Day Trip with Marek and my new rig!

So here she is my NZ girl, what shall I name her? I bought this 1996 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon AKA Outback. I was told she is green, right? ;) She treated us very well today easily cruising up over a few big hills and taking the winding corners w/o a squeal. Not so great on petrol consumption 11L/100Km. Marek said it best, "Dis is not so good." Marek is a partner in crime here in NZ. He has relocated here from Czech and will be staying until his visa is up next Nov. He's a good guy and hard to understand sometimes but we manage pretty good.

So I ask Marek to head out on this road trip with me to the beach. I was having a look see at the map a couple days before and picked out this place. When I told Marek he said he had been there a few times already and loved it. These are his pics.


This here is the scene when we first roll up. I'm already in love. NZ has such character. "Home of lost soles." How suiting, there are so many soles and souls here from all around the world. I have met many people that have come to this country to escape what is the rat race most of us live on the daily... I'm one of them and loving it but home will probably always be the SLC for me.

These next two pictures show where we are heading and coming back down. To the left of us you can see the hill in the background that we are about to climb. The climb looks like more work than it actually was, we made it up and down in about an hour with a sandwich break and watching the waves on the other side.

To the left is my favorite picture of the day. I took some time with this one, I hope it captures you as the scene did me. Click here to see the rest of the album from this trip.


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Yum

 For the poor around the world fret not for no matter what corner of the globe you find your self there is cheap noodles not so far away. Check this college boy meal out, my first taste of cheap noodles here. These bad boys are even selling me on the "Simple Goodness" and "No artificial colours or flavors" Sweet as!

This is where you ask, now why would this well to do computer programmer be eating such rubbish. To which I would respond: Fuck'n hell, no matter what salary you make here it's just not enough ;) In all reality I was just way too preoccupied this week to make it to the store: reporting stolen road bike, buying a car, working a shitload to cover for holiday when Jen comes out, planning a road trip, riding, and buying some previously owned books. More to come on each of these topics…

I've got to remember to buy some replacement noodles for my flat mates, shhhh I took these w/o asking. Well I really couldn't have asked anyone anyway because I've been left alone, again... So I've been in the flat now, maybe 3 months? In that time I have seen one flat mate, lets call him Michael Burns, twice and spoke to him once. My other flat mate, AKA Tom Smith (go figure I'd find the only Smith in NZ!), travels for work and has been here a total of maybe 3-4 weeks. This makes for a lonely flat :( I like my place very much but damn someone to say hi to at the end of the day would be nice. Maybe I'll order me one of them mail order girls from Russia. I’m good, some more messages from ya’ll would be great HINT HINT.

I’ve got send props out to Momz, there is no way I would be able to be here and keep all my shit together back in Utah. Love you mom!

 Bike, ug well she’s gone and I miss her! This last weekend my road bike was taken from outside a friends flat, seriously people! Nope the bike goes have still not forgotten me :( I filed a claim today and got a replacement quote for around $5,999 NZD. I have a $250 excess (deductible) and they are going to depreciate the bike. Since it is a 2002 frame and I put all new components on it in 07 and 08 they had better not screw me. I've put some watches on TradeMeand put the word out to a few bike shops. I figure I'll go check out the police station for seized bikes every couple weeks for a bit.

Car, a 1996 Subaru Grand Wagon AKA Outback. It has 145,000km on the odometer pretty good for that year right? It seems to run good but I’ve not really driven it. I bought it yesterday and it’s been parked since LOL perhaps I’ll use it this weekend. I’m hoping to do a bit of a road trip maybe 100-300km to see how it goes. They don’t clean their cars much around these parts. Every vehicle I saw hadn’t been vacuumed in what seemed to be a year. Even after buying this car they did not clean it, Gosh! I’ll be making this baby mine if it survives the weekend. Wish us luck.

Holy hell I can't keep blathering on like this all night; that reminds me of a certain girl friend of mine. If you want know the rest you'll just have to email me or wait for me to get bored again.

Cheerio's mate

The Big Dog

  Today at the coffee shop I was out having a mochachino and this guy comes with his little black dog and sits next to me... Instantly my thoughts go to Driz, I miss that guy so much. I have reminders of hime just about every day picking out a piece of his hair from my cloths or finding a scrap in a book that I've had a while.

 

Mom huge thanks for taking care of the boy and if any of my friends out there have a chance pick him up for a hike or walk. I'm sure mom would appreciate the break and Driz would love the additional socialization.

Always look on the bright side of life (whistle)

I passed I f’n passed! I got 805/1000 where 700 is passing. As many of you know I’ve been studying for a Microsoft exam… if not then read my blog more often… GOSH! I might try to continue the cert path but can’t imagine my next test would be within a year… Time to play.

I’m watching a classic tonight, can you guess the show w/ these names:
Bigus Dikus
Naughtius Maximus
Incontinentia Buttus

Always look on the bight side of death, life’s a piece of shit when you look at it…

Robel Robel

Biking gives me such a high!

And the beatings continue! Hey BW, you would have enjoyed watching this crash. Yet another dumb rob move. So we're coming down this hill on Mount Victoria, AKA Mt. Vic, pretty fast and of course it's been raining. Well at the bottom of this hill is a right turn going up on some asphalt... need I say more? So here I am doing about mach 1 w/ mud on my tires, which I'm very aware, there's asphalt which is wet of which I'm also aware. Putting all this data together when my brain has been racked over the last month just wasn't happening. So there I go front tire looses traction my ankle hits first then my knee, shoulder and finally a loud crack which was thankfully my helmet and not my skull. OK well that was a fun show for all the new MTB riders I've met today. If they ride w/ me some more they'll be seeing much more of that. I'm an idiot most days...
I'd been pretty bummed about not having some close tracks to my flat until now. I rode this area when I first got here but was just kinda winging it. The trails I took sucked and of course it was raining a lot harder hen and everything was slippery. Todays ride was a preride for next weeks race which I'm not going to make because I'm heading off to Tongariro w/ some friends should be sweet as! Tongariro Crossing

Wow aren't you lucky, two postings in two days!

Now for some more brain food and study :D

robel robel

I will have a life here…

I can see the light! As some of you already know from my insechit whining I have been studying for about a month. My company has requested that I start a Microsoft certification path. Why you ask, well because they are a “Gold” partner and that means two things. One, they get referrals from MS when a company contacts MS asking if there is a company they recommend that can do (what we do) and two, they get all the Microsoft software for free while we maintain the “Gold” status saving them bookoo bux! To be a “Gold” member a percentage of all developers have to be certified and when I hired on they were falling short this year so I agreed to help out. WTF was I thinking? I am in a new country working on starting a new life and here I have been studying nearly every day for the last couple weeks… To top it off my test is Monday and I have not been able to pass one of the practice exams. The stress is building! This is the first of potentially 5 exams to make it to the Enterprise Architect title. That’s not happening any year soon! Regardless, I am learning a shitload and at the same time most of it is getting used in my daily job, I’m crazy stoked that I’m not spending time learning something that never gets used.
To accomplish this feat of strength I need an office so I bought a table and took up a corner of the living room. I also need brain food so a shit load of ice cream has been consumed. This Ice cream contains Hokie Pokie’s which are tasty little chocolate covered honeycomb pieces.


I’ll bet you’ve had enough of that droll.

I went through some serious down times the last couple months missing many of you and the big dog! I think a lot of that had to do with this exam and shit weather every time I get some free time. Well things are perking up, I see the end to this test, it’s starting to warm up and my good friend Jen will be visiting in four weeks! Jen, I hope your as excited as I am. On top of that many of the things that I want to do require a car; this crux too will be mended in the next couple weeks. I’m not going to be able to get anything that would even compare to the Element; damn you Kate for taking him away from me.
Some of the things a Car will do for me, transport to some of the great MTB parks and trails that are just a pain to ride to ride to. Scuba and gear transport. And tramping weekends!

Come next week I’m also going to try and get on a sailing crew fro some races here in the harbor and at sea. BW has been riding me about this so I can help out on our outing in January in Auckland. I have to admit it seems like a NZ thing to do since around every corner is another bay w/ valet boat parking ;)

One more thing, I came across this American band called Animal Collective an alternative strange band but really fun to listen to and I think you should have a listen. If you want to sample let me know and I'll hook you up.

OK off for some drinks on the town before I ride and study some more tomorrow.

Robel out