Rally Car Driving

Amazing Rainbow

Hightly Embarrasing

So when I logged on to my blog account i must say that i am a little embarrased to how long it has been since i last posted.

Ah well it sucks but hey what can you do. I will update it now.


At the minute i am still in New Zealand. As usual i have had a few problems with immigration (i will explain later) but now have a proper visa that means i can stay here legally until the start of January 08. Camp does know that i am finishing just after xmas but i have not decided what i am doing when i finish here. I am throwing around a few ideas in my head.

I will try and upload heaps of pics below so you can just look and not be bored by my writings.

PK

Paragliding

You may be thinking from the tile that i did Paragliding.. Heck no! i am a wimp and don't like heights but i do like other people that like heights.

One beautifully sunny afternoon i took a walk up the Mount and sat at the top and watched the Paragliding guys get geared up and run and jump off the edge of a mountain hoping that canopy catches them.

These guys were amazing. The way the Mount is there is a natural thermal that comes up from the sea. The guys that I watched just flew back and forth over the top of the Mount for ages then turned around and headed down to the beach for landing. It was really cool to watch and funny to see them try and take off.

I was talking to one guy who is the NZ precision champion. Apparently (according to him) he landed on the front of a speed boat out in the water. He only had to land within a certain distance of the boat but apparently he didn't want to get wet.

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View of the beach from half way up the Mount

View of Mt Maunganui from the top

The Ostrich

We used to have this Ostrich on camp but we killed him and ate him. Only joking we didn't eat him. And we didn't kill him. He was a lonely big bird and wanted a lot of loving. Every time you would go to the edge of the fence he would either try to peck your face off or do the mating dance. The dance was funny (although it kinda made you feel a little uncomfortable)

We were gettting rid of it but first we had to get it in a trailer. I went to watch the guy trying to catch it and man did i laugh. They had to get it to the fence and then put a sock over its head so it can't see. That way you have more control. He has really weird feet and and very strong legs that are connected to those feet and if there is a connection between the Ostrich and you he will generally win.

He used to have a friend that lived with him but rumor has it that he ran into a fence and broke his neck. I think he was pushed.

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Shark

So Muckle was fishing and caught a shark. It was funny cause we needed to put is somewhere so we put it on the floor of the fridge. Didn't realise that one of the staff would get a mid night hunger attack, walk down to the kitchens and waslk into the fridge. He got quite the shock. Fun times.

We chopped it up and ate it.. Yummmmm

2 month review

It has definately been too long since I last updated my site. I have realised it has been too long cause Tim Jebb reminds me every time he is on msn that i haven't done it. Well Tim this is for you.

Cirque Du Soleil

I was able to strike something off my 11 things i want to do before i die list a few weeks ago, and that was to go and see a Cirque Du Soleil. Ok that was a lie cause i don't have a list of things i want to do before i die but i should probably do one.... anyway Myself and a few others headed up to Auckland to see Varekai, which means "wherever" in the Romany language of the gypsies. From the very start the show completley captivates your attention and before you realise it the interval is starting. During that time you sit in awe of what you just saw and look forward to the next part of the show. Thinking about these guys and what they do can only be summed up in one word 'stupid'. These guys are nuts..crazy.. I can't believe that they put themselves in the positions / heights that they do all to please some idiot from Ireland sitting there trying to hide his camera from the people that will take it off you. (you were not allowed cameras... he he I WON!) ok so the pics i have are pretty crap but that is because these folks move so fast, and i wasn't putting my flash on. The whole show was thoroughly entertaining and I will definately try and go and see another show when it is back on.

Fishing (Guys Only)

Went up to Pahanui for a guys fishing trip. It was very fun and not a lot of fish of any good size were caught. Yet it was fun all the same. Jerry Johnson and a few mates came over one day and we headed out. Funny story: once again I was fishing with Jerry beside me. I had one leg over the edge of the boat relaxing, enjoying the weather, taking heaps of abuse for the amount of small fish I was catching and jerry says in an excited tone: oh there’s a shark. Muckle thinks that it was a Hammer Head Shark and it was about 7ft long. One of the other guys thought it was a different type of shark but I didn’t care as I took my leg out of the water quicker than Michael Flatly flaps his legs in Riverdance. The shark stole our bait and swam off. A few weeks before Muckle caught a shark and brought it back to camp. It was funny because we put it in the camp fridge on the floor. One of the guys who works here got hungry in the middle of the night and headed down to the kitchen opens up the fridge turns on the light and gets a fright when the shark is looking up at him.

Demo Derby

One thing that Ireland doesn’t have is a demolition derby (at least I don’t think they have one) Once all the main races are done they bring out a water truck, soak the track and then a couple of hundred crap cars come out. Pretty much a demo derby is last man standing, or last car moving. It was fun. Unfortunately there were no cars rolled this time but there was a few on fire. Wow fire….

Stock Car

Super Saloon Series

Super Saloon Series

I arrived at the Demo Derby a little early so i took a walk around the pit area. I bumped into Steve Williams. NZ people should know who this guy is. He is NZ's highest paid sports star who doesnt' even play a sport. He is the caddy for Tiger Woods. It was cool talking to him, he had heard of Totara Springs and then showed me round his cars and explained the difference between Saloon cars and Super Saloon cars. I nodded my head a few times to let him think I was understanding what he was telling me. I am glad he didn't make me do a quiz.

Snow Patrol

What a night. My sister was able to hook me up with some tickets for the Snow Patrol concert in Auckland in Feb. It was amazing. WHen we arrived we went to the gate and when I had given my name at the door I was handed an envelope. In the envelope was 5 free tickets and the Guest Pass (below). The only place that we were not allowed with this pass was the Dressing Room. It was cool after the show to go back stage and have a drink with them and also meet Evermore who were supporting Snow Patrol. I would definately have to say that Snow Patrol are one of my favourite bands. They put on such a good show.

All in all it was a good night. Props to Ruth and Sarah (for scoring the tickets)

Hamilton Zoo

So it was Waitangi Day and i was off so i decided to go over to the Hamilton Zoo. To be honest it isn't anything special. I was disappointed to find that they didn't have a Kiwi at the Zoo. Apparantly they need a specific environment to live in and the Hamilton Zoo hasn't built one yet. They told me to go to Auckland or another Zoo that I can't pronounce cause there is too many letters in it.

It was a fun day apart from when i was at the furthest end of the Zoo from the reception there was a call on the speaker for the owner of a Blue Nissan Bluebird parked in the far carpark to come to reception. I had already been waiting for 10 mins for the tigers to come out for feeding and i wasn't going to miss it. It was definately worth waiting for. Anyway... i decided to make my way back to the reception and i finally got there tired, exhausted and a little sweaty. I arrived and said i was the driver of the Bule Nissan Bluebird (i said i was the driver because i am not the owner) she then looked confused. I repeated myself 'i am the driver of the Blue Nissan Bluebird' the light blub flashed abover her head and she rememberd about the call. It turned out that there was another Blue Nissan Bluebird in the far carpark because the guy had already turned up as he had left the key in the boot. I knew it definately wan't me because i was holding the key. I asked if she could arrange a lift for me back round to the tiger area because she had made me walk the whole way around for nothing. She didn't hesistate to say No! So i walked.

Hamilton Zoo

White Rhinoceros

This is the biggest Rhinoceros they have weighing in a small 2.2 tonne


Interesting fact: White Rhinoceros and Black Rhinoceros are exactly the same. The name chance comes from the shape of the mouth. A white Rhinoceros has a flat bottom lip for picking up food off the ground (grass / hay) where a black Rhinoceros has more of a pointed lip so that it can rip off leaves etc from trees / bushes.

Rhinoceros poo is huge. One lump was probably the size of a soccer / football.

Feeding time for the Tiger

They hid the food around the water as it is the natural area for tigers to go to for food. In the wild they will generally chase their prey towards the water.

Hamilton Zoo: Black-Handed Spider Monkey

This is a Black-Handed Spider Monkey. These guys are funny. The Zoo Keeper was in talking about the Monkeys while i was there. The monkey above ran behind her and stole her radio. She chased it for easily 5 mins. It was really cheeky and teased her by holding it out to her then running away. I laughed out loud.



Again with the radio

Parachute 07

Mumsdollar

Hillsongs Worship

Trevor: Lead singer of Thousand Foot Krutch

Third Day joined by Darlene Zschech


Mystery Creek just hosted the annual Parachute Festivle. This is a time when the top NZ bands and a few from overseas come for a weekend full of music, fun and little sleep. I still had to work during during this weekend so i travelled out every day after lunch. This was a great weekend as i got to see some of my fav bands. I think my fav band of the weekend was a band called Spacifix. Didn't know who they were but Elise and myself decided to stay while the others left to go to another show. It rocked...



It was also cool during the weekend because Thousand Foot Krutch played and i got to meet up with Joel the Bass player as I know him from Canada. We were going to meet up for breakfast the next morning after their show but i couldn't get off work. Suckky...



Other bands i saw: Late 80s Mercedes: Rivertribe: Mumsdollar: The Holy Rollers: Katy Ray: Nesian Mystik: The Lads: Spacifix: Rapture Ruckus: Shooting Stars: Shawn McDonald: Radiator: Rebecca St James: Thousand Foot Krutch: Detour 180: Lt Funk: Magnify: Darlene Zschech & The Hillsong Worship Team: Third Day: Dave Dobbyn.

The night that Darlene and Hillsong played Joyce Myers also spoke. She was really good. I liked her.

Speedway @ Baypark

Super Saloon





It is all fun and games till someone ends up in an Ambulance.

So this is the Speedway over at the Baypark Stadium. These nights are soo much fun. Can't wait for this weekend because there is the regular speedway races and it finishes with a Demolition Derby. I will take pics..

Drive Home

Roy: Keep your eyes on the road!

Some waterfall. It was pretty interesting

Mt. Ruapehu

Mt. Ruapehu

We had a huge camp come in on the 27th of Dec so we drove up from Wellington (6hr drive) on the 26th. It was a really cool drive up and we were blessed with some amazing views

Napier - How High Can You Jump

This is called a jumping pillow. It is the same shape as a pillow and you get to jump on it. It is more fun than I can explain.

These kids didn't last to long on this..... Ha ha.... Once you double bounce
them a few times they cry and leave.. lol

The name of the street that our accommodation was on

If you ever go to the Napier top 10 Holiday Park these are the rules for the Jumping Pillow

Lonestar

It sucks for those who live in Ireland cause you don't have a Lonestar. If you want a good feed then you need to go to a Lonestar. I pretty much get the same thing each time. I often wonder how I fit it all in my stomach.

Te Papa (Maori for Our Place)

Roy spinning the ball

Rachael was about to try but Roy suggested that she shouldn't incase she got hurt

PK infront of a Marae - it is a Maori meeting house. You can't wear shoses in there as it is disrepectful. This one is for show but you have to have a Powhiri (a Maori Welcome) to enter a proper one. They sing (a call) you in.

Some of the amazing wood sculpture inside the Marae

This is a huge wind turbine at Wellington. If you are going to go there.. Good luck. It took Rachael and Roy ages to find it. If you click the pic you can see Rachael and I standing at the bottom of it. It was pretty big.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

During our time in Wellington we went to Te Papa. It is a kinda museum place and it was very fun. This is for a few reason. 1: there are buttons to push that make things light up 2: I learnt some of the history of NZ 3: IT WAS FREE ! ! !



Roy had fun pushing the big ball round pretending that he was strong when really Rachaels 2 year old sister Katie could have pushed it round with her baby finger. We smiled, nodded, said well done Roy and left. I banged my knee while we were walking back to the car because we stopped so I could race Roy up a rope ladder (he won, I had to withdraw due to injury) it hurt a lot.

December in Wellington

Rachaels sister Lucy feeding the Deer!

Lucy and Katie feeding the Deer!

Roy trying to catch one of the ducks - he nearly got one..

Roy feeding PK. I sneaked in to the cage to be fed as i was hungry.

Roy (who I promise wasn't drunk.. just bad timing i guess) Lucy, Katie and Rachael

Sailing around Cooks Island

It is a hard life sitting on a 35 ft Yacht in the middle of Wellington Harbor

Roger (leg & hand) Roy, John & Rachael

Holding on for my life as my side of the boat was tipped into the water.

Our Boat

One of the afternoons Rachaels step-dad aranged for us to go out on his friends 35ft yacht. This was really fun as I had never been on a big yacht before. It was quite scary for me and the rest of the folks on board when I was handed the stick thing and told to steer. (i realise that there is a proper name for the 'stick thing' and probably a proper word for steering) I have watched on TV when a yacht is going fast and one side is fully out of the water. Yea this happened to me but I didn't mean for it to happen. Plus I didn't know how to not make it happen. It is funny when you look up and the folks at the top are fighting to hold on cause they can't get any grip on their feet. I laughed out loud at them. Fun times. I would definately go sailing again.

Whats Next???

Tommorrow is my last work day before Christmas and Myself, Rachael & Roy are heading down to Wellington for Christmas. Rachaels family are down there so we are going to crash that party. We are taking our time to get down and staying a few nights in Napier. I don't know anything about Napier so i will update you when i get back. January at camp is stupid busy so updates could be low (kinda like normal) but i will definately try not to be as lazy.

Nothing funny to write as i am not in a funny mood. Check back for the usual stupid humor of Pk another time.

Later...

Ouch

So I have been back in NZ for a while now and just got word the other week that Immigration NZ has approve me to stay for another year. I am excited about this cause I love the work that i do, and i am meeting some really cool people here.

Went to see U2 in Auckland. It was amazing. I don't think it was as good as the show i saw in Toronto but good all the same.

After U2 we headed up the coast to go fishing again. Great fun, good craic and not that many fish. I did catch the biggest and the most random fish. I think Jerry is getting pissed off when i go cause i kick his butt.. ha ha suck it up buttercup

It wasn't really that sunny but turns out it was.

Funny Prank

A few of the guys put one of the other guys boat into the pool. It was definatly funny.

Christmas in November

This is Julie my bro's wife. I put this up cause i knew she would hate me putting it up!

Ho Ho Ho... Merry Christmas

So while i was home in Ireland my mum decided that we would do Christmas early because i won't be in Ireland for Christmas. So early November the Christmas tree and all the house decorations went up and one evening my parents, grandparents, brother and his wife and my sis all came together to have our Christmas dinner. It rocked for me cause i got to have a proper Christmas dinner that i would have missed but it probably rocked more for them cause I was there (only joking) but the fact that they would have another Christmas dinner on the actual day. Lucky...

LA For The Day

How much of LA can one person see in one day?
Quite a lot actually.

I arrived into LA and walked out to the exit of the Airport disappointed. One of my favorite TV shows is LAX, not just because of Heather Locklear (but that is at least 70%) but I actually like the show. Thinking about the show and the airport I am not convinced that they actually film there. The airport isn’t that flash (maybe it was just the part I was in) and I did not see Heather. I thought she would have been waiting for me at the arrival gate.

I noticed a few things about LA straight away. I am very poor. Most people there are not. If you do not have a dog you are not cool. Everyone has a dog and if they don’t have the actual dog they have pictures of it. Our driver had a pic of his dog on his dashboard and so did many other cars that I drove past.

I got on a shuttle bus because I wanted to see the sites ASAP. The last time I was scared in a Taxi was in Spain but that was nothing to the horror that this driver put us all through. He was very verbal (and not the words you would say in front of your parents) he was horn happy and I was genuinely scared. He dropped me off at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which is the central tourist point on Hollywood Road. It is parallel to Sunset Boulevard and leads you to Rodeo Drive where all the expensive shops are. Outside the Theater is where all the hand prints are in the concrete. There is a vast range of hand prints and many names I have never heard of but I have pics below.

I was planning on sleeping in the Airport but I decided to drop my stuff off at a local hostel as I didn’t want to carry all my stuff around.

I dropped my stuff off and headed back to the Theatre as this was the pick up for my City Tour. This was a cool tour as it took you round all the areas of Hollywood that you would want to see. We went to the Magic Theatre on the top of the hill. The theater was not that exciting for me but it is the best place to view the Hollywood sign.
(Interesting fact about the Hollywood sign. It used to read Hollywoodland as it was used as advertising for a real estate company. But after a dejected actress jumped of the H to end her failed career they decided to review what it was known for)
The tour was great and the guy who did all the talking was fun. He like me cause I was from Belfast. The rest of the people were other Americans and Asians who couldn’t speak English but liked to take pics. We went all around the celebrity’s houses (pics below) drove past the shop that Winona Ryder had sticky fingers in, the park where George Michael became ‘famous’ and the House of Blues club where many musicians start off their careers.

I never did get to see someone famous but I was given an invitation to the unveiling of a star. The stars are all along the sidewalk. You get them awarded for 4 reason: movies, music, radio and television. I was invited Bruce Willis getting his star presented. I didn’t go as I had to be on the plane.

After the tour I was talking to some random guy and got a free ticket to be in the Audience for a live showing of Family Feud (hosted by a guy who was on Seinfeld)

After the show I walked up the town and went into the Guinness Records Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, and the Waxwork museum. These were all fun. I then headed back to my hostel and was about to enter and realized that the road had been closed off. They were filming the new Ford commercial and it was a big job. I didn’t realize how many people they needed to film a commercial. It was cool to watch, I had a look in the new car chatted to some random people and headed off to get a sleep before my early rise and hopefully not scary trip to the airport (and yes it was scary and he nearly got me there late. I think it was Samuel Jackson driving. He told me he fought in the war. I told him that I have never fought in a war. The conversation stopped there and I went back to closing my eyes.

I jumped on the plane. Next stop Toronto.

LA

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Steven Segal

Frank Sinatra

Julie Andrews

LA.

Sylvester Stallone

Bruce Willis

John Lennon

Mic Jagger

Dr Phil

LA..

Charlies Angels
Hannibal Lectre

Chuck Norris

Guinnes World Records fattest man

Beverly Hillbillies

LA...

The Joker

Captin Hook

Captin Jack Sparrow

Jesus

Samuel Jackson
he looked the most real out of them all, he also looked like my Taxi driver
(the one that fought in th war)

LA....

Tom Hanks

Terminator

Willy Wonka

Titanic

Star Wars

LA.....

Guinness Records - Gretzky

Funny RIP

Guinness Records - Marino

Another funny RIP

October Fishing Trip

The other morning myself, Dave and Tania set off at 7am and headed for our lengthy journey in to the middle of nowhere to fish for a few days. The first hour and a half of traveling was fun because it was on regular roads. The last 2 1/2 hours were on a one dirt track road that you average a speed of 35 kms an hour and it is extremely windy. We arrived at the car park where we unloaded and started our hike to get to our boat. The boat was a 1 hour walk into the bush and it was pretty tough. We only found out at the end that the walk was a continual climb and by the time you got to the boat you had climbed 1000ft. (the walk back was definately more enjoyable)

We jumped into the rowing boat and made our way in the rough winds over the lake for a good 3 km row to our cabin. The cabin was cool. Cool in two ways. 1. the cool being that is was good and 2. the other cool that means that it was freezing.

The fishing was really fun. Over the course of the 3 days we caught about 21 trout ranging from the smallest one (that Dave Muckle caught) to the 2 largest that Tania and myself caught. The weather was very random. One evening myself and Dave went out and we got soaked during a down pour. The next day we couldn't see 20 ft in front of us because of a Snow Blizzard, on the last day when we got up everything was frozen with snow on the ground but after an hour or two you would have needed Sun Lotion.

I have added pics below of the trip.

Fishing Trip

Gotta love the boat (we ended up having to use our life jackets as a pillow. I never knew how much your ass could hurt after rowing)

Our lovely little cabin. It sleeps 18 but we were the only ones there.

Wild horses on our trip down. Tania was very excited and MADE David get out and take a pic.

In the middle of the lake there was another island.
If you climb up these steps you get to a lake within a lake.

Tania standing at the lake within the lake

Fishing Trip.

My first catch

One of my biggest catches

The end of the trip. Packing up

Tania rowing when the blizzard was starting

Tania's good catch

Fishing Trip..

Outside the cabin

We moved the boat

I like this shot

Our lovely boat
Picture Perfect

Fishing Trip...

Fishing Rocks!

View on the last morning from our cabin


Rowing into the hut to drop off the boat

Hard Life

Cream Crackered

I am completly cream crackered. Just went through a pretty intense few weeks.

Friday 15 - Organising and running an auction to raise money for the work we do here at the springs. Raised $12 thousand big ones.

Monday 18th - Friday 22nd - Sports camp. A week of sports for the North Harbor kids. (over 200 kids)

Saturday 24th - Leaders training (the leaders come in for a days training before kids camp starts)

Sunday 25th - Friday 29th - 210 kids and 70 leaders arrive for kids camp

Friday 29th - 2nd Oct - kids leave and teens arrive for Teens Camp. Had about another 70 here for that

2nd Oct - Leaders arrive for junior kids camp

3rd Oct - approx 50 junior kids arrive for 4 days of camp.

So sleep is looking good. I will write an update of what is happening over the next week or so.

6 / 7 October going to the Leaders Summit conference in Tauranga (run by Willowpark)
9 / 10 / 11 - Going deep into the bush for some fishing / relaxing.

SO that is about it. That is the reason as to why there has been no updates lately. Oh and i haven't cut my hair in months. Look like my mum but longer and more out of control. I am just keeping it going cause some people here don't like it. Gotta be annoying.

And my ipod got nabbed at teens camp so i don't have an ipod any more. Conacted my Insurance to see if i can claim back on it...... fingers crossed.

Peace...

Media - makes me laugh

Today I was listening to the radio and what I heard was the most stupid thing I have heard in quite a while. The radio station in between songs would have a quick ad stating that they are the only station that has no advertisements between 8 – 10 pm. But the weird thing is, are they not advertising that they don’t have advertisements. Surely that is an advertisement.

Yes Prime Minister

I flicked on the TV and saw the New Zealand Prime Minster talking live on TV. Not caring to much for her I turned to another channel only to find the New Zealand prime minister also talking live on that channel. How can it be that she is live on two channels? Please tell me that she doesn’t have a twin. It is scary having one of her.

Some Funnies