but inside I am in turmoil I want to know, I need to know, can someone please let me know!

I need something to get my mind off things, a distraction that does not cost money, but is enough to get my mind focussed on other matters. Anyone got any ideas?

To: s.joyce@ministers.govt.nz
Date: Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 8:52 AM
Subject: Benzodiazepine Ban

Dear Hon Steven Joyce,

I am outraged at the news this morning that the Government last night rushed through a ban on Benzodiazepine while driving without any public consultation.

I have been using Lorazepam for the past two years to control an anxiety/panic disorder which is primary associated with flying. For instance in August I flew to Christchurch to go skiing. I flew out of Auckland at just after 6am and landed in Christchurch around 8am before hiring a car and driving an hour to the ski area. Under this new law I would be unable to drive because I would still be under the influence of the Benzodiazepine.

This is where the law fails and the lack of public consultation shines through. I would suspect very few users of prescription Benzodizepines would be silly enough to take the medicine and then immediately drive. In fact the label on my container of it clearly states that it may cause sleepiness, to limit driving and the operation of heavy machinery, and to limit alcohol. The reality of this medicine, however, is that it takes a long time to wear completely off. While I would never drive within two hours of taking it, any time beyond that I would consider myself safe to drive provided I took the same precautions as when you have taken any other medicine (cold/flu tablets, anti-depressants, pain killers) or any other issue is affecting your ability to think straight (for instance an emotional crises).

It makes me very angry and annoyed that the Government has passed this law without weighing up all the facts. As the Act party as highlighted “an ESR study of deceased drivers from July 1 2004-June 30 2008 showed that only 22 of the 826 drivers deceased during this period had benzodiazepines in their bloodstream, and of those less than one percent had benzodiazepines alone.” What the government has done is turn ordinary New Zealanders who rely on this medication to manage a major but controllable problem in their lives into criminals.

It should be noted that one of the reasons the previous administration was voted out of office was the failure to listen to the public over issues. It became arrogant and instead of listening to the people as a democracy it appeared to be acting more like a dictatorship. I hope that this new government does not head down the same path.

I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,
Bradford Heap

Albany,
Auckland,
New Zealand

I have safely arrived in Sydney for my visit to UNSW tomorrow.

Flight over was good, the plane before us was cancelled so we ended up with a 747 to take us over because of all the people.

Despite a few bumps leaving a very stormy Auckland everything went smoothly.

And even better I have free internet in my hotel room.

Getting up at 5.45am was a lot easier than 3.15am, the extra two and a half hours of night time really helps. I left my cousins place just after six in the morning to head back to the snow. The first mission of the day was to remove the ice that had formed on my car, my uncle hosed it off but while I was loading my gear into the car it refroze so it had to be hosed off a second time.

The trip up the Paraparas was good. At one point I come around a corner and ran over what I thought was a paper cup, only a little while further up the road I came around across another paper cup, only thing was this one was flat, and had guts sticking out, it turns out I hit a Hedgehog. I will add that to my road kill tally.

I was expecting the Paraparas to be quite icy however lucky for me they were not bad. Only on final corner close to Raetihi where as I approached I could see a lot of glare coming back off the road, I slowed down and took the corner very carefully and I was glad that I did it was covered in Ice. I managed to drive the Paraparas in a little over an hour and twenty minutes, I have figured if you drive it in the dark it is a whole lot less scary because you can’t see the steep drops on the edges of the road.

Once I got to Raetihi I got my first glimpse of the mountain and it was stunning. The road from Raetihi to Ohakune and then up the mountain was very icy but I took my time. Only once did I get myself in a spot of bother and that was around half way up the Ohakune Mountain Road where the car in front of me went around a corner and cut across into the oncoming lane before sliding slightly across the road back into their lane on ice. I thought to myself okay take care and don’t do the same thing, the very next second I did the same thing (lucky there was no oncoming traffic), it really tested your reactions to it.

I got to the top of the Mountain around 8am and headed off to get my rental equipment. There I asked for some good skis to do some nice carving both on trail and off, I said I didn’t want to go fast, that I wanted to go to the top of the High Noon Express and safely make it down without coming off. The girl on rental was really nice and gave me some sweet as Fischer Skis, instead of being narrow at the front to give you speed they are really wide so that you have more control. They were absolutely awesome to ski on.

Once I got outside I joined the queue to head up the Movenpick Chair which opened at 8.30am. It is by far the longest chairlift that I have ever been on, up and down, and through valleys and up some more, it took around 15 minutes for the ride but took you ages up the mountain (in some ways better than Whakapapa’s two shorter chairs where you have to get off and then back on).

At the top of the Movenpick I went to the base of the High Noon Express but they were still de-icing it, so instead of waiting like others were I headed down for my first run of the day down the aptly named “boneyard” to the base of the Giant Chair, back up to the top of that and then back down to the High Noon Express just as it opened, I managed to be one of the first people to the top of the mountain for the day.

The High Noon Express is an amazing chair, in places the towers are 60m high, it carries 6 people on each chair, loading is done by riding onto a magic carpet the puts you into a perfect position to get on, it has padded seats, and foot rests and goes so fast. The really bad downside is the queues (see previous blog).

Coming down the runs off the Highnoon I headed to the giant cafe for my morning hot chocolate and packet of hot chips. After that I did two runs down the terrain park before deciding I didn’t yet have enough confidence to go very high off the jumps (one time I slowed down so much I almost didn’t make it to the top of the jump). So instead I went back to the top of the High Noon and then ventured out west, the first time coming down a run near the unused T-Bar, and the second going off-trail even further west into the Backcountry area.

The snow in the backcountry was awesome, knee deep in places and just so much fun, as well as challenging. I was really glad that I had done a private lesson last year on Whakapapa so I knew how to turn in the deep stuff and not get myself stuck, hurt, or off the skis. In places you still had to dodge rocks and ice but that comes with the territory, I was also quite lucky that I kept my wits about me and figured out the perfect time to cut back across to the ski area right at the base of the Giant chair so no worrying about having to spend ages walking back up hill.

After all that fun I decided to head off to Snowflake Cafe for lunch, bad idea. It was only ten past twelve but the place was already packed, I had to wait 25 minutes just for a packet of hot chips, but the one really good thing there was the cheese burgers. At $9.50 they were on the expensive side however they had a beef paddy that was close to an inch thick and tasted great.

After lunch I gave myself the biggest challenge of the day going down Hamilton’s run out East, it goes around the top of a frozen waterfall and then down the side of a steep valley. Very much black diamond, no groomed trails here, no markers either, only signs saying margin snow conditions take care.

My route down the Frozen Waterfall is in black

The run down was indeed a challenge but a very fun challenge, in the end I made it down safely and like out west the snow was awesome, however this time I did have to hike out of the bottom of the valley and even though it only took five minutes it was still so exhausting that I decided not to do it again and go back out west where I knew I could make it back without walking. After a few more runs I headed back to the Giant cafe for another hot chocolate.

For my final runs of the day I headed back to the terrain park where I had now built up enough confidence (partly because all the annoying snowboarders had moved onto another area that had opened) to go off the jumps. I didn’t go as high as others on the jumps but I was able to get a second or two of air off the ground and I landed every single jump I did. Very pleased with myself I headed back out west to find a creative way back to the base area to head home.

The drive back to Auckland was much better than the drive down two days earlier. To keep myself awake I had the cd player playing and I consumed lots of V, a One Square Meal Bar, Moro Bar, and Hot Chocolate. After leaving the top of the mountain at 4.30pm I made it home at exactly 9.30pm a perfect five hour drive.

My only annoyance on the drive was people who do not use their high beams as they should. On the drive from Taumarunui to Te Kuiti I got stuck behind a car. That road does not have many passing spots but there are some if the driver in front will let you through. However this twat (and that is the nice way of putting it), would not let you through, and to make matters worse would low his lights to dip on the straights so you could not see far enough ahead to safely make a pass. I used my GPS to be able to see where the next straights and corners were so I knew where I could potentially look. But the only issue with GPS is that you do not know the scale that you are looking at as the map dynamically zooms in on corners and out on straights.

I finally got past just before Te Kuiti where I knew I had a straight piece of road, but it was still a challenge because the fool sped up well past the speed limit to block me getting through. The second annoyance in this saga was one the cars behind me. When you are in a queue of cars do not run your lights on high beam. It is really annoying because it reflects in the rear view mirror and into your eyes when you are trying to drive in the dark. High beams are meant to be used where there are no other cars in front of you and you need them to see, if you have cars in front of you then you do not need high beam.

My final rant for now is on the time advertised to travel from Turoa to Auckland. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts advertise it as four and a half hours. Last night bar one twat I had a near perfect run, and it took exactly five hours. Sure if there is not a single other car on the road and you are at the speed limit the entire time and do not stop you could do it in a perfect 4 hours 30 minutes but that would be near impossible. They should advertise it as 5 hours, that way it does not become an expectation that you need to do it in an impossibly short and potentially dangerous time. It also explains why coming down on Tuesday I didn’t have a hope of making it in time.

When I left on Tuesday I left at 3.30am with the aim of getting their at 8.30am (I had already guessed that 4 hours 30 was impossible), the fact that I didn’t make it to Whakapapa until 8.45am shows how crazy the timing is if you have a bad run. The same applies for Whakapapa it is advertised as 4 hours. The best I have ever done is around 4 hours 10 minutes and that was flying in perfect conditions. On Tuesday it took 5 hours 15 minutes. End of Rants.

Final comments: This was the best day skiing I have ever had, and my very first bluebird. If I went again given the same conditions I would go to Turoa over Whakapapa, having said that I have never been up Whakapapa when the weather has not been cloudy at best, and snowing heavily at worse, and I have never been up when the Far West has been open.

Also if you are a parent and sending your kids to the snow for the holidays be smart in what you give them to wear, I saw people yesterday with no gloves (really dumb), woollen gloves (almost as dumb, when they get wet they get heavy and freeze), Hoodie (wear that under a jacket not as your outer layer), woollen jumper (probably even worse than woollen gloves you need to keep your core warm). Skiing can become an expensive sport, but use some common sense always take gloves, do not use wool unless it is merino and then only as a base layer, and always wear a jacket.

Alright it is really late and I have just driven back from the mountain, I don’t have time to blog today’s skiing, but I do have time to quickly load up the photos. Comments will come in the following day or so.

Well I am off on my annual pilgrimage to the mountain.

The first day was very interesting, exciting, stressful and tiring.

The night before I left I went to bed around 8.30pm with the plan to get up and leave at 3.30am. As always trying to get to sleep when it is reality early and you are excited is always a challenge, I think I woke up every 40 minutes until midnight, before finally falling solidly asleep.

Also as always when your alarm goes at 3.15am in the morning it is always at the point where you are most asleep and absolutely do not want to get up. But I did, and had breakfast, put on my base snow gear, make sure I was fully awake, jumped in my car and headed for the mountain at 3.30am.

The drive out of Auckland was  very good. I managed to cover 92km in my first hour on the road, which was very good time and probably the fastest that I could go without breaking the speed limit. My first sign of trouble was when I got around an hour and a half out and started to use my high beam lights on the open road. The problem was when I flicked them from standard beam to high beam the car stereo would cut out and cut back in. This happened a few times before I decided to pull out the stereo for fear of a serious electrical problem.

I made it down to Ngaruawahia where I headed for the turn off for the alternative and faster route south to Otorohanga as I crossed State Highway One my entire car died. Not a good feeling. I rolled to a stop on the side of the road, shut off the car and then went to turn it over and restart, it worked, first time, a little concerned by this I pulled into the BP station, went to the loo and grab a fresh fruit mix for a second breakfast. I waited there for around 15 mins for my car to cool and then set off south. To be on the safe side I decided to turn off all non-essential electronics on my car to see if that would sort out the problem with the high beams.

Unfortunately it didn’t. Twice on the road to Otorohanga my car cut out switching to high beam, lucky for me it came back almost instantly but not without first turning off all my dash, brakes, lights and power steering for a second, which is not a good feeling at 100kmh. To make a bad situation even worse around Pirongia I hit fog that was so thick that you could in places see more than 1 cats-eye in front of the car, and at best around 3.

The fog made me even more concerned for my safety and I came very close to deciding to head back inland to Hamilton to see if I could find a service station or something to get it checked out. In the end I didn’t but I did do one thing that I normally don’t do in worrying circumstances, I prayed. I am one who normally doesn’t think that situations that you get yourself in warrant prayers, but on the spot, there and then I think I said something like “God, I don’t normally do this to me, but it is really early in the morning, it is really foggy, my car is failing, please don’t let me break down in the middle of nowhere, and at 100kmh, it would not be very fun.”

I also turned back on my GPS unit so if I did break down at least I would have an idea of where I was. The final drive into Otorohanga became a case of counting down every km I got closer on my GPS after that. Once there I pressed on to Te Kuiti where my car did break down… Yay… Not.

I pulled into Te Kuiti around 6.15am where I parked to let my car cool down and for me to take a leak, and let my parents know I was safely on the road. All was fine until I hopped back into my car to continue the journey south. I turned the key, and nothing, no battery, no electronics, no nothing, not even the clock. Lucky for me I had parked on the main street and there was the local courier in front of me delivering the morning newspaper to the dairy. I quickly asked her where the nearest service station was, or if they knew how I could get my car jump started. The Mobil Station was 500m down the road, so off for the walk in the dark I went. Getting there I asked if I could get a jump, they asked where my car was I told them 500m down the road, they said stuff them walking back with me, handed me jumper leads and a battery and off I walked back to my car.

The car started first time off the jump and I drove back to the Mobil Station dropped off the battery and decided to head for Taumarunui, this time I decided not to use my high beams at all, by the time I had been held up close to 30 minutes so it was nearing day break anyway. Fog, frost, and a huge big rig continued to delay me on the road, by the time I made it to Taumarunui I decided to press on to National Park where I would make the decision of going up Turoa or Whakapapa. Arriving at National Park just after 8am I text messaged my mum asking for the snow report. The whole point of going down on the Tuesday morning was that it was meant to be a nice sunny day. Instead I had anything but. The snow report came back with the upper mountain on hold at Turoa so I decided to head up Whakapapa.

Overall it took me just over five hours to drive to Whakapapa, it should have taken four. If I had decided to go to Turoa I would have been more than an hour and a half later than my planned timing, as it was it took 1 hour 20 minutes longer then the same trip did last year to get down to Whakapapa. Showing just how much the fog, ice, and failing car cost me in time.

Heading up the Bruce Road the electronic signs showed that the road was open and clear, and the ski field was open. Like all electronic signs the reality was anything but, within a few hundred metres of going through the gate it started snowing, and heavy snow too. I had two four wheel drive jeeps in front of me, and another two behind, one of the jeeps in front of me started to struggle as the road got very slick, me in my 2wd without chains was just laughing at my luck how much more crazy could this drive get? To ensure I made it to the top I deliberately left the slick groves that the vehicles in front where laying into the road and tried to pick up the grit on the road that had amassed on either side of the groves, it worked and five or so minutes later I was at the top of the road.

Daypark 1 and 2, where those keen earlybirds park, right at the top of the mountain.

Getting out of my car I headed up to the top of the Bruce and got my passes and rentals and up the chairlifts I went. My timing could not have been better I managed to get to the top of the first chairlift just as the upper mountain Waterfall Express chairlift opened, straight onto that and higher still I went, off that and up the waterfall T-bar. Straight to the top of the mountain. Initially the trails down the mountain were very icy because the snow had melted slightly and then refrozen, a common issue on Ruapehu, however throughout the day this became less of an issue as more and more and more snow feel turning most of the mountain into a beautiful fresh powder paradise.

At 10am I grabbed a hot chocolate at the new temporary knoll ridge cafe, it is very nice inside, but still is a complete shame about the arson of the old cafe.

Inside New Knoll Ridge Cafe

Second shot of inside new Knoll Ridge Cafe

New Knoll Ridge Cafe from outside, as the snow falls.

While I was in the cafe a little bit of cabin fever set in an I decided to write an ode to snow:

Snow drops keep falling on my head
But that doesn’t mean my hands will soon be turning blue
Skiings just for me
Cause I’m never going to stop the snow by singing
Because I’m skiing
Nothings worrying me

The thing that amazed me the most about the day up the mountain was the lack of people. It is the middle of the school holidays and there was many kids about but very few other people, the lift lines were short and this means less people to crash into on the trails. The other thing that you learn very quickly is no matter how good you think that you are getting there will always be a six year old kid that is better than you.

The two most enjoyable runs of the day was going down the left hand side of the Waterfall T-Bar for the first time (the side nearest the Pinnacles), and going/falling down the Waterfall Black Diamond Trail around five times. The Waterfall T-Bar had some of the best powder on it, and was out of the wind for most of the day which made it great for carving up. The only issue was visibility at times down to only a few meters which meant hitting rocks and snow banks became a small issue at times. The Waterfall Express Trail was very popular and I found going down the Waterfall itself was the easiest way of avoiding the crowds but it still had a lot of rocks in it which made it a bit of a challenge, and after that heading straight down the waterfall near the chairlift towers rather than taking the “easy-way” down trail.

At around 3.30pm I decided to leave the mountain around 30 minutes earlier than closing because the visibility was becoming really poor, my goggles kept on icying up, and I was beginning to get quite tired and had to make it to Wanganui, on the last few runs of the day I managed to crash badly twice which are still hurting today (Wednesday), the first was hitting a small rock or drift on the Waterfall T-Bar and going face first into the snow and getting a frozen ear as well as my legs tangled in each other. The second was heading down the Rockgarden run to make it back to the base area and trying to avoid a fallen snowboarder where my evasive action caused me to fall very hard onto my shoulder and hand which is still hurting today. I have also managed to bruise my legs in a number of places (no idea how).

How fun would be it to ride one of these things...

Looking at the Valley T-Bar, this was probably the best visibility all day, and this has been lightened using Picasa

Helmet and Goggles the fresh snow on the top had fallen as the above two photos were taken, in total around 20cm fell during the day, that is a lot!

Snow in the front air dams of my car after being parked all day.

Self portait after skiing all day

Today’s skiing was a good test for my new equipment and it all past beautifully. I was decked out in polypro thermals from Kathmandu (as always), and was for the first time using my Kathmandu Neptune long sleeve top, it is a blend of virgin wool (sports wool) and polyester and is very light weight, I was also using my Kathmandu Zinal mid-layer for the first time, and my Wild South Soft-Shell for the first time skiing. The four layers worked beautifully and at times I was so hot that I was sweating given that it was snowing all day it is a testament to the quality of the gear that these companies make. I was also using my Gyro Helmet and Outdoor Research Gore Windstopper facemask for the first time and these were also brilliant, almost everyone on the mountain was using helmets and facemasks, which was needed given the wind was making the apparent temperature close to -20C.

One car got a little too much of the good stuff I think

Snow Juggling, now that is talent.

The trip from the Top of the Bruce down to Wanganui was a dream, I managed to make it in 1 hour and 45 minutes which is super quick for the Paraparas. Transit have done a lot of road works over summer near the Ratehi end of the road which has made it wider and a lot more smooth, there are still a number of really tight corners and steep bits, but it appears that some of the worst sections have been fixed. Other good news this morning is that my car appears to only have a lose alternator belt which cost $10 to tighten, thanks AMT Auto Electricians in Wanganui, so hopefully I will not have many dramas coming back to Auckland tomorrow.

Footnote: If anyone else has trouble with their car when switching to High-Beam it is probably the cars electronics overloading. I was right to turn off the stereo and air con and the like, but my mistake was to switch off my car completely when I stopped. Turn off all your electronics but leave your car running on the side of the road for a few minutes before turning it off, if your electronics are overloaded it will drain your battery and it will not be able to recharge, turning everything off will give the car a bit of time to recharge.

My Political Views
I am a center-left social moderate
Left: 1.32, Authoritarian: 0.33

Political Spectrum Quiz

Just done the quiz here.

You can see results from other NZ bloggers here.

On the 17th of June this website will be 4 years old.

So in light of that I thought I would blog some interesting analysis from the last few years.

Firstly two past screenshots of the layouts:

Mid 2006 – Website Layout Version 2

Late 2006 – Website Layout Version 3

This website in its current format is the 4th version, I unfortunately have no screenshot of the original layout.

The website has changed a bit over the years, primary from a static portfolio of work, to a more dynamic blog orientated website.

But what is most interesting (IMHO) is the visitor stats:

The growth in visitors has been amazing, with a current average of around 5,500 visits per month.

Second the number of pages accessed per month. At the moment somewhere between 20,000 – 25,000 per month. This varies a lot more than the visitor count because primarily being blog driven the more fresh the content is (and the more posts that I blog) in a set month typically the higher the number of page visits for that month.

I have really only been paying attention to the stats for a few months now, so what will be more interesting is where things are in 12 months time.