Rotorua

We spent the firstleg of our trip in Rotorua where we got to experience the wonder of its geothermal activity (fart smell) and of course, the Redwoods Mountain Bike Park in Whakarewarewa Forest. It was soooo awesome. Think Stromlo but with trees and better! My favourite trails off the top of my head were: A-Trail, Be Rude Not To and definitely the Exit Trail. Bikes were hired and time was limited so we didn’t get to ride as many as we would have liked. Getting lost through Genesis and being unfit didn’t help but it was an excellent experience and I’d definitely love to go back one day if I happen to be down in NZ.

With his hired GT Force on our way into the park

Trying to navigate with our $5 waterproof map. It was hard at first but got easier as we got a feel for the place.

Me riding through the Tickler on my hired Norco. Saying I missed my Trance would be an understatement. Lagging behind means the person in front can stop to take pictures of you

On a more low key day, we visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. While there was an initial assault on our senses, the sights were worth it after some adjustment.

I forget what this was called. Maybe the “Champagne Pool”? All the minerals and what not made for awesome coloured water while the sulphur steaming out of it made for a very cool effect. Yes, my descriptive skills are at their all time high tonight!

This was the “Devil’s Home”. Radioactive-green coloured water in a crater. I think “Three-eyed Fish’s Home” would have been a better name!

Lady Knox Geyser. “When 9°C water meets 150°C waters”. Powwww! Mother Nature shooting her load.

And it wasn’t only in a nature park that you saw this kind of activity. This is a shot of a body of water that we had to ride over to get to the Redwoods. Don’t be alarmed if you see steam rising out of lakes or random holes in the ground – it’s quite normal around Rotorua.

And this concludes my post on Rotorua. I might surprise you all with other installments on the other parts of our NZ trip.

06.12.09 – Mount Stromlo

The next day was spent at Mount Stromlo. It was a loooooong ride up the mountain but the ride down was definitely worth it! Good thing we rented the bike-mobile or we wouldn’t have been able to fit another run down before rushing back to Sydney to make a wedding. Shuttling FTW! Weeeeeee! I was feeling a bit vulnerable at the top, looking down at the trails laid before me (serves me right for being lazy and not wearing my knee and elbow pads up) but it was A-OK and there was lots of fun to be had through those berms. YEEEEHAR!

(Credit: Justin)

Unloading the bang bus.. I mean van.

(Credit: Carl)

Where to?

(Credit: Justin)

Enough room for 6 bikes…

(Credit: Carl)

… and a few illegal immigrants, haha. A few of the guys hitched a ride up the mountain. I think it was sickly and hot back there and I’m sure it didn’t help that we drove the wrong way for a good ten minutes, either! I’m glad noone puked back there, would’ve been horrendous driving back to Sydney in a stinky van!

(Credit: Carl)

At the top of ze mountain!

What a great weekend! We were rushing like crazy to get back to Sydney, get ready for the wedding, rush to return the van and then finally make our way to the reception. I was pooped by the end of it all and was glad to finally get to sleep in my own bed.

David, Wilson and I thought it would be a good idea to hire a van for a weekend which would’ve worked out easier and cheaper than taking two/three cars down. It was a great idea, I loved just chucking stuff in the back and not worrying about the car.

Our trusty rental van! Nice and reliable but we would probably get something with a bit more power next time. This thing was one slow mover!

Six bikes in the back, fuck yeah!

05.12.09 – Sparrow Hill & Saturday Night Shenanigans

Sparrow was just absolutely amazing! It is by far the best trail I’ve ridden so far. Flowy single track that undulates up and down, winding through a picturesque pine forest. It was so lovely and peaceful in there, I’m sure I could’ve just enjoyed walking through it and admiring its fragrance… Which is what we did when David’s leg seized up in a monstrous cramp, poor thing! Wilson and I limped back with him to the fire road that took us back to the entrance.

(Credit: Jing) Heading Out

(Credit: Jing) Through the Forest

(Credit: Jing) Pine Trees!

After a well-earned dinner at the Kingston Hotel, we returned to our apartments where I dozed off into a food-induced coma that I was later woken from by cries of agony that sounded something like “Ughhh, fuckkk! My leg! It’s crampeddddd! It hurtssss!”. I entered the lounge area to find this:

(Credit: Justin) Timmy writhing around on the ground!

What happened, you ask?

(Credit: Justin) Timmy + A jug of vodka and pineapple juice = Sixty dorra and…

(Credit: Justin) Timmy trying to crawling back to his sofa, LOL!

Stacks on… Cliffy!!!

So we hit The Oaks last Saturday. I was stallowned. If there is anything I have learnt, it is not to have chilli hot pot the night before a ride. Rode all of it though, thank God! Except for the bit out of the gorge at the end… and some of the technical bits. But I always skip those parts, so ner.

Waiting for the train at Glenbrook station

Taking a well earned rest

David and I. I’m looking a little worse for wear here. Damn my stomach troubles! I was glad the majority of the hills were, over, though.

Derek and I emerging from the sweet, sweeeet single track. Hohhhh yeah!

David decked out in his new jersey! A true Yeti fan, hehe.

Nghi and I hadn’t seen each other in a while so we planned a date on Friday night. Starvation was already upon us so dinner was our first priority. We had hopes to try Mamak, that Malaysian joint that is all the rage at the moment but our empty stomachs disagreed with the long queue outside. Instead, we headed over to Capitol Square where we indulged ourselves in some Korean food at MillioRe. I don’t have any pictures unfortunately (too hungry! wanted to eat!), but rest assured, it was a satisfyingly good meal. I had the BBQ beef ribs while Nghi opted for some pork rashers which I thought were much like bacon, except  unsalted. We decided to cook our own food, our apparatus being tongs and a hotplate perched on a portable gas stove – this way, we would have an idea of the ETA of our meals, a finger on the pulse, if you like.  I think this was the perfect set up for this particular night because I would have died in anticipation of cooked meals arriving at our table.  A side of the potato starch noodles (divine!) was also ordered but we soon discovered that we couldn’t accommodate it all. Thank God for our saviour that is the doggy bag! I guess the unlimited refills of the tasty complimentary side dishes (Banchan) didn’t help, either. I know this entry is useless without pics but to try and make  up for it, I will show you what I got to wash it all down:

A grape juice drink with real grape bits in it!

We walked past the Chinatown Night Markets on our mission to fill our grumbling bellies and made the resolution to return straight after dinner to see what finger bling they had on offer. We found these:

Nghi’s new ring

My new ring

… and bangle

I also witnessed for the first time, the Konad nail art system. All this time I didn’t realise it was a little rubber stamp. Intriguing! I almost wish I was a fan of it. We thought it best to make our way back to the car to save ourselves from spending all our pennies.

Saw this on the way. Interesting! Looks like sushi shaped ice cream. Mmm.. Did someone say ice cream?

Nghi with Bubblegum (mine) and Peanutbutter Choc Swirl with cookie dough and Nerds mixed in (hers). She swears by this combo. I didn’t see the attraction, though.

It’s little wonder we found ourselves heading to Cold Rock for dessert next. We didn’t have quite enough room yet but figured we would by the time we got to Newtown.

Très délicieux!

I thought it was funny that I was eating ice cream the colour of her top while she ate some the colour of mine.

26.09.09 – Heathcote Pipeline

After having a geez at Trailflix, the boys suggested we ride something different. We rode six kilometres of uphills towards the end!! Tiring, but doable, it was a nice change of scenery and we came across some interesting things along the way.

The pipeline that carries water from Woronora Dam to the households

Setting off

Low tide at the causeway

Found these growing on some trees. Looks like a scrotum! Tee hee!

The rock was warm, ok? It was a bit cool and windy despite the sunshine. I took the opportunity to get my lizard on and even out my glove tan.

ECHIDNA! Spotted this little critter on the way back. He burrowed his head into the sand when we tried to get a closer look, though. “I hope they think I’m a pile of sticks!”. I was pretty excited, haven’t seen one of these in the wild before!

We had been to this trail once before at the very beginning of our interest in off-road riding. As a mountain biking novice, the trail was quite daunting and challenging with technical sections that I mostly walked or took the bee-line through. It didn’t help that I hadn’t exercised prior to that in about 5 years but that was almost a year ago and I’d like to think that I have built up some fitness and a bit more skill (and gonads) since then. With this in mind, Appin has been a ride that we had set our sights on returning to (but with some knee and elbow pads). We finally got around to doing this on Sunday which turned out to be a pretty warm day.

We thought we’d be ok to navigate our own way around since Appin is known for being so well signposted but as you would have it, we’re not that observant and missed some turns along the way. Two unsuccessful attempts were made at riding the trail (one of which ending in someone kindly letting us cut through their family’s backyard to get back to the street) but don’t fret, we were lucky enough to bump into two friendly and ultra helpful riders who offered to take us through the loop. They even helped us set our bike suspension up properly! (Third time’s a charm!). Thanks Steve and Luke if you are somehow (but very unlikely) reading this! We were pretty worn down by then and had a hard time keeping up (that and we’re just crap and unfit riders, ha!) but it was still enjoyable. I skipped quite a few of the technical bits I had set out to overcome (that’s ok, I still don’t have knee and elbow pads and will use that as my excuse) but am sure I rode more of the trail than I did when I first visited it last year. I didn’t appreciate what an awesome ride it was back then but will definitely be going back for more since I have developed a taste for flowing single track!

Getting ready to roll at the entrance to the trail

Buggered after getting lost for the second time

Still smiling… this must have been taken on a rest stop on our first attempt at the loop, hah.
Note the riding gloves I am wearing…

… Because they are responsible for this hideous glove tan I have!

I was really excited about trying a nude polish for spring but was disappointed to find that it just blended in with my skin tone. I reassured myself that it would stand out once we started getting sunny skies because I would develop a tan for it to contrast against… Apparently not if I’m spending my days riding with gloves on! I’ll need to do some serious hand tanning to even this out if I ever want Samoan Sand to look good on me!

What a lovely weekend! It felt really good to finally get back onto our bikes. Thankfully some of the fitness is still there but it will take a fair bit of work to get it back to where it was before. (David’s photos!)

Grr! We found this at the beginning of the trail. Some wankers had angle grinded the gate open so they could get their 4WD in there. We noticed deep ruts in the trail as we rode through and also what seemed to be the remanents of a little fisherman’s party on the rocks. I have since reported this to the RNP.

Crab banana!… in Paul’s mouth!

I compiled a whole list of things I ‘needed’ to do during the exam period but it seems I don’t remember what they are anymore! Let’s try again.

Thursday

• Service car
• Go to the gym
• Wash the Mountain Bike
• Change the sheets

Friday

• Get a haircut
• Wash the Car
• Take Phillip to the vet

Saturday

• Marulan Driver Training Centre
• Aileen’s 21st

Sunday

• Give the dogs a bath, weather permitting
• Do something with Nghi

For reference:

The Car

The Mountain Bike

Phillip

Sunni

Brandi

Maggie ~

Lotus ~

I had quite a delightful evening last night having watched the latest episode of Weeds and revisiting season 4 of Sex and the City. I looooooove sitting lying in front of the TV and just switching my brain off, probably because this is its natural state. I am a glutton for all things sloth-ly. Ha! See what I just did there? I hereby challenge y’all to construct a sentence with more than two of the seven deadly sins in it.

Speaking of such deadly sins, my lovely boyfriend and I indulged in a dinner from McDonald’s the other night. A medium Big Mac meal; fillet-o-fish meal; cheese burger and 10 pack of nuggets later, we remembered why we should only ever visit Micky D’s when we need to. BLERGH. DAMN YOU whoever it was that had it on their Facebook status when I happened to be hungry! But never fear, I went to the gym again today and participated in some interval training where you go hectic and rest… go hectic and rest… go hectic and rest… etc. It was a wonderful experience during which I felt the urge to go to the toilet… and DIE, haha, thanks Jue! Hopefully today’s work out and more sensible eating for the rest of the week keeps that McDonald’s at bay from my ass… I really love when BOM forecasts a gym session for me since rainy weekends equate to wet trails which translate into no riding and going to the gym to keep fitness up and avoid feeling fat.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to report at the moment… no wait, I want to say happy birthday to my amigos Mano and Paul for the 15th and 16th respectively.

Thanks for hiring out that joint in Bundeena. Much relaxing was done despite not sleeping much on the first night that was Thien’s Puke-a-rama. I love staying in nice houses that I probably will not be able to afford in the future. See previous post.

Adios! Oh, and just FYI in case you were curious, the seven deadly sins are:
Pride – “It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self”. Check.

Avarice aka Greed – “is like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular”. Check.

Envy - “like greed, may be characterized by an insatiable desire; they differ, however, for two main reasons. First, greed is largely associated with material goods, whereas envy may apply more generally. Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it“. This one too.

Wrath – also known as anger or “rage”, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. And this.

Lust – “is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature”. Yes.
Gluttony “is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste”. YESSSSSS.

Medieval church leaders took a more expansive view of gluttony,arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. A list of six ways to commit gluttony:

Praepropere – eating too soon. Oops.
Laute – eating too expensively (washedly). Oops.
Nimis – eating too much. Oops.
Ardenter – eating too eagerly (burningly). Oops.
Studiose – eating too daintily (keenly).
Forente – eating wildly (boringly). How the devil do you do this? But probably yes.

Sloth/acedia – “believed to be the failure to utilize one’s talents and gifts… regarding laziness and indifference as the sin at the heart of the matter”. Definitely.

Hooray, that’s all seven! Not that I’m religious or didn’t already know, but it looks like I would be going straight to hell if I was. Thank heavens I am an atheist! Also, you know you need to GTFO of uni when you spend more time and effort on your blog entries during the exam period than you do on your assignments.

Thanks Wikipedia <3