Friday, September 15, 2006
Earthquake!
I've aparently been through 5 or 6 small earthquakes in New Zealand since I've been here, but I've always been asleep so I haven't noticed. I sure felt this last one! Its happened at 11:43 pm NZ time and was a magnitude 5 earthquake from 50 km depth.
It was actually a little freaky, it felt like someone was shaking one of the legs of the bed for a few seconds. It took me a second to realize it was an earthquake, and not a practial joke (it woke me up, so I was a little 'out of it').
Magnitude 5 is pretty small, especailly when its 40 km away. I can see how a much stronger earthquake would cause a lot of damage. Here is a cool page on the earthquake I felt, and NZ earthquakes in general (geonet is a huge GNS project): GeoNet. Here is a plot of the seismic 'drum', the red part being the quake:
It was actually a little freaky, it felt like someone was shaking one of the legs of the bed for a few seconds. It took me a second to realize it was an earthquake, and not a practial joke (it woke me up, so I was a little 'out of it').
Magnitude 5 is pretty small, especailly when its 40 km away. I can see how a much stronger earthquake would cause a lot of damage. Here is a cool page on the earthquake I felt, and NZ earthquakes in general (geonet is a huge GNS project): GeoNet. Here is a plot of the seismic 'drum', the red part being the quake:
Friday, September 08, 2006
Danzig!
I've been getting over a cold I had last week, so decided to take it easy on the bike ride (well, it was still a 2 hour ride). I went for a ride up at Danzig today, and it was great like usual. I forgot to take my camera today and I realized that I don't have any pictures of the trail, I guess I'll have to go back sometime soon. Here's a nice shot from the eastern hills instead.
Heres the group of bikers I ride with, not too fast not too slow, just right. Who is that handsome guy on the right?:
Heres a link to a video I shot using my little Olympus camera, strapped to the front of my bike with an inner tube. Its not the greatest, but its still fun to watch: Makara video.
"You can't beat Wellington on a good day" as they say (Wellington on a bad day is a different story). Actually coming from Canada, Wellington on a bad day is still pretty good. It almost never dips below freezing, which lets you continue doing outdoor sports all year long. I will say that I've never seen rain fall as hard as it does here, its amazing.
The ride was great, though I did manage to run into a fence and bend my brake lever! It was the end of a steep trail that was covered in sticky clay rich mud. This mud is crazy, its like biking on ice. I came around a corner with a 'reasonable' amount of speed and saw a fence/barrier to keep dirt bikes out. I tried to stop, but the mud didn't give me any traction, and I bumped into the fence. The brake lever took the force of the blow and looked pretty mangled, but I managed to bend it back. I'm hoping it won't break from fatigue later on, but its pretty solid so I think it'll be alright.
I really like that 'post ride euphoria' that comes with a good bike ride. All I need is a nice day, a BBQ, some beers, and a few good friends to be totally content. Its so nice to get everything into perspective after a hard week at work. It seems like biking is all I ever do, so I'd like to get into some other sports like:
sea kayaking
sailing
climbing
hiking, oh I mean tramping
touch rugby (still dealing with a High School rugby injury - arrg!)
Actually I've done a bit of tramping already, this place is great for it. I went to the end of Wainuiomata drive a couple weeks ago, and was impressed with the beach. It was a great secene, a nice blackrock beach, damn windy, and a beautiful day. There was so much driftwood on the beach that people were collecting it for firewood! Theres a few good pics on the gallery, like this one:
Heres the group of bikers I ride with, not too fast not too slow, just right. Who is that handsome guy on the right?:
Heres a link to a video I shot using my little Olympus camera, strapped to the front of my bike with an inner tube. Its not the greatest, but its still fun to watch: Makara video.
"You can't beat Wellington on a good day" as they say (Wellington on a bad day is a different story). Actually coming from Canada, Wellington on a bad day is still pretty good. It almost never dips below freezing, which lets you continue doing outdoor sports all year long. I will say that I've never seen rain fall as hard as it does here, its amazing.
The ride was great, though I did manage to run into a fence and bend my brake lever! It was the end of a steep trail that was covered in sticky clay rich mud. This mud is crazy, its like biking on ice. I came around a corner with a 'reasonable' amount of speed and saw a fence/barrier to keep dirt bikes out. I tried to stop, but the mud didn't give me any traction, and I bumped into the fence. The brake lever took the force of the blow and looked pretty mangled, but I managed to bend it back. I'm hoping it won't break from fatigue later on, but its pretty solid so I think it'll be alright.
I really like that 'post ride euphoria' that comes with a good bike ride. All I need is a nice day, a BBQ, some beers, and a few good friends to be totally content. Its so nice to get everything into perspective after a hard week at work. It seems like biking is all I ever do, so I'd like to get into some other sports like:
sea kayaking
sailing
climbing
hiking, oh I mean tramping
touch rugby (still dealing with a High School rugby injury - arrg!)
Actually I've done a bit of tramping already, this place is great for it. I went to the end of Wainuiomata drive a couple weeks ago, and was impressed with the beach. It was a great secene, a nice blackrock beach, damn windy, and a beautiful day. There was so much driftwood on the beach that people were collecting it for firewood! Theres a few good pics on the gallery, like this one:
Friday, September 01, 2006
World Mountain Bike Championships
The world mountainbike championships were held in Rotorua last weekend. I should have planned it a bit more, but I procrastinated until the last minute then decided that I would go so I missed out on carpooling. Its a 6 hour drive, one way on some very interesting New Zealand roads. Actually the road condition is pretty good, but there are some tight turns that sneak up on you. I've noticed a distinct lack of potholes in NZ roads (not cold enough for it), that alone makes the driving much easier.
So I woke up at 2:45 Saturday morning and got my stuff ready, then started to drive out to Rotorua. I've already seen some pretty impressive rain storms in New Zealand, and this morning rates with the best of them. Shortly after I started driving, there were several slips (aka landslides) on the motorway (aka highway) that brought traffic to a halt - good thing I woke up so early!
I missed a lot of the drive because it didn't get bright until 6:30 or 7:00 am, but I did manage to see some excellent views. heres a nice one I saw (check out the gallery with the link on the left for more photos, and higher resolution):
This is part of the desert road, very sweet looking. Its also close to a region of motorway owned by the NZ Army, that says "warning explosions, gunshots, at any time" or similar. A sign like this in North America would be on the national news!
Rotorua is located on the edge of a large caldera lake, which is still active. There are fumaroles and other interesting features all around, and a 'rotten egg' smell. I didn't get a chance to check out anything besides mountainbiking, but I can't wait to go back.
I arrived for the downhill, and I've got all sorts of movies of it (can't share them on the web, too much bandwidth). The pictures I took didn't turn out because of the low light conditions, too blurry. XC turned out a lot better. Overall the event was great, I met some excellent Kiwis (even saw some Kiwi birds at Kiwi Encounters, which was nice), and had a great night out on the town. Luckily a nice Kiwi let me crash for the night on her living room floor, so I didn't have to camp in the woods (note: I should have bought the warmer sleeping bag!).
Heres a couple mtb shots, theres way more on the gallery and at http://www.2006rotoruamtb.com/:
Major wheel taco (bad photo, I know)!
Canada best placing was 3rd for the Womans XC, not bad! Everyones favorite, Alison Sydor placed 9th. Seamus McGrath placed 25th for Canada, and Kashi Leuchs was the top Kiwi at 16th. Here's the give'r shot:
A weekend full of cheering for everyone, very little sleep, way too much driving, and a some fun on the town left me with some great memories, and a nasty cold (which is why I'm at the computer on a nice sunny day).
So I woke up at 2:45 Saturday morning and got my stuff ready, then started to drive out to Rotorua. I've already seen some pretty impressive rain storms in New Zealand, and this morning rates with the best of them. Shortly after I started driving, there were several slips (aka landslides) on the motorway (aka highway) that brought traffic to a halt - good thing I woke up so early!
I missed a lot of the drive because it didn't get bright until 6:30 or 7:00 am, but I did manage to see some excellent views. heres a nice one I saw (check out the gallery with the link on the left for more photos, and higher resolution):
This is part of the desert road, very sweet looking. Its also close to a region of motorway owned by the NZ Army, that says "warning explosions, gunshots, at any time" or similar. A sign like this in North America would be on the national news!
Rotorua is located on the edge of a large caldera lake, which is still active. There are fumaroles and other interesting features all around, and a 'rotten egg' smell. I didn't get a chance to check out anything besides mountainbiking, but I can't wait to go back.
I arrived for the downhill, and I've got all sorts of movies of it (can't share them on the web, too much bandwidth). The pictures I took didn't turn out because of the low light conditions, too blurry. XC turned out a lot better. Overall the event was great, I met some excellent Kiwis (even saw some Kiwi birds at Kiwi Encounters, which was nice), and had a great night out on the town. Luckily a nice Kiwi let me crash for the night on her living room floor, so I didn't have to camp in the woods (note: I should have bought the warmer sleeping bag!).
Heres a couple mtb shots, theres way more on the gallery and at http://www.2006rotoruamtb.com/:
Major wheel taco (bad photo, I know)!
Canada best placing was 3rd for the Womans XC, not bad! Everyones favorite, Alison Sydor placed 9th. Seamus McGrath placed 25th for Canada, and Kashi Leuchs was the top Kiwi at 16th. Here's the give'r shot:
A weekend full of cheering for everyone, very little sleep, way too much driving, and a some fun on the town left me with some great memories, and a nasty cold (which is why I'm at the computer on a nice sunny day).
Some background
So here is some background, since I've already been in NZ for a few months.
I got a really great job offer down here, and flew down for an interview. I decided to take the job, so I quickly had to sell my car, find a new home for my cat, and get rid of most of the 'stuff' I had accumulated for so many years. Looking back, I should have sold most of the good stuff on eBay - oh well.
So I somehow managed to jump through all the hoops of bloodtests, paperwork, chest x-rays, medical exams, more paperwork, and huge fees. I got the visa quickly, and things were moving smoothly. When it came time to fly out, it was also pretty smooth; well except for Air Canada. They wanted to charge me $165 extra because I was taking my bike in a bike box, even though I had already paid $50 in Nova Scotia, I was lucky to get out of there just paying an extra $50.
Arriving in NZ was nice, but it took forever to finally get over the jet lag. I was at work the next day, and glad to be (I don't want to mention any specifics about me or my job, for obvious reasons). I get to do all sorts of interesting things with Linux and hacking around with our source code, and trying new things. Its really a great place to work.
I was in a tiny one bedroom motel room for a month. My area has a pretty good rental market, and it looked like I could rent a complete house for a reasonable price. Having come from a small apartment in Canada, in the same house as 5 or 6 party animals I thought it would be great to have a place of my own. The thing is, unlike Nova Scotia, most house rentals are handled through real estate agnecies. 95% of the good rental houses that I was interested in were handled by 'The Professionals'. The agent I had to deal with was worse than useless, which made it nearly impossible to find a house to rent. I finally found another rental agency that had a nice flat for rent, up in the hills surrounded by native bush. Even though the flat was small, it was clean and quiet, and I didn't have to use the un-professionals, so I took it.
For the month I was in to motel room, it was easy to underestimate the amount of household things I didn't have. Once I moved into the flat, it was undeniable! I didn't have a bed, a couch, and dishes, or even a chair! Its was beyond bare. Luckily a coworked hooked me up with almost everything I needed. I also went on a mini shopping spree for the essentials. Its amazing how much some of this stuff costs! Certain things in New Zealand seem to be much more expensive than I'm used to, like beds! I knew I had a bed coming, so I didn't want to fork out $2000 for a new one. It turns out air mattresses are fantastic, I slept on one for a month and a half without any problems.
I started to become a trademe.co.nz addict! This is a clone of eBay, and extremily popular in NZ, maybe too popular. Some people end up paying more for things than they cost brand new, I must admit I got caught in this trap when I bought my 1st vacuum cleaner. I won't go into details, but the vacuum was total crap. I bought a tv, washing machine, dryer, fridge, dehumidifier and few small things off trademe and saved a huge amount of money (and lost a bit on the vacuum, arg!).
One of the big reasons for me moving to NZ was the outdoors, and I haven't been disappointed. This place is amazing, a few hundred metres up my street is a fantastic park. Its huge and perfect for a guy like me. It has rolling hills and some sweet singletrack for biking, and tramping (aka hiking). The hills in the distance look even better. If I look to the south on a clear day, I can see the huge mountains of the South Island. I can't wait to do a little roadtrip there next summer, that'll be great! My brother and I did a mountainbiking roadtrip of British Columbia, Canada using an Enterprise GM rental cargo van. Its was cheap and fun, but I'd love to go a little more high-end next time (though there is something fun about doing a huge trip on the cheap).
My work paid for my personal items to be shipped from Canada, which took a couple months. Its was great when they finally arrived. Sleeping in a real bed was like heaven, my couch was pure paradise, and the rug 'really tied the room together' (bit of a movie quote there, sorry!).
So that brings me to today. I'm mostly setup, but I still need a few things. I was bummed out for a little while, because a month or two after moving here my asthma really flared up. I thought I had beaten asthma about 14 years ago, and hadn't used an inhaler since. The great thing is that lately the asthma has been going away (allergies too). Right now its only excercise induced, and very mild. Asthma attacks are a serious pain in the ass, so I'm thrilled that its going away. I'd love to know what aggrivates it!
Well I think thats a long enough post without any photos.
I got a really great job offer down here, and flew down for an interview. I decided to take the job, so I quickly had to sell my car, find a new home for my cat, and get rid of most of the 'stuff' I had accumulated for so many years. Looking back, I should have sold most of the good stuff on eBay - oh well.
So I somehow managed to jump through all the hoops of bloodtests, paperwork, chest x-rays, medical exams, more paperwork, and huge fees. I got the visa quickly, and things were moving smoothly. When it came time to fly out, it was also pretty smooth; well except for Air Canada. They wanted to charge me $165 extra because I was taking my bike in a bike box, even though I had already paid $50 in Nova Scotia, I was lucky to get out of there just paying an extra $50.
Arriving in NZ was nice, but it took forever to finally get over the jet lag. I was at work the next day, and glad to be (I don't want to mention any specifics about me or my job, for obvious reasons). I get to do all sorts of interesting things with Linux and hacking around with our source code, and trying new things. Its really a great place to work.
I was in a tiny one bedroom motel room for a month. My area has a pretty good rental market, and it looked like I could rent a complete house for a reasonable price. Having come from a small apartment in Canada, in the same house as 5 or 6 party animals I thought it would be great to have a place of my own. The thing is, unlike Nova Scotia, most house rentals are handled through real estate agnecies. 95% of the good rental houses that I was interested in were handled by 'The Professionals'. The agent I had to deal with was worse than useless, which made it nearly impossible to find a house to rent. I finally found another rental agency that had a nice flat for rent, up in the hills surrounded by native bush. Even though the flat was small, it was clean and quiet, and I didn't have to use the un-professionals, so I took it.
For the month I was in to motel room, it was easy to underestimate the amount of household things I didn't have. Once I moved into the flat, it was undeniable! I didn't have a bed, a couch, and dishes, or even a chair! Its was beyond bare. Luckily a coworked hooked me up with almost everything I needed. I also went on a mini shopping spree for the essentials. Its amazing how much some of this stuff costs! Certain things in New Zealand seem to be much more expensive than I'm used to, like beds! I knew I had a bed coming, so I didn't want to fork out $2000 for a new one. It turns out air mattresses are fantastic, I slept on one for a month and a half without any problems.
I started to become a trademe.co.nz addict! This is a clone of eBay, and extremily popular in NZ, maybe too popular. Some people end up paying more for things than they cost brand new, I must admit I got caught in this trap when I bought my 1st vacuum cleaner. I won't go into details, but the vacuum was total crap. I bought a tv, washing machine, dryer, fridge, dehumidifier and few small things off trademe and saved a huge amount of money (and lost a bit on the vacuum, arg!).
One of the big reasons for me moving to NZ was the outdoors, and I haven't been disappointed. This place is amazing, a few hundred metres up my street is a fantastic park. Its huge and perfect for a guy like me. It has rolling hills and some sweet singletrack for biking, and tramping (aka hiking). The hills in the distance look even better. If I look to the south on a clear day, I can see the huge mountains of the South Island. I can't wait to do a little roadtrip there next summer, that'll be great! My brother and I did a mountainbiking roadtrip of British Columbia, Canada using an Enterprise GM rental cargo van. Its was cheap and fun, but I'd love to go a little more high-end next time (though there is something fun about doing a huge trip on the cheap).
My work paid for my personal items to be shipped from Canada, which took a couple months. Its was great when they finally arrived. Sleeping in a real bed was like heaven, my couch was pure paradise, and the rug 'really tied the room together' (bit of a movie quote there, sorry!).
So that brings me to today. I'm mostly setup, but I still need a few things. I was bummed out for a little while, because a month or two after moving here my asthma really flared up. I thought I had beaten asthma about 14 years ago, and hadn't used an inhaler since. The great thing is that lately the asthma has been going away (allergies too). Right now its only excercise induced, and very mild. Asthma attacks are a serious pain in the ass, so I'm thrilled that its going away. I'd love to know what aggrivates it!
Well I think thats a long enough post without any photos.
First Post!
Alright, so this is the first post on my brand new blog (I can't be the only one that hates the name 'blog'). Why did I call it hyperMegaGlobalMart? Because most of the other names I could think of were already taken by some squatter. Yes, it is a Simpsons reference.
Hopefully this won't be just another blog full of booring text. I've already got a picture gallery full of wild-and-crazy stuff, so I'll try to make this a pretty visual page.
For now, you can check out the gallery at: Dave's gallery, this is also an interesting sound bite that might help explain the title : unpossible.
Hopefully this won't be just another blog full of booring text. I've already got a picture gallery full of wild-and-crazy stuff, so I'll try to make this a pretty visual page.
For now, you can check out the gallery at: Dave's gallery, this is also an interesting sound bite that might help explain the title : unpossible.
