Ackshun Pakkd Weeeekend

March 24-25 was quite the action-packed weekend. It started on Saturday morning, dark and early at 5:30 a.m., when I woke up to go Spearfishing with co-workers Tom, Vic, and Kevin. I always thought of myself as a late night, anti-morning person, but I think I did pretty well. I think that going to bed at 9:30 p.m. the night before in preparation helped a lot - I know, on a Friday night, ha! I think I look pretty awake here at 6:15 a.m. in the car on the way to Moa Point (big feeding grounds for the fishies). So we got to the shore of Moa Point and it was already light out, and the sunrise made the earliness feel good. It felt right to be out there with Mother Nature at 6:30 a.m. Kevin uploaded pics and you can see them here. Kevin, Tom and Vic caught some fish. I wasn't so lucky, but it was still nice to go swim around and check out the marine life. I saw a lot of fish, but they were all too small to catch (there is a fine if you catch something that isn't of a minimum length in cm, so I didn't want to risk it). The only fish that I saw that was big enough swam by me in a blur. I think it knew we were on the hunt, and good on him for living to see another day!

Later that afternoon, Kevin's friend from San Diego came to visit and we decided to head to the beach. Kevin brought Greg's speargun to see if he could catch some more fish for the big potluck dinner we were all having that night. I brought his underwater camera and snapped away. I saw tons more small fish, again too small to hunt. But a school of yellow-eyed fish swam around me in circles and I got some video and pictures. It was pretty clear (for Wellington) over in that shore, and I managed to get some nice underwater shots. There was one potentially large butterfish that I did see and managed to shoot (with the camera). Unfortunately, by the time I looked up out of the water to tell Kevin to get his butt over there to shoot it, the lucky fish had disappeared into the underwater vegetation. Good on him, too. I will post more of these pictures to my picasaweb album once I get them from Kevin.

Later that night, a bunch of workmates and I gathered at Kevin and Mark's house to have an Iron Chef showdown. Three groups cooked some marvelous food and as far as everyone was concerned, everybody won (cheesy, I know). The dishes were amazing. I helped out with Mark Norrie's Italian dish (pan-fried gnocchi with finely minced chicken breast and cream sauce). Jay and Sarah Bills, the married couple, amazed us all with their duo of barbecued pork ribs and tuna fillets with a knockout mushroom and chicken rizotto (DROOL!). Lori, the queen of bakery, complemented everything with a gourmet avocado spinach salad and, of course, dessert - a flourless, super-rich chocolate cake with ice cream and fresh strawberries. Now if that wasn't all enough,...well, okay, that definitely was enough. I am drooling again. That was a good night, but, the weekend was not over yet...

Fast forward to 8:30 a.m. the next day, on Sunday. I was getting ready to head out on a day trip with more of the same workmates to Martinborough, the world-famous town of vineyards and wineries in New Zealand. It was organized so that none of us had to drive, so we would just ride up on a train and a shuttle to four wineries, taste a lot of exquisite wine, enjoy the scenery, have lunch, and shuttle back to the train station and train back to Wellington. The weather was gorgeous up there and two things I learned about winemaking is that (1) some vines can live in excess of up to 150 years (maybe even 300 if re-planted, and (2) small-town winemakers in New Zealand are really kind and a little crazy. You kind of have to be when you're tending to grapes and their leaves for most of the year in a town with a population of 750. My pics of the trip have been posted here.

And so concluded the action-packed second-to-last weekend of March. Not bad, eh?

LOTR weekend

Did the hike around Mt. Doom over the weekend. It was absolutely fantastic and gorgeous and demanding and exhausting at the same time. Eight hours of "tramping," as they call hiking here in New Zealand can take a toll on a computer geek's body. It wasn't just a friendly stroll through nature, this hike. No, no, on the contrary, there were parts where we had to scale small mountain ridges, which were grueling and cramp-filled. Some parts almost felt like rock-climbing! But after each painfully gruelling climb was a summit filled with views like no other. Each stunning vista outshone the previous (yes, there were multiple painful climbs and descents). If you'd like to check out some pics of the hike we totally conquered (in eight hours), go here. But if you don't want to ruin the surprise and sense of accomplishment, I suggest you skip it and come down to see it with your own eyes, as it is simply amazing.

The Tongariro Crossing is about a four hour drive away from Wellington, so on the way back, we all stopped by another location filmed in The Two Towers. It was the scene where Gollum rolls around in the stream over a bunch of rocks trying to catch a fish. Sam calls Gollum a "stinker" and Frodo asks him why he calls him those names and puts him down like that. So, we all decided to re-enact the Gollum scene and here are some sweet pics of the hilarity.