How old?

...just as a quick aside to everything else, I have just had to have my passport renewed.  On looking at my bright and shiny, spanking new bio-metric passport I notice that by the time I next have to have a new one, I will be 41 years old...

How depressing is that?  As always, answers on a postcard please.

A wine for everyone.

Now the earthquake excitement has diminished ever so slightly, I thought that I should try to return this blog to a vague degree of normality.

So in the same vain of the extreme coffee making (yes that is still ongoing) I have decided to embark on a new challenge.  It is called....drum roll please...

"A Wine for Everybody"

So, what is this all about I hear you ask?  Well, as per the "extreme coffee making" challenge, this too is an open challenge, and I invite my millions of readers around the world to help me out.  

The rules are simple.  Find a wine named after, or that describes someone you know well, and post a picture of the label to me for entry.

...so here are the examples to get you started

1)  This is fairly obvious and to illustrate the simplicity of the idea:

Any resemblance to real people or animals, is entirely coincidental. 

2)  Now we start on the slightly more humorous:

Same disclaimer applies!

3) Finally I saw this one, and invite you to link the wine to the person.  As always, answers on a postcard, please:

p.s. any photos submitted of the wine named "Fat Bastard" and linked to the author will be ignored.  Linked to anyone else and they will, of course, be accepted. 

Pictures from Christchurch

What's left of one of the local churches

One of the buildings in the suburbs where  the chimney breast has been completely separated from the house.  This, believe it or not, was one of the lucky houses; some were literally split in two.

'Liquifaction' where sand has mixed with water and been forced up through the roads, leaving, in some places, a metre of silt.

One of the roads where there was more water than sand.  Flooding has been a real problem.

The police car reinforcement.  This was one of three triple trailer of ' the fuzz'.

On the outskirts of the CBD.  This was a very common sight.

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Lyttelton

I have just been through to Lyttelyon, which was the epi-centre of the quake.

To get there from Christchurch you have to go through the tunnel, which as a member a the Defence Force you get an all access pass. There are a few alarming cracks in the tunnel, but apparently we are special and immune from that sort of thing. The general consensus was '...sod being in the tunnel when that went off...' that was quickly re-enforced when on jumping out of the vehicle to talk to the engineers an after shock ran through.

The damage seems largely localised to the CBD and Lyttelton, a short distance from there, buildings are largely untouched. The pavements and roads however are rippled like speedbumps.



This is the state of the building, or what's left of it, at the entrance to the Lyttelton tunnel.

We are scaling down now, and hope to return north tomorrow.

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Location:Winchester St,Lyttelton,New Zealand

Christchurch

A quick update as I drive through Christchurch. The city is unfortunately in ruins. The press has not sensationalised it one bit.

The roads are like roller coasters, huge lumps and the holes. Silt is everywhere, and buildings flattened. Strangely the churches have taken the biggest hits. I have not seen a single one standing.

A real act of God.

I will try to put some photos up in time.

Christchurch; not a good place to be.


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Location:Harakeke St,Riccarton,New Zealand

Wine, wine everywhere & you guessed it...

...not a drop to drink.

The convoy has now got to the south island after commandeering a ferry. A few upset tourists later, and we steamed out of Wellington to cross the Cook Straits. Thankfully it was calm, and the kind ferry operator put on cooked breakfasts for us all free of charge, and then proceeded to boot out all the remaining civvies from the lounge area so we could sleep. Much appreciated as we have had approximately 2 hours sleep in the past 24 and it's a long drive to Christchurch.

So the drive is going well, we have passed an historic railway station, 2 historic cottages and my personal favourite the historic bridge. I felt I had to include a picture of said bridge albeit taken through a bug splattered windscreen of a moving vehicle. Excellent.




Onwards!

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Off to Christchurch.

Normally I am able to give a nice picture of something to compliment my ramblings, but alas not this time. This is due to the fact that it is 0430 and I'm in an armoured vehicle heading down to Wellington in order to sail to the South Island and assist with the disaster relief efforts in Christchurch.

Normally I have at least a vague idea of what to expect when I deploy with the army. For example: Iraq...are people going to try and blow me up? Yes. Afghanistan...are people dressed in bed sheets and flip-flops/jandals/thongs going to shoot at me? Yes. Earthquake relief in Christchurch? Not a bloody clue.

Still, another thing to add to the list of experiences that Her Majesty's finest have got me doing.

So, depending on the state of the mobile network down there, prepare to watch this space. I will endeavour to capture what it's like regardless, and post at a later date.

How long will this all take? They have said prepare for 14 days. Just so long as I am back for my flight to Blighty on 22 Mar....


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Location:Johnstone Dr,Fitzherbert,New Zealand

Heave ho 'me hearty!

All nautical jokes now accepted! We are on the good ship 'Wai-Tanic' in Waitomo of course.

This, without a shadow of doubt, has to be the strangest, most bizarre, oddest place I have ever stayed. The accommodation offered was a Hobbit hole, a railway carriage, a Bristol bomber or a WW2 patrol ship.

Due to current family configuration we found ourselves in the rear section of a re-furbed Kiwi WW2 patrol ship.




Must confess that I didn't see that one coming when I was booking places to stay.

Still, what an awesome place, and with hindsight I can say that no trip to New Zealand is complete without a stay on a land locked old iron tub.

Needless to say the jokes have been rife with quips port starboard and centre. Jocelyn even welcomed into the unit by saying "permission to come aboard Daddy"!!

But by far the most amusing thong was seeing the door into Richard and Christine's bedroom....




It's about 4ft high!! Still, at least the mother-in-law didn't have to duck!

A 'stern' look delivered after that gag...

So from the high seas of land locked Waitomo, good night; tales of black water rafting to follow (google it!)

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For Gods sake don't mention the war....

After a very pleasant stat on the shores of Lake Rotoiti (it took three days to learn how to pronounce it; Row-toy-eat-ee) we are now off in search of Glow worms in Waitomo. Much to my delight we go through the town of Tirau that is the home of wrinkly tin!



An early morning view from the 'dick'

So now off to Waitomo to stay on a WW2 patrol boat. Yes, correct, a boat. Watch this space for much nautical humour!

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Location:Tumoana Rd,Tikitere,New Zealand

All that chocolate....

Just a little bit cccrrrraaaazzzzyyyy!




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Location:Tumoana Rd,Tikitere,New Zealand

Optical illusion?

No, the 'chocolate cup of tea' really was that big!



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Location:Miller St,Glenholme,New Zealand

New Zealand's most photographed building

I thought that I should really keep the statistics going, so here it is in all it's glory.




...and as a closing point, %80 of all statistics are made up, and %30 of people believe that.


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