adventure city

looking across to Christchurch below
see all photos »

With Alister living on the south island I thought I'd mix things up a little and instead of him doing the usual trip north to say 'hi' I instead jumped on a plane and ventured south. In preparation of my arrival it seemed that Alister was fostering a great desire to send me back on my return flight knackered from all the exercise and outdoor activities that are readily available to him. To be fair though, I couldn't have asked for a better time.

I was blessed with brilliant weather for my three days down there, and even the massive storm predicted on the final day, along with many severe weather warnings, proved nothing more than a typical Wellington summers day – "you call this breeze high wind do you?!..."

we got to enjoy about 15kms or riding along the rolling ridge line with outstanding views

riding along the Port Hills
see all photos »

Thirty minutes after touching down in Christchurch and Ali already had us parked up on the side of a road, 'gearing up' for a road ride. He had kindly borrowed a very nice road bike for me, from a friend of his, plus he had all the gear I would need, right down to arm warmers and socks! Because I had never been to Chch before Ali figured the best way for me to see the city, and get a bearing of the landscape, was to see it all from the top of the Port Hills… yes, I said the top! Hmm something made me think that my 'two minutes to school on my granny bike everyday', in Japan, wasn't quite the kind of riding I would have needed to be doing to be in "cycle shape".

what views!
see all photos »

With the sun beaming down on us we made our ascent, winding our way slowly (due to me being the "pace" setter) to the summit road. Once there, we got to enjoy about 15kms or riding along the rolling ridge line with outstanding views on either side, before we reached the end of the range and got to make our speedy decline back into town.

After safely negotiating all of the high speed bends, bumps and cattle grids on our way back to town, I finally got to dismount from my bike, and give my arse a much needed break from the seat, outside a nice café where we had some lunch to refuel after our 40km, "this is what Christchurch looks like" excursion.

perfect technique
see all photos »

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered round the city centre, with Ali taking the role of tour guide and showing me the highlights and instructing me on a bit of the history.

Then it was time to cruise out of the city and out to the army base, which Ali calls home. As someone who has only ever been "on base" once before, up north, I was bursting with questions, and over the next three days my knowledge of army life increased ten fold.

One thing I definitely now know for sure is that officers are very lucky with their meals. We went to the officers mess for dinner and I quickly learnt all myths surrounding horrible army food definitely only apply to training soldiers or those out in the field. A three course gourmet meal from a menu that changes once a week, all for just $4… uh, that's pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good! Imagine that, every night not having to worry about cooking or dishes, having three courses of amazing food cooked for you and all for just $4! I would have no problems hitting 70kg if I lived on base, that's for sure.

running through the course
see all photos »

Friday was assault course day. Both myself and another guy who was visiting his cousin, were dressed in fatigues and dragged out to the assault course to have a run though it. We had a PTI guy take us through the course first to make sure we know the technique for each obstacle and to be on site as a safety precaution. Once we had given everything a lash and felt confident, we were given sixty seconds to sprint back to the start line or else feel the wrath of press-ups. This was my first taste of army thinking, as once I had made it back in time I relaxed but then once the slowest person crossed the line we were ALL given the press-ups, that hadn't really occurred to me. After our 30, we were given 10 more, just to really feel the burn. I tell ya, turning around after that, the course didn't quite look so fun!

a water obstacle
see all photos »

We split into two teams of three. I was with Al and a female officer who had never run the course. Our opponents were the PTI guy, a beast of an athlete called Alby, and his cousin. The main rule was that you could never spread out your team by more than two obstacles, so a "team" would always act as a team.

Everything was going well until we hit the leopard crawl trenches. These are the trenches of gravel and water, with the barbed wire coiled above them, awaiting the first bum that sticks out that little bit too high. The idea being that the infliction of pain is in order to teach the owner to keep a low profile (a very important concept when you have bullets flying around you… or so they say). The main problem of the trenches was the fact you crawl out at the other end soaking wet and now have to carry all that extra weight. However, our team pushed through to the end and scaled the final ten foot wall to take out first place. Job well done.

leopard crawling through the trenches
see all photos »

That afternoon we kept our winning team together and the three of us drove out to the Port Hills, where Al and I had ridden the day before, but this time we got to drive along the summit. We parked up in the middle of nowhere, unloaded a couple of bags of gear, and set off down the hill side in search of some rock, of which we were about to climb. Yes, like all good instructors, Al must have figured, yesterday we did legs, today it's time to work out the arms!

With the sun dropping quickly, we didn't have too much time to play around, so Al was pretty quick to lead climb and set all the holds in place and get the climb ready for us rookies at the bottom. It was the first climbing I had done since Boxing Day at Mt Maunganui, and my two and a half year break was definitely showing. My complete lack of form or technique proved useful for only one thing, making what should have been a relatively easy climb into a marathon, and I gave my arms the work out they so badly need!

the winning team
see all photos »

The second climb I was with it a bit more and got up with relative speed, but once at the top I had been set of the task of undoing all the rope and abseiling my way down. Although I had Al at the bottom talking me through it, and I trust him implicitly, I was more concerned that I would miss-tie something, or forget to put in a safety hold. Still, we got there in the end and before long I was heading back down to the inviting safety of the green tussocks below.

My final day proved to be an early start, and another day of working out the legs. Figuring I had already been for a road ride, this time we secured two mountain bikes to the back of Al's car, and set off in Subaru convoy with Alby, his cousin, and Alby's finance, Ruth.

Christchurch buildings
see all photos »

We had wanted to go to a track up in some foothills, an hour and a half north of Chch, but with "severe" weather warnings on the loose we figured the foothills of the mountains were probably not the best place to be heading, so we cut our drive short and instead parked up at Bottleneck Lake (which incidentally doesn't really have any lake?!).

BottleneckLake is a large forest park area next to the beach made up of rolling sand dunes, dirt tracks and pony trails. It has been specifically set up for mountain bikers, horse riders and runners. The paths criss-cross all over the place and make for quite the fun day trip. A friend of Ruth's met us there so in the end we had a six person group to navigate our way around. As a pretty novice mountain biker it was pretty good terrain to get a feel for things and to be able to work my way up to a comfortable speed on the turns. Like rock climbing, it had been a long time between mountain bike rides, but again, like most things in life, it didn't take long before I was right where I left off.

army porn - I kid you not this was in the toilet
see all photos »

After a fish n chips lunch at New Brighton beach (and this is meant to be winter remember!) Ali and made our way back to base, via a quick stop off in town to pick up some tennis balls. As soon as we got back to his place we grabbed a couple of racquets and hit the tennis court for some rallies. However, the wind had really picked up by now and was proving to be a little too menacing for our game so we packed it in and went inside to hang out for a bit before my flight north.

I had reservations about whether I would be leaving Chch at all to be honest, as the wind was really gusting in now, and I more concerned of what it would be doing in Wellington, especially when all my weather updates from Karen has been shockers. Still, the flights seemed to be all on schedule, so it was time for me to part ways with my big brother, again. It's always sad saying goodbye when you really have no idea when you will be seeing them again. Fingers crossed its sooner rather than later as I miss my big bro.

our home made grandstand on Al's bed for a movie
see all photos »

The flight north was the bumpiest of my life, and I've had some bumpy ones. Our little plane was getting battered about like Rodney King on a side walk on the ascent, but that proved to be nothing compared with the beating it got coming down in the capital! Safe to say, when we finally touched down I thanked my lucky stars I was alive and everyone had a laugh when the pilot announced, "Welcome to Wellington, we're sorry about the rough landing, you should have seen it from this end!"