Race day

It might surprise you (then again, it might not) to learn that I signed up for the Screaming-O mountain bike race which was on today. The course covers 28 km of single track, four-wheel-drive track and road (5 km, 14 km and 9 km respectively) over terrain which is only accessible to mountain bikes on one day each year. The 5 km single-track is a very popular walk in the Catchpool stream region of the Rimutaka Forest Park - and as you might expect, is completely different when it comes to biking it.

Anyhow I convinced Stuart to sign up as well (just for the ride really, as the times for placings in the open men's division are in the sub 1:20). I don't know about him, but I quite enjoyed it, apart from getting a puncture which cost me about 20 mins. Not that it took me that long to change the tyre, but after changing it I discovered it needed changing again as there was a very small leak in a previous patch-up that only manifested itself once the tyre was fully pumped up. Anyway it gave us a bit of a break and after that the objective was more about finishing than beating other people. However it gives me great pleasure to say that neither of us came last!



That's my bib, and a bronze medal for coming 3rd in the open women's category (in a time of 2:28). (I also received a box of scorched almonds but dropped those round at Mum and Dad's)

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In other news:

Work has been crazy lately. I've been involved with bidding for research funding and have put together a first round Marsden proposal and a MBIE Smart Ideas proposal. On top of this I have taken up the offer of becoming chair of the SAXS PAC (have to be careful how I pronounce that) for the Australian Synchrotron (SAXS PAC = small-angle X-ray scattering (beamline) proposal advisory committee), and we had a 4 hour teleconference yesterday to rank proposals for the upcoming 4-month cycle. Add to this all the changes going on with IRL having been absorbed into Callaghan Innovation on 1 February, and another trip to Melbourne next week for experiments; I think it's fair to say that a lot has been going on.

Church has been going well. Music practices are now every fortnight and we spend the time going through the songs for the coming two Sundays, and any new songs to be introduced. I still haven't quite managed to get across to people what I mean when I say I play by ear and therefore don't need music... Also Raewyn and I have been playing a few songs at the Tuesday night women's Bible study, which has been really good. We are studying 1 Samuel at the moment (although lately I have been having trouble finding/making the time to work through it). The Sunday morning youth group I am running is also going well and we are having some really good discussions.

Badminton season has started so I have that 3 nights a week: club on Wednesday, interclub Thursday, rep training Sunday. Tomorrow and next Sunday we have singles grading for the teams. I have been struggling a bit with my shoulder in the last few seasons, so here's hoping that it will sort itself out for this year. I'm not able to make the first or last ties (which are both local) but am able to make the two that are out of town - Hamilton and Auckland.

Queen Charlotte 2013

A couple of years ago I did two-thirds of the Queen Charlotte track with a group of 16 people from work. Ever since, I've wanted to go back and do the whole thing - do it again properly, as it were.

Now I have a walking partner, such things are becoming possible. Add to that the water taxi operators who will take your bags from one accommodation to the next, and it makes for a three-day walk that is accessible to anyone who can walk 20 km in a day.

Meet Raewyn...

... and Jen.


Day One

The morning dawned cloudy but no rain. We took the 10 am water taxi out to Ship Cove and started walking about 11:20.

A couple of hills to start with, then pretty flat around Endeavour Inlet to our first pit stop: Punga Cove resort (backpacker units, of course - but we did get to use the spa!). Distance for day 1: 27 km, 7 hrs


Day Two

A sunny day, not much wind. This was the view from our rooms!

Fantastic views from the ridgeline.

Have a break, have a photo opportunity!

Jen feeding a weka

Admiring the view.

Pit stop for night 2: Portage (backpacker rooms again). Distance for day 2: 24 km, 7 hrs (51 km total)


Day Three

For something a little bit different, we had planned to break up the three days of walking with a day trip kayaking on the Kenepuru Sound.

Later in the afternoon the wind picked up so my camera had to be put away.


Day Four

Another fantastic day for the weather, but it was just as well we started early as the open sections of track got very hot later on. Still, we had great views!

Along the way there were markers telling us how far still to go - starting with '71 km'. They came approximately every 10-15 km, but towards the end we saw '11 km', then '6' km, then a most welcome '1 km'. Distance for day 4: 20 km, 6.5 hrs (71 km total)

I'll finish off there with one of my favourite shots from the walk: coming down the switchbacks towards Te Mahia saddle (Mistletoe Bay).

Next year... Abel Tasman perhaps?

Merry Christmas!

If you can't say it in person, or with a card, or with flowers... say it with a bus.

Australia: conference time

So I am acutely aware that I haven't posted anything for a month or so, mainly because I've been away, and was waiting until I got back so I could write all about it. Then of course things were just as busy when I got home. And deciding which picture(s) of real-life koalas to put on the blog led to procrastination, but more about those later.

Sydney

My first stop was in Sydney, for the SAS 2012 conference, where I was giving a talk about the work that we have done since we created the cool wall of SAXS: watching nickel nanoparticles grow in real time.

Fireworks at Darling Harbour on the night I arrived. They weren't for me though.


You know how when you're about to embark on a trip, it doesn't matter how organised you are or how much time you give yourself to pack, when you're driving to the airport your mind is racing trying to think what you've forgotten? Since I travel so much, I have this feeling frequently, but so seldom is it ever justified that I have (for the most part) trained myself to ignore it. So there I was, sitting in the departure lounge at Wellington airport, 5 minutes before boarding the plane for Sydney, watching other people walking around, when I realised - heck - I've forgotten to pack my conference shoes. And the dumb thing was, that I had deliberately made a list and written on it, 'conference clothes, shoes, socks' and distinctly remember crossing out 'clothes' and 'socks' as I put those things in the bag, and thinking, 'must remember the shoes'. Anyway that meant that instead of having virtually all of Sunday to wander around Sydney and see the sights, I was wandering around the shoe shops in Sydney trying to find something (a) suitable, (b) in black, and (c) reasonably priced. Sigh.

Finally getting to see the sights of Sydney!


Anyway the conference was really good. I learnt a lot and made some good contacts with several people, which is what going to conferences is all about. This particular conference is held every three years and the next one is in Germany... I'd like to go but obviously we'll have to see.


Melbourne

Week two was in Melbourne. I stayed with Paul and Marge for the weekend, which was great to catch up with them. One day consisted of putting together a kitset greenhouse from instructions written in Engrish. The next day involved sitting, talking, barbequing, and eating. Bliss! After that it was off to the synchrotron for a two-day software analysis workshop, then the annual facility user meeting. This time I was giving a 30-minute invited talk about the work we've been doing on the carbon dioxide corrosion of steel.

In between I had a free day, so since the forecast was for 29 degrees instead of 38 on the following day, I decided to go for a bush walk in the Dandenongs.

Adelaide

After Melbourne came Adelaide, and the joint Asian Crystallographic Society / Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand conference. I was presenting a 15-minute version of the talk I gave at the user meeting. Apart from that I didn't get much out of this conference - and not because I was getting weary from the travel and the talks (because oddly I was feeling quite coherent), but because I guess I'm not really a crystallographer. Which is good to know.

Anyway I had a few free days in Adelaide as well, including one afternoon during the conference where the only things on the programme were lunch for an hour, 3 hrs of committee meetings (which didn't concern me), and the final plenary session on some macromolecular crystallography probably-chuck-some-bio-nano in there talk, which I was pretty sure I wouldn't understand.

So I went for another bush walk instead, up Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty.

Lookout at Mt Lofty


Which brings me to the koalas. I've never seen one in the wild before, only in zoos and wildlife parks. But after having seen several road signs while walking from the bus stop to the start of the Mt Lofty track, I was reasonably hopeful.


I saw my first 'real' koala!

Then I saw my second and third 'real' koalas!

Then another one...

... so close to the path that I could actually get a decent shot of myself with it

Finally, koala number 11 (I think - kind of lost count) was hanging on a branch with one arm, reaching out for the fresh leaves, a good 4-5 metres above the path I was walking down - with a joey clinging to her tummy.

Overall the trip was great; it is good to be back home though!

Stress

Last week I was on beamtime, which I think I mentioned in the previous post. We had 24 hours of SAXS (well, actually, WAXS - wide-angle X-ray scattering as opposed to small-angle X-ray scattering) to look at structural changes in polymer samples as you heat and cool them. We observed changes; now we just have to figure out what it all means.

This beamtime will also be remembered as the first time I've ever played cards with my colleagues in the middle of it - usually things are too busy to do such things.

(Side note: I did get quite frustrated when it seemed every game we played, everyone had different rules. For example, we play that in 500 if someone calls misere, (a) it prevents any further bidding, and (b) that person leads every trick. We play that in Liverpool Rummy you can only put down however many sets or runs are said i.e. 3+3 = 2 sets and only 2 sets, you can't put down any extra sets but can only get rid of your cards by building on other players' cards that have been put down. Rickety Kate (MS Hearts) the queen of spades is worth 13 points and each heart 1 point (not face value). Funny 500 the score for each trick in each round increases as the number of cards decreases (10 cards = 10 points per trick, 9 cards = 20 points per trick, etc. if you win the number of tricks that you nominate). I wonder if, if we had played Snap, someone would have complained about the rules. I would be interested to know what versions of the above rules other people play... comments welcome!)

Upon arriving back at work on Monday this week, I've been swept up in a mass panic about the funding situation for the main project that I'm working on. We are scheduled to be reviewed by MBIE (formerly MSI, formerly FRST) in December, and I'm the most senior person on the project who is regularly at IRL. Cue a meeting with my boss and someone from the Industry Engagement team on Tues, a trip to Palmerston North to chat with my colleagues there on Weds, a meeting with the Industry Engagement person, our group administrator, my boss, and my boss's boss on Thurs. Oh and today I had a 4-hour teleconference with Australia for the SAXS PAC (proposal advisory committee) where we had 46 proposals to review for the next cycle.
Next week I'm participating in a mini-conference that we have every year, somewhere up near Kaitaia which means flying to Auckland then driving north for about 4 hrs. Then I have one more week at IRL before heading to Australia for 3 conferences in a row. Good news regarding those is that I have been allocated oral presentations at all of them; in fact for one I have been upgraded to being an invited speaker, and for another I have also been asked to chair a session. Unfortunately the MBIE review happens while I am away in Adelaide, but I might see if I can join via videoconference...

In other news Raewyn and her friend Jen and I have started making bookings to walk the Queen Charlotte track over Wellington Anniversary weekend next January. Should be fun :)

Birthday season

Once again I am sorry for not having updated this blog in a couple of months. The last thing I wrote about was the marathon walk that Raewyn and I did. We've both recovered; in fact we even went for a walk last Saturday up to Boulder Hill (Belmont Regional Park), training for Queen Charlotte / Milford track / the next marathon walk... I think she's hooked now :) Anyway it was a gorgeous day to be out and about.

September is birthday month for our family. It was Mum's 60th on the 25th, and Al's 29th on the 30th. So we had a surprise in store for Mum a couple of weeks ago - dinner at a restaurant in town, followed by cake and presents and games at my house. We invited Uncle Derek and co as well and it was a really enjoyable evening (although I think Mum was a little worried at times about what we had planned next!).

August and September were pretty slow and steady work-wise; no trips away, which is good for actually settling in and getting things done. There are a number of papers which I've started working on and not finished, so now is the time to make some progress on those. The first half of October is the same; after Labour Day (22 Oct) I have a trip to Melbourne for 24 hrs of experiments, then in November I'm off for a conference circuit of Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide for 3 weeks.

About two weeks ago we had badminton club champs. My first game was the open ladies' singles final. It went to three sets and was probably one of the best singles games I've played in. Eventually I lost (20-22, 21-9, 15-21), or you could look at it as coming runner-up and winning the plate! My second game was the open ladies' doubles final, where I was teamed up with the girl I played against in the singles. We won that one reasonably easily. After that it was open mixed doubles, where there were four pairings and again my partner and I came runners-up.

Recovery

So the last few days we have been recovering... and seeing the sights of Brisbane at the same time.

On Sunday we had a gentle wander around Roma Street Park, taking full advantage of the facilities for disabled people!

On Monday we took the hop-on hop-off 'City Sights' bus tour around the city. We stopped at Mount Coot-tha and the Botanic Gardens. Our tickets gave us access to the City Cat ferries for the day, so in the late afternoon we jumped on one to have a bit of a ride up and down the river.

On Tuesday (today) we found our way to a bike hire place and rode around across the Story Bridge, down to the City Botanic Gardens, across to South Bank, and around Kangaroo Point. We both really enjoyed it, as it allowed us to see more of the city than we would have by walking, and at our own pace. Later in the afternoon we went to the science museum, until we got kicked out at 5 pm because they were closing. We are still moving slowly, but definitely on the mend!

Marathon day!

So you're reading this, which means we survived the Bridge of Hope marathon walk today!

At the start line, bright and early. Kick-off: 7 am.

The task: 218 walkers, 42 km. The weather: perfect.

During leg 1, the path went through picturesque parks and followed the canal.

Arriving at pit stop 1. Leg 1: 13.5 km, 2h:21m.

20 minutes later, we were off again, through the Boondall Wetlands. This was time to practice our cyclist avoidance tactics!

Leg 2: 13.5 km, 2h:24m

Just about to cross the bridge! - the feature of the third and final leg. It's 3 km long but didn't feel as long and demoralising as we were expecting!

Arriving at the finish! Leg 3: 15 km, 3h:13m

The consequences of our madness!

Pfft... girls and shoes!! (Honestly, we needed them all...)

Reconnaissance

We arrived in Brisbane yesterday for our marathon walk tomorrow - eventually (our flight was a little delayed leaving Wellington). Surprisingly the quarantine people in Brisbane didn't bother checking our boots etc. when we went through - we had washed them, but you would still expect them to check.

We have an apartment booked while in Brisbane, it's about 15 minutes away from the start point for tomorrow, and not far away from the city either. It also has scenic views over the river and the city:

Yesterday after we arrived and had dinner, we went to the supermarket to stock up on breakfast supplies and food etc. for the walk. We even found a 'New Zealand' section, which had items such as various Griffins' biscuits, Twisties, L&P, Raro, Maggi soup, chocolate fish... and ironically, it was located in the 'health food' section!


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Today we decided to go for a drive to find the start point and various pitstops along the route. We found our way around without too many problems, and had lunch at a cafe near the finishing point. After that it was back to the apartment to rest up before tomorrow!

Crossing the Hornibrook highway bridge - 3 km long, right at the end of the walk

Lunch stop with Steph the kiwi, our mascot

Hopefully we will look this happy at the finish line tomorrow!

One week to go!

So it's only one week until we do our marathon walk for Bridge of Hope!

Last night we had our fundraising quiz, which went really well. We had 7 teams, an interesting collection of people who are, I think it's safe to say, never going to be in the same room again: three teams from church, one team from my work, one team of my brothers and a couple from their home group, one team of my mum and dad's neighbours, one team of some people I knew from badminton and their friends!

It's been quite overwhelming the amount of support that I've had. I found fundraising for the Oxfam trailwalker walk quite hard, and made a little over $600 which was the bare minimum. I was expecting people to be less generous this time because most of them wouldn't have heard of Gospel for Asia or Bridge of Hope - and I was fully expecting some people not to support me because it's a Christian orgnaisation. But so far the two of us have raised over $3000 with a pretty even split, which is awesome for the cause (and humbling at the same time)!

Now that the quiz is over, which I was thinking to make the culmination of my fundraising efforts, I can relax a bit - and concentrate on walking a marathon next Saturday!
(Speaking of which, I'm not sure how this is supposed to work, but there is a 'walker tracking' page which will be available on the day, so you can track our progress through each of the pit stops.
http://www.thebridge.net.au/eventw/tb_event.html )