Ode to the Bicycle

Mein Fahrrad
by Die Prinzen

Just the other day I was riding my bicycle around at 120 (This is a joke! It is not to be taken literally. Even on the Autobahn, German bikes do not go that fast!)
And as always I could only hope
That the police wouldn't stop me
Because then I'd have to pay a fine
And they'd interrogate me
And my poor little bicycle
Would end up alone in front of the door

Oh how I love my bicycle
Why, I do not know
I am faithful to my bicycle
In contrast to my wife
I will never leave it
I will never walk away from it
We fly around as if on clouds
Because we understand each other so well

Every snot drives an Opel
Every ape drives a Ford
Every idiot drives a Porsche
Every ass an Audi Sport
Every crazy drives a Manta
Every goober Jaguar
Only connoisseurs ride a bicycle
And always get there faster

My bicycle is not purple
Because that doesn't turn me on at all
It is also not brown
Because I can't stand brown
No, I've painted it blue
From the saddle to the tubes
And I think that's very appropriate
Because some days I am blue too ("blue" in German is drunk)

And here is the original on the RIGHT side of the road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY24qc7woW4

Funny things from Oz

So many colors!

But the truly amazing thing are the smells - this blog needs a smell button! In lieu of that here are some pictures from my walk to school this morning:

It's really hot and humid today. Tank top and mini skirt weather - Yay!

Don Quixote

o to break up this thread of never-ending outdoorsy stuff, here is something artsy. We went to a ballet last night - the Royal New Zealand Ballet performed Don Quixote:
And this is the story: The ageing Don is on a final quest for adventure. Accompanied by his young nephew, Sancho, and a bag full of ready cash, the Don sets off to town and beyond.
There they meet the devious and seedy Gamache with his consort of rough and ready street dancers, plus the beautiful and feisty Kitri and her young lover Basilio, a local delivery boy.But there's trouble afoot! The confused Don, believing that Kitri is his lost love, follows her and Basilio on their secret tryst to the gypsy camp. With his eye on the money, the sneaky Gamache follows closely. Seeing his opportunity, he rouses the gypsies to taunt the Don, before robbing him of his bag of cash. Left almost unconscious and alone, the Don has terrifying visions of storms and windmills, followed by a visit from Cupid, who reveals a whole array of ravishing beauties to behold.
But alas, it is only a dream and when his nephew Sancho returns with Basilio to rescue the bedraggled Don, they return to town penniless. Meanwhile, Gamache with his newfound illegal wealth is celebrating in town with his girls. The Don returns and realises that it was Gamache who stole his bag of money. Accusations and a fight ensue, resulting in Gamache being arrested and sent to prison. A happy ending? Not yet… Kitri’s father, a pretentious café owner, is adamant that his daughter will not marry a poor delivery boy. And that is that. However, in a gesture of thanks for Basilio’s help, the Don gives the bag of cash to Kitri’s father, thus freeing the way for her to marry her love. The town celebrates the wedding of Kitri and Basilio, the Don returns to his dreams and Kitri’s father does up the cafe.
And from a review: "This production of the ballet classic Don Quixote – first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1869 – is among the most accessible and spectacular productions from the Royal NZ Ballet and is marked by elder statesman Sir Jon Trimmer in the title role at age 69 in this, his 50th year with the company.

The sets are stunning and brilliantly colourful. The dancing is superb. ......" I can wholeheartedly second that!

(Images from http://www.nzballet.org.nz/image-gallery/don-quixote-dress-rehearsal)

Kaitangata - the lost village

Kaitangata loosely translates from Māori to English as, 'Kill a man and eat him' (kai being food and tangata being human, or people). Likely the name comes from cannibal feasts held there after tribal fighting in the district between Kāi Tahu and Kāti Mamoe. (from Wikipedia)

So we went to Kaitangata. Not for dinner. But for a mountain bike race called the Black Gold Trail. Where "participants will travel through an awe-inspiring tour of scenic bush trails and forestry roads, giving opportunity to catch a glimpse of the famous Wild Horses living in the forestry of Taratu. Winding your way past historic mining sites you will feel the courage of yesteryears underground heroes....."

We packed our bikes into the car (which was no small feat given the lack of any kind of bike rack):
... and headed down the road to Kaitangata. We managed to get there 10 minutes before the race started. Just barely enough time to register and to throw our wheels back on and to catch the second half of the pre-race meeting.
The choices were 45km and 20km and since the description on the website had made it sound quite easy we opted for the longer one. The ride was magnificent! Single track trails through the forest:
... had been connected by stretches of logging roads:
... and third-level gravel roads:
We passed through areas that had been logged recently:
.. and areas that hadn't been logged in decades:
One of the most awe-inspiring moments of the whole trail was when we came to the top of one of the ridges and saw this:
.. and this:
We both had somewhat underestimated the race, time-wise and difficulty-wise. And got our butts kicked. In the end it took Andy about 3 hours and I finally rolled across the finish line after 4:40 hours.
The good thing is that everybody had finished by that point and was hanging out at the finish line and I got a big applause. (Andy got nothing - that's what happens when you finish too early!)

We hung out there for the awards ceremony since they were raffling off a bike. Even though we had no idea how to get that home if we'd win it. But then again - it was only 50km back to Dunedin and I am sure I could have talked Andy into riding it home :)

It's post-election Sunday!

The centre-right conservative National Party won the election, the NZ$ is up and the Chinese announced a stimulus package. Things are looking up. Or so we hope.

Might have made sense to go to church and pray for the economy but we had other plans:

It's Movember in New Zealand!

And Bro Ian is doing the mo-ing for us all. Check it out:

It's not over until it's over

And it's not over yet. 2 more weekends of fun in the snow (and in the sun). Last weekend we went up to Brewster Glacier. The next image is from Google Earth with our approx. route sketched in:
Couldn't get organized in time to start the hike up in the daylight, so right off the trailhead we waded through the icy river waters just before it went completely dark.
4 hours and a bottle of port later we arrive at the hut at 1AM. All the serious mountaineers were in their sleeping bags by then since they had to get up at 3AM (!) to climb Mtn Brewster. We rolled out of our bags at around 9AM and were greeted by this:

After several espressos and some breakfast we took off towards the glacier (the hut is visible in the middle of the next image).
Warm slushy snow and steep mountain slopes made for difficult travel and after sliding around (mostly downhill towards the cliff) on the snowfields I opted for a turn-around while Leigh and Ian braved the elements and continued on to the glacier.

Mtn Brewster is the peak on the right in the next picture and one of the ice falls is visible on the left. They were rewarded with some sweet turns in virgin snow - see movie at the end of this post.

And they returned several hours later pretty spent and ready for more espresso. And freeze-dried dinner. And lots of chocolate.

Next morning we started on the trek back down.

The trail is quite interesting - it goes straight up the hill with no switchbacks or any conveniences like that and has a grade of about 50% - meaning for every 2 meters we did horizontally we climbed one meter in the vertical. Good exercise on the uphill, quite a challenge on the downhill.
The next picture is the first part of the trail following a rather pointy ridge top down to the treeline.
And after 3 hours of hard work, several philosophical discussions and a Kea concert:

.. we ended up back at the river crossing:
And finished the trip off with a nice cold one:
None of us can really walk today and I ended up having to bike to work - walking was NOT an option :)

And here is the movie from Leigh:

Just one last time

So since we got 40cm of fresh snow in the mountains last week we ventured into the backcountry one more time - last weekend for the last few snowfields that were still open.

We bivyed out in the parking lot of The Remarkables (brrrrrrrr was it ever cold!) and I learned a new feature of my camera: taking pictures in the dark. While my technique definitely needs to be perfected this is one of the first shots (the lights are Queenstown):
Next Morning we went up to Lake Alta (same place where Ben and I did the mountaineering course) but this time we went over the ridge:
... and dropped into the Wye Creek basin.

And were rewarded with beautiful slush skiing/snowboarding in the afternoon.
The SPF70 kept me from getting a sunburn on my face but I forgot to put any sunscreen on my arms and got a nice burn on my lower arms from pulling up the sleeves. That will teach me - hopefully :)

Leigh made a movie about the trip which can be viewed here.

On the way back it was very obvious that spring has arrived. The colors were just amazing! (But I think only people from Alaska can appreciate that - Leigh said: "What colors?")
We took a detour through the historic village of Clyde:
.. and then took a gravel backwoods road back to Dunedin.

We went past Waipori Village (Waipouri meaning "dark water" in Maori and being a reference to the tannin-stained waters of the heavily wooded Waipori River catchment) - a small village nestled into the steep native forest slopes of the Waipori River valley about 1 hour from Dunedin.
The local fire station (Waipori Fire Fighter Brigade):
To supply the City of Dunedin with power a small hydroelectric station* was built and completed at Waipori Falls in 1880. A dam then needed to be built to feed that station and Waipori Village came into existence in 1902. The damn was completed in 1924 and created an artificial lake, Lake Mahinerangi.
The river valley below that station looks like an excellent place for packrafting :)

The village today is "no longer needed in connection with the power scheme and has been developed in terms of the Unit Titles Act. The individual units are generally used for holiday homes, with some permanent residents. The body corporate is responsible for the upkeep of the tennis courts, water and sewerage reticulation schemes and the sealed streets of the village. A swimming pool is located by the power station which is available for use by the people of the village."(http://www.cluthadc.govt.nz)

* In 2007, hydroelectricity accounted for 55% (in GWh) of all generated power in New Zealand. Including geothermal (8%), biogas (0.5%), wood (1.2%), and wind (2.2%), NZ generated 67% of its electricity from renewable resources. The remaining non-renewable 33% came from coal (7%), gas (26%), and wasteheat (0.1%).
(from http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/37882/A-table1.xls)

LOLKEA

It's snowing!

... but unfortunately only in Fairbanks:
The cats are well prepared with a big winter mane:
.. and I wish I was waxing my skis instead of dealing with a sunburn. Oh well.

Ben is back in Alaska and I will finally have to get some work done. There are still lots of picture from our trips - maybe I can talk him into posting some more stuff :)