davetapson

We have that vaccine that needs to be frozen like hell and then has limited life span when unfrozen - when they have spares left over they cast about for people to use it on - you should go tell them you are right there for when they are looking for people...

The missus has had her first jab. Looks like July for me.

A different: I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but the terrain (esp in Auckland) is just different to, to be sure, Benoni. My average neighbourhood ride gives me the same sort of ascent as I had to drive to get on the Oos Rondt. Running is a different story altogether. You better get used to the idea of running up and down great flipn hills just as your normal run. You might be able to navigate a flattish course if you tried... actually, no, I'm not sure it would even be that flat. Not on the shore, anyway. Need to go do the Mission Bay / St Helliers thing for that. Driving to get the lack of ascent vs driving to get some ascent...

Seems the NZ hubbers are on the up...

And again. A mix of St Paddy's day and a win this evening and the Viaduct will take off...

Damn! It's amazing how up and down you go with this damn stuff. They lose a race and you think, ok, that's it, they'll never win another, series is over, they've lost. Then they win one, and you go, yeah, ok, now it's just going to be a walk-over for the rest of the series... But that last race, you'd not have believed that if it was written as a movie. Prada with it's big jib and and big feet and it can sail in lighter winds busy floundering backwards and forwards out of the course trying to get up on it's foils while ETNZ with it's small jib and small feet and can't sail in light winds sails away... Kinda feels like there must be an Indian betting syndicate involved somewhere...

Ahh...

The cute... The entire NZ air force flying in formation. Boeing 7 something something trying not to fall out the sky while the flossie maxing out...

One of the charms of NZ...

Planned some farms down there in a previous life. Used to be some of the highest performance lamb production there of anywhere. Some guys were getting 3 lamb crops every two years off rye grass and clover. Couple of years ago Farmer Glen tells me they all packed it in due to stock theft, most now farming game because it's harder to steal. So there's that. Why estate? Security?

.

You're finding this discussion difficult?

No, but you're playing odds. Like a doorman that I heard advising a tourist in Jhb "Yes, you should be safe, but I can't guarantee it..."

Yeah, we used to have a family cottage between Champagne Castle Hotel and Monks Cowl forestry station. My grandfather built in the late '50's. We eventually decided to give it up when the gate guard was AK47'd for the change in his box. Folks we met here were attacked in their room in Champagne Castle Hotel. Hiking on the berg there hasn't been safe for a good long time. It's not the smugglers that are the problem (maybe) it's the opportunists looking for relatively easy pickings, which small parties in remote places are.

Damn. So sorry to hear.

Aussie bush confuses the hell out of me - always expecting a kudu to step out but then some weird hopping thing bounces out instead! NZ bush is just too different to confuse. Looks more cretaceous. Expect dinosaurs instead...

Here is something you don't have to deal with in SA... (btw I slept right through the earthquakes, my wife says she felt them.) We were camping when the quakes hit Rotarua end Jan - lying on the ground during an earthquake provides a pretty visceral experience! https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/?fbclid=IwAR0DF_6KuugimAYXr5ykQXjizO0S6HW6pw7FJJ76MUXEuCOEdW61C_eTJsQ

SA has exceptional hiking trails - one of the annoyances I had with living there was that could not use them with a sense of security. Fantastic resource, can't feel safe using them.

My brain tells me that Small made that commitment to himself, but that he (Small) was never the same again. Maybe Lomu too. My brain tells me a lot of stuff tho'. Edit: I didn't know he'd died. Happened after we left.

There is niggly theft that happens particularly with stuff left in vans on roads e.g. tradie vans with tools...

Speaking of Islanders - the size and strength of these guys isn't comprehensible til you see it... When our stuff was unpacked from the container it was done by a couple island boys. My wife reckons the one guy picks up the fridge (by himself) carries it into the house like it's nothing, asks her "where do you want this mum?", drops it where she asks. Piano that took six to pack, took two to unpack... No wonder James Small never recovered from taking on Jonah Lomu...

I'll speak for myself - there is frustration, but not tension, or racial tension in the South African sense. The goss that I get is that there are a lot (a number?) of effectively illegal alien islanders living in the population in South Auckland, who will likely in a lot of cases to be family of citizens who they will be living with, and they are not about to invite scrutiny into who they are or what they are getting up to. We have a friend who works in one of the hospitals there, and says it is a different, and not good, world. The vaccinations will come, they are working in their normal unhurried (considered?) Kiwi way. My understanding is that front line workers have been vaccinated, they are now focusing of hospital staff and are lining up the GP's/staff. As for the sailing - I doubt it is as pervasive as the All Blacks. Maybe things will pick up when the AC proper starts, but then I'd imagine only if there is close racing. I was watching the final Prada Cup race from a lookout spot (like sport, much better to watch on TV ) and lo and behold, across the gulf came a yacht flying in a cloud of spray. It just happened to be ETNZ, who just happened to be out for a casual day's sailing, and they were MOVING!!! They matched a tack of Prada's and I suspect they were trying to get a handle on relative speeds of the boats. I'll try and load that off my phone. I reckon they were doing close to 100kmh - they came flying across the gulf like it was a puddle. What they don't have is match racing experience in that boat... Edit: had to load it to youtube due to size... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_klojMZcq4 Check the racing going on in the background..!!

It gets worse - the other tannie was from the original Papatoetoe family that had covid and they went for a walk while tannie 1 **was still sick**...

Damn. Median price is not cheap either.

Which, of course, obviously, leads to a good [emoji846] DOC mountain huts. They're all over the place, cheap or free, generally well maintained (by you, when you stay there) and you don't have to leave someone awake to stop having your boots stolen by the Suth's. Where I was last w/e when I heard about this lockdown... free. Somebody in the hut book had been coming here for 40 years. A bad/good: they get to build their history with a place, we get to start ours.