Just like in the movies November 4, 2006

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An unusual event interrupted my pottering about in the garden yesterday. I was in the middle of cat proofing my ‘square foot gardening‘ vegetable patches, surrounded by chicken wire, tools and the odd sprog, when I heard a sound one normally only hears in films.
Buuuur-bup-bup-bup … buuuur-bup-bup-bup … phut-phut-bup…
I [...]

Joy and pain October 30, 2006

Cruising on the Harbour Bridge
On the limit at the finish

Two hours, seventeen minutes & fifty-two seconds October 29, 2006

I ran over here today

The 21.09kms mix of rolling hills, flat dockside and Harbour Bridge of this morning’s Auckland Half Marathon took me 2:17 to complete. To put this in context, my new personal best time for the half marathon is a full thirteen minutes slower that it took the Kenyan Paul Tergat to [...]

Our very own Swan September 18, 2006

No.3 took part in her first ever soccer tournament last week in the annual competition between the primary schools of Huapai and Taupaki. The fact that we live in Huapai and stood amongst neighbours cheering for Taupaki school made for tense moments on the touch line. Coming off the bench in the first [...]

Easy like Sunday morning January 14, 2006

Our Sunday mornings are beginning to take on a semblance of normality, or at least what passed for normality before we decided to up stick and moved to the other side of the world. This means that SWMBO and the sprogs head off for church and I take the opportunity to try and get [...]

An after dinner walk January 7, 2006

This picture, taken a few hours back, exemplifies why we came to New Zealand. Halfway through supper, we simply decided to go for a walk on the beach instead of doing chores or watching the television. Thirty minutes later, we were wandering barefoot on the black volcanic sand, watching the sun slide from [...]

Run, forest, run January 2, 2006

This track and the forest beyond has become a regular haunt for me over the last week or so.
Whilst I was running regularly back in London, I have lapsed severely since leaving the UK and have managed just one run each in Los Angeles, Rarotonga and Foxton. As we are now more settled and [...]

Vox pop March 15, 2005

Christchurch
Christchurch is often held to be the most English of New Zealand’s cities but I have to say that I really can’t see it. I’ll freely admit the River Avon, which runs a curling course through the city, has a certain Oxbridge flavour, but I’d venture that most folks wouldn’t make the the connection [...]

South into autumn March 9, 2005

Picton – Kaikoura – Christchurch
The Interislander Ferry advertising around Wellington asks potential passengers how they would prefer to cross the Cook Strait – ‘zip across or cruise across?’ I had originally intended to ‘cruise’ across in three hours on a traditional ship but I was informed that the crossing I wanted wasn’t sailing (though [...]

Trapped wind March 7, 2005

Wellington
Like most other things here, Wellington’s views are dependent upon the weather and it’s not for nothing that folks here refer to the city as Windy Wellington. A Kiwi explained to me that, given the predominantly hilly nature of New Zealand, the winds roaring between the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea seek the path [...]