The Jennings 3

So - one of the big selling points of the new house was the fact that from our back door there is literally hundreds of miles of fantastic mountian biking - from footpaths (that it's legal to use) all the way to the other coast , national 4x and downhill tracks and man made (or should I say community service made) biking specific trails that loop around the mountains that fringe Nelson. Since moving here I haven't been able to get out for a ride, which has been made worse by seeing hordes of riders heading off for rides at all hours of the day, every day! Don't they have jobs!!!!
Well, last Sunday gave me a small opportunity to go out for a spin so I didn't need asking twice. The weather here is almost unbelievable - it's dry and sunny nearly every day and that seems the norm, so the trails were dusty, dry and fast even in mid winter. Anyway - I crawled up a track that leads up the valley and stopped at the top to check out my route map (and stop my vision from blurring thanks to over excursion). Whilst surveying the map in complete confusion (and breathing through my ears) a group of old codgers caught me up that I had past on the climb and I got chatting to them - happy for an excuse to stop for 5 mins. One of the chattier ones offered to show me some of the better descents in the area - an offer I declined - he was 55, on a bike with no disc brakes and a 12 cm stem and flat bars - come on, couldn't he tell I was once one of the best bike riders on the planet and a virtual bullet downhill on a bike?! Anyway, he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer so, to polite to argue, I decided to do my bit for age concern and go for a ride with him. After grimping up some single track trails and fire road (where I barely managed to hold the half wheel on him) we got to the top of the first of three downhill tracks that link up to take you back down to Nelson. At this point the codger put his seat down and proceeded to take me down what can only be described as super steep switchback crazyness at very impressive speed. Now, don't get me wrong, I was still well within my comfort zone (by about 1% to be honest) but this old bloke, on his old fashioned bike, made me re-asses a lot of my prejudices. He really was ripping and went bombing off some ledges that I never would have believed if I hadn't seen it. Anyway - we got back to the bottom and I managed to stick the half wheel back on him along the road section home - sad I know but I had to make myself feel better some how.
So that was my first MTB ride in Nelson - the tracks are great, dry, rooty and very fun - just need to try and get my skills up before I dare go out with any of the local young guns (or old guns for that matter).

Hi, sorry for the recent communications blackout – we have been moving into our new house so had to cancel the broadband etc. Phew, what a pain, for the past four weeks or so it feels like we have been doing nothing else but moving stuff around. First there were the two trips to Christchurch, then the unloading of that stuff at Tasman, then the re-packing at Tasman and moving to The Brook, then the unpacking of all of our things into the new house and slowly working through each box. Add to that the Audi saga (the brown beast is in our drive and all legal now but that took some doing on our and our family back in the UK’s part I can tell you), Lisa starting work and Buster coming down with grade 1 Chicken Pox (he is virtually a walking Pox as I write – scratch, itch, moan, groan, scratch, itch etc etc).

Anyway – all’s well that ends well and all that and I am delighted to say that we are chuffed to bits with the new gaf. There is loads of inside and outside space, it is incredibly quiet at night (apart from the odd possum squeal that sounds like a cat being lowly squished in a vice) and its only 5mins to town and the beach – all in all we are feeling very pleased with ourselves.

I’ll go into a bit more detail in future posts. Oh yeah, I have updated our contact info on the ‘get in touch’ bit of this website so please use these new telephone numbers/address/e-mail if you fancy getting in touch.

That’s it – time to hose Buster down in Camomile so I had better get off. Hope your all well, enjoy any feelings of well-being you might have before the USA put 4 goals past our national side in the footy later in the week!!

Its a long story I wont bore you with but we are in the early stages of getting a dog! I know, can you believe it! Anyway we want some advice from you dog owners out there (of the constructive variety). We have narrowed the choice down to two breeds - a Lakeland Terrier or a miniature Schnauzer. I think they look cool and would make a great pet but if you know anything we don't then please let us know. Also, have you any experience of other breeds that might be worth considering? They have to be non-malting, no bigger than 30/40cm (18"), fun and lively, not poncy and good with kids.

Holla

Just to let you all know we now have our work permits - phew. In typical Jennings style we had jumped the gun a bit I guess buying a house, car, fridge etc without being sure we were even going to be able to stay in NZ but he who dares and all that and I am delighted to say we are now legally allowed to stay, and work, in NZ. Lisa is probably going to start work a week on Monday and I have a few irons in the fire - only problem is that the waiting list for childcare is 8 months!!!! Not sure what we will be doing with Buster but I have seen a dog flap for $100 and I am sure we can teach him to poo in a cat litter in the garden if needs be.

Also - how could I forget - we have also (or should I say Mum and my big sis Wendy) have sorted out the entry requirements for the A2 so I'll be picking her up next week. Phew - what a saga - at one point I thought we might have to torch the sucker!

Ba

Its funny how we are experiencing the start of another winter - especially in May! We had about 8 weeks of fantastic 80 degree weather when we first got here but that has now slipped into definite Autumn with frosty mornings, clear blue skies and snow on the mountains at the back of Nelson (the picture was taken on the way to our friends house where I went on my first wild pig hunting expedition!). The local sports shops are gearing up for the ski season with all manner of cool looking kit and we have been on the website for our local ski field (called Rainbow) which is about 1hr drive away. Should be fun - snowmen in June and some speed sledging with Buster - something Joe and I experimented with in December in a cold Roundhay so I have high hopes.

Jingle bells, Jingle bells

Not much going on at the moment, just waiting for the keys to our new house. Ooooh, can't wait. We spend a lot of our time in or around Nelson so it will be great not to have to get in the car each day. There are mountain bike trails straight out of the back door and tonnes for us to do with Buster in the area. We move in on the 21 May so its not long now. I have posted some pictures on Flickr if your interested - they are only off the estate agency's website so they aren't the best but should satisfy any interest you have.
Should be heading back to Christchurch next week to pick up the car - Mrs J has been a huge help getting the certificates we need to get it registered - I'll be flying down on my own and driving the little A2 back so another stop at Hanmer is on the cards I think!
The less forward thinking of you will also be glad to hear I have a job interview of sorts next week. I'll tell you more about it if anything comes of it but its for a media/design agency who want to expand into PR. The days of living life like god intended are coming to an end I fear.
Commiserations to any Labour voters out there as well - seems like the country has finally woken up to the parties gross incompetence and theft of our national wealth. Vive la revolution.