This is worth a mention

“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger.” -Bono

Where are the 1st worlds' priorities these days? I know this quote may sound simplistic and the Wall Street bailout will also help thousands of families from losing a bunch of money but it still rings true...

Last moments captured

On my last day in Edinburgh I got to meet up with some good kiwi friends, Craig & Linda. This photo has the Edinburgh castle in the background. It's an enormous castle that is able to be seen all over the city.

Edinburgh in 3 days

I've done a fair amount of walking with my brother around the city of Edinburgh over the last couple of days. I'm off to check out some of what Scotland has to offer in way of laughs at a comedy night now. Here's a couple photos from our wandering.




This was from the top of Arthur's Seat overlooking the city.




Nathanael climbing all thats left of an old chapel halfway up Arthur's Seat.






Amongst some seemingly roman columns

PS. The scotch here is absolutely delicious. I've spent a decent amount of time in whiskey shops admiring my new found interest

Me & my little big bro

A precious moment from yesterday... he's trying not to look like he's straining carrying me!

Dubai suprise

I was meant to have an hour stopover in Dubai at midnight for the plane to refuel...3hrs later I was sent off to a lavish hotel for the remainder of the night and to wait until the aircraft engineers could find a bit of the plane they were missing - who knows what bit or when it fell off! I had an experience I could never afford myself as we were given buffet meals at the Arabian Park Hotel and a caught a bus into the 'WADI; an extremely ornate and expensive mall in the city. It was a HOT 40degrees throughout the day and nnot much cooler at night - and they all wear so many clothes. I felt half naked in my tshirt & jeans as it is burka country. Photos of the exterior to follow.



Once I finally made it to the Netherlands after a close call on another flight and delayed trains, I met with my family & family friends. Spent the last couple of days in Amsterdam seeing all that Amsterdam has to offer with my bro, Cam & mich... Had a wonderful time cycling around on our yellow dutch bikes getting lost & eating/drinking all the local delicacies. It was my first sunny day in Europe - a little disappointing as I was hoping to get my Vitamin A (or is it D?) I've been lacking severely back home!




Look on my flickr button on the right for more photos of my trip so far.

medals for the kiwis

I must say I got a bit of a suprise this morning when I looked at the medals per capita table in the NZ Herald. NZ is ranked 2nd behind Slovenia! Now, I'm guessing Slovenia is one of those countries to rake them in with some tiny gymnast girls that look half their age but thats still impressive for Slovenia. We have 9 medals all up at this stage and a few more prospectives...

I will be watching the last days of the Olympics from the living room of my parents in the Netherlands. Be expecting plenty photos of my travels to follow here.

Peace out.

the things we come up with

Cup stacking. At first I thought it was a 'cool party trick' some friend of mine had come up with but no, this is serious, competitive and a world-wide phenomenon!

Unbelievable - it really astounds me the things that humans find to do for entertainment and to prove our skills in the most obscure activities. I'm not sure if it was some bored waiter that came up with this sport but it is taking over and to my shame I'm getting sucked in!

For some mint speed stacking action watch here This kid holds 3 of the world records for different variations of stacking.

Dictator Hunter

I went out tonight with a friend and watched a couple of Human Rights Festival Films. As a pleasant surprise following the films there was a panel discussion with an Auckland Uni lecturer in Human Rights and a promiment engineer originally from Mali. The film was amateur in terms of the camera work and narrative but the story itself (in doco style) is intriguing... about a man committed to bringing justice to the former Chad dictator: Hissène Habré. This guy was responsible for the torturing and death of thousands of his own people and has been living in a removed paradise amongst his riches in Senegal. As a result of the main characters efforts this dictator is to be tried and hopefully, despite all the political obstacles an example will be made of him so that other sick dictators get the message! Click here to see the Dictator Hunter synopsis and book tickets. Unfortunately there's no trailer to preview.

I have huge respect for a man such as this lawyer, who can give so many years of his life to bring about justice and to fight for those who only have quiet voices in the international scheme of things.

Material things

This is a cute little clip from Oxfam to remind us about how much STUFF we really need and the effect it has on the rest of the planet... dedicated to all my fellow hoarders out there. Be human

100km later

I took part in the Oxfam 100km Trailwalker fundraising event in the weekend. Good fun, challenge and the scenery was absolutely stunning... We took 21.43 hours, ran a bit and hobbled a bit too after the knee pains kicked in at 80k!

Tongariro Crossing. One year later

Less than a year after my previous shot at the Tongariro Crossing I decided I was overdue for another walk of the famous crossing. This time I went with a group of 17 although we all split up into our various paces... Tackling the scree up Ngarahoe was an adventure in itself, I discovered there was a faster route up the solid rocks - duh Anna! The view was fantastic, I ran the round rim of the crater - spot me on the other side of the crater rim photo.

Sliding down the scree of Ngarahoe I managed to give myself a gash on the volcanic rock and a few bruises to show my effort! From there on I ran most of the track, up to the Tongariro summit then to the end of the Ketetahi end of the track. My knees were not to happy with the downhill descent but the rush was worth it. The weather turned out to be amazing; even though gale force winds and rain was expected it was only low cloud and calm.

Next to come: another ruapehu summit and round the mountain track - watch this space.

Earth Hour

I heard about this sacred Earth hour and think it's a pretty cool idea, 1 hour doesn't achieve an awful lot when I think about it but at the same time it makes some sort of statement that we are aware of how we're treating the planet and it's in the little things like turning off our lights where we can affect our environment collectively.

29.03.08 at 8pm Local Time

Turn off your lights. Do what you can. See the promo on youtube

Stop Cluster BOMBS

There's not a whole lot more to say than stop them! They indiscriminately destroy the lives of civilians and should be banned everywhere for ever. There's a good NZ site with a bit of education about their use and the NZ cluster munitions coalition. Click here to have a look.

Graduating

I've just arrived back in Auckland after 7 weeks in Waiouru, a tropical holiday park in the centre of NZ... more like a desolate desert at altitude with no shortage of tussocks. Overall I had a great time, it was a fantastic group of people and I'm already missing it in a way. Graduation day consisted of a formal parade followed by a dinner and then the 'pinning of the pips' which is where I became a 2nd Lieutenant. My Grandma and Gareth made it to the big day and Grandma pinned on my pips which was pretty special.


Here's a few images that captured the day. I hope to get some more warry photos of us actually out in the training area all cammed up on here soon. Click on the photos for a big view in a new window. Thanks to all my family for the support, letters and gifts you gave me throughout my stint in Waiouru.