It's Snowing Again .....

A cold southerly is working its way up New Zealand with snow down to sea level ...

One to Avoid ......

I had a book a room at short notice for my visit to Perth. I looked on the internet and I found a hotel which was described as a three star. Alarm bells started ringing when I checked in and they gave me the tv remote control.

My worst fears where confirmed when I entered my room. The room was small, it had no desk, the paintwork was generally grubby, the bed spread had a cigarette burn, the only ironing board was on the 4th floor - it was grim!


The fan in above the bathroom sink had not been cleaned for months.


The bathroom door was also coming apart.


I have to go back again to Perth this week and needless to say, I will not be booking in to Aaron's Hotel!

Nobody is Flying .... ... oink, oink

Last Monday I was sat at my desk in Christchurch looking forward to a quiet week in the office. Cutting a long story very short on Tuesday I was on my way to Perth to help our partner finalise their project plan.

The international departure lounge at Christchurch airport was deserted as I boarded DJ73 for Sydney to make my Perth connection.

When the aircraft arrived at Sydney we were asked to remain seated. Two Australia quarantine officers boarded the aircraft. They went to the back of the aircraft to see a young man. They put a face mask on him and escorted him off the plane before the rest of the passengers were allowed to leave.

The travel industry now not only has to face the economic slowdown but it also has swine flu to add to its current list of woes!

Beware ... Slumps Ahead!

This road sign on the road between Reefton and Westport provided advance warning of the current economic conditions.

Papabear 'washing' his Dishes in Reefton

It is almost the Queen's birthday weekend so it is off to the West Coast with a party load of scouts. Myself, Roger and Reinhold (aka Papabear - pictured above) paid a reconnaissance visit to Reefton (http://www.reefton.co.nz/) which is to be the destination for this years camp.

Reefton was the first town in the southern hemisphere to enjoy the delights of electricity (scouts take note!) and was one of the major centres of the gold rush in New Zealand.

We have a range of activities planned for the long weekend which include a treasure hunt, a trip around a working gold mine, some tramping and not forgetting Jorja's cooked breakfast with bacon, sausage, egg, baked beans, fried bread and black pudding!

As to to my favourate pie ... well that has to be the one with wild bore from the bakery across the road from the Three Miners! Again scouts take note!

Hopefully Papabear will remember to pack a dish cloth, some washing-up liquid and a tea towel although I feel absolutely sure he will manage without!

Snow-time

It is that time of year again! Snow fell last week on the Torlesse range (and for that matter over large parts of the south and north islands). Mt Hutt http://www.nzski.com/mountain.jsp?site=mthutt one of the ski resorts about 40km from where we live has already opened for business two weeks ahead of schedule with a snow base of 1.2 metres. More snow is forecast too! I can't wait!

In the above photo you can see the snow on the mountains at the bottom of our road.

Weekend in Dunedin

We recently took advantage of a weekend in Dunedin courtesy of Air New Zealand. We have never been to Dunedin before so it was a chance to spend a bit of quality time and explore.


Myself and my wife secured return flights from Christchurch to Dunedin and enjoyed a night in a rather nice hotel for an all inclusive price of NZ$300 (approximate £120) - that price is together and not each!

As soon as we got off the plane we picked up our hire car and drove towards the city. Our first port of call was Lanarch Castle and Gardens. http://www.larnachcastle.co.nz/index.pasp


The castle was built by William James Mudie Larnach in the 1880's. Cutting a long story very short, the house lay in ruins until the 1967 when the house was discovered by Margaret & Barry Barker who have restored the house and gardens over the intervening years.


Our next port of call were the botanical gardens close to the centre of the town.


Then we went to the railway station - what a building that is!

We were very tempted to go on the Taieri Gorge Railway http://www.taieri.co.nz/ but we decided to go to the beach instead.


On the beach at Sandfly Bay we came across some sea lions who were having a bit of a frollick.

So back into town we went and we paid a visit to Baldwin Street which is the steepest street in the world with a gradient of 1 in 2.86.

It was a lovely weekend - Dunedin comes highly recommended!

Larry the Lamb

You are probably thinking. 'Larry ... that's a good name for a lamb!', but this 9 month old Corriedale ram is called Burt. Larry the Lamb is the name given to a scouting activity that Bishopdale & Harewood scout troop run for the senior scouts every three years or so.

Before the event can really get under way the boys have to dig a reasonably large hole and apply some of the knots and lashings they have learnt to create a tripod.

Burt is humanely dispatched and dragged by the scouts towards the freshly dug offal pit and the tripod.

The lamb is then suspended from the tripod to allow it to be skinned.


The scouts take particular interest in the internal organs of the lamb.

Once the gutting is complete, the lamb carcass is covered with a tarpaulin while the oven is prepared.

How to use a Nokia E61 as a broadband modem on 3 in Australia

I have been struggling to use my Nokia E61 as a broadband modem in Perth on the 3 network. After a frustrating day I have finally got it to work. There is nothing on the internet explaining how to get it to work and 3 care are totally unhelpful so I thought I would throw something together.

I am running Windows XP. Below is a point by point guide:

1. Throw away Nokia PC Suite because it does not seem to work - I couldn't make it work anyway!
2. You need to use good old dial up - just like you did pre-broadband days.
3. Goto Start > Connect to > Nokia E61 USB Modem # 2 (OTA) or similar.
4. Set-up the modem to dial *99# as the phone number (it works, believe me!)
5. On the Networking tab, untick 'Enable LCP extension' & 'Enable software compression'.
6. Goto Start > Control panel > Systems > Hardware > Device Manager > Modems : select your modem : Nokia E61 USB Modem # 2 (or similar) > Advanced > 'Set Extra initialisation command' to AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","3services"

Put a dial-up icon upon your desktop. Plug in your phone - I am using USB. Select PC Suite on your phone. Double click on your dial-up icon and ..... you should be connected.

Fire wood prices fall

Last year I was very pleased with myself when I bought a trailer load of firewood for $10. This year I have done one better and bought a trailer load or firewood for ....

$7 (about $2.50). However, I am going to use some of the wood to build some more raised vegetable boxes so it is even more of a bargain!

And the winner is .......

One of the evening events run at the Staveley Scout Camp was Lip Sync which was hosted by the local Kiwi tv stars, the Topp Twins. It is a 'Stars in their Eyes' event but (thankfully!) we were spared the singing!

My 8 year old daughter, Kirsty, decided to take part. Her High School Musical number was changed last minute to Abba's Mama Mia. She has only seen the movie 4 times since Christmas. She performed in front of 250 scouts and she won the solo artist event!

She was well pleased with herself and won a MP3 player!

Canyon Adventure

One of the activities at the Staveley scout camp was a drive in a 4 by 4 followed by a 12 km walk through some spectacular country. The scouts can be seen here negotiating a suspension bridge.

I feel sure Lord Baden Powell would have definitely approved!

Wool Shed Creek Hut

A network of huts is maintained by the Department of Conservation to encourage Kiwi's and tourists to tramp (walk) in the countryside. This is Wool Shed Creek hut which is a few km's away from Staveley near Ashburton.


In this hut you can get warm by the fire, enjoy a hot meal, top up your water, get a good wash, and have a good nights sleep .......


for a whole $15 (about £6). I passed through here when I took a party of scouts through on a day walk at the Staveley Camp 2009. The more I see of NZ the more I love the place!

ps. The flag flying on the hut belongs to Lyttelton Sea scouts! :0)

The Vegetable Garden

This year we have spent a lot of time developing the vegetable garden. We have relatively shallow soil so we have been using raised beds in wooden boxes.

We have been successfully growing radish, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, rhubarb, peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cabbage, sweet corn, peppers, courgettes, sprouts, leeks, basil, lemons, grapefruit, marrows, beetroot and a few other things besides. So far this month we have not had to buy any vegetables or salad.

Sausage & Beef Burger

We have been warned that you should never name your cattle because it makes it more difficult when the day of reckoning comes. However, we have already names our two Hereford Friesian crosses Sausage and Beef Burger. They cost $300 (approx £120) each and will be 350Kg of beef each in 18 months time. After slaughter costs of $1 per kg, the meat will be about $2 (80p) per kg.

Chickens move into their New Accommodation

'Keith the Fencer' came before Christmas and started paddocking up the section. We installed two chicken enclosures 20 metres by 20 metres each. Our existing chickens have moved into one of the enclosures.

We have noticed an improvement in the quality of the eggs since their move. The eggs yolks are now a brilliant orangey yellow colour largely because the chickens are eating grass and insects to supplement their diet.

The second enclosure will shortly be filled with some other birds which we will keep for meat but I cannot decide between chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese. Now what will it be?

intentse newspaper

While at scout camp I was involved with the creation of a un-official camp newspaper called intentse. intentse took a fun look at camp life and the first three editions were printed underground and delivered late at night. Cutting a long story very short, by day four we became part of the camp team and published under the Staveley News banner. PDF's of intense can be found by clicking through to:

http://staveleynewsintentse.googlepages.com/

Six Scout Leaders & a Trampoline

The last week has been spent at the Staveley Scout Camp. About 250 scouts from the South Island converged on the Staveley camp near Methven and had a total blast. Pictured above are some of my colleages from Brussle Scouts (combination of Harewood and Bishopdale troop and Russeley troop) celebrating Jon's 21st birthday. From left to right is Roger, Ian, Peter, Jon, Reinhold and Andrew.