Christmas Photos

I know, that date of this post is a lie. But it's when I would have put up these pictures, if I'd put them up in any reasonable time frame.

10-12-Christmas

Pictures from Switzerland

I've been trying to think of something clever to say about the week or so I spent n Switzerland at the end of October. I'll give up now and just post some photos instead.

Here's the gimmicky flash slide show version:



And here's a a link to the Picasa gallery.

I had a great time there catching up with people and hunting mushrooms. We ate 21 different species of mushroom which we collected ourselves, plus some uncertain additional mushrooms in the stew from the man at the Fully chestnut festival.

Give us a chance!

See N at 1:23.

Lucky escape

I was cycling to work when I heard a loud clatter coming from somewhere around the drivechain on my bike. I pulled over and found a four cm long piece of metal stuck through my rear tyre. It looks like the spike had entered through the centre of the tyre and then been deflected by the tyre liner and come out through the side wall. I pulled the spike out and, since the tyre didn't start to deflate in any obvious way, I carried on to work. There's now a pretty big tear in the wide wall of the tyre though. It probably means another tyre that needs replacing because it was cut to pieces well before it even got close to wearing out.

New Zealand's famous bigot

Sitting in the airport in Hong Kong and Paul Henry's in the South
China Morning Post. Great what one small-minded bigoted jerk can do
for New Zealand's international reputation. It also made me think
about how tenuous our reputation is in other areas; the clean green
myth which we rely on for our tourism billions for example. One
incident which gets the attention of the international media is enough
to change a lot of minds.

...and a close up

"So we reckon it's time that a New Zealand APA pulled on its Dockers, flashed its Blackberry, and generally talked louder than everyone else at the bar. Here it is."

Tuatara APA reverse label

Tuatara APA

I had bought a FYO rigger or two of the Tuatara APA from Regional Wines and Spirits a month or two back. At the time I thought it was one of the tastiest beers in the country. My opinion didn't change much at the launch party (also at RW&S) when the beer was released in bottles.
In general, I prefer my beer fresh from the keg, especially with styles like APA where the large amount of aromatic hops seems to fade with age, but given that the Tuatara APA had just gone into it's bottles (and isn't on the FYO system at RW&S right now) I thought I'd give it a try. It's absolutely as tasty as the fresh brew and the larger size 500ml bottles are a nice too. The labeling is also nicely done. I'll try to post a picture of the back of the bottle next.

Oktoberfest

Mike's Oktoberfest at Urenui outside New Plymouth. Not much to be said really; great weather, great people, great beer. Some curious local entertainment, and some even more curious locals. And (what looked like) good surfing the next day at "The Graveyard", a small beach off the surf highway south of the city.



Picasa pictures here.

Waiopehu Hut

A couple of photos from the trip last weekend to Waiopehu hut with Dmitri, Shriv, Matthias and Lisa. While the rest of the country had gales and storms, we just had clag. No views, but no real wind or rain either.

10-09 Waiopehu Hut

Waiopehu Hut