Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Tramp

I'm 2 days back from tramping through the Kaimais and still feeling stiff in my calves, they know they've done some solid work up those steep climbs


over tree roots and sloshing through knee deep mud. 10 of us set out from Auckland on Saturday morning and took the tramline along the river for a 3 hour stroll to the Waitawheta hut. It was easy grade with 6 river crossings which added some fun, we attempted to rock hop but after a couple of crossings and slips on the rocks most of us just walked straight through the water and walked on in squelching boots.

The new hut was 5* accomodation, better than my flat for sure! Theres a 4minute walk to the glow worms and I made the most of the cool river for chilling my beers. Breakfast was quite an event as we tried to cook pancakes on a sticky frypan.. we resorted to pancake stodge, it has the consistency of mashed potatoes but tastes like pancakes!

It took us 6hours including a lunch break at the top of the 106m falls to get back to the road, it was an overgrown track at parts with a lot of variety in plants and scenery. For more photos of our group gone bush click on my flicker badge on the right sidebar

U2 rocking Auckland

Wow. U2 blew me over. What a powerful, spiritual experience friday night was. Mt Smart at Ericson stadium in Auckland, Aotearoa was host to the band of the century all the way from Ireland. My group managed to get into the front section where we stood about 3 metres from the stage where the Edge was playing. I loved the way the band made their own songs local by changing words to talk about Auckland, Aotearoa and Cape Reinga to the Fiords. Bono you're awesome! You can share the experience and watch 'One Tree Hill' from the concert courtesy of You Tube, note the koru patterns on the background screens.

Kanye West was pumping too but the crowd reception for him was disappointing, maybe I can go see him in New York one day with a crowd that admires him more!

quick movie review

I'm not in a wordy mood but here's my ratings on dvds and movies I have watched in the last few months: I"ve linked them to their official sites so you can watch the trailers and read up about them and see if the film might be in your interest.

Enigma ***
Nacho Libre **
Jackass 2 **
The Zookeeper ***
Phonebooth ****
V for Vendetta *****
Tears of the Sun ***
Basic *****
Coffee and Cigarettes ***
Pulp Fiction ***
A Series of Unfortunate Events **
Get Rich or Die Trying *****
The Interpreter ****
Batman Begins ***
The Spanish Apartment ***
To End all Wars *****
Jarhead ****
Inside Man ***
Walk the Line *****

This list should keep you busy if you need to fill in some viewing gaps. Movies rated * or ** stars I wouldnt recommend so watch at your own risk :)

counting down to vertigo

5 days to go until the band of the century play at Ericson stadium and I am AMPING! As we try our best at guessing what the playlist will look like I'm wondering what the queue into the stadium for General Admission Tickets is going to look like, there's a lot of space on a rugby field that big, I could be standing 5 metres away or 50. Anyhow, wherever I'm standing with a bunch of friends this is going to be the concert of the year by miles.
One thing that horrified me is that the official U2 website lists Auckland as being in Australia in their veritgo tour dates! Whats up with that? Anyhow... Peace and Love my readers.

"V"

I watched V for Vendetta for the second time last night with my flatmate. It was even better the second time because I could pay more attention to words that V spoke quickly and intelligently. I would really recommend this if you're in the mood for a more thought provoking movie although the storyline and action is good enough in itself.

This politically loaded thriller protests the place of a totalitarian government in an extreme way and uses the british government as an actor as it searches through the reasons behind this 'terrorism'. V encourages all citizens to stand against the tyranny and oppression of the government and the controversy begins in his questionable methods of punishing the government. Although I wouldnt agree with all of V's methods I like his clever characteristics and his passion for 'justice'. This has got to be one of my best movies of the year, watch it if you haven't already.

"People should not be afraid of their Governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

Power to the people!

Nooma

Despite the crazy name which I don't quite get- NOOMA is the new black in the emerging church. I have so far only seen a few of the dvds but I just discovered I can watch them online too, on a tiny windows media screen on the nooma.com website.

001 Rain is my favourite. It is raw and honest, unafraid to acknowledge the mysteries of life and God. It spoke to my heart, with the story of how my God is longing for me to come to him with all my junk and screw ups. In the midst of the reality of the storm around my heavenly Dad is able to see the way ahead if only I let myself be held by him.

Watch it now

Liberty and heaven

It's been a while I know, but you can let your breath go and read on, I'm still in blogland.

Today in my philosophy tutorial we were discussing John S. Mill and his theories on the rights and liberties that we hold according to his utilitarian principles. We started discussing true events that have happened and what right does anyone else have to interfer with someone's liberty to, say... harm themselves, take drugs or commit adultery if no one ever finds out. Interesting stuff huh!

In my opinion utilitarianism is a flawed theory, because of the stock standard arguments against it such as the unpredictability of the future and the difficulty in measuring 'happiness'. I do think he has a point on liberty though - If I had no liberty I would not be me, I would have no personality, expression and I would be a controlled robot. Which brings me to thinking about this gift from our creator of choice (liberty to choose) and this is what has caused so much mess on our planet. To think that if we had no choice we would be living in some paradise but the at the same time it would be unenjoyable because we would not have the option of leaving the paradise. If this is the case then I start thinking - what's heaven going to be like?? If it's "paradise" there and we are made perfect then does this mean that our freedom to choose has been removed?? Or is it because we become all-knowing that we in no way want to choose the 'wrong' action? If we can still choose and we choose 'wrong' then do we fall from heaven into some hell or is there imperfection in heaven still?

Woooa, when I started writing I hadn't thought of all those questions! Tell me what you think about my ponderings...

My new fad

For some of you this comes as no shock at all yet I think I have managed to suprise myself somehow in my enthusiasm for my new fad: running. I've always convinced myself that I'm not a distance runner (and i still don't think that) so I've always done the 15minute run then given up more out of boredom than exhaustion but things are changing and with the help of some running partners I'm challenging myself to go longer and faster... what I really meant to blog about was this cool site I just found compliments of my running shoes shop - http://www.mapmyrun.com - if you run or cycle or walk or travel in your own special way this site tells you how far you have travelled as you point around the map where you run - it's kinda fun and I started making up new running routes.... so much better than measuring with my fingers on a blurry google earth screen!

Winter Sunset

I forgot it was cold as the sun claimed the blue sky and I drove out to Muriwai with Michelle for a taste of the perfect swell. My personal photographer took a bunch of amazing photos in the setting sun. It's evenings like these that I feel alive and that little bit more in touch with the creator of this wonderland...

After the dump

I spent a few days down in Turangi with a good friend. The mission: to relax, destress and fun. We arrived on Thursday afternoon just in time for the half metre dumping of snow that stranded punters up the mountain overnight! Thanks to our laziness we spent the afternoon in the thermal pools and instead spent the next day at the mountain just in time to enjoy the nights dumping and watch families digging their cars out from under the snow. 2 days later I was back in Auckland's West coast going for a winter dip in the bay, can't get away from the cold...