The weekend started well with a cycle over the Port Hills with Maria and a few friends and wives. Maria was on the new bike and managed all of the ascents without stopping - with the exception of one where she dismounted to take a photo of a dead possum for her mother (don't ask!!). The ride down Evans Pass was as exciting as usual, though the target of 75 kmph was failed by a couple of 'clicks'!
Yesterday also saw the hosting of a free concert in Hagley Park - called 'Band Together' - a celebration of surviving the Quake and looking forward to the future. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and over 100,000 people turned up for the event - with quite a few of them turning Desmond Street into a car park.
Maria and I wandered through mid-afternoon to take it in. We decided that a late lunch and a glass of wine at the Arts Centre was in order before sauntering back home. Sarah spent the afternoon at the gig with friends.
We had originally planned for a bit of a getaway today and tomorrow - Tekapo has featured high on the list of possible destinations - but our plans were scuppered by Sarah waking up with a severe attack of tonsillitis. So instead the morning was spent by Maria and Sarah at the 24/7 docs with the afternoon spent lazing around the house. There's now talk of another bike ride tomorrow for Maria and I, which should be fun.
Talking of which, let's see if I can recall any exciting experiences from over the past 4 weeks or so......!
Of course, the main topic of news has been the continued post-earthquake rumblings. We have had aftershocks up to 5.0 on the richter scale which have opened up more cracks around the house plus caused wider damage around the city. Whilst nowhere near as scary as the Shake on the 4th Sept, the aftershocks can be a little disconcerting at times. Most Cantabrians have now become quite adept at guessing the size of each tremor - and then heading straight to GeoNet.com to check out the accuracy of their guestimate!
Elsewhere...Sarah recently took part in a dance competition hosted by the Garden City Tappers here in Christchurch.
The dance school she attends on a Saturday morning entered 'a team' in one of the categories - they performed a dance to a track from the Lion King - and they won their category! Well done them. She is now busy rehearsing a piece for the end of term show.
I took part in a 6 hour mountain bike relay event at McLean's Island last weekend - with fellow Fulton Hugan colleagues. (I had been out to the course a couple of weeks beforehand with a group of colleagues to practice and took a nasty fall off my bike - cutting my arm and leg plus getting a whack fom the pedal behind my knee, which basically put me out of action until the event!)
There were over a thousand competitors in the 6hr and a 12 hr event. I was in a team of 3 so we ended up riding 2 hours each - which was pretty exhausting - in 5 bursts of 25mins around a 10km loop. There was a fair bit of inter-Company rivalry going on between some of the better teams - but my team didn't really feature in that event! We probably managed to eat the most sausages!
My preparation for the Source to Sea ride next month has not been as good as I had hoped with me missing out on a few recent rides with the 'gang' due to my MTB accident. We did do a couple of rides over the Summit Rd - which I think featured in the previous blog - which were quite fantastic - once the Bas#$@d Hill had been conquered! I have 3 more weekends to get some mileage in - though one includes a trip to Kaikoura with the Ashworths for a fishing trip and having fun! Maybe I should cycle there?!
I have had a few pleasant trips out with work over the past few weeks. I headed off to Alexandra for a couple of days doing a Quality Audit and ended up in and around Queenstown on a beautiful, sunny and warm day at a part-built hotel complex called the Essence of Queenstown. The flight back from Queenstown was fantastic - the pilot had his elderly father in the jump seat and must have decided to take the scenic route home to Christchurch as we ended up buzzing the top of Mount Cook. People pay good money for flights like that!
I also had a drive over to Greymouth for a days work at the Fulton Hogan depot over there. We had gone across on the TanzAlpine earlier in the year, but this was the first time that I had driven over through Arthur's Pass. It truely is a fantastic journey.
A few weeks ago, Maria, Sarah and I headed up for a Saturday night supper on the Port Hills in Brendan's Campervan. I cooked some chicken in white wine and once again we sat and watched the sun slowly fall over the distant Southern Alps - supping the wine that didn't make it into the pot! Priceless.
Maria clicked another birthday over this month. We actually went out as a family - all 4 of us - to Budda Stix on Riccarton Rd. It was very pleasant indeed. Maria asked for a new camera as a birthday gift so since the 13th she been out snapping pitures of the flaura and fauna in Hagley Park plus a few of the new post-aftershock cracks in walls and ceilings!
