Cool hat

Not much to talk about these days. Lora is home tomorrow and I've just been doing some relief work and helping some friends out on their reno job on their house (renovation).

I saw this really cool hat while surfing the net and figured if I add a link to the pattern one of our awesome knitters out there might feel like making one for the ultra geek that I truly am. It's an R2D2 hat.

http://carissaknits.blogspot.com/2007/06/r2d2-beanie.html


Even if it wasn't a copy of the coolest little robot out there I'd still like the colors. I can't really think of a reason anyone should bother making one for me but Easter is coming up... or 4th of July... or President's Day.

Catching up

Well, life goes on for us all. Lora is currently in the field in northern Tassie. I am back in Hobart squaring away my California teaching credential and getting all signed up for the last of my courses for my Masters degree.

Before setting out for the field I picked up Lora's new assistant, Craig, from the airport and while Lora was busy on the computer... of course... we took a quick hike up a nearby peak. You can see the ocean behind me.

A picture of me on top of Hartz Peak. Notice the really cool Jamper Industries T-shirt I'm sporting. Be sure to check it out and be one of the cool kids on the block!

Craig is an eager assistant from the states waiting to get into Grad school for ecology of course. He's a really nice guy and seems to really love doing fieldwork. It's nice to have someone traveling with Lora again so that I know she's ok in the field.

Craig on Hartz Peak. 1200 meters

Last week the three of us headed out to the Tassie field sites to set up traps. I hung out to help for two days and then I decided to go on a little bike ride. My plan was to ride back to Hobart from Devonport in the north. This was about 400kms. I set off alone dragging my gear in a really cool bike trailer.

As you can see from the roadside map it bisects the island. It is comprised of about 25% sealed roads, 35% gravel roads and double track fire roads, and 40% single track. I was really excited to be having an adventure again. Even though the sign calls it a "soft" adventure.

Well I made it two days and 115kms before I had a major malfunction of the bike. Apparently, the trailer caused my rear wheel axle to bend. I'm not talking about the skewer that holds the wheel to the frame but the actual axle. I didn't realize I had that much leg power. Who knew!

This of course caused the freewheel to stop acting as a freewheel and every time I stopped pedaling the chain would get sucked up and cause problems. Also, because of this the cassette, the 9 chain rings in the back, locking ring would unscrew itself and come loose. I rode for about 10 kms with this problem. My solution was to just treat my bike like it was a track bike. This means I would not stop pedaling to "coast". This sounds simple enough right? Well try going downhill faster than you can pedal dragging 25 kilos of weight in a trailer. I would have to brake going downhill and I was in my biggest chainring! Also, riding like this on a mountainbike trail is next to impossible when you have to time rocks and logs with your cranks so they don't knock you off the bike.

So being too far from a bike shop and it being the weekend which means nothing was open anyway. I decided to take the bus home the remaining 300 or so kilometers. I was pretty bummed. Of course like any adventure this one would have been better with a close friend. So if anyone wants to go on a ride you know where to find me.

I'll try to get Lora to write a blog soon so you can hear first hand what she's up to. It's just hard for her right now because she's in the field and very busty. I mean busy.

Tim

Sad News

Well I thought I would let everyone know that Lora had a miscarriage last week. We went in for our first ultrasound and instead of getting to see our baby for the first time we got the worst news possible. Apparently the fetus had terminated sometime a week before. Well of course this hit us very hard and we were extremely disappointed and really sad. Lora went in for a procedure the following day and recovered from that quickly. She is so strong.

We just wanted all of you to know about it and to tell you that we are moving on and have a positive outlook on getting pregnant again soon. I guess if there's one bright side to all of this it means we get to have lots of sex again!

Around the World as quick as you can go

She's a monster! But boy can she slice through the water.

Just read about the new speed solo record for sailing around the world. A French sailor reclaimed the record yesterday from a female British sailor who took it from him back in 2005. One of the TV shows I enjoy watching here is Top Gear, a car show from Britain. It's hilarious! Anyway, one of the episodes they had her on the show. They have all of their guests race around a closed circuit track in a factory stocked Hyundai or something like that. She was not only fast on the water but she placed first on the list. She's a fast cookie!

William, what do you think? Could you manage this one?
You have a lot of building to do before this one falls into your price range.

Well, this French guy didn't want to go down like that so he built another boat. This one was much larger, 97ft, and set out to reclaim the record. Well not only did he reclaim it he smashed it. He took off 14 days from her record and 15 days from his previous one! He did it in 57 days 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds. I couldn't believe it. Most of the time I like to just talk about what Lora and I have been up to and how things are going. This story was just too cool and I had to mention it on the blog. A few of our readers are sailors and I'm sure they will enjoy reading this and checking out a few pictures. Be sure to read the previous blogs about kayaking in New Zealand and of course the earlier one where news is revealed to the world.

Tim

A little kayaking in New Zealand

Well as I posted yesterday Lora and I went kayaking in New Zealand after getting off the boat. It was great. However, we didn't get to spend as much time on the water as we would have hoped for but oh well. We ended up hiking up one river and then doing two helicopter shuttles for two other classic runs on the West Coast. Not nearly enough kayaking for me. The one thing it did reinforce though was how lucky we are to live in California where you wake up and decide which of the many classic rivers will we paddle today. That is something that Tasmania just can't offer.

While we were over there we were able to run into a few friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while. My buddy JJ from the Camp Carolina era was over there and it was great to catch up with him. Also, Jess, who is an old kayaking friend of mine from when I lived in Christchurch was around as well. She commutes between teaching kayaking in California and New Zealand. She told me she hasn't had a winter in almost 10 years! Obviously she's not a skier. Also, Lora's friend...and mine now too... Dre was over with her partner, Don, who is a visiting Professor up in Auckland. Don did a bit of kayaking with us and it was super cool hanging out with the two of them.

Lastly, our good friends Scottie and Anna from Utah were over visiting Anna's parents in Christchurch. We hung out with them one day when the cruise ship stopped there but then just Lora and I hung out with them again at the end of the trip. It was so good seeing them and really lifted my spirits. I can't wait to see all of our friends again. No, I'm not home sick. I just realize how lucky we are to have such a diverse group of REALLY AWESOME people that don't seem to mind us calling them our friends.

Well, here's a video from youtube showing a bit of the New Zealand kayaking we did. Of course I didn't shoot nearly enough video and even didn't bring it along on one of the rivers, the Perth. Near the end you can see Lora get absolutely worked as she runs one of the portages. Remember, she hasn't really been kayaking for almost two years now and she was in a rental boat plus most people portage it! Man is she tough. And yes for those wondering, it was not fun watching her run this rapid upside down. There are also a few pictures near the end too.



Here's another video I found on Youtube that is of the Arahura river. It does a better job showing you what it's all about. I was having way too much fun kayaking to stop and shoot video. Plus much of it is done from a heli.

Losing Viewers

A typical shot of the New Zealand scenery near Arthur's Pass, S. Island.

What's the quickest way to lose readers of a blog? Don't put up any new content.

Sorry for that guys and gals but Lora and I have been on vacation. You may be wondering how I convinced Lora to take time out from her very busy schedule to travel to New Zealand with me. Well at first I tried telling her about the amazing kayaking there. Interest of course but no go. Then I told her about the friends we would see there. More interest but still she was way too busy with her work to take time off. Then Frank and Jennifer said they would pay for a 16 day cruise from Australia to New Zealand with the two of them and our youngest brother, William. Well of course she found the time. Of course I'm only kidding about all that. We do have to again say a big thank you to Frank and Ginger for a great time.

We did go on the cruise though. The five of us met up in Sydney on the 20th of December and spent the next 16 days sailing the high seas. Yes, they were high, with swells up to 10 meters at times. This made the Tasman Sea crossing quite exciting. Luckily for me I don't get sea sick. Unlucky for Lora she was not able to take any medications due to the fact that she is pregnant. Yes readers of our blog, LORA IS PREGNANT! You heard it here first... well some of you we actually called first but only if your last name begins with an R or in one case a P. This made for a slightly different cruise experience than we had both hoped for but it was really fun telling my parents the news on board. It was difficult for Lora because she's not able to enjoy red wine and boy did the rest of us have some for her. I'm not sure how many bottles of sparkling wine we went through but let's just say we were seriously concerned they would run out.

How could this not get your kayaking juices flowing?
The put in for the ultra classic Arahura river.
This is the view after the helicopter drops you off in paradise.

After the cruise we headed back to the South Island for some whitewater kayaking. I'll put up another blog with those details and a little video soon. We love you all and can't wait to see you all soon.

By the way, the current plan is that I will be coming home to Cali in May or so, trying to secure a teaching job. I'll then head back here to Oz for the birth of our son\daughter sometime in the middle of August. Then all three of us will be living in Sacramento for at least a year while Lora works on analyzing the mounds of data she collected and writes it all up into the opus that it will become. Look out Nature here comes Dr. R.

Tim

Look Ma I'm famous!

Back in October we actually had some rain here which meant the rivers were at a good level for once. I may have mentioned back then that the day after the race we went to run our favorite run, Leven Canyon. It was really high but it looked good to go so most of us went for it. One of the boaters wrote up a little story and submitted it along with some pics to KayakSessions magazine. It probably will not make it into print but it's up on their website right now. Somehow I managed to be in many of the photos. I've attached one photo, my favorite one, that shows me about to launch off a 12 meter drop.Here's the link if you want to read more. http://www.kayaksession.com/kayaking-tasmania.php

It's kind of funny because I can tell the guy didn't remember my name, he's from Sydney and not a local, because some of the story doesn't quite fit.

Hanging with Kevin and Karen

Right now Lora and I are hanging out in Far North Queensland. I fly back to Hobart in two days to finish up the last of my school work for the semester. I'm not really looking forward to it. Two weeks ago Kevin and Karen came out to visit us and we took them to see some of our favorite places in S. Tas.

First stop, some sea kayaking near the candlestick. Karen had been kayaking a few times before but it was a first for Kevin. We loaded up the boats with overnight gear and headed over to a little cove to set up camp for the night.

Heading over to camp.

A shipwreck we checked out on the way to camp the first night.

After waking up to rain and having a quick breakfast we started paddling towards the candlestick. Remember a while back I hiked in to this spot to check it out. The little column is called the Totem Pole and is a very famous climb. The paddle across the bay took about 45 minutes and neither boat had any trouble.

Here we are paddling through the crack between the two islands. The swell can prevent people from being able to do this so we were really lucky.

The view looking back at the Totem Pole.

Same view except Kevin and Karen are in the way. Just kidding.

After getting back to the car we then headed to the wildlife park so that they could see the local animals. I think they both really enjoyed seeing the Tassie devils fight it out for food. I know I did.

One of them giving us a menacing look warning us not to try and take its food.

I thought it would be funny to go and hang out with the roos. They were a little freaked out by the whole thing as you can see from the picture. Leave it to me to make totally tame animals get freaked out.

We really had a great time visiting with Jim, Pat, Kevin and Karen. We all ended up visiting Cairns for a few days before they all headed home. One of the highlights for me was a return trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. I think Pat enjoyed visiting another wildlife park. Next time you see her you may have to ask her about the Koalas here. Just kidding Pat. We'll try to get some of those pictures up a little later.

Well it's back to normal life for us just for a bit. I'll try to keep you guys posted as to what the haps are as they occur.

Peace

Tim

Jim and Pat hit up Ozland

Jim and Pat are here visiting us in Tasmania and soon to be in Cairns. While here in Tas we had some fun even though it was a short trip. First off was a round of golf as promised. We ended up at a really nice course on the water front. My mate Nick came with us for an early round. Jim ended up beating us both but not by a huge margin. It was really a nice morning and I'm hoping to play some more golf soon.

Nick teeing off after Jim smacked a good one over the water.

We then went on a little drive down south after meeting Lora and Pat for lunch. We ended up at the Tassie Devil Park where we watched the Devils tear roo carcass to shreds. These animals are SO COOL! I think Pat enjoyed the live kangaroos better.

At the Devil Park with a couple of cuties.

Some devils.

In a field of roo poo!

Up close and personal.

We then took a drive to the coast where we saw a really cool sea cave that led out to the surf. The local surfers use it to access the waves. It seems really cool to have to paddle out this 50 meter long cave.

Contemplating the swim!

All in all I think both of them realized what a great place Tasmania is and how much it has to offer. I also think they realized why we chose to live here in the first place. Now we're off to see Cairns and meet back up with them.

At the Saturday market.

A few losers in the world still don't read our blog.

Lora was talking with our friend Danielle today and found out that she had never checked our blog. We have been living in Tasmania for over a year and she's one of our closest friends. Can you believe it? She's just now realizing what cool stuff she's been missing out on. Maybe now she'll know what people are talking about around the office water cooler.