It was really good, and we got to see the Waimakariri river too - the watercourse used on the NZ Coast to Coast race.
I became frustrated at not having a bike, so I went out and bought a Giant Trial bike (not a big one - that's the brand) and subsequently went riding over the Port Hills as a pre-seminar warm-up. Fantastic weather for the ride, bizarrely followed by a severe hail storm (fortunately) once I had returned back to base. It really was a "4-seasons in one day" day!
My seminar went well. People turned up and listened politely. Sometimes they smiled a bit too! I guess it's something to build on. I got some good and useful feedback from the attendees.
I also attended the Champion Canterbury Awards evening at the Christchurch Convention Centre on 24th Sept.
A black-tie do - mine was still in the container so I had to hire a suit for the evening. I met some interesting people there and had a very pleasant evening all round!On Sat 26th, I competed in my first event since the Derby 10K back in April 2008. This time it was the Port Hills Running Club's Annual Road Championships, held at Rangiori.
A flat 8K course saw me finish in 31 mins and 11 secs - a very pleasing result given so long out of competitions and still way off any decent level of fitness! 
Sarah and Maria came out to cheer me on - which was very much appreciated.Maria was offered a permanent job with Solid Energy (the NZ Coal Board) - to work 12 hours a week providing their occupational health needs. She's really pleased as she says it has a good feel about the place. She can still work other temporary hours around this post giving her flexibility on total hours worked during the week.
The main event last week was the arrival of our belongings from the UK - 13 weeks to the day of our arrival here in NZ. It's amazing how long you can last with the bare essentials! A week later and there's not too many boxes still to unpack - we managed to get most of it sorted quite quickly.
It wasn't long before Maria and I headed off for a long awaited bike ride on the road bikes. We headed off westward along the Avon to New Brighton - not the most scenic of places, but a beach and a nice cafe was all we wanted. It was another gloriously sunny day as the Nor'Wester blew across the Canterbury Plains sending the temperature into the mid-20's. We spent the (Friday) afternoon lunching with Di Illston (her 60th birthday celebration) and then campervan testing for Brendan.
On the way home we stopped off for a post-work drink at Aikman's bar with the Frodshams (at least Steve had been at work!). Most of Merivale were at the pub with us - there was a great summer-buzz about the place.
Sarah has been on school holidays last week and has had a friend (Franny) around a few times. They have even ventured into the swimming pool - despite it not having yet been cleaned or heated. Still, they didn't seem to care!
Chris has been working the night shifts at McDonalds and he has treated himself to a PS3 with his first few weeks wages. I'm not sure how well his saving up for a car is going, but I do know he has now opened up a separate savings account and is transferring some money across on a weekly basis.
Last weekend, Maria competed in the PhysioMed Womens Triathlon here in Chritchurch.
Despite not having had much bike practice, she performed magnificently in the challenging conditions - it was fair cold at 8 am on the Sunday morning!Maria, Sarah and I headed off to Kaikoura for a night on Monday, to catch Nicky's (landlady) art exhibition and to see what else the place has to offer in the school hols! We stayed at "Judes Place" - a pleasant seaside bach on South Bay owned by Jude and Ian - pals of Nicky.
The weather wasn't great - it was a bit wet on the Monday and cold and windy onthe Tuesday - but we still has a good time. We managed to see plenty of seals - including some seal cubs playing around in a waterfall stream about 20 mins drive north of Kaikoura - it was amazing! We visite Fyffe House on the Kaikoura Peninsula, but didn't do the Peninsula walk as it was a bit too cold and windy. The mountains at Kaikoura are particularly stunning, especially as they had received a fresh "dusting" of snow. So back to Christchurch....Maria's back at work for a couple of days, I have a few more networking events in my diary plus I'm preparing for next week's seminar #2, Sarah is arranging shopping trips with Franny to Riccarton Mall and Chris is preparing himself for a run of late shifts.
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