Thursday, August 23, 2007

A bit of catch up - Coromandel

Yeah haven't done heaps of posting recently, so thought I would recount a little mission we did earlier in the year. Penny and I and her workmate Max (who coincidentally went to school with Gemma) cruised up to the Coromandel and met up with Megan and Fred. Highlights on the trip up were playing guitar and impovised singing (at the time I only knew A, C, D and G) and exploring Ohiwa estuary at dusk, with a stingray flapping in the sunset. We arrived late to Tairua but found Megan and Fred, and had a nice weekend sifting around Cathedral Cove etc and a lovely run up in the hills somewhere...awesome part of the country. One memorable moment was Fred standing on top of a watertank with the guitar giving us an impromtu performance...brilliant.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Tough Gal

Penny is the new Tough Gal!

At the weekend we competed in the Tough Guy and Gal running race near Rotorua. It is an extreme cross-country race with swamps up to your waist, steep up hills and downhills and army style obstacles. Penny was 1st Woman and I was second man. It was a real fun day and some of our orienteering friends came down as well which was cool. On Saturday we went for another really nice run in the forest out the back of Rotorua, awesome training.I'm half keen to live there, but Penny isn't so convinced. Photos are of the aftermath of the Tough Guy and Penny receiving her prize.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Jamies projects

Have been meaning to give an update on what I've been up to for the last few months...I have officially given up on getting a real job in this cursed place!:-) So am trying to develop an events management business mainly for the challenge of it and the joy of seeing people get out there, rather than making mega bucks...although the hope is it may become a good revenue stream in the future

We have recently established a website for the business www.madeventz.co.nz with the main project at the moment being the Kiwi Summer Adventure Racing Series. I am also trying to set up a youth adventure racing team which is there as well and working on a running event around Lake Waikaremoana.

I have also been spending far too much time doing orienteering stuff, including providing ideas for the development of www.maptalk.co.nz New Zealand's orienteering site where we have recently created a great photo database where you can find and download photos of Penny, me and all the other top NZ orienteers.

And I guess my other project is the Kiwi Adventure Project, a website that I am trying to co-ordinate the creation of which will act as an online guidebook for all NZ outdoor activities. Hard to explain, will post more when we develop a version that speaks for itself...

And I'm slowly learning to play the guitar...

Round Waikaremoana

Well this weekend was supposed to be mountain time down in the Kawekas but we were feeling a bit tired on Friday night so decided on the lake alternative. We got up there about lunchtime on Sat, dropping Pennys bike off at one end and parking at the other....it was pouring with rain, but for once we didn't wuss out. 6 hours later stumbling along in the dark we made Waipaoa Hut.

While it was daylight it was a really pretty track, kind of scandinavian with bare rock sliding into the water, lots on inlets and islets and regular huts to keep the motivation levels high.

The hut we stayed in was real nice, a few hunters and trampers to spin yarns too and a nice warm fire, our basic rations of smoked chicked and bread rolls with camembert was sweet as for dinner, meant we didn't have to carry stove/plates etc

Sunday was a clearer day, which meant for good views from Panekiri Bluff high above the lake, nice goblin forest on the ridge top, moss swathed trees, with the howling wind smashing into the other side of the ridge metres away from our sheltered position. Luckily I managed to hitchhike to the far end of the track, passing a happy Penny who still had an hour to bike, she was going well though. Great weekend