Great story this morning about a dolphin “who rescued to stranded whales”:http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/save-the-whales-how-moko-the-dolphin-came-to-the-rescue-of-a-mother-and-her-calf-795025.html in New Zealand. The two “pygmy sperm whales”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_sperm_whale had been discovered by locals, and repeated efforts to free them had come to naught.

"They kept getting disoriented and stranding again," Mr Smith said. "They obviously couldn't find their way back past [the sandbar] to the sea." He was beginning to contemplate killing the pair, to save them from a slow, painful death, when Moko – as local people have named the dolphin – arrived. Moko, who often plays with humans at Mahia, approached the whales and guided them 200 yards along the shoreline and out through a channel into the open sea.

Had a perfect start to the day today: up early, down to the beach for a run, then a swim in perfect azure water, then coffee and toasted banana bread for breakfast, before heading home to start work. Can’t get much better than that!

Also, yesterday I finally got around to uploading my photos from “Tiff & Nick’s Wedding”:/albums/35.

George W. Bush, as promised, “has vetoed a bill”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/10/usa.humanrights which would have outlawed the CIA’s use of waterboarding to torture suspects.

Bush said that any attempt to restrict CIA interrogators would weaken them in the fight against al-Qaida. He claimed the CIA had used its own secret methods to foil several attacks, including plans to attack Heathrow, to fly a plane into the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles and to hit the US consulate in Karachi.

In the UK meanwhile, there are growing demands for an independent inquiry into the use of UK territory by the CIA’s rendition flights after it emerged last week that flights had landed at Diego Garcia.

Last month, David Miliband, the foreign secretary, apologised to MPs, admitting that contrary to "earlier explicit assurances" two flights had landed at Diego Garcia, the British Indian Ocean territory where the US has a large airbase. He said the flights had refuelled there, and each had had a single detainee on board who did not leave the aircraft. British and US officials have refused to give details about the two detainees other than that one was in Guantánamo Bay and the other had been released. Miliband said he had asked his officials for a list of all flights on which rendition had been alleged.

I’ve been back in Sydney for three weeks now and have been looking for an apartment all that time. Since we left 15 months ago, the rental scene has gone crazy, mainly due to ever-increasing interest rates. The Reserve Bank raised the cash rate to 7.25% last week and, since the credit crunch increases the spread between the cash rate and the rate at which the banks can actually borrow from each other, most banks plan to “add their own extra increase”:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23335011-36418,00.html on top, meaning a variable rate mortgage will cost at least 9%.

Most first-time buyers are wary of entering the market in these conditions and are looking to rent instead, increasing competition for an already scarce resource. Sydney is “full”, with 99% occupancy of rental properties, so there have been times in the last two weeks when we’ve gone to view a place and had up to 70 other people show up as well! On the plus side, I did make it on to national TV when a news crew showed up at a place we were viewing to do a piece on how bad the rental market is, and I could be seen walking in to the apartment in the background. Fleeting glimpses of fame…

Anyway, we have applications in for two places, so hopefully one will come through with the goods.

When I landed in Singapore Airport, en route to Australia, I stepped out of the plane into temperatures of 29C. 10 days previously I’d been lounging in Banff and the thermometer read -34C! It’s going to take some time to adjust!

220 years after arriving, Australia’s government will today finally “say sorry”:http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-nation-apologises/2008/02/12/1202760301358.html for the wrongs committed against the Aboriginal people; for taking their land, for stealing their children and for what at times was almost state sponsored genocide. In response, Aboriginal representatives performed the first ever welcoming ceremony before the new Parliament opened today.

The text of the apology is as follows:

"I move: That Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written. We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."

That’s it, my season is over. I’m in Banff now with a couple of days to kill before flying out of Calgary, ending a 14-month sojourn in Canada. After leaving Fernie, I went up to “Kicking Horse”:http://kickinghorseresort.com/ to meet up with Tom, Dave, Rob and Paul for a few days riding there.

Unfortunately, the resort has gone down in my estimation since last year. It’s still got awesome terrain, and great steeps off the ridges, but their lift system is useless and they still can’t get a decent internet connection set up on the hill. For some unknown reason they don’t run the one chair which lets you access the good terrain on the front of the hill, forcing everyone to use the gondola, so on days when there’s a bit of new snow, you may have to queue for 45mins to get up the hill. They also like stopping the gondola during the day so that they can do avalanche control, stranding everyone down at the bottom of the hill. Why they can’t either do it in the morning before the resort opens, or just prevent access to the bowl which they’re currently bombing, leaving the others open, is beyond me.

Despite all that, we still got some good riding in over the four days, so it was a decent end to the season. Right now I’m sitting in Banff and it’s -34C outside incl. wind chill, so Canada seems determined to give me a proper winter send-off!

I’ve uploaded new photos as well: “Australia Day”:/albums/33 - “Fernie”:/albums/32 - “Kicking Horse”:/albums/34

The last week in Fernie was awesome; it just didn’t stop snowing! In six days there was only one morning that we woke up without seeing 30cm+ of fresh, champagne powder which had fallen overnight, and by the end of the week 176cm of new snow was on the ground. What this meant was that myself, Nathan and Floody were up early every morning, queuing for first lifts and just ripping around the mountain, enjoying waist deep powder by the end of the week as evidenced by the photo of me cruising through the Cedar Bowl.

Dell, our retiree neighbour, who has been in the area his entire life, proclaimed it the best week of snow in 30 years, and I’m not about to disagree. Certainly, it’s the best snow I’ve ever boarded in, and the perfect send-off from Fernie.

So, this is what happens when you weigh around 90kg, you attempt a 360° jump and you wipe out badly… you smash the base-plate on one of your bindings! Luckily Burton have a lifetime warranty, so when I get back to Oz I should get a free replacement. In the meantime, I bought a second-hand replacement which will see me through the remaining week of this season.

I nominated myself as the only member of Team Extreme as I’m the only one who smashed some gear trying new stuff, and yes, I accept that Team Crap could also apply!

After a week without snow, yesterday it returned with a vengeance. We awoke to 27cm of fresh overnight, and it just kept going, so this was the scene which greeted myself and Nathan this morning… 44cm overnight, for a total of 71cm in the last 48hrs. Best of all? It’s Monday, so no weekend crowds.

We made it up bright and early for fresh tracks, so I decided to hold my video camera for the first run, only to have it marred by a knobhead skier who decided to pull a hockey stop into my path, sending me flying. Before I’d stopped sliding he was abusing me in lots of colourful language, and when I pointed out that it was he who pulled the sudden swerve and stop into my path, he pointed out that he was stopping to wait for his young daughter. Nice anger management and vocabulary he was teaching her there!

Anyway, holding the camera sans glove wasn’t the smartest thing to do in -23C, so I’m still dealing with slight frostbite six hours later. The first few runs were pretty sketchy, as a couple of days ago I’d moved my bindings forward to a fully centered stance to make it easier to change back and forth between regular and switch. That change was haunting me on a monster powder day as the front of my board just wanted to dive under the snow, so when we decided to switch to the new side of the hill I dipped into rentals and moved them back. After that I was ripping through the powder, landing nice jumps off cat-tracks and all was well with the world.

I’ve only 5 days left here in Fernie before heading off to Kicking Horse to meet up with Tom, Dave & Rob, and shitloads of powder is the perfect send off!