It's a Posso Christmas

Foregoing the usual Christmas demands, I have stayed back in Auckland this year all by myself. Marvellous!

After a few drinks out in Ponsonby last night, it was a bit of a sleep-in before heading out on an 80km morning ride. Returning, I began preparing a Posso Christmas feast - a Christmas Curry. First course was Squid in a spicy spinach sauce. This was followed by a Paresee Chicken Curry, served with brown rice and paratha. Both were delicious, and washed down with a taste-off of 2007 and 2008 vintages of Cooper's Strong Ale. I'm just savouring the last of the 2008 vintage right now.

And I'll be heading off later to join some fellow Christmas orphans (though these are legitimate ones - most are all from the UK) to have a few more drinks.

The perfect Posso Christmas - no tree, no presents, , no travel, no fuss, no stress. Marvellous!

The Gatts Stag Do

A long time coming, but time has been in short supply of late.

Mike's Stag started off sedately enough, as 25 likely lads (and some more senior lads) congregated at 7 Cuba Street for a nourishing breakfast of beer and bacon sarnies. Everyone look respledent in their whites, and Mike especially in the special outfit acquired for him - grandpa pants, walk socks, and sandal; topped off by his pink 'drinking-gumboot' he was to drink from during the day.

Prior to hopping on the bus at 11am, Mike had one last task - one last bacon sarnie and beer. The twist was that this bacon sarnie and beer was combined in the food processor. Looking like a 'delicious' brown sludge, Mike took his medicine like a true man...in small sips. In a show of support, Steve and I tried to help him out, and I can report - it wasn't good (JT had gone overboard with the BBQ sauce and the bread was still lumpy).

Rounded up on the bus along with a good supply of liquid refreshments, we took this party over the hill to the Wairarapa. Destination...Greytown Bowling Club. Suprisingly for the Wairarapa the weather was overcast and drizzly, but this didn't deter us all from getting out on the green. The old boys from the Club were pretty excited to have us there and did their best to get us into some kind of order. Hastily organising into teams - with the brief embaressment of fortgetting to include the man-of-honour - we set about a mini tournament for the afternoon. It bowls itself was of mixed quality, with a few wrong biases thrown in for good measure. I can't remember who the winning team was, which is as much to say it wasn't mine.
There was a breif intermission as the weather turned a bit nastier. Perfect timing though to stop for the BBQ that the bowling club boys put on for us - complete with potatoes, salad, the works. They really did go out of the way for us. It was at this stage that Mike also finally got the chance to relieve himself - he wasn't allowed to go until all 24 for us gone at least once - Joe being his nemesis for some time. The bowling wrapped up around 4.30pm and we bid the old boys from the bowling club farewell.












Next stop was the 'Top Pub' in Greytown, where they had said they would put on some snacks in return for our patronage. With the sun finally coming out and a few beers already under the belt, it looked as if things were going to slow down. But sitting along a long bench table, someone had the bright idea to have a boat race. One boast race turned out to be a best of three, as male pride took over. Different styles were clearly evident - from the Ian Poss pour it down my top, the Daygs sip it like it is a hot cup of coffee, to the John Albertson now you see it now you don't single gulp. There's nothing like a bit of competition to lift male spirits, and soon enough the Stag was in full swing again.
After a final stop off at the Tin Hut - which is a lot more upmarket than it once was and probably not the best destination for a Stag Do already 9 hours into it - we finally made our way back with a very grumpy bus driver behind the wheel. Making a fee drop-offs on the way, we finally reached Courtenay Place with about half of the original contingent, who wisely or unwisely were continuing on. By this stage I was amazed the Stag was still standing, let alone able to carry on. He had taken a bit of a hammering earlier in the afternoon, and by my count must have been made to have 10 shots by then. I'm sure the rest of the night must get pretty fuzy for Mike from then on...









Probably just as well, as the story goes something along the lines of visiting an establishment of the sort that is predominantly of male partonage and having his chest stripped and lit on fire by a modestly dressed young lady. But if you can't remember Mike, did it really happen?

The Stag finally clocked out around midnight, a damn fine showing. I think he even started feeling human again by the Tuesday...

Aussie Trip

Here are some pics from our two week trip in Australia at the beginning of December.
Pics
We flew into Melbourne for two days there - and I will always begrudge Qantas the two hour delay that robbed me of at an awesome beer pub we went to on the first night - also catching up with Vicki. We then picked up our hire car and spent three days driving along the Great Ocean Road - where the scenery was spectacular, and the small towns quiet (we were just beating the summer holidays rush). We then had two days in the Grampians National Park, where we did a couple of hikes.

We then crossed over to South Australia - destination the wine regions around Adelaide. First was a couple of nights in the Barossa, and a lot of money spent on food and wine. We then had a couple of nights in the more picturesque McLaren Vale, where we stayed in an old chapel. We had our last two days in Adelaide - where we showed our typical knack of bringing rain to parched places, they had their first full day of rain for over a year.

It was a great couple of weeks - saw some awesome scenery and spent far too much money. We haven't missed the flies though - they drive you bonkers. Kangaroos and koalas are meant to be the national animals, but it should be flies and magpies!

2 times as fun

Yeah right!

Some of you will be aware that Stu and I took on the crazy challenge of doing the Round Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, not just one, but twice. Known as the Enduro, it involves 2 laps of the 160km course.

Work, children (Stu's, not mine!), and laziness conspired to leave us typically under prepared for such an undertaking. Though it is difficult to know how much training you do need for such an event. Plenty of time on the saddle of course, though too much training and you would only leave your legs tired for the big day. Both of us only managed one ride over 200km, and were at best riding three times a week. So maybe on a bright note, our legs were well rested. And who really wants to go for training rides in the middle of the night anyway?

Not that we could avoid it for the ride though. A 1.30am start makes for difficult preparation. Was good to receive the text's of good luck, though not so much the ones sent after 8pm! I'm starting at 1.30am people, what do you think I'm trying to do....

Alarm went off at 12.30am, after a wonderful 45 minutes sleep (that's sarcasm by the way). Bit of a surreal feeling really, trying to take down some 'breakfast') is it still breakfast at that time and think that you've got a big ride ahead of you. JT and Steve got up to see us off (well, JT didn't have a choice seeing he was sleeping in the lounge), as Stu and I headed off in our layers and lights.

Down at the start line there were about 50 entrants or so. Some crazy guy was doing his 20th Enduro, and Colin Anderson, the doyen of the Taupo Cycle Challenge was there also (he's done 48 laps of the course in all, or something like that). Blissfully, we couldn't have asked for better conditions. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, plenty of stars, and very little wind. At the start, it was difficult to know what to do. Some guys took off, obviously going for a time, and I quickly learnt that there was no point trying to look behind to try and see where Stuey was, as you were just blinded by the lights.

Stu and I quickly found ourselves in a good group (which was of much relief), maybe of about 25 riders, which pretty much stayed together for the first 100kms of the first lap. It set a good pace as well, and certainly helped the night to pass quickly. The first 20kms is pretty much a steady climb, and this quickly got the body temp up. In fact, Stu and I thought at one stage that we had perhaps over dressed. However, once we got around the back of the Lake and down into a few misty vales, the cold really started bite. Especially on the downhills, when I really rued forgetting my long-fingered bike gloves as my fingers turned to popsicles.

I did have a small problem when one of my rangi lights started to come off my handlebars. Wasn't an issue though, as I hardly needed my lights anyway. Some of the riders seemed to have attached car lamps to their bikes they were giving off so much light. So Stu and I chatted away and spent quite a bit of time at the front of the group. The only difficult thing to contend with was trying to eat every now and then - a sports gel isn't that appetising for your stomach at 3am.

The split in the group finally came down the hill towards Turangi with about 50kms to go. Stu and I found ourselves going off the front with five other riders. For some unknown reason the seven of us decided that we were going to push hard (four of us really, we did the work as the other three sat behind and took the benefit). For the next 30kms to Hatepe Hill we would have averaged 35kph - maybe it was a wave of delusion at the sight of sunlight? Arriving at Hatepe we were buggered - and we only had ourselves to blame. It was a pretty slow crawl up there, and Stu and I both felt rubbish for the last 20km down into Taupo - not how you want to feel knowing you have to do it all again.

Though going past lots of riders in Taupo as they headed to the start line peaked the spirits, especially their reactions when you explained to them that you had already done one lap. We were both very much looking forward to a bit down and a change of clothes though. The lap clocked in at 5hrs37mins - around half an hour faster than I thought we would do it in. Back at the unit, we faffed about a bit. We both had a feed and Stu had a shower (I decided to give that a skip as thought it might throw out the body temperature a bit). The couch got a little comfortable for a while there, so we didn't finally get out again until after around an hour.

The downside of all that faffing though was that we missed meeting up with Anna at the start line. That meant we had to chase her down for the first 20kms. Not what the legs had wanted. And probably not want the riders at the back of the field want, seeing yellow-capped Enduro riders going past them. It was much to our relief when we finally did catch up with Anna. We then settled down into a comfortable pace and tried to enjoy the second - much warmer and sunnier - lap.

And it was enjoyable. Stu and I both could have gone faster - but we would have felt pretty average to have done so. We often found ourselves riding at the front of a group and a comfortable pace, ensuring Anna was getting a good draft. Admittedly, towards the end of the second lap the backside was getting pretty tired - but it had spent 12 hours on the saddle by then, so it is fair enough.

The final near mishap came just before Hatepe Hill. I had noticed since Turangi that my back wheel seemed to be sliding around a bit. It got worse and worse as I approached Hatepe, but I wanted to ignore it as the only thing I could think it might be was a slow flat, and replacing a tube was the last thing I felt like doing (it was sticking hot by now). But I eventually had to stop and told Anna and Stu to go ahead and I would catch up. Sure enough, the back tyre was pretty flat by now. But with 25km to go, I decided to just try and pump it up and hope that it was just a slow leak. Jumped back on and chased Anna up Hatepe Hill. I felt surprisingly good (the flat coke was kicking in now), and I must have passed hundreds of riders up the hill (they must have been thinking "what the....!"). Meet up with Stu and Anna at the top of Hatepe and happened to see someone with a floor pump. Hooked it up to my back tyre and it was only inflated to 40psi! Managed to pump it up a bit more, but no more than 60 psi, and decided to hope for the best.

And it all worked out. We enjoyed the final 20km down into Taupo (apart from some little kid who kept on trying to take us out), by now all three of us were high on flat coke, so we probably felt the best we had all day. We crossed the line together, Stu and I clocking up 13hrs19mins - though with only around 12hrs of actual riding.

And Anna - she clocked in at 6hrs36mins, an awesome time for her - I had been thinking around 7hrs. She didn't enjoy the first half - but then no one does the first time, those hills just keep on rolling - but by the end she was wanting to come back. Brad also did awesome for his first time around, at5hrs15mins. And looks like we have a few more interested for next year - with Sharon and JT on the look out for road bikes.

And will I be doing the Enduro again? Well, definitely not next year. I actually enjoyed the ride, though I wouldn't half done so half as much without Stu's company the whole way. It is the training that is tough. So will be pack to the single lap next year, train with Anna to get her under 6hrs, and maybe look to go under 5hrs myself for the first time. At the very least I'll be looking forward to getting up at reasonable times for training rides.

Paparazzo Posso

You might remember our trip to Motuihe Island back in June. Not long after that trip, I saw that the Motuihe Trust was running a Photo Competition and I entered a few of the photos I took from that day. Well, it turns out that this photo of ours won the Landscape category. And it was only taken with our small Canon digital.

Apparently we have won a Ricoh digital camera - a funny prize considering we obviously already have a digital camera. But pretty cool to know that a photo I took was selected.

U17 Women's Football

On Saturday I took the opportunity to attend a game of one the more significant sporting tournaments to be held in NZ...the inaugural U17 Women's Football World Cup. And well worth it was.

The NZ girls were playing their second match against Denmark - after narrowly losing 1-0 to Canada in their opening match. And after having 13000 spectators turn up for that game, there was an incredible 12000 turn up for this second match. Amazing numbers when you consider that recent rugby matches haven't been able to pull anything near those numbers. And the girls didn't disappoint.

Considering these girls were under 17, the skill level was very impressive. They may have not had the speed or the weight on some of the shots and passes, but there was a lot of skill on the ball. But most of all, it was enjoyable watching athletes who were playing their game for the love of their sport. There was no theatrics, no show-ponies, no prima donna's. The game was free-flowing and competitive, not based upon constantly-changing and over-complicated rules.

Unfortunately the NZ girls lost the game 2-1, though they were very unlucky (as in their first game), not to tie it up in the frenetic final 10 minutes. The only disappointment was on the final whistle when - as after their first game - most of the NZ team broke down. It wasn't so much the tears that disappointed me - these girls are only 16 after all - but the lack of congratulating of the other team. But again, this probably just reflects the passion these girls had for their sport, something we don't usually see on our rugby fields these days.

So a very enjoyable afternoon of spectating - and I walked away think rugby could learn a lot from this tournament - both in terms of the quality of sport on the field, and also the treatment of the fans (a game played in the afternoon, and tickets only $10). For those of you who bothered to watch the - from all accounts - boring rugby test later that night, you should have switched your TVs on 6 hours earlier.

Auckland-to-Hamilton: The Hard Way

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/new-zealand/ponsonby/237143783170

And by "hard", am I referring to the fact that I biked it the long way - 170km in all - in preparation of the Lake Taupo Enduro (2 laps = 320km)? Is it the fact that I left at 5am to get some nighttime riding practice in? Am I referring to several showers I got caught in on the way down? Maybe the several freshly laid sections of chip seal that I had to ride over (one at least a couple of km long)? Or perhaps I am referring the attach of the magpie, who I just managed to because it's pre-dive squawk made me look up with enough time to duck as it zeroed in on my head? Could it also be when my back light came off after riding over a railway line, and subsequently just before I went to pick it up, some van drove straight over the top of it? Was it my aching shoulders and back? Or even worse, the welts on my backside from the stitching on my bike pants (despite having wearing the same bike pants on many occasions and never having a problem with them)?

No, it was none of those...

The main reason this ride was "hard" was because, despite living in a land that is supposedly dominated by winds of a north-westerly persuasion; and heading on a ride that will particularly benefit from such favourable climatic conditions; I had to spend most of the six and a half hours plowing straight into a bloody southerly! Not only is it physically tiring and slows you down (I could only just manage 20kph on some straights), but worst of all it drives you bloody bonkers. In the end I let Anna rescue me from my torment, picking me up 5km from my destination.

Of no relief was Stu's text telling me it was "character building". I'll be reminding his advise as I sit on his wheel as he plows into the wind coming off Mt Tongario at 4am on the morning of November 29!

World Famous in New Zealand

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4717117a13.html

And if that looks like a big grin, that's because it is about the 50th I have had to pull! Taken at the "commercial launch" of Pot Kettle Black, at Bar Edward in Newtown (Wellington). Was a successful night, the first keg on the Yeastie Boys went very quick, and we weren't far off going through the second. And it was tasting delicious off the hand pump again.

Plenty of inquiries from the article - which was seen as widely as Marlborough and the Hawkes Bay, as well as being feature article in the Business section of the Dominion Post. Not a bad start for the Yeastie Boys...

BrewNZ & Beervana '08

This was it, the first time Yeastie Boys went public - at BrewNZ, NZ's annual beer awards and Beervana festival.

Unfortunately there was no award for us. The low down is that though the judges enjoyed our Pot Kettle Black – and it made it to the second round – ultimately it was not considered for an award as it was deemed that it wasn’t entered in the right style. Apparently it should have been entered as an ‘International Porter’, rather than as the 'American Brown Ale' we entered it as. Word is that if we had entered it as an ‘International Porter’, it is likely we would have won a medal of some description. So that is a bit of a bugger, and I guess is a beginner's mistake we can learn from.

However, it was a good night for Steve Nally and Invercargill Brewery - who we brewed Pot Kettle Black with - as it took two best in class awards, for his golden lager 'Biman', and with his Boysenbeery. Well deserved. But it was Tuatara that took out the Champion Brewery award.

But it is the opinions of the punters that really matters, and it was at Beervana that Yeastie Boys was a huge hit. I don’t think it could have gone any better. Got such awesome feedback from so many people. Many were shocked at the taste and how it challenged their perception of what a porter should taste like. The most brilliant was the guy who, after taking his first sip, told me that we were “fucked up” and that the beer was "weird"…and then proceeded to have 3 glasses in about 15 minutes. Lots of people said it was the best beer they had tasted on the night and wanted to know where they could get.

The story was a real hit as well. Everyone loved the local flavour (a piece of genius having us labelled as 'Wellington') and the fact that we were just starting out, contracting brewing recipes from the backyard shed, and still in our day jobs. The ‘Yeastie Boys’ branding worked a treat as well, pulling people in and getting a lot of comments.

A lot of credit also needs to go to the 'marketing team' that was out on the floor. There were Yeast-T's everywhere, telling people where to go and try Pot Kettle Black. Lots of other stalls had fancy set ups, but this viral advertising was the coup of the night I think. People were tracking us down. We should have had some Yeast-T's for sale, everybody wanted to buy one.

We went through 2 full kegs over the two days in the end. We couldn’t have got through much more. I would say that would have been the most of any single beer sold. And if they had a Beervana public vote for most popular beer, I would have been surprised if Pot Kettle Black didn’t win it.

But this all came at a cost – my feet! I was absolutely beat. It was hard work for a desk jockey like myself. I pretty much manned the stall the whole time, so I pretty much stood for 2 days straight – when I went for lunch on the Saturday I literally couldn’t walk on my heals. And I pretty much talked myself hoarse – it was just a constant talk fest with the punters. I could hardly lift my arms they are so sore from lifting and moving kegs and boxes. This manual labour and customer service is hard work!! And most surprisingly, I hardly drunk any beer myself, I just didn’t get the chance.

So it was a great debut for the Yeastie Boys, it was a shame Stuey wasn't there to share in it. Since then we've already had orders for at least half our kegs, and there have been enquiries at places about when they are going to have it in. So now the planning starts for the follow up to Pot Kettle Black. At the moment we are thinking a low strength bitter for summer, and doubling the batch size. Hopefully it will go down as well as the Pot Kettle Black.

Some photos of the Beervana on the Friday night and an indication of how much the Yeastie Boys 'marketing team' enjoyed themselves...

Yeastie Boys: Live In Wellington
Media release: Yeastie Boys
25/08/2008

New kids on the brewing block, Yeastie Boys, will launch their hoppy Pot Kettle Black porter at the Beervana festival on 5 September, Yeastie Boys co-founder Stu McKinlay announced today.

‘Pot Kettle Black is the result of a friendly debate I had with Wellington beer writer Neil Miller over whether hops or malt is the most important element in beer,’ said Stu.

‘I’m all about malt, while Neil is a certifiable hop head. Pot Kettle Black, the first release from Yeastie Boys, is an American-style porter that combines the delicious elements of dark malty beers with the huge hopping rates usually reserved for modern craft pale ales. This beer will certainly save us a plenty of time arguing at the bar.’

In true Kiwi style, Yeastie Boys' recipes all originate from a 40 litre pilot brewery in a Wellington backyard shed. ‘Operating on such a small scale there was little chance of the beer making it any further than ourselves and those in the know, until we partnered with multiple award-winning brewer Steve Nally of Invercargill Brewery to produce our first batch of commercial beer,’ said Yeastie Boy Sam Possenniskie.

‘Part of the Yeastie Boys concept is to utilise the excess capacity of New Zealand's best little breweries and to promote the diversity in New Zealand’s craft beer scene. Steve, being one of the best experimental brewers in the country, is the perfect partner and mentor for us to produce our first beer with.’

Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black is only available on tap for a limited time. It will be available at the upcoming BrewNZ "Beervana" festival, and at selected outlets specialising in craft beer from early September. For more information on availability see www.yeastieboys.co.nz.

Rather than a hip-hop tribute band made up of gynecologists, as the name may suggest, Yeastie Boys is the brewing brainchild of local brewer Stu McKinlay and New Zealand's most notorious beer hunter Sam "The Grandmaster" Possenniskie. In the name of research these two beer lovers have spent the last three years immersed within the secretive inner sanctum of the brewing world, tasting more than 2,000 different beers, in 70-plus different styles, from over 50 countries. Yeastie Boys are now set to unleash this research with a series of seasonal beers unlike anything else the New Zealand beer drinking public have tasted. Stay tuned…

Pot Kettle Black by Yeastie Boys
Tech info: ABV = 5.2%, OG = 1061, IBU = 47
Malt: NZ Pale Malt, Melanoiden Malt, Crystal 55L, Pale Chocolate, Black Patent Malt.
Hops: Nelson Sauvin, New Zealand Styrian, Organic New Zealand Cascade.

For further information please contact:
info@yeastieboys.co.nz

Yeastie Boys: The Beginning

The child of many late night discussions over a pint or three, the day came when Stu and I brewed our first commercial beer. The big day happened, of all places, down at the bottom of the country, at the Invercargill Brewery. Under the stewardship of one of the best brewers in NZ - Steve Nally - we turned one of Stu's favourite recipes into a 1200 litre commercial brew.

Pot Kettle Black is in the style of an American Brown Ale, likely to be around 5.7%, with a chocolately malt palate with a serious orangey hop bite. This will be a hoppy beer to test the Kiwi palate.

The brewing itself is relatively simple exercise. First step was to unload the 360kg of malt into the miller to break up the husks. The milled malt is then put into the mash tun, where the malt is mixed with water at a temperature of 68 degrees to create the 'mash'. The temperature of the water is important, as it dictates the degree to which the starches from the malt are converted into sugars. The mash is then sparged (rinsed) and filtered before the liquid - called the 'wort' - is pumped into the kettle to boil. The wort was boiled for 90 minutes to sterilise it and prevent infections. It is during the boil that we added our 3 varieties of hops, giving our beer it bitterness, flavour and aroma characteristics. After the boil is finished, the wort needs to be quickly cooled to around 20 degrees on its way into the fermenter (again to prevent infection, as well as other off-flavours that occur at high temperatures and to achieve the optimum temperature for 'yeastie' activity). Once into the fermenter, we 'pitched' the yeast into the brew, which over the past couple of weeks has been turning those sugars extracted form the malt into alcohol. Since then, Steve has transferred our beer into a conditioning tank, where Pot Kettle Black will be finished off.

So now Pot Kettle Black is only a couple of weeks away from release - planned for the Beervana festival at Brew NZ in Wellington, September 5 & 6. The 1200 litres will be keg-only, and as well as the beer festival, will be available at some of the best independent bars and pubs in NZ. I'm looking forward to a taste - I hope you are too.

Ponsonby Cafe Files: People Cafe

If you didn't look hard enough, you wouldn't know People Cafe was there at all. But being hidden on the bottom floor of a modern office building doesn't seem to be holding this cafe back. Inside it is all modern and minimalist, with some jazz being played overhead. No Allpress coffee, but still the beans here were strong. Anna and I were both lured by the hash cakes, which were good - though I was thankful I asked for the Hollandaise sauce on the side (Anna's was swimming in it - which would be great if that was your thing).

Definitely a cool spot for a weekend brunch.

Walkabout: Te Atatu Peninsula

On a warm and sunny Auckland Sunday and with Mum up for the weekend, we decided to walk off the delicious dinner from the night before with a walk around Te Atatu Peninsula. If like me, you main memories of Te Atatu was their league team thrashing it out against Wainuiomata in the old national competition, you probably thinking of it as a strange destination for a Sunday walk. And it's true, some parts of Te Atatu do closely resemble the West Auckland of Outrageous Fortune. But the eastern side of peninsula also affords some stunning views back over the city, as well as walking through mangroves and wetlands with plenty of cabbage trees, pukekoes and fantails.









To complete the loop walk of the peninsula (a quite tiring 11kms), we also got a good look at some of Te Atatu's 'urban scenery', with some spectacular over-grown lawns and cars in the back yard with no wheels and on blocks. Though there was one feature that caught my eye...

Motuihe Island

Bad weather closing in. Rain and stronger winds forecast for later in the day. What better thing to do on such a Saturday as cruise out to one of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf for a walk and picnic. Well, that's exactly what we did this weekend.

As by way of explanation, we had credit to use that was about to expire after, of course, numerous stunning weekends in recent weeks to use it. Nevertheless, this was our last chance to use the credit, and despite low scudding clouds and a touch of dampness in the air, we decided to head out to Motuihe Island.

Motuihe Island is just a small island about a 30 minute trip from downtown Auckland, and after a diverse and interesting history, is now a DOC-controlled reserve. At various times in its past, Motuihe has been home to Maori pa settlements, farming, a quarantine station for 50 years, an internment camp for German nationals in WWI, and a navy training ground. However, since 2005, DOC has managed the island, eradicating pests and starting a native planting programme. Native species are also to be reintroduced to the island - Saddlebacks and Kakariki having been so already - and Kiwis are set to be released next year. Motuihe is also renowned for having some of the finest sandy beaches around Auckland.

Of course, on the shortest day of the year, taking advantage of the beaches wasn't a priority for us. Staying dry was one - though that fear turned out to be unfounded. Arriving at the island just before 10am, Rae, Tom, Anna and I had nearly 5 hours before we had to return to the wharf to catch the ferry back. This proved the perfect amount of time to walk around and enjoy the island. The island doesn't have the natural beauty of Tiritiri Matangi - yet - but still occupies a great scenic spot in the middle of Hauraki Gulf. From the vantage points of cliff tops and beaches, there are numerous views of Auckland landmarks like Rangitoto Island, Waiheke Island with the Coromandel in the distance, and Auckland City itself. Of course, that was when the misty showers allowed us to see them. Though despite the showers passing through the harbour, Motuihe seemed to dodge most of them and we were left virtually untouched by the weather. As well as the views, the island itself is plenty interesting enough. Apart from the young plots of native plantings, there are also some old gnarly trees, especially in a coastal strip aptly named the Old Forest. We didn't come across a Tom Bombadil unfortunately, but we did share our walk with plenty of Pukekoes, who did a surprising amount of flying.

With enough time to picnic by the beach and wander the remnants of gun placements and navy base, we were much relieved to rest our weary feet as the ferry returned at 2.30pm, most satisfied that we had dared the weather and made the most of the day.

Ponsonby Cafe Files: Landreth & Co

It's been a long time between Lattes you might say. Saturday morning hangovers haven't been condusive to getting out for early morning brunches....

Landreth & Co sits amongst a tight cluster on cafes along Ponsonby Road, and Anna and I decided to have lunch there on a fine and crisp Auckland winter's day (after having it confirmed that my finger is broken). Having never ventured there before, we were pleasantly surprised by the warm and dark interior, with one wall crowded with many framed mirrors and the opposite with NZ art for sale. It also seems to attract a more alternative set in Ponsonby, the dress of the group enjoying the tables outside being a somewhat strange mix between Grease and the Sex Pistols.

We took much pleasure in seeing that Allpress was the coffee of choice here, and once again produced a damn fine Trim Flat White. Ordering off the specials menu I had Portobello mushrooms and grilled Halloumi served on toasted sour dough, while Anna had the corn, courgette and coriander fritters. Along with sharing a couple of jokes with the guy serving, the food was delicious. This could become a favourite.

The Wild West - Piha

Last week I spent a couple of days in Piha for work. We had a pretty cool spot in the midst of a valley full of native bush. I even spotted a couple of Pukekoes poking around amongst the small stream next to the lodge.

I also grabbed a couple of cool pics while driving over there in the morning - the first from the top of the Waitakeres back over the city, and the other down onto the Piha beach.

Dinner 1988-style

A two-course dinner for two at one of Auckland's best seafood restaurants for $85 - can't be done? Well, it could this week....

Harbourside Restaurant is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and to mark it, this week they are serving their 1988 menu at 1988 prices. So not being ones to miss out on the opportunity to have a top class meal at discount prices, we quickly booked ourselves in - which was just as well as it was booked out in a couple of days.

In 2008, it isn't easy to get $8.50 entrees of Deep-fried Squid and Hot & Cold Salad with Pan-fried Sole; and $17 mains of Whole Snapper with Ginger Sake Sauce and Tempura Seafood Platter. It isn't often that your bottle of beer and glass of wine will cost more that one of your mains, or that your bottle of sparkling water will be more than one of our entrees. In fact, in the 2008 menu - entrees and mains are twice these prices.

And I can report that good fresh seafood tastes like good fresh seafood in whatever year's menu it is cooked.

WATCHing Stereophonics

What a day Monday was. It was already fortuitous, when a few weeks ago Steve McKinlay mentioned that he was coming up for the Stereophonics concert and was I interested in the other ticket he had. Offering pick up and drop off service from the airport and a bed for the night probably help to seal the deal as well. I remember missing out on seeing the Stereophonics in London and being quite gutted, so was pretty stoked that I was now going to see them in Auckland.

And the concert was awesome, probably the best I have been to. The concert was at the Powerstation, which is just a small venue that only holds about a 1000 people. It is also, by chance, directly across the road from Galbraiths, which was perfect for some fine ales both before and after.

The place was packed, it seemed most of the Welsh population in NZ had come in for the two concerts (there had been another the previous night, which ironically Anna had gone to after her Aunt also had come up for the it with a spare ticket). When Kelly Jones made some jokes in his deep Welsh accent, at least he got laughter from those wearing red int he crowd. With the venue being so small, you couldn't help but be very close to the stage, which itself is set low. So it was an amazing view of a very tight performance, and after the encore of "Maybe Tomorrow" and "Dakota" we left the concert back across to Galbraiths with ears a ringing.

Now you might be wondering what the "WATCH" reference was all about. Well it refers to a phone call earlier that capped of a great day. A few months ago I had purchased a 12-month subscription to Metro magazine and a nice girl from Metro gave me a call to let me know my name had been drawn in the competition - I hadn't even know there was a competition. she then told me that I had won a Bretling watch worth, what for it, $8,950!!!

After she rambled on a bit more I had to ask if she had really said "eight thousand". How can a watch be worth $8,950? What does it do? I was a bit stunned, and still am to be honest. I'm due to pick it up this Friday. Still not sure what I will do with it. I think I would be too scared to wear it, I'd have to wrap my arm in cotton wool. So there is the option of selling it, I can think of some better uses for that sort of money than having something hang from my wrist. But we will see once I pick it up.

Moonride - Rotorua

For some time Al here in Auckland has been trying to get me into mountain biking. Trying to sticking to my roadie routes, I had repelled his advances for some time. But recently I relented I bought myself a mountain bike a few weeks ago. This was all in aid of an event Al got me to join him in the 24hr Cateye Moonride. Not 24 hours of riding - I'm not that crazy (though there were some solo riders). No, we entered a team of 5 where you take turns doing the course over the 24 hours. Still crazy enough.

My introduction to mountain biking didn't start too well. My first ride out at Woodhill (a MTB park west of Auckland) saw me vault the handlebars and use my right ring finger to cushion my fall. The finger looked pretty grim for a few days, and even a month later now doesn't look quite right - I'll get around to having it x-rayed at some stage...

Crazy certainly came to mind as we drive down to Rotorua on the Friday, with seemingly half the farms submerged in water. And when we turned up at the site at 8pm that night to put the tent up, it was still raining and spirits were pretty low. But the event and other 100 teams all looked pretty well set up - tents, marques, coffee cart, generators, BBQs, though unfortunately no spa pool this year.

It all kicked off at 10pm and Al pulled the short straw in having to go first. However my turn wasn't too far away as I was going second. Because of the rain, the 8km loop had been reduced to 6.5km, but still took us on average 30 minutes to do each lap. We had already decided that we would each do 1 lap each, and then do turns of 2-lappers, so it wouldn't be as stop start and would give us each a chance to get some sleep (well, that was the plan anyway).

It wasn't long before I headed out for the my first lap, after a quick debrief from Al. I had only just gone for my first night ride the weekend before, so I was still a novice at this, and the track was very muddy and so made for a lot of hard work. Not least some pretty deep puddles, which turned the dirt after them into a quagmire. But with fresh clothes on and just one lap to do, that first lap wasn't so bad. Though returning back to the tent, it was only in the light that you realised how muddy it was - I was covered head to toe. But there wasn't much you could do about it, and no point trying to get too clean as you were just going to get muddy again.

My next trip out was at 1.30am and it was still raining. The track was more chewed up now too, so made for a much more difficult (and muddy) ride. Even more so by my battery for my light starting to run out on my 2nd lap - I may as well have held a candle out in front of me. That made for an interesting ride, often having to just cruise until someone caught up to me with better light and then having to try and sit on their heels. But I managed to make my way back without too much mishap and tried to get some sleep before I had to get up again at 6am for another two laps. But there wasn't any chance of sleep, what with the blood pumping from just finishing a ride, generators humming, and knowing I would have to get up again soon.

It was so muddy now that also had to hose down your bike before you headed out again, as all your gears and brakes were one big brown lump. Pulling on the cold, damp and muddy bike gears to head out again at 6am after no sleep, I was really wondering why the hell I had agreed to get into this. I mean, who holds an event like this in May - when there is no daylight savings and little prospect of good weather. The only relief I had was that now the skies were lightening and I didn't have to worry about light so much. But not surprisingly, these ended up being my slowest two laps.

The new day at least dawned dry, but 10am saw the start of the 12hr race with another 300 teams on the course (looking annoyingly refreshed and clean). This meant a lot more congestion, but also helped to flatten out the tracks. So much so that my two laps around 1pm I could actually term as fun. Riding in the light of day was obviously a lot easy, and it also allowed you to pick better lines to bike down (and showed you all your mistakes from the night before). But this was short lived, as by my last two laps at 6pm, all those riders had chewed up the course again and by now the body and soul were very tired.

With the ride still not finishing until 10pm, there was the prospect of squeezing another lap in. But I had had enough and I let the rest of the boys go for glory at the end (well, they have all been riding mountain bikes for years), while I enjoyed a few beers and some clean clothes. the finish gets a little crazy, some pushing it to fit in another lap, while others go a little crazy - with a couple of naked laps.

In the end we finished quite high up, completing 48 laps and coming 18th of the 97 24hr teams. Though the only reward was having to pack up the tent and all the gear when all we really wanted to do was go to bed. It certainly was an interesting event, though I am not sure I will be signing up to do it again (unless there is the promise of fine weather). This mountain biking can be fun though, and will be making a few trips down to Rotorua I think - though for rides most definitely in the day though!

A few muddy pics from the event here.

Taupombledon 2008

With the sporting world left in limbo in 2007 when there was no Fulhimbledon, the sequel - Taupobledon - had been highly anticipated. As some of the best athletes from Auckland and Wellington descended on the Huka Village Resort, questions were being asked whether the relocation of this big tournament to the other side of the world could be a success. After two days of tennis at a level you would expect, and drinking you won't believe - the answer was a resounding YES!

As we all trickled in on the Friday evening, much concern was for the imminent arrival of the Owen-Burns pairing. Not because we wanted to see what shape these perennial finalists were in, but because they were bringing up the keg of Emerson's Bookbinder in their car. And considering their recent diversions through Wanganui, such concern was warranted (an escort through Bulls was in fact considered). It wasn't long before we had all arrived and headed off to bed early to prepare for the next day's tennis - yeah right....

No, as all good tennis pros will tell you, the best preparation for a big tournament is to stay up the night before drinking. And so we duly obliged. The keg was going down a treat. The tap system James had brought up was giving a great pour, the only issue was the lack of appropriate glass ware - but what's wrong with a mug of beer anyway? Some tried to get in some sneaky practice on the swing-ball, while others tried to help Jimmy see how many shapes we could put his bed into. The decision to cook up some bacon sarnies are 1am in the morning was also an inspired decision, and must surely help to explain the quality of tennis the next day. Foggy memories tell us we finally drifted off to bed at around 3am, with Taupombledon off to a great start.

When Saturday morning dawned, the skies were brilliantly clear. Much unlike our heads, which were under some heavy clouds. James tried to clear his with an early 8am pint of Bookbinder. And while you have to admire his devotion to the cause, hindsight told us it didn't help him with the following day's proceedings - on and off the court. After an athletes breakfast - bacon and eggs - everybody headed back to their quarters to get changed to head over to the courts.

Everybody looked slick in their whites (or near whites), the Federer-effect unmistakable, with the trouser look very popular - JT having even donned the blazer (reminiscent of his tweed wearing days). Once the keg was set up and the can of balls cracked open, it wasn't long before TournieMaster Tom had us out on the court playing. And it was tough going out there. Rallies were long and the sun was hot, and this required frequent draughts of beer and punch by boys and girls alike. Both pools were competitive and favourites were steadily trying to edge their way to the finals. Of course, JT won the award for being the most animated - though disappointingly didn't throw his racket....this time.

When the final did come around, it ended up pitting previous winners - Sam & Anna vs Mike & Iris. And even at the end of the day nothing could part these two couples, with the final needing to go to a tie-breaker after it was 2-2 after service games. What followed was a seesaw of fortunes and some great tennis from the girls. But eventually Mike & Iris triumphed and became the first 2-times winners of the much coveted giant tennis ball-cum-trophy.

With the tennis over for another year, the boys also got to engage in that traditional - but forehead numbing - game of tennis-football-header with the trophy. But with the lights starting to be turned down on a beautiful Taupo day, we all headed back to carry on the celebrations. The keg - which I wondered whether we would get through - failed early on the evening and with the evening coming to an end around 3am again, we were left to drinking some pretty watered down punch. And while it is questionable whether tennis was the winner on the day, our livers were most definitely the losers. Between the 18 of us, its calculated we got through a Grand Slam winning:
+ keg of Bookbinder
+ additional 6-dozen beer
+ 25 bottles of wine
+ 2 bottles of Pimms
+ 1 bottle of vodka

But despite some understandable grogginess on that Sunday morning, consensus was that the Taupombledon format was a resounding success. Thoughts were already turning to the next year, where the tournament will do doubt get even bigger with some notable pairings missing this year. After a cleansing walk around Huka Falls, the North/South divide split once again, with those heading south making an unfortunate stop at a dodgy Taihape cafe. Dodgy tummies aside, I'm sure everyone had a great weekend.

More pics from the weekend are here.

Rotorua-to-Taupo Anna Flyer

After plenty of badgering from me, and a lot of training from Anna, the big day finally arrived when Anna (and I) was competing in the 100K Flyer from Rotorua to Taupo. She has been putting in lots of training, and despite plenty of nerves and stress on her part, I knew she was ready.

We were staying down in Taupo, so that meant we had to drive up for the 10am race start in Rotorua. Despite some worrying forecasts earlier in the week, the day had dawned near perfect conditions - high cloud and hardly a breath of wind. We headed towards the rear of the 2000+ riders and slowly moved up through the waves of starters. We were finally off and Anna started off nice and strong. However, the cruel twist to the 100K Flyer is that it begins with a long steady climb out of Rotorua for the first 10km or so. Anna was finding this pretty tough (she always finds the first part of her rides tough, and the long delay between breakfast and actually starting the race probably didn't help either), but I knew once we had gotten through this climb it would be relatively easy. And the reward was a good long descent down the other side of the hill, and passing lots of riders that had gone past us up the hill.

The next 70km of the ride is then relatively flat, covering the rolling countryside of the Waikato. Anna really hit her straps and we were often averaging 30kph and having small groups drafting behind us. This was a very pleasant part of the ride and Anna was surprised about how quickly it went by. The only disturbing part was the amount of carnage on the road - I've never ridden past so many people being attended to on the side of the road or had so many Ambulances whiz by. It must have been at least four times that we rode past a rider or riders with strapping on cuts or arms in slings.

Fortunately there were no problem around us and it was pretty soon that Anna just had the last climb up into Taupo before the finish. She was pretty tired by now - which I would now say was probably partly because of dehydration, as I found out at the end she still had plenty of water left - but I reminded her that it was just this last climb. It isn't that hard of a climb, but after 90km it seems that it is (I should know, I had to do it twice in the Ironman), and me racing up it a couple of times to take photos probably didn't help. After a few 'false summits' and many "how much further Papa Smurf", we finally turned down into the last couple of (downhill) kms to the finish.

Speeding down the hill - picking up a few places, though I think more importantly to Anna, getting to the finish line so she could get off that bike seat - we finally reached the finish line in the time 3.46:17. That's an average speed of 26.5kph, which is much faster than Anna's usual average speed on her long training rides. So thoughts of being tired were quickly dispelled by feelings of achievement, and I was very proud of little Anna.

Rangitoto Swim

With hopefully some Ironman fitness left in me, I decided to enter in the Rangitoto to St Helliers 4.6km swim, which was on the Sunday after getting back from our week up north. I'd only been for a couple of swims since the Ironman, but I've wanted to do this swim and I thought now would probably be as good as any time.

The swim starts on Rangitoto Island, so it starts with a ferry ride across in the morning. I was surprised to see a very large contingent of swimmers at the ferry terminal when I was dropped off, I don't think so many speedos have been seen walking around the Viaduct before. It was nearly 500 swimmers in all. This, in fact, was going to be my first trip out to Rangitoto - Anna and I have just never managed to organised to get ourselves there yet. Not that I spent much time on the island. Time to lube up, get into the wetsuit (though some do it without - crazy) and jump into the water. After some mixed weather forecasts during the week, the day turned out sunny but with a bit of wind and swell (but more on that later).

The gun went off and the start was the usual mess - some bugger even kicked more goggles off! But I eventually found myself some room and settled into the swim. Though for all the wanting to get away from the pack - once you do there are always those thoughts about "why is no one around me". The only company I did seem to have was some crazy lady who seemed to be intent on swimming 6km from the way she was criss-crossing in front of me.

The first half of the swim was pretty good, except for the fact it felt like I was going no where. When you are sighting your destination from 4 kilometres away, it takes a while for it to look like it is getting any closer. The second half of the swim was much tougher. I was definitely starting to tire and my stroke with my left arm was only just getting out of the water. But worst of all, the swell really started to pick up, so much so that sighting became worthless as every time I looked up all I good see was waves. Apart from making it really hard to keep your rhythm, the swell had an even worse affect, it started to make me feel sea sick! This was most uncomfortable (I don't even get sea sick on a boat), and now really how you want to be feeling when you still have 1-2km of swimming ahead of you. I had to stop a few times to right the stomach and make sure I wasn't swimming out into the Pacific!

I soldiered on, but more than a few times I wondered what the hell I was doing out there. It was much relief to finally get within St Helliers Bay, with the finish now not too far away, but also with the seas much calmer. I finally managed to make my way up on the beach after 1:23.16 of swimming, in 97th place. Rich, you'd be happy to know one thing crossed my mind as I ran up that beach - "nutter"!

North by Northwest

That was the direction we headed on the morning of Easter Saturday with Rae & Tom and Duncan & Leanne to spend the week up in the Bay of Islands. We had a place in the sleepy town of Russell - New Zealand's first capital, albeit for only a year. And what a brilliant relaxing week it was.

Duncan and Leanne were only up for the weekend, but with it being Easter weekend, sleepy Russell was pretty much in a coma. Nevertheless, we made our own fun, Duncan's birthday was cause for some champagne, and the boys trumped the girls in every game we played.

On the Easter Monday we thought we would head over for lunch at Kerikeri and a look around. Now, you would think that if you owned a cafe, a long weekend Monday would be a pretty good day to be open. You would think.... But no, Kerikeri was as dead as the Dodo, and we ended up doing four laps of the place before we found somewhere for lunch - only to be charged an additional 15% surcharge (thank you General Secretary Clark and her comrades). In fact, we were a bit miffed about all the fuss that is made of Kerikeri, there didn't seem much to it to us.

On the Wednesday, we decided to make the journey up to the tip on the country - Cape Reinga. Note for anyone else thinking of making the trip - it is a bloody long way! With a short stop in Kaitaia (you wouldn't want it to be a long one), it took us nearly four hours to drive all the way up. We kept ourselves amused, however, but trying to guess the name of Craig & Suz's new baby boy - I still can't believe it wasn't Larry!

And though you would think there be good scenery along the way - there isn't. Even though you travel up a thin strip of land, the road someway bisects it perfectly so that you have little glimpse of sea until you make it to the Cape. All you do see is farmland, upon farmland, upon farmland. And noticeably very green farmland - no drought up here.

But the long journey was well worth it - Cape Reinga is a pretty special place. The coastline is a dramatic place, not least the meeting of the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. To opposing swells meet dramatically just off the cape, looking somewhat akin to a river rapid. Cape Reinga also plays an important part in Maori mythology - where the dead are meant to leap off on their way to the afterlife. It certainly could have engaged in some good marketing on the day we were there, as octogenarians were being dropped off by the bus load.

The return journey in the afternoon was much more enjoyable. First we stopped off down 90 Mile Beach for a picnic lunch. Heading back down along the eastern coastline, we drove up to the very picturesque Matai Bay for a swim in its horseshoe-shaped bay. This was followed up by stopping at the fabled fish and chips at Mangonui (including some sneaky oysters) - which were superb. When we finally got back to Russell, it was nearly a 12-hour round trip, a long day, but a good one.

That ended up being enough for us, as we decided to spend the last two days just hanging around Russell. There was a good swell out, and Tom and I made the most of it. Our days had settled into a comfortable rhythm of....sleep in, brunch and beer, a read of newspaper, a body surf, a couple of pints at the local pub (which were only £3.50 - $3.50!!), then dinner and a few more drinks.

It was with some reluctance that we packed up on Saturday morning, it was so relaxing just hanging out in Russell - where the fish and chip shop and the pizzeria are closed by 7pm every night. It is certainly the pick of the towns around the Bay of Islands, cut off from the mainland by a 10 minute ferry ride, it's not as tacky as Pahia or dull as Kerikeri. Even though we were only away for a week, it felt like it had been a month. You know you've had a good holiday when you are planning how to return the very next weekend.

You can see some holiday pics here.

1st Class Debut: SJ Gellatly

Earlier in the week Mike gave me a heads up that his younger bro, Steve, would be making his first class debut for Wellington against Auckland at Eden Park. Steve had already made his one-day debut for Wellington back in January, but first class cricket (four day cricket here in NZ) is a much greater achievement, if not recognised by most of the cricket heathens in New Zealand.

And that was certainly the same as I turned up at the pleasant Eden Park #2 ground to find that we were doubling the number of spectators - pretty dire when you consider this is the highest level of provincial cricket in NZ and also involved an international test cricketer (James Anderson, who Auckland had controversially acquired from the touring English team to play in the game).

It was the morning of Day 3 in the game and Wellington were around 200-2 after dismissing Auckland for 297 in the first innings. Steve was next in and chatting to him on the balcony showed him to be more than just a little bit nervous. So we left him to his nervous fidgeting and stretches and retired to the stands and waiting for him to make it out on to the middle. Of course, the batsman out there weren't playing ball and carried on from the day before to post a 250-run partnership and keep poor Steve waiting for well over a day for his chance out in the middle.

But it finally came, when some guy "Gal-lat-ly" was announced to the crease. Neverthess we surrounded the ground with the cacophony of our applause (well, my old man and I) as he made his way out there. It wasn't the best of starts, surviving a tough chance he gave to the wicket keeper when getting an edge to good ball from the spinner. But after that he looked nothing but solid, even dispatching James Anderson for a boundary or 2. His biggest threats was the new partner who joined him, also making his debut and doing his best to run Steve out. "Crook" was his name, and his calling was pretty crook, and ironically he eventually did run himself out.

Unfortunately, with Steve progressing nicely on 18 not out, I had to leave for the day to drop the old man at the airport. Murphy's Law prevailed of course, as it must have been about then that Steve lifted it a gear, and when Wellington declared their innings later that afternoon he was still not out on 67. A pretty awesome effort on your debut.

Expecting to be able to catch him later the next day, before I could even get down to Eden Park I found that Auckland had collapsed in their second innings and Wellington won by an innings and 95 runs. But Steve has been selected again and will playing against Otago down in Dunedin from Friday. So hopefully he goes as well again.

Good stuff Steve, obviously facing a young Possenniskie from his full length (well, as much as the back fence would allow) in the back yard paid off.

Ponsonby Cafe Files: Jafa

OK, so the Ponsonby Cafe Files didn't get off to a great start - well, it depends which way you look at it - with three visits to the superb Richmond Road Cafe in a row. However, on Saturday morning we drag ourselves somewhere else - Jafa Cafe. For Stu, and others persnickety about suburbs, Jafa isn't strictly in Ponsonby and is more West Lynn. However, it's still a short distance from our place and attracts the "Ponsonby-set".

Not only is the fare of Jafa Cafe of some repute, it is also infamous for being involved in a dispute over the 'Jafa' name, which will see them have to change it. So it was about time we went to see what all the fuss was about and trundle of there on Saturday morning with the old man and Jimmy in tow. First stop, the coffee. As at Richmond Rd Cafe, Allpress are the beans on brew, and once again is very good - a nice reward for an Ironman who tried to stay away from the coffee in the last throws of training. The menu wasn't the most varied, but Anna was able to indulge herself (and bore me) with her usual choice of Eggs Benedict, while I threw together some assortments from the grill, with Black Pudding again a feature. The organic eggs were quite delicious, and this Black Pudding was again nice and spicy and included chopped bacon for something different.

Overall, Jafa Cafe was pretty good, the only negative mark that the service was a little slow (though maybe we were all just very hungry). If Anna can avoid the clutches of Richmond Rd Cafe next weekend, hopefully we will have another new entry.

IronSam 2008

Pictures are up here.
And if you want to see some pictures of me caught unawares and not looking so sprightly, put my bib #408 in here to see the official photos.
You can also watch me finish here (click the "watch me finish" link and I am about a minute in).
If you have sky, TV coverage is going to be on these dates. And if you have a video recorder (as antiquated a concept as this is), I would love a copy.

Most of you know I did it now, and that I didn't manage to break 12 hours, I broke 11 hours instead!! I still find it hard to believe and it has put a surreal spin on the whole thing for me.

Friday night was full of nerves, but not about what would be required the next day, but more about the impending weather that was due to arrive. It was hard to believe at the time, as it was a beautiful night with a clear star-filled sky. The IronSam Support Crew also started to trickle in, first the family, then Stu and Steve from their climb up to the Ruapahu crater, and Tom and Rae a short time later. And after another meal of very simple pasta for me, I got to watch them munch down on what looked like tasty pizza and beer as I sipped from a water bottle. Some distraction was provided by wondering when Brad & Sharon would arrive. Earlier in the evening they informed us that they had taken the long way to Taupo - through Wanganui...they missed the right turn at Bulls - amateur mistake! They finally arrived at around 10pm and we sat up a little while longer before they all decided they were tired and went to bed - hey guys, I'm the one doing Ironman here! Finally went to bed at 11pm and in fact had a pretty good night's sleep...for me.

The alarm went off at 4.55am and quickly got up to have a peak outside. Much to my relief, there was no sign of either wind or rain. With heightened spirits, I had my quick breakfast of toast and headed down to the T1 at around 6am. I knew most other triathletes would have probably got there at least half-an-hour earlier than me - and it was pretty busy when I arrived - but I still remember the Tauranga Half Ironman in 2004 where I got there so early that I was practically the only one there and just had too much time on my hands. First stop was to get myself numbered (they write it on your arm and calf) and then pump up my tyres (always wise to deflate them the night before, as sometimes they pop if it is warm - which it was). Fortunately I also had Anna there to remind of the things I was forgetting in the heat of the moment. I also hadn't quite gotten rid of all of last night's dinner, so had to line up at the ever popular portaloos. Was a bit of a queue and it did take a while, but I believe this ended up being a good thing as I had little time to think about what was ahead of me.

With the wetsuit on, I eventually wandered down to the swim start and got into the water with about 10 minutes until the start. Plenty of time for a quick warm up and every triathlete's friend, the pre-race pee (that water around the start line can't be too good). With nearly 1200 people sitting in the water, it is a weird feeling waiting for the starting gun, especially with the effect of the dawn sky rising.

The gun goes off and you could just hear the crowd start cheering before you get into your work. The start was the usual ruck and maul, though I seemed to be getting off OK. I had positioned myself to the right-hand side, which was surprisingly quite roomy. Surprisingly, because the swim course is a dog-leg right, which was perfect for me with my swimming 'fade'. In fact, I hugged the buoys along the whole course and I don't think I would have swam one meter more than I had to. The water was nice and smooth and I found myself in lots of clean water, with just a few brushes with fellow competitors. In what seemed strange to me, there were lots of people around me kicking quite strongly from the start. A bit of a mystery to me, why kick all through the swim when you will want your legs for next 12-or-so hours of the day.

With the water so clear there were plenty of things to keep yourself amused with. I gave the thumbs up to some scuba-guy below us at the start and spotted plenty of golf balls and what looked like an old engine. At the turn around I was feeling good and really calm. Though this was disturbed somewhat when someone decided to perform a bit of kung fu to my head. It was quite a blow and for a second I was a little dazed. My biggest fear though was that the seal on my goggles had been broken, but thankfully it appeared not. I got back in my groove again for the homeward leg, and had the feeling I was going pretty well. With what must have been 500 metres to go, and still feeling really good, I actually decided to pick the pace up and kicked my way to the finish (to get blood flowing back to the legs for the bike). With one last wave to weird scuba-guy, I headed into the shore for the next stage.

Pulling myself out of the water I got quite the shock. I knew I had swum quite well - a really felt like I was gliding through the water - but I wasn't expecting to see 1:01 on the clock! And I wasn't the only one shocked, as I had to yell out to Anna that I was there - as she wasn't expecting me then either. Then came the tough 400m run to T1. Not only is that very long, but it also takes you up a set of stairs - you would think that the standard distances of an Ironman would be enough!

After the nearly 4 minutes it took to get to T1, someone handed me my transition bag and I headed in to get changed. Surrounded by 'helpers', it appeared that none were free to help me. So I had to try to get my wetsuit off myself. Struggling for a couple of minutes to do this, I ruefully looked at the guy across from me as a helper ripped his off in about 2 seconds. As others around me took off out of the transition tent as soon as their wetsuit was off (they had tri-suits on underneath), I took my time changing into my fresh bike pants, and with the weather forecast in mind, putting on my waterproof overshoes (and what a good decision that was). And with so much time on my hands already, I decided the make a comfort stop at the portaloos before jumping on the bike. In all, I took 12 minutes in transition, which is a pretty long time when the average is less than 8 minutes.

On to the bike and quickly down on the aero bars, I was surprised by how many people were took a while to get going and I passed in the first couple of kilometres. You quickly hit the hill out of Taupo on the ride, but I felt comfortable spinning up it. That was until my chain came off. It didn't take me long to put it back on, but it did leave me worried that it could be a problem over the rest of the ride - a worry that didn't eventuate.

The ride out to Reporoa heads north, and this was right into the strong wind that was picking up. Fortunately, the ride out to Reporoa is also slightly downhill, so this slightly countered the battle into the win. In this first leg of the ride, there were lots of riders bunched together as different riding abilities were sorted out. This made for a lot of nervous moments as the draft-busters rode up and down the course on their motorcycles. You are not meant to be within 5 metres of another rider, unless you are passing, and then you have 15 seconds to complete your pass. I had no interest in drafting, I wanted to do this Ironman on my own steam, but I was concerned that a passing manoeuvre would be mis-construed as drafting - whereby you get a 4 minute stand-down penalty, but more worryingly, get disqualified if pulled over twice. I needn't have anything to fear, but I remember tensing up every time I heard a motorcycle come up from behind.

Finally the bikes started to strew themselves along the course and the bike settled into an individual battle. There was some relief when close to the first turnaround I heard a "go Sammy" as I past a group of spectators on a side road - returning I confirmed it was Al from work and it was great to get some support at the far end of the course. Returning from Reporoa was great with that strong wind behind me now. I was working to my nutrition plan, was staying down in my aero bars and I felt good. I was even overtaking a few fellow competitors on their flash machines - I definitely felt like the poor kid in class with my old Giant, I was one of the few riders without a tri-specific bike and without disc-wheels.

Unfortunately, the good times were about to come to an end. Climbing back up the hill before returning into Taupo, the rain finally arrived. 10 minutes earlier I was really starting to sweat in the heat, but now I was soaked through by the heavy rain. Before leaving Taupo for the last return leg I picked up my Special Needs bag, filled with a couple of vegemite sandwiches I was really looking forward to - that savoury is delicious amongst all the sweetness. But that was the only fond memory of that second leg out to Reporoa.

With that rain and the wind getting stronger, it was a long slog out to the turnaround. For little while I even felt cold, and the quads were starting to get pretty sore. I also wasn't helped by my bike computer giving up the ghost once again, so from the 107km mark I no longer knew how fast I was going (I was averaging 31.5kph up to then), or more importantly for me, what my cadence was. This made it difficult to pace myself, which was pretty important on this second leg. It was quite easy to find yourself drifting off, only realising it when someone passed you. This led to some bizarre overtaking-retaking manoeuvres. Someone you had passed 30km previously would suddenly rip past you, or vice versa. My focus was to just get out to Reporoa again so that I could get that wind behind me again - even though there would still be around 45km left to ride, it felt like it would be the end of it.

It was a pretty lonely return to Taupo, coming up on few riders and heading back into the rain from which we had a short relief from up around Reporoa. Arriving at the last climb, I decided to take it a bit easier to save the legs for the run. I could see that I was going to do a pretty good time for the bike and I still had a 42km run in front of me.

Arriving into Taupo and T2, I was as much as 45 minutes ahead of where I thought I would be, and jumping off the bike I was surprised how solid my legs felt. T2 went quite smoothly, this time a helper was there to help me get out of my bike gears and into my running stuff. I took just a little over 4 minutes to get through transition, which isn't much more than the average, though the Pros rip through it in about 1 minute.

Heading out of T2, Brad yelled out to me and waved the small bottles of Jagermeister he had for me at the finish - but for now I had to make do with more energy drink. The run started with a cruel bridge over the road, which with the rain meant you had to be quite careful with when going down. After the relative solitary of the bike course, it was a real buzz to head out on the run with so many spectators lining the run course along the Taupo lakefront. And even though the run is the definitely the hardest leg of the Ironman, it is also the most memorable with all the crowds and cheers.

It was probably this buzz that led me to start very quickly on the run. Before I knew it, I had ran the first 5kms in 25 minutes, a pace I knew I couldn't keep up so I started to pull things back again. But I also began to realise that if I could keep up a decent pace, not only would I break that 12 hour barrier, that going under 11 hours would be very possible. This helped to keep me well occupied on the run, as every kilometre marker I recalculate my splits and what I had to do to go under that 11 hours.

The only thing that was really giving me concern was the state of my feet. Despite my overshoes keeping most of the rain off during the ride, my feet didn't take long to get wet in the run and it felt like the bottom of my foot was being severely rubbed. It wasn't until after the race and I took my shoes off that I found that the sole of my shoe and twisted to the side and it was that which was causing the discomfort! I also started to feel a bit of chaff coming on and realised that I had completely forgotten to apply some vaseline at T2. I asked for some running past one of the aid stations, but the old biddies with the vaseline were half asleep. I didn't want to stop to wait, so I just let it go. The chaffing seemed to subside a little after that, so I didn't bother with it again.

Taking my second and last pit stop of the day around the 10km mark, I turned around for the first time to head back into Taupo. I decided at this point to start on the flat coke. I had planned to only go for it on the second half of the marathon, but I could feel myself flagging a little and didn't want to leave it too late. It certainly turned out to be a good call, as heading back into Taupo was also heading back into that wind, and also climbing the nasty hill around the airport.

Heading back into Taupo also meant heading back into all the supporters. And it seems timely to mention my own group of supporters - Anna, Mum, Dad & my sisters, Brad & Sharon, Rae & Tom, and Stu & Steve who had returned from climbing Ngauruhoe that morning. I'm not going to be a complete sop and say I couldn't have done it without them. However, with all seriousness I don't think I would have gone under 11 hours without all their cheers and encouragement. They did a great job of going up and down the course to meet me at different places and often gave me a spur when I needed it. Though seeing them sitting back with wine or beers on the first leg was a bit rough!!

My only real tough point on the marathon came at about kilometre 27. I started to feel a bit odd and flushed. I think it might have just been a bit of a sugar and caffeine rush from the flat coke, as I seemed to come right again after a while. And by then I just had to make the turnaround for the last time and head back into the wind and the rain for the final 10km to the finish line. I kept focusing on my kilometre splits and what I needed to do to go under 11 hours. I was starting to feel pretty weary, but getting all the cheers kept me going through to the end. Getting closer, I even enjoyed a bit of joking banter with the crowd and made a point of thanking the volunteers that had stood out in the rain all day. I also noticed many of the athletes still heading out on their first lap of the run and thought about how late they would be going into the night.

Finally, reaching the finishing chute, I already knew I had a sub-11 hour time in the bag, so I just wanted to enjoy the finish. Some guy in my own age group sprinted past me, but I let him go as I wanted to cross the finish line by myself. I don't remember it at the time, but in the finishing video you can hear Mike Reilly ('the voice of Ironman') calling out "Sam...you are an Ironman".

Crossing the line, the support people are quickly there with a finishers towel to wrap around you, asking you if you feel alright. I felt OK, but still the old lady walked me over to get my finishers medal and into the marquee. Inside I grabbed myself a cup of chicken soup and sat down to wait for a massage. Now that I had stopped the legs were pretty shaky and the joints were tired from all the effort of the day. After the massage I had a quick bite to eat before heading out to my support crew who had been waiting for me outside.

We then headed back for a few celebratory drinks (including that Jagermeister) and a BBQ - all from the comfort of a chair for me. As it got darker outside and the wind stronger, it was difficult not to think that there were still people out there running - the last finisher was at 12.45am (unfortunately for them, outside the official cut-off at midnight).

For the record, my final times were:

Total = 10:54.27 (297th - of 1200; age group 62nd - of 180)
Swim = 1:01.37 (313rd; 62nd)
T1 = 11.21
Bike = 5:46.03 (341st; 73rd)
T2 = 4.13
Run = 3:51.12 (249th; 50th)

So bizarrely, my bike ended up being my comparatively weakest leg, and the run my strongest. When I probably would have said that it would have been the other way around before the race. Would never have thought I could run a sub-4 hour marathon at the end of an Ironman, so that was a real surprise. Despite the conditions being pretty tough, I think they probably also helped a little on the run, keepng you cool and reducing the importance of hydration.

My whole performance has put a bit of a surreal spin around it all. Going into it, it was meant to be all about the achievement. But as I just blew out all my expectations, that whole sense of achievement is a bit muddled. I'm still a bit stunned about it all. The question I get asked now is whether I will do it all again. We will just have to wait and see on that one. It was such a good event, and running the marathon with all that support such an amazing experience, I would love to feel that again. But my expectations would be completely different and there would be a whole new pressure on the day and in training. Whether I compete again or not, I will definitely be back again to enjoy the atmosphere of the day, even if it is just from the sidelines.

And how has the body recovered? It was certainly beaten up on the day. The muscles and joints were very sore and the legs were very stiff for the next few days. It even required a bit of walking backwards when I encountered a downhill or some stairs. The chaffing was very bad, all over the place - nipples, hips, and the unmentionables. But I don't think I was alone watching other competitors entering the water at the De Brett hot pools the next day. And my poor toes, one of them has gone all purple and resembles something that comes out door of an abattoir.

But it was all most definitely worth it.