Taupo Trip

taupo_landing
Originally uploaded by Kotukunui.

Flew an aero-club Piper Archer (ZK-FWS) down to Taupo for the 2005 AgriQuality Leader's Conference. Co-pilot was Mike Gilbert from HO and the photo was taken by Richard Leong from Hamilton who was sitting in the backseat. Lake Taupo is to the right of screen and the snow-covered eastern slopes of Mt. Ruapehu can just be seen in the far background.

Just got back from a short holiday in Ohakune having a play in the snow on Mt. Ruapehu . The kids loved tobogganing and we built an awesome snowman. Stayed at the Ohakune Court Motel which was OK. The kids also loved the big carrot and throwing stones into the Mangawhero stream from the little swingbridge near the motel.

On the return trip we stopped in at the AC Baths in Taupo which was fun. The hot water left us all a bit tired for the journey home.

Despite the high price of petrol it was well worth the trip to get away as a family.

Trolley GP Team Photo

TrolleyGP_Team
Originally uploaded by Kotukunui.

My brother-in-law Andrew took a few photos of us at the Trolley GP. I'm the one in the "pram" (Awww.. wot a cwute widdle man...)
The other team members are: (from left to right) Barry, Chris, Steve, Mike.

Having gotten the trolley grand prix over and done with, I now turn my attention to an aviation project. Getting my Yak 52 rating. I have just bought a share in the Te-Kowhai Yak Syndicate which owns and operate ZK-TYS. I've had a joyride in it previously, but this time I'm going to be a part owner. I'll probably be broke and disillusioned within 12 months but, by crikey, I am determined to enjoy it while I can.
Chief pilot, John Parker will be guiding me through the rating and teaching me the ins and outs of this aircraft. Can't wait. (But I will have to, as the aircraft is up in Whangarei with some of the northern syndicate members for a few weeks.)

Here are the 2005 Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix Results. Team "Four Men and a Baby" came 29th overall (or 25th according to my calculations). Our trolley was the 13th fastest down the hill but two of the judges absolutely HATED our dance number.

Well the Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix has been and gone. We didn't win, place or show.

Our race actually went really well. Thanks to a good pushing effort from Barry, Chris, Mike and Steve, I got out ahead of my opponent and took off. The trolley just flew down the course. Everything went to plan right up until the "hairpin" where I turned in a bit early and the understeer scrubbed off a bit of speed before the finish line. I didn't see my elapsed time and they won't publish the full results until Wednesday 16th Feb. However, I'd put money on it being about 48 seconds.

What really annoys me is that we put on what I thought was a great pre-race stage-show and got rubbished by the judges. One judge gave us only 1 out of 10! To say I'm a bit disappointed is an understatement. We were race team 74 out of 82 so perhaps the judges were a bit jaded by the end. Another team had done a "Greased Lightning" number and a team before them had already done a pram racer. Ours were different (and better, of course) but I'm just dumbfounded about how bad our scores were.

The event was won by the Wanganui Motors team in a machine shaped like a trollified Ford Falcon racing car. They were heavily sponsored by Ford and must have spent thousands on the build. Second place went to the Porsche International Racing Team in a miniature Porsche racing car trolley. ( ditto sponsorship and budget ). I guess our off-beat concept and miniscule budget just couldn't compete...

I think our trolley would have been competitive in the 2003 Trolley GP but we were 2 years behind the times and this one was the year of the big-budget teams. Special thanks to Team Thomas (driving a "Thomas the Tank Engine" kart and doing "The Locomotion") for their support. As team "Rubber Duck Racing" they had won they previous GP in 2003 in their rolling bath-tub. They expressed their sympathy for what they saw as the injustice inflicted on us.

Will I want to be part of another Trolley Grand Prix team? I don't know. I'll make a decision later when the all the bile I have built up has drained from my spleen.

Steve and I took the Prambinator for a test run on some deserted back roads last Sunday. Found some twisty hills out the back of Huntly (Pukemiro, Glen Afton way). Sat in, strapped on the seat-belt, took a deep breath and pushed off. The trolley handles like a real go-kart, cornering flat-out with no worries. In fact I chickened out before the trolley reached its adhesion limits. Luckily the brakes seem to stop the machine quite well.

I got up to 65km/h on the steepest bit. I could feel the wind putting the brakes on as we are not the .. ahem... most streamlined design. (Well, strictly speaking it is my bulky ass that is the biggest wind resistance factor).

We tried to pick roads with no traffic, but inevitably I met up with vehicles going the other way. Everyone smiled and waved and no cops turned up looking for us. Phew! The biggest worry was cars coming up behind, but Steve shadowed me with the van flashing his hazard lights so we were OK.

The "Prambinator" rolls
Originally uploaded by Kotukunui.

Did a fair bit of work on the "Prambinator" today. Got it all painted with primer and all the bits attached. We slide in under the 80kg weight limit by 3 kilos. Had a test attach of the bodywork but due to some shonky measurements on my part, poor old Helen will have to remake the camouflage panels.
Took the kids for a ride down the driveway. Yeehah!! We sharpened up the steering ratio and it is now about two turns from lock to lock. Handles really well. We need to test it on some twisty real-life roads.

My next project is the 2005 Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix

Our team is called "Four Men and a Baby" and our trolley is called the "Prambinator". As the name suggests it is a giant pram and I will be dressing up as an oversized baby (complete with bonnet and nappy) to drive it.

My brothers-in-law, Steve and Barry, are in charge of building the mechanicals with help from my wife's cousin, Chris. Mike and his wife Jenni are helping with musical and dance arrangements for the grand entrance. My wife Helen is creating the costumes.

It has been a good project to manage so far, with the trolley rolling, the music recorded and the costumes under way.

Me and David Beckham

Me and David Beckham
Originally uploaded by Kotukunui.

Just testing the whole Flickr to Blog thing. This is a photo of me with David Beckham that I took using my Sharp GX10 CameraPhone while attending the Man. U. training session in May 2003 while on my SportsCafe prize trip.

I've been on jury duty this week. Haven't made it on to a jury but seeing the people in the jury assembly room got me to thinking. If I were accused of a crime would I trust twelve of these "peers" to be able to decide on my guilt or innocence?
This brought me to a moment of startling clarity. If you were guilty of the crime you were accused of, you would want a jury trial so that your lawyer could use emotions and appeals to human nature to sow the seeds of doubt in the jury's mind. On the other hand, if you were not-guilty, you'd want a panel of judges to assess the evidence and make up their minds from a (hopefully) more logical and rational point of view, see you were not-guilty and send you on your way.
Therefore all we need to do is ask the accused if they want a jury trial or to be assessed in front of a panel of learned judges. If they pick a jury trial, they are guilty and you can bang them up in gaol without the cost of a trial. Simple, innit? This method has hostorical precedence as any Google search for "Spanish Inquisition" or "Salem Witch Trials" will show.

Want to know your cyborg-name? Click Here :)

Congratulate me!! I won the SportsCafe "Sporting Trick" video competition on 30th April. My brother Tim and I flew out to Manchester on Thursday 1 May. Business class trip on Singapore Airlines. We stayed at the only 5-star hotel in Manchester (The Lowry). We were taken by coach out to the Man United training ground at Carrington where we watched the team train and then got autographs and photos with some of the players. I got my ManU souvenir football signed by David Beckham, Roy Keane, Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelerooy. The photo I got with Beckham wasn't that great but the vodafone people back in NZ seemed happy with it. vodafone treated us to lunch at the Red Cafe in the grounds at Old Trafford, Dinner at "The Gaucho Grill" steak restaurant and a slap-up breakfast (including black pudding!!) at the hotel. On Saturday 3rd May we went to Old Trafford for the match versus Charlton Athletic. 4-1 victory to ManU. Goals to Beckham (1) and van Nistelerooy (3!). Good fun. Took some digital photos with the Sharp GX10 phone's built in camera and recorded some crowd sounds to send back as well. Next day (Sun 4th) we hopped a train (first-class) to London and moved into the Trafalgar Square Hilton for the next 3 days. Mucked around a bit, had a ride on the London Eye ferris wheel. Expensive place to live though. Spent NZ$600 in 3 days and didn't do anything particularly expensive. Tim and I both bought gifts for our spouses at Harrods. Wednesday 7th flew back to NZ via Singapore. Business class travel is ceratinly the way to do sucha long trip. Watched several recent movies including "Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers", "Gangs of New YorK", "The Recruit", "Chicago". Arrived back in Auckland on Friday 9th exhausted but happy. Sportscafe want me to make another appearance on the show and talk about the trip. What a hard life!!...

Once again, Lion Red Sports Cafe features in my life. They are running a video competition "Film Your Best Sporting Trick" and win a trip to Manchester to meet up with the Man. Utd. football players including David Beckham. I entered a "Mouse Trap" style chain reaction machine. It starts with a golf ball being putted down a tube, triggers a swinging boot which kicks a rugby ball into a fishing net, which pivots and hits a suspended tennis racquet, which sends a tennis ball down a set of tracks, around a corner and dropping off to upset a balance beam, which drops a tea candle into a bowl of petrol, which burns through a string tethering a model Possum Bourne Subaru Impreza to a ramp which runs down the ramp and activates an electric fan which blows a model boat across a small pond, where a needle mounted on the prow bursts a balloon which releases a cricket bat which hits a ball into a wicket, knocking it over and the middle stump triggers a basketball to roll down a ramp, hit a soccer ball which pivots a lever releasing a golf club which knocks a golf ball into the hole, right back where we started. Whew!! It took me 30 hours straight with no sleep to build and film the stunt. There was hard deadline to work to so it was all a bit miraculous. The audience at "Float" gave it a long cheering ovation so I guess I'm in with a good chance to win the trip to Manchester. All I need now are some details and I can get organised. (I am absolutely physically shattered!)

Haven't posted to the blog for a while. Busy, busy, busy. I'm currently developing a Web based GIS enabled information system for managing the the Animal Health Board's possum killing (vector control) business. It's very interesting. A Cold Fusion web client interacting with a text based SQL Server database and a GIS built around ESRI's ArcSDE and ArcIMS software. Cool, but hard work to make everything work properly.

Also I've moved house and the chaos has not yet settled. The new place has some great views. We've been watching the hot-air balloons in Hamilton for the Balloon Fiesta. They rise up out of the early morning mists and float across the city. We can watch them from our breakfast table. My little girl, Samantha, is crazy for hot-air balloons. When she is a bit older I'll organise us a hot-air balloon ride.

Had two "Its a Small World" experiences recently. This is quite common in New Zealand. (1) Was invited to a board gaming session at the home of a friend of Michael Switzer's. Turns out that Gordon (the friend) had purchased the house from my wife's best friend, Jenni Murphy-Scanlon and her husband. It was strange to go to a house that I had previously visited regularly and seeing some one else living in it. (2) Was out at dinner with some work colleagues and made a humourous disparaging remark about the time when I worked on a project in Tokoroa. Hayley, (next door office at work to mine) defended Tokoroa as she had grown up there. It soon turns out that her husband is the best friend of a guy called Darren Hepple whom I used to hang out in a group with at university. She says that he visits them regularly from his home in Wellington and will put us in contact next time he is up. Weird! but it happens a lot in NZ...

Well, the trip to Wellington was a roaring success. I enjoyed the LOTR:TTT movie. I had a good seat in the Premium seating at the Embassy. The sound was awesomely full and the action was deliciously frenetic. I liked the fact that everyone (except Legolas of course) gets tired and dirty during the film. Just as travellers on such a journey really would. Viggo Mortenson really is Aragorn.
The movie story itself had its ups and downs. I'm afraid that despite all the hype, the CGI animators have not yet conquered the gravity thing completely. The worst instance was where the riders charged out of Helms Deep down the causeway, knocking Uruks away left right and centre. To my eyes, those bad-boys just didn't fall "right". (That's right I am a picky bastard)
OTOH, Gollum was very good. (Qui-Gonn never really wrestled with Jar-Jar, it was more of a tackle). However gravity still wasn't right in some of his moves. Also, I think my ears must be packing up on me as I could not understand all of the G-thing's lines.
Overall a good effort. If you consider the trilogy to be the analog of the "Three-Act-Structure", then the second act is always the hardest to keep all juggling balls in the air at one time.
Also went to the LOTR exhibit at Te Papa. Awesome. Cost NZ$12 to get in (plus NZ$7 for the audio tour, which I highly recommend). Queued for tickets for 45mins. Queued for entry for 30mins. Enjoyed the exhibits for 2 hours. The amount of work that everyone involved put in was just unbelievable. No wonder they grabbed 4 technical Oscars.
Sadly my favourite bagel joint on Johnston St. was closed so I had to yomp all the way to the Willis St. branch. Well worth it, though.
Sunny day...
Sidewalk table...
Yummy bagel (Smoked salmon, cream cheese, lettuce and capers on Onion) ...
Good coffee...
What more could you ask for?

My wonderful wife, Helen, gave me an ultra-cool Xmas present. A plane ticket to Wellington to see The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers at the Embassy theatre. Staying overnight at the groovy Downtown Backpackers hotel.
I leave early tomorrow morning.
I think I shall luncheon at my favourite spot in Wellies : Wholly Bagels on Johnson St..

Helen is the grandmaster world champion of present buying.

Another SportsCafe "Big Question" Win.

Question was "How did the Ivy League get it's name?"

My Answer:

There are two main popular (but, alas, incorrect) explanations for the
origin of the term "Ivy League"

The first refers to the group of older established Universities of the
Eastern United States (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, yada, yada, yada).
Because of the length of time they had been in existence, they had ivy
growing over the buildings. Newer upstart colleges had not been there long
enough to grow the creepers up over the structures. It implied an image of
permanence, wisdom and solidity. Exactly the image that the college founders
wanted.

The second misconception relates to a mythical inter-college athletic
competetion run between teams from the four major institutions. The Roman
numeral representation of four is "IV". Hence the "IV" (Ivy) League.

Both of these misdirections were invented by the president's of the
universities in the 1930's to cover up the real (and more sordid) origin of
the name "Ivy League".
In the wild 1930's, prohibition had finished and America was starting to
loosen up a bit.
This was not the case on the east coast amongst the upstanding and
respectable Universities. Saloons and brothels were closed down and ejected
from the college towns as fast as they could spring up.

An enterprising bootlegger and notorious brothel keeper from Chicago, named
Ivy Boniface, realised that there was a niche market for a mobile cat-house
and gin-palace that travelled from town to town, never setting down long
enough to attract the attention of the town authorities or police. The
prestigious universities were full of young men with piles of cash and
nowhere to expend their ... errr ... energies. Ivy's custom built party
train would pull into the nearest station to the university and hold wild
parties where the young scions of wealthy America would booze and hump their
way through their generous allowances. Since the wealthy tended to attend a
select set of school's, these became a regular circuit for Ivy's mobile
business.

To attend a university which Ivy Boniface's party train would actually
visit, was a real source of underground pride among the students. These rich
pricks would taunt the poor saps from lesser colleges at football matches by
saying that their opponents' school was so shitty that it was not even in
"Ivy's League" (meaning that the train never went there). Eventually the
name stuck. If you attended one of the wealthy schools, you were in the "Ivy
League" and were tarred with the brush of studliness that the name implied.

Of course, all of the involved colleges will deny the truth of any of this.
They have an image to protect.

But now you know the truth.

Regards

Evan Yates

This is of course a complete fabrication, but it won me a "Black Hawk Down" DVD plus movie branded shirt, bag , cap and jacket. Cool.

Had another satire article published in the Rockall Times online magazine. Read it here.
They folded another writer's article into mine, but at least I got top billing!! Forks and Knives.