Saturday, February 18, 2006

North Island

Kia Ora (Greetings and good health in Maori)


It appears that my blog is not worth commenting on unless i put up various pictures of suze and I in ridiculous poses so perhaps this post will fare better than the last.

So here are some photos which relate to the last post, firstly the gorge at Hokitika



Here is me in the smallest BMW i've ever seen at a car museum in Nelson, the windscreen was also the front door.



Next up is split apple rock in the Abel Tasman



We spent our two days in Wellington before heading north to Taupo, the cheapest place in the world to skydive. Both Suze and I jumped from 12000ft. I'd already done a jump in the Czech Republic but this was Suze's first jump and she was scared on the way up but euphoric after. Jumping for the second time is cool because you can take in the sensation of freefall better as the first time it's quite overwhelming and you find you can't remember it. What was also good about jumping over Taupo was that you could see the volcanos used as Mt Doom in LOTR

Here is Suze after her jump



From Taupo we headed up to Rotorua, the Maori cultural centre of New Zealand. We went to a Maori show and saw their weapons, songs and dances.



We also went Zorbing where two of you climb inside a huge rubber sphere and slide down a hill with a load of water in the bottom of the Zorb, it was fun! You can see one in the background here



Today we visited white Island, one of the world's most active marine volcanos. we took a 2 hour boat ride out to it and walked around, it was very cool.





And that's all for now, we have 4 days left in New Zealand, we have to be in Auckland in 2 so we have 2 days free which we're not sure what to do with but we've already spent our budgets here so whatever we do will have to be Cheap! If anyone wants to pay me for all the entertainment this site brings you i'm sure we can sort something out!

13 Comments:

Blogger Ash said...

Hey Duffy, do gas masks do it for you as much as spiked shoes and icy tunnels?

Saturday, 18 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You've even resorted to commenting yourself in an attempt to get people into this window. Nice!

Saturday, 18 February, 2006  
Blogger minicookies said...

Ash I'd really like to post something amusing and entertaining, but I can't be arsed to think of anything so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I'm off to drink until I
a) Fall over,
b) Puke, or
c) Fall over and puke.

Btw did anyone tell you that Robb and Naomi are engaged?

Kev

Saturday, 18 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not been looking much, things are hotting up rather at the experiment. These next few weeks are the only ones I intend to put any effort into for the next few years, so I'm a little too busy to indulge your ego with an array of commentry right now.

With that insanely happy grin on your face in that mini you could blend into an episode of Noddy, no problem.

Sunday, 19 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was just about to say that you in a gas mask was probably the best picture yet, but you beat me to it.

Hey bendy whatever happened to you visiting amsterdam?? I'll be there the weekend after next, i.e. 2 weekends. feel free to stop by.

Monday, 20 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

love the gas mask. you have done everything in new zealand havn't you. i'm off to bondi now (previously planet earth, remember rich and mike's revolving dancefloor stories) bring it on.
enjoy feejee
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday, 20 February, 2006  
Blogger Ash said...

Kev, no one had told me, thanks. Tell Rob congrats, when's the big day? (Next week i'm guessing)

Steve, if these few weeks are the only work you do in your PhD then you can sign me up, i reckon you'll be lucky.

Tom, nice to hear from you, Suze was very rude to that Maori woman, i'll tell you about it later...

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Blogger Ash said...

Duffy, i googled duffy coats and nothing came up, so explain!

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

eh? well it's some sort of wierd blood thing - some kind of coat on red blood cells - apparently if you're missing "the duffy factor" you're at risk of contracting some horrible disease.
says aafke.

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well maybe I'll do some other work, but I certainly wont do it like this again. I'm on nights doing 12 or 13 hours a day for the moment. Loosing beam time starts costing 100,000s of euros, so we can't aford to bugger anything up. The experiment properly starts getting data at the weekend, so it's all busy busy. This is why Duffers, I'm struggling to get over to you. I'm doing those hours 7 days a week right now and it can only get longer.

Strictly speaking we're doing 3 experiments in the time we run, my one is in the middle, it starts on th 2nd, which is obviously not the ideal time for me to leave the lab and go visit another country. I'll have to pop over on your next visit to amsterdam.

Sorry buddy

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No worries man, though you do come across as a little selfish in that last post.
Imagine having all the fun and not wanting to take just one day out to see a friend. Tsch.

(That was a 'tsch' noise, you know the one I'm taking about)

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Blogger minicookies said...

They are getting married on Sept 30th so you'll have plenty of time to sort out your hat when you get back.

I still can't think of anything witty to say so here is some of my final year project code instead:
float random;
int random2;
random = ran1(&seed2);
station = (int)(ran1(&seed2)*NO_OF_STATIONS)%NO_OF_STATIONS;
if (station == 0)
station = NO_OF_STATIONS;

if (random < STATION_VOLATILITY)
{
if((l = whatlan(station)) == -1)
{
fail = 1;
return fail;
}
char filename[] = "Stations_moved.txt";
FILE *output;
if ((output=fopen (filename, "a")) == NULL)
{
fail = errormsg(filename);
return fail;
}

Enjoy.

Tuesday, 21 February, 2006  
Blogger Ash said...

Wow steve, how quickly you seem to have gone from doing bugger all to having a bit of a nightmare, i can see the smile on tom's face now.

Wednesday, 22 February, 2006  

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