April 2007

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DATE	Click on any blog entry to read it
4	Collingwood Street Trolley Derby
6	Nelson Cycling Scene
10	Daylight savings time in bizarro world
14	Tidbits
19	Sunday Walk
20	Musings on recent events
22	Trekking NZ style
26	An amazing experience

4 April: Collingwood Street Trolley Derby

So, once again, I'm weeks behind in blogging. I've decided to add a few pictures from the Collingwood Street Trolley Derby that took place in mid-March (yes, I know it is early April, get over it). So this is basically a soap box derby for both kids and older kids.

Anyway, you know how it works. Find a street with a hill, block it off, add some hay bails to the sides, and a banner at the finish line. Now, you have a course. Then you invite kids to enter the pieced together carts that their dad spent hours labouring over. This is really a contest of whose dad can build the fastest contraption that will safely carry his child down the hill. Well I only witnessed one wreck but did see a girl with several bandages from a crash earlier in the day. Several of these trolleys made it to 40+ km/ hr. This event lasts about 5 hours from preliminary rounds through the final. Just after the final they had a mini-aerial show. Another nice family event in this small town of ours.

The course is set, finish line officially sponsored by a grocery store.

Typical cart, flying down the hill. He seems to be way in front, however....

This guy was way ahead of him. Nice, head first. At least he has a helmet.

This one looks a tad safer but actually wrecked after I took this picture.

And here is how they get them back to the top.

6 April: Nelson Cycling

Yes, I know you are simply amazed that I have blogged two times in a row. Well since I just got back from another crazy ride (70kms), I figured I would update everyone on the cycling scene down here.

I'll start by saying it is pretty hard core - both mountain and road. I've said it before and I'll say it again - if someone is wearing cycling gear, they aren't wearing it just to look the part, they got game. That said, not everyone is decked out in new cool gear. The young guys that do all the racing have the hi-tech equipment but the rest seem to just piece everything together. One guy in the Tuesday races still uses toe clips with his tennis shoes - and he usually is in the top 3 at the finish. A guy I ride with still has a full steel frame bike that is about 15 years old - the shifters are even on the down tube...wha???

I go out on Thursday rides with a couple guys I've met through work. Wayne is really into cycling and his goal is to get a top placing in all the races he participates in. He finished top 5 of his age bracket in the NZ mountain bike championships. He's mid 40's and extremely fit - he's a top rate mountain bike rider. Anton is the other and he's about 6'4'' and is the one with the ancient wheels I mention above. He's great to draft behind and he's very powerful on the flats. I've never ridden with guys like this - they just don't lose their energy and they are strong. When they turn it on, I can't hold their wheels. This is partly due to my loss of fitness considering I don't bike 12 miles back and forth to work 4 days a week anymore.

I'll focus on the road riding since that is where I spend my time, they have a similar schedule on the mountain bike side as well.

First, the clubs.

There are several cycling clubs down here that anyone can join. Star & Garters, Village Cycles (bike shop), and Stewart Cycle City (bike shop) are the ones I'm aware of but I know Cycle Surgery (a new bike shop in town has a following as well). Each has their own jersey and weekly schedule bunch training rides.

Now, the races. These are interesting because anyone can enter.

Every Tuesday during daylight savings there is the Tuesday Blast which is basically a 30-40km race (they even have time trials). This costs $3 and draws a fairly large crowd - usually around 50 - 70 riders. These are unofficial races (no prizes beyond getting your name on the placing list on the website) and everyone goes out very hard - typical average speed is 38-40kms/ hr. It's a regular peloton as well - a group of 20 riders taking up the roadways isn't welcomed by the drivers around here. They have A - C grades and a recreational. A & B is pretty hard core so I've been doing C and still can't get top 5 (Anton and Wayne usually finish top 5 in B grade). These guys can ride. And it isn't just young guys, a large number are in their mid to late 40's. These rides don't take just a physical toll, they can be quite stressful. You have 20 some people riding in two pacelines where the touch of tires might result in a crash - not pretty if you are doing 45kms/ hr. You have to be very aware of those around you the entire ride.

Every Saturday there is a longer race, much like the Tuesday race but people don't go out as hard. I've yet to participate in one of these but there are a few later this month that I might try.

Then spread out the rest of the year are the official races. Only for the racers, enough said.

Finally, the rides.

About every other week there are the larger organised rides. These are similar to the ones you get in the States where there is an entry fee, you get a t-shirt, and there is a large event at the end with food and music. The people who start early are the racers but the majority of the riders are more of the recreational nature. Cost and distance (usually over 100kms) is the main reason I stay away from these, I'll be doing a few next year.

So if anyone comes down, bring your wheels and we'll do one of the many rides we have to offer.

10 April: Daylight savings time in bizarro world

As we are on an opposite calendar of sorts from most of you reading this, we’ve just “fallen back” off of daylight savings time a few weeks ago. The change meant sunsets and darkness starting at 730pm or so initially, which now have plummeted to shortly after 6pm only a few weeks later. We’ll quickly get down to the “what the hell, it’s dark at 5pm!” days here in another month or so.

Of course I remember this time of year taking place in October for the first 35 years of my life, and I found it completely depressing to be in the dark upon waking and coming home from work. The onset of winter was never something I looked forward to simply because of those days of mostly darkness. But it would only last a couple of months, if that, because I had the Christmas season to cheer me up—isn’t it everyone’s favourite time of year? And once Christmas is over, at least you’ve turned the corner on a new year and over the hump as far as the time change is concerned: soon the days will be getting longer once again.

Don and I came to a realisation last weekend: living in the southern hemisphere, there is no upside to coming off daylight savings time!! Two months after daylight savings ends, we don’t have the most fabulous holiday of the year to look forward to. In fact, we only have MAY, who cares about MAY? There ain’t nothing special in May. Or June, or July or August, or further on for that matter!

I think we’ve just gotten the shaft here down on the “south side!” Up top there, you get Christmas in winter, and full summer with nice warm weather, separated evenly by six months in between. We get it all lumped together once each year, and then the other nine months of the year are just…months.

So, to avoid those long, long months of winter and only winter, we’ve declared June 29, formerly our wedding anniversary, to be Second Christmas. We probably won’t be able to find a tree, but we’ll still fake like it’s Christmas day and get presents and open them. But only for each other, not for you all—better not raise expectations for friends and family! Nope, this is a selfish, completely non-giving version of Christmas where we go to sleep on June 28 in anticipation of waking up to bundles of gifts only for ourselves sitting somewhere on the floor next to a wall with no decoration. It sounds amazing, doesn’t it?!! I’m getting excited already just thinking about it…hmmm, better start that gift list for Don!

Yes, that is the solution we’ve come up with, we’ll see if it cuts that nasty dark winter in half and gets us through to the bright side.

14 April: Tidbits

Here we go with a few snippets of news:

* I discovered that we can vote here, at least in the Nelson Mayoral election later this year. It seems that if you reside here for longer than a month and have a postal address, you can register. It's unclear whether or not this means any general (for PM or parliament) election because the form was a central government type form, but I've filled it out and sent it to Wellington and should be allowed to vote in the Mayoral election at the least. How exciting! Don has yet to get his form filled out, surely that will happen last minute.

* We had our first snow on the nearby mountains a couple of nights ago, the indication of fall and a particularly chilly fall night. This morning the upstairs is only 13 degrees (about 55F) and the downstairs a bit chillier, 11 ish (or about 50F). We put the heat timer on the oil heater in the bedroom for the first night last night and it worked like a charm. But yesterday we had a pretty cloudy day, so the sun didn't make its sweep across our upstairs, warming it to its usual 25+ degrees (above 80F). The highest it got was about 21 (about 70F) and now this morning, it's quite chilly. Don is getting the heaters situated for the upstairs as I write. And all the wool clothing, socks, blankets, hats, and other undergarments, have made their first appearance this year.

* Job status: Don set me up to work at a small family business for a few hours here and there. I've done between 5 - 10 hours each of the last two weeks working mostly on database things. So, I've got that second job, at least temporarily (what's new!), for a few weeks still as this family business tries to branch out and grow into new areas. The owners, Martin and Karen, are just lovely people to work with. They have three sons, two now grown and living in Aussie, and Karen and I manage to talk through most of my work shift when she and I are in the office alone. She's very interested in the rest of the world and we've already touched on the subject of politics! Most people we run into just can't wait to get to the topic of Bush.

As far as Council goes, I finally got word a couple of weeks ago that the my job--which I still fill temporarily through an agency and have since August!--would be listed after Easter. A week or two after, to be specific. Almost immediately I was being asked by people if I would apply, and I responded that I wouldn't believe anything until I put the ad up on the website myself (which is my job, maintenance of the web site). Sure enough, week #1 has passed and no ad is up. We'll just see. I joked with one of my co-workers that I probably wouldn't try for it as I'd had a good enough run as a temp, got a good enough feel for the place by now.

* Our new house (btw, pictures of the house furnished with our stuff are forthcoming, I promise) gleefully came with a dishwasher. But apparently both Don and I have had trouble recalling how to use one. Because I've been so happy to have one, I just throw the dishes into the machine straight away with no rinsing--I mean, wasn't that the point of the dishwasher? Don has always maintained that you have to rinse first. It seems that he has also tried to save energy and has used the lowest settings, FAST wash and ECONOMY wash, rather than the normal wash. Clearly these two settings don't get the job done: between the two of us, we've had to rewash many dishes over the past month, some by hand, because of our poor dishwasher recall. What's worse is the machine seems to be running every night, how can two people use so many dishes!

19 April: Sunday Walk

We, at Angela's suggestion, decided to head off on a bit of a tramp on Sunday. Angela just uploaded some information about a couple local walks on the City Council site so she suggested we try them out first hand. The Fuchsia and Kahikatea tracks are both are located up the York Valley which is about 5 minutes from our place. For a track so close to the city, the route we took (Kahikatea) felt fairly isolated. You can still hear cars in the distance but they are overpowered by the bird calls. Coming from Colorado, I was amazed that we only came across 2 groups of people. As a comparison, go to Chautauqua in Boulder on a Sunday morning and you would run across hundreds, if not thousands, of people. It was really nice to head out on a hike within a few kms of the house and be able to get away.

To the left is a good representation of the majority of the walk - most of the trail is amongst the native bush and the sky above only visible through the heavy cover of the tree canopy. Click on the photo for a larger version.

As we make our way to the top, the views of the surrounding area are spread out in the photo on the right.

Views from the top. This is looking out over the majority of Nelson proper, the port, and Boulder Bank.

More views from the top, this time looking accross the bay towards the Rabbit Island, Motueka, the mountain ranges of Kahurangi National Park, and the sandy beaches of Abel Tasman National Park.

Once we reached the top we were also greeted by the standard placard that highlights and names all the key features of the surrounding area. Included with this nice bit of information was something a bit more unsettling.

Well, that's it for now but look forward to another hike in the near future.

Your comments:

Your hike looked like a good one. The first photo looked like something from the Heil Ranch Trail [Colorado]. Are you planning a future hike that would include staying at some of the huts in the Kahurangi Natl. Park? They look interesting.
Mom and Dad
~Don says: "I will go tramp in Kahurangi but probably tent camp. I've heard staying in the huts isn't as peaceful as tent camping because they are usually packed and much less private. People have recommended to tent camp near the hut so you have your own space and can go to bed when you want."

20 April: Musings on recent events

I find myself these last two weeks having many sad thoughts for recent events in my home country. The two events are very different from one another, but in the same way they bring to light reasons why, perhaps, I decided to move to a country that many have described as “20 or 30 years behind the times.”

Last week the Don Imus debate moved from an apologetic, remorse-filled Imus on Monday to a fired, jobless and silenced Imus by Friday. Each day the news for Imus got worse as the storm continued to rage. In New Zealand the story was covered on the evening news, but mostly with regard to his remarks and the daily update on his status.

Don (my Don, not Imus Don) and I were talking about the Imus debate this morning. I am so disturbed by his firing and the resulting glee that he’s been “punished” and has been given his “consequences” that I could scream, but mostly I am sad.

What Don Imus said was hateful, disgusting and awful, period. I don't think there can be argument about the content and intent of his remarks. But it’s one thing to fire someone in your office place for saying a bigoted comment when his/her job is a secretary or something, it’s another thing to fire a man whose job is to speak. Remember the First Amendment? I mean, have you heard Howard Stern? The KKK? Hello??!!

Imus’ job is to talk; you either like it, or you don’t. You can listen or not. YOU have a choice. How did it come to be that the real rulers of the United States (and soon the entire world), the corporations, silenced this man within the span of 5 days? How did our democratic country get to this point where censorship is the punishment to free speech? I think the firing of Don Imus was effectively a form of censorship.

For decades the KKK, as one example, has been an evil entity but they have always been allowed to protest, to speak out when they choose. As a country we agree that the First Amendment gives them this right, even though most people despise what the KKK stands for and says.

On day one of the furor, Don apologized in near tears on his show. He proceeded throughout the rest of the week to be contrite and make right his wrong (like speaking to the Rutgers team in person for 3 hours, speaking to African-American leaders and groups etc.). I cannot believe that in five days a man's 30-year career in broadcasting is now completely over because of one comment for which he expressed remorse and regret.

#1: forgiveness people, can any of us really cast a stone? #2: FREE SPEECH, you’re losing it so fast it should make your head spin.

IF he is a bigot, and I don’t know if he is, I only know what he said on one occasion was bigoted, then he will suffer consequences by being labeled as such. Let his listeners decide if they want to hear him anymore, let the sponsors decide whether to financially support him, don’t forceably silence him!! The United States is about free speech, if you punish free speech then you don’t have a country, you don’t have a democracy, you have fascism. Let MORE speech be the answer to hate speech and the consequence to bigoted speech. Speak out against him, use your wallet or turn the dial.

Now, this week the horrible Virginia Tech shooting (I refuse to use hate-infused language like “massacre” or “madman" (see NBC and Fox News) because I am sooooo down on the media right now) has been in all our minds. Each day’s news—prominent on our NZ evening newscast for the first 5 minutes every night so far—brings to light how troubled this man was, especially with the information he sent to in that package to NBC. What a tragedy all the way around.

As someone who was at work in an office a mere 15 minutes from Columbine High School watching on TV the dreadful actions in April 1999 as they unfolded, I continue to be horrified by mass shootings like this. Question: is there a reason they seem to happen in schools?

As much as I truly feel for those 32 students and teachers, especially the Holocaust survivor who was teaching in his 70s still, I cannot help but feel empathy for the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui.

I keep thinking the same thing every day: what happened in this boy’s life that created so much hate? The vile things he said on his video tape, the vicious photographs, his writings. He was filled with hate and he was only 23 years old. You aren’t born with that hate, you don’t have it in your genes. What did that poor boy go through to become so filled up with anger? Does it reflect on all of us, how we treat each other and how our culture sees people who are “different?" I heard Seung-Hui cited the two Columbine shooters in his writings…all three of these boys were “loners” who suffered so much by the words of others around them, what does one human say to another to inspire this type of act?

Rather than understand just a tad bit, what is the response of so many in the media I’ve seen? Hate him back. Paint him as a loon, as a madman, as crazy and air that video and show those photos and read aloud his essays.

Isn’t hate the easy answer? It’s so much easier to hate Seung-Hui and Imus than it is to understand, or even forgive. I realise sitting where I do that I do not have a loved one hurt by these events (either shot or called a bigoted remark). But there isn’t a huge number of people directly affected by these events; the jury is made up, rather, of the entire public. It’s the public’s reaction that stings, and from where I stand there was a mob-mentality for Imus, probably because so many stood to gain from his downfall. And I worry that people will come to hate Seung-Hui only because of his actions and think nothing of who he was…or why he was who he was. And then hate breeds more hate, and more hate.

In my 20s I remember myself very clearly as having a personal philosophy that was black-and-white. It’s either this way or the other. I appreciate so much the wisdom that comes with age (and those who tried to tell me at the time) and now I see much more grey. The world is too complex to come up with black answers like hate, or white answers like bigotry. No simple answer exists for so much happening in our world now.

Unfortunately, 'black-or-white' conversation was all I heard in the public realm when I lived in the States, black or white solutions, every answer or solution was so clearly this way or another way. No talk, no discussion, no blending of ideas, no common sense. Only my way or your way.

I don’t find that so much in New Zealand. People talk and there is debate, both personal (like friends over dinner) and public (politicians, on the news, etc.) and it gets all of us to reasonable solutions. Not always, but mostly. I hope it stays that way and doesn't catch up with the rest of the world, or at the least the States.

I know that I am tired of all the hate and agony and anger. I am so tired of hearing about events like these and how everyone gets hurt in the end. No one gets away clean, not even a shooter who turns the gun on himself or the millionaire radio guy, and least of all those murdered.

Your comments:

Thank you Angela for your insight and clarity of expression of thoughts and feelings on these issues. It seems that no one is willing to take the time to listen to the language or the meanings of any people in this society. When I took the family of one of the murdered students at Kent State into her room a couple of days after her death, I decided then not be part of any institution that supports violence as its creed. However, today we are faced with a country led by people who wish to bully anyone that does not agree with them. The resulting powerlessness of the bullied is what eventually leads to violence.
~ Dad and Mom LaCamera

22 April: Trekking NZ Style

So we're out camping the other day and after a bit of reading in our tent, we hear some voices outside. Seems a couple others have set up camp nearby and are kicking it out front of our nylon enclosure. Here's the view upon opening our tent door. Ok, three people relaxing after a long tramp.

I didn't mention before but we are way out in the wilderness, at least 20kms from the nearest bit of civilization. So I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed the food and drink they had carted along with them. We're talking Pringles, margarita mix, tequila, and even nice margarita glasses. Crazy. I know this is a typical scene for those who car camp, but trampers?

Actually, this wasn't us camping at all but is the advertisement on the side of the local Kathmandu outdoor goods store. Beyond the fact that they show these people replenishing with junk food and alcohol after a long day of hiking, the background scenery look nothing like NZ but rather bears a striking resemblance to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The funny part is we've walked by this wall numerous times over the last several months and never even noticed this until Angela pointed it out about a month ago. Pretty funny isn't it? Would you ever imagine seeing this on the side of REI? Anyway, as long as someone else carries it, I'm fine with it.

26 April: An amazing experience

Yesterday New Zealand celebrated ANZAC day, the day each year that Australia and New Zealand remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It is a national holiday and as such, we had the day off. We decided to drive out to Farewell Spit again, but this time to venture off to the west coast. In October we drove to Farewell Spit and headed inland to the Golden Bay side.

I would have thought I was in an entirely different part of the country, the terrain is vastly different than the east side we saw a few months ago. Even within a short 20 minute walk, we started at farmland and moved into beech forest, then to sand dunes, and finally to a gorgeous beach with huge rocks that are probably cones for volcanoes.

About one minute after we walked to the beach, Don noticed that there was a seal colony right nearby, almost on shore. We walked immediately to it and saw a half dozen seal pups frolicking in the pools of sea water within this rock formation. I also noticed a tall blonde man who was in the process of dropping trou to get into his swimsuit. He got naked right there and pulled on his swim trunks to go play and swim with the seals.

It was only the three of us right there, and for the next hour or so we played with, pet and photographed these adorable pups. I was a bit nervous about getting bit--there was a story on the news not a week prior about a woman getting mauled by a seal--but they were so adorable and clearly interested in all three of us. They followed us out of the water onto the beach a couple of times when we walked away and they would jump around and play right in front of us for our amusement. Here are the photos from the day.

A note of apology, you'll have to forgive us because so many of the photos were too good to not post, so there are alot!

	The walk started out in farmland (bypassing sheep poo) and took us on the top of hills overlooking the most lovely pastureland.
	This may look like snow, but it is sand dune, immaculate dunes of white sand that were everywhere on the hills just outside this beach. It was like a walk on soft, poofy snow.
	Photographer Don snapping photos on left ... above are the pools of water created by rocks covered with mini shells that cut into my feet to walk on, but well worth it!
	Our first seal literally greeted us on the beach (see left) and then crawled back to the pool, where I walked out to meet and greet him.
	Some seals stayed to my right a bit farther away and swam around without coming over, but 5 stayed close and performed for the near-naked German guy (above).
	Here are the 5 that played nearby...and the German guy kept getting them to come nearby. Up top I snapped this photo of a near-dead sea urchin thingy, clear, clear water!
	And of course they wanted to perform a variety of tricks for us, too bad we didn't have a rubber ball! They let us pet them as they went by and floated upside down lots.
	This little one was the cutest, he would come the closest and allow us to pet him, and he was the one who followed when we walked away.
	Finally the German guy jumped right in the water and the seals swam around him, but here the little one would follow. On left see his two siblings protecting him!