Weighed in at 89.6kg yesterday morning, so I stacked on 1.2kg in NZ. Not as bad as the 2kg I was expecting but still bad enough to be keen to start exercising again. I’m out for dinner again tonight before Sean, Aisling and Dave head back to Ireland tomorrow, so since tomorrow will mark the official end of the holiday I might celebrate with a swim.

Well we all arrived back safely from NZ on Monday night, straight into Sydney rush-hour traffic, whereupon I realised I hadn’t seen a single traffic light in the previous 16 days.

The trip had started on a weird note as I first got pulled aside for a bomb check when leaving Sydney. A couple of swabs were taken from my pockets & hands and analysed by a chemical sniffer device. I was given the all clear, only to have the bloody drugs dog stop beside me when we landed in Dunedin. I was taken away to have all my bags searched, and when that produced nada I had to undergo the full strip search. Thankfully that didn’t involved the rubber glove treatment, though I was prepared to tell them to get f*cked and submit to an x-ray instead. I did ask whether they had got the dog from Australia after reading the news item a few months ago about the dogs being trained with talcum powder but they assured me it was a Kiwi. It must have been bloody senile as it also picked out two other people who turned out to be clean as well. I reckon the handler can signal the dog to pretend you have drugs so that he can search you at will. If a cop walked up to you in the airport and asked to search your bags for no reason you’d tell him to take a hike, but the drug dog provides ‘probable cause’.

Anyway, after all that excitement it was off to Wanaka (photos) to settle in, grab a Brewski, some food and get ready to hit the slopes the next day. We spent a couple of days in Cardrona (photos) at first to let the beginners settle in and bemoan the lack of snow. Marc got his first lessons on a snowboard and was off the beginner slopes on the second day. Rapid progress was being made.

Things still weren’t looking good on the snow front, but after three days it dumped 20cms overnight and our fortunes were transformed. We went straight to Treble Cone (photos) and myself and Bevin ended up on the Saddle with perfect timing, as the main six man lift had an electrical fault trapping the rest of the crew in the cafe. Even though the snow cover was still a bit sparse we got a few runs in on the Bullet, including a couple of mini 180s & jumps off the side, which was a victory for me as the last time I was on the Bullet I spent 40m sliding on my arse! More snow fell and we were back with a vengeance two days later for an official powder day. This time we rode all the runs in the main basin and made the most of the photo opportunities.

The NZ Snowboard Championships had been on in Cardrona while we were there, but the visibility had been pretty crap so instead myself, Johnny and Bevin drove up to Snow Park for the Quarter Pipe (photos) on Saturday night. It snowed heavily and was bloody cold, but the action was spectacular.

We also entered the local pub curling competition (photos) and Tom, Ashling, Dave and Sean managed to win the thing, beating out the locals. After all that excitement it was time for us to bid Wanaka farewell and head over to Queenstown (photos). First stop was Fergburger, and only then did we check into the apartment.

Bevin and Johnny came over from Wanaka on Tuesday night and we went riding in Coronet Peak the following day. There was practially no snow, and it lived up to its nickname of Concrete Peak so we left after lunch, I said goodbye to Bevin and gave Johnny the mini version of the big brother talk ;-)

We spent the rest of the week at The Remarkables (photos) which also had relatively poor snow, but I passed the time learning to land jumps and ride switch so it wasn’t a total waste. Next year will be the year of rails, tricks and jumps I reckon.

So now I’m back at work wishing I was boarding. Bummer!

Got back from two weeks snowboarding in NZ last night. Lots of photos to organise, so will have an update ready to go soon. Managed to stack on the usual 2kg (!!) so will have to ramp up the exercise program again.

While I went snowboarding, Jacqui and the rest of the crew rented a place in Nelsons Bay, about three hours north of Sydney. Kirsten and Anna supplied photos to document their weekend of sight-seeing and the inevitable party. Check them out here.

First the US insisted on fingerprinting visitors, now they want to issue RFID cards to visitors so they can be scanned more easily. Of course the logicel next step is to track them around the US by scanning at transport hubs, or walking the streets etc.

It shouldn’t be too long before Australia tries this shit too. Since London we’ve already had plans to introduce a national ID card, plans to introduce random searching of people’s bags in public, and plans to make the ‘special powers’ awarded to the police post-911 permanent. If it all slots into place, and with the Liberals (hah!) having a majority in both houses of parliament it’s almost a certainty, we’ll be well on our way to a police state.

So the official line is that we shouldn’t change our daily behaviour because that would be ‘giving in to the terrorists’ but it’s OK to gradually have all sorts of common freedoms and rights sacrificed in the name of security? Sounds like ‘giving in to the terrorists’ to me.

The most powerful man in the world, George W. Bush, thinks that schools should teach ‘intelligent design’ alongside evolution (Source: MSNBC). Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like the idiots are taking over the asylum, with a desire to wind back anything which marks us out as an advanced civilisation – education, tolerance of other lifestyles, some semblance of peace etc.? Maybe it’s time to look for a cave and fashion myself a club….

Juan Cole has a nice synopsis on how we got to be where we are today: Background to the War On Terror

Myself, Tom and Dave spent the last two weekends down at Perisher Blue, getting the legs dialled in before heading to NZ. The weather wasn’t really conducive to photo taking, but I managed to get a few organised anyway.

Here they are…

Read this quote today:

There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. – Arthur Schopenhauer

The sad thing is that nowadays you can safely remove the ‘before the age of five’ requirement.

I’ve just had my first weekend snowboarding this season and it was great fun. Myself, Tom and Dave went down to Perisher for two days. Saturday was crystal clear skies and decent snow. Pretty hard packed with a bit of cover over the top. I managed to fall twice within 5 minutes of putting the board on, but after that it was all good and I was getting some nice fast carves in.

Dave’s a skiing novice, having only done one week in St. Anton last year, so we cruised around the easy slopes for most of the weekend, with Tom giving him tips and correcting mistakes. He made pretty rapid progress, such that we were coming down Interceptor by Sunday afternoon. He also signed up for a private lesson with Franz The Austrian yesterday which went really well, so he’ll be flying by the time we get abck down there on Friday.

This time I’ll take my new camera out and get some action shots. I decided to leave it in the hotel last weekend until I got my technique dialled in. No point falling over on the new camera all the time!

Oh yeah, got up this morning and got a weight session in too.

W: 1 session