Watching the Cricket at Lords

The Zimbabwe team cheer on proceedings
The English team score runs

The famous weathervane at Lords.

While Living in the UK, I managed to watch Tennis at Wimbledon, Rugby at Twickerham several times, and England play Zimbabwe at Lords.

Texas

In January 2000, I stopped into see my cousins in Texas. I got to Austin (above) and Galveston (below), but spent most of my time in Houston.

Paris

Paris continues to be one of my favourite cities to visit

Mexico

We then travelled from Cancun to Tulum and stayed by the beach, near the Mayan ruins. We snorkelled and swam and I found a turtle and a giant spotted eagle ray. Great stuff.

Mexico

at the end of 1999, I went to Mexico with Gavin, Helen and Gillian. We started off in Merida shopping for hammocks, and then travelled inland and into the highlands looking for Mayan ruins, margaritas and using our Spanish language skills. We then headed for the coast for xmas (Playa del Carmen) and New Years (Cancun).

Oxford

I lived Oxford on first arriving in England in 1999. I had a great three months there. There is plenty to see and do, and this row of terrace houses was in Lime Street , close to where I lived.

Indonesia

Kind of a nice place. Gili Trawagan, a little coral island that takes an hour to walk around. Great snorkelling, food and atmosphere

Thailand

In Thailand, you have to do the tourist things, like riding elephants. Only then do you discover that they need to blow their noses just like everybody else...

Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

This was a great island to visit in 1999. Absolutely idyllic.

Malaysia

Malaysia was a great place to visit. We left Singapore and travelled up to Malacca overland initially. From there we went to the Cameron Highlands, where we meet up with a bunch of other backpackers that we travelled through SE Asia with. The photos are from a night socialising at the Blue Diamond Hotel in Georgetown, Penang. The guitarist/tour guide from the Cameron Highlands was a bit sleepy in his last set of songs.

Cambodia

More pictures of the temples at Angkor Wat.

Cambodia

We visited Cambodia in 1999. Angkor Wat is the main tourist attraction. It is this huge complex of temples (some of which are completely overgrown by 20 metre high trees). Other than worrying about the huge number of large guns being carried around by locals, it is quite an astonishing sight!

Hemel Hempstead

I lived in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire at the end of 1999 and early 2000. It is a town of about 100,000 people. It is very much a commuter suburb for the wealthy folk who work in London but prefer not to live there. Hemel Hempstead has a roundabout, which it is famous for. It is one of the more quiet (and even boring) places in England

Belize

Belize is a laid back country in Central America, just south of Mexico. It has some great little Cayes and fantastic diving and snorkelling opportunities. The best place to get a meal is Wish Willies.

Sacred Cows

Cows were everywhere in India. They did not look the most well nourished though. Most tended to be of the urban variety, living in the middle of intersections or in front of shops.

India

We spent a month travelling around South India in 1999. It was an amazing experience. People would come up to us continously to ask us about cricket, what foreigners thought of India, to pose in family photos et cetera.

Moustache growing competition while in India

Laos

Laos was one of my favourite countries to visit in 1999. It was such a quiet backwater. We just visited these small towns and relaxed and went riding down the river on tyre tubes.

Italy

Mike and I did a lot of travelling together in 1999. We ended up touring around Europe. In Venice it was quite a hot day...

Skiing in the French Alps

I had the chance to go skiing in Europe on two occasions. This was the second, at Les Gets in France. A fantastic ski field!

Me

Looking down from the top of the Bealey Spur

Little Mt Peel

So this weekends adventure was to climb Little Mt Peel (1300 metres) via the Deer Spur track and descend by the South Ridge route. After a 100 minute drive from Christchurch, we arrived at the base of Little Mount Peel. From the start of the day it was drizzling, but not cool. Little Mount Peel must get a lot more rain than the rest of the Canterbury Plains as the undergrowth had distinctly more ferns. We climbed to the tarn (about 700 metres) where we intended to stop for morning tea, but the constant drizzle inspired us to keep walking. It was a steady gradient on a well formed track which towards the top turned into a well formed stream. On reaching the peak, we headed straight out of the rain, and into the precariously pearched hut, where we had lunch. After Lunch we descended the much steeper South ridge. This was made slightly more fun by the wet slippery rocks that we had to scramble down. The rest of the descent was uneventful. At the bottom we made a two minute detour to see Emily Falls.

Kiwis spotted: Nil

Moas Spotted: Nil

Emily Falls

A wet day out tramping in Mt Peel Forest

Knowles tops.

This last weekends adventure involved a bit of a hike in the Ashley gorge area. It started from the start of the Mt Richardson track, but up a farm track. The climb was a little dull, going across farm land. When we ran out of farm track, we were close to the top. A short bush bash later left us at 835 metres above sea level. Knowles tops was where we decided to have lunch. The cloud had decended to this level, so the much promised views across the Canterbury plains towards Christchurch were disappointing. After having lunch, we quickly decided it was getting cool, so off we went. After a bit of searching we found an unmarked track, that had recently been cut back. This was a plesant walk, on a gentle downward gradient. We ended up close to the Ashley gorge, and after a afternoon tea break, it was another bit of a bash thru broom and gorse down to the road. We had about three quarters of an hour of a walk along the road, at which stage it started to pelt down. We were happy to see the cars at the end of it.

Kiwis spotted: Nil

Moas Spotted: Nil