Christmas

Christmas in my family is a sacred time, and traditions is the main point. To do something different than last year is not even a question :) So here I give you all: Christmas in the Ringdalen Vatne family!

The last weekend before christmas was then used to do the last preparations for christmas, and my favourite christmas preparation, make gingerbread house!

Me, Sindre and Sis building and baking

The finished building! (It's a star obervatory :)

On the 24th almost everything is supposed to be ready. Me and little sis use the day to whatch the same TV programs as we whatch every year. This means the czech movie Three nuts for cinderella, and the norwegian movie The journey to the christmas star. For lunch we have some family friends over and eat rice porrige. At 5 pm christmas starts, and we eat salted dried sheep ribs that is boiled with mashed swede and potatos for dinner. After dinner we walk around the christmas three and sing, and then it is present time! :)

Christmas dinner!

First day of chrismas is time to just relax and do nothing. Me, sis and our dad, ended then up whatching Southern Faces (NZ climbing movie) and then we decided maybe we should try to tabel travers the living room table, which actually worked really well. My mum put her foot down first a couple of days later, when Sindre suggested it would be cool to try it with crampons...

The second day of christmas is the annual salmond christmas party that my parents have, and it's also the big day out, where everybody between 20 and 30 in Mo i Rana goes out on the one and only place to go out, Ramona, and meets a lot of old friends and ends up looking like this santa: (I think me or sis made it once...)

Today (the 30th) we had another christmas tradition, the annual christmas ski tour. Which mean that we and another family and whoever else that wants to come, uses the little daylight for a little hike on skies. This year we went to Bolna, a mountain on Saltfjellet (the salty mountains). We had about -14 degrees, beautifull weather and nice ski conditions!

Skiers and Bolna in the background. We actually saw the sun!

We started by the artic circle center, so to everybody far away, this is how it look like to cross the artic cricle! :)

Tomorrow is new years eve, and then me and Birgitte is going to Lovund (my favourite norwegian island!) to visit Anne Katrine and celebrate! That is going to be awsome, and it is really cool to hang out with my two best friends from high school again!

And if anybody managed to get through this long blog entrance, I can tell you that i have gotten a place to live in Trondheim, and is no longer homeless :) My adress is Brøsetveien 155-28, 7050 Trondheim. This is in Karinenlund student village, just next to Frode Rinnans. Everybody is welcome!

Thats all for now, so I wish you all a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

And just a note at the end in case someone read this and just know me from NZ or just thinks I'm kind of confusing. My sister is called Sigrid, I just like to call her little sister or little friend in norwegian, which I find translates well into sis in english :) Sindre is her boyfriend, a cool guy and good climber, whom I find I have the right to treat as a little brother (in good and bad :) as long as he dates my sister.

Advent in Norway

I have promised some of you that i'm not going to stop writing my blog just because i'm back in Norway, and that promise i'm intending to keep!

So, what i have been doing the last couple of weeks is working most weekdays, and living home with my parents and beeing a good daughter :) Exept last weekend, because then I was in Trondheim, since I had an exam on monday the 10th, so i was hanging at school trying to study, but using most of my time to play achtung die kurve or card games, drink coffe and other stuff not including studying. But I think I passed so it's okay :)

This weekend I have been a really good daughter though, I have been mostly at home, helping my parents with cristmas preparations, making cristmas cakes, rolls and stuff like that. I had planed to try my kite (I bought one!!) and go tele skiing with some people from the climbing club, but the weather is hopless, its raining, 5 plus degrees and no wind what so ever! (global warming sucks!) Me and my dad went out tele skiing on saturday even though the weather sucked. I borrowed my mums beautifull new black diamond tele skies and tried it for the first time ever. It was kind of wierd for a snowboarder/cross country skier like me, and I didn't really feel that my clumsy skiing was worthy the nice skies...

Tele skiing with dad, Sweden in the background

I also got time for a little party. My old high school friend Renate and her sister had a birthday/cristmas party in the cafe by the cave Grønnligrotta. Those of you who have been there, knows that this is a bit outside Mo i Rana, and up a really steep windy gravel road, and this road gets really slippery in winter, espessially when it is plus degrees. All this i knew, but i still desided to give it a try to get up, even though my car is not that good. And no suprise, the car started spinning, then it stopped and slowly it slided backwards and into the snow at the side of the road, and i was completly stuck.. Luckily I got rescued by someone smart enough to use four wheel drive, and had a really nice time at the party :)

Me and Reante (We rocked in chemistry lab in high school!)

I also finally got the dresses I got made in Indonesia, so here Devi, is the promised picture of me in one of the dresses! I love it!

And now I am going to make swiss cristmas cakes, and lasagna for dinner. Miss u all! (exept those who read this and is in Mo i Rana :)

Back in Norway in the city of moustaches

I am now finally back in Norway, and even though I love New Zealand, I must say it is wonderfull to be back in Norway to! (I just love it everywhere it seems like :) Since I came back I have met family and friends. Been hanging at school, trying to study for my last exam (not with much luck...) , but my class have really cosy study area this year. I have been climbing a little bit, and got to try my new shoes, which are amazing! I have also proved to my friends that i haven't changed much but are just as messy and confused as I always have been :)

Waffels, "boller" and "gløgg" in my mums flat. Kristin, Karianne, Line and Katja

Cross country skiing with little sis (it's 3 pm! I kind of struggels with the darkness...)

One week in paradise

A poem written on the wall off the toilet on Hangdog camp, Paynes Ford:

Hello climbers, welcome to Paynes!
Where it hardy ever rains,
Except when the masses arrives from the city,
Than the whether is generally shitty

So what routes should you climb?
I will tell you through this rhyme,
I’ll give you hints about what to do,
Through this words written on this loo.

The Rawhide roof is steep and long,
It’s many moves out to the lip,
And that is your first clip
If you fall you’ll hit the dirt
And, believe me, this will hurt.

Ed bouldering Rawhide roof (22)

If you want to climb Temples of stone,
Rest assured, you won’t be alone,
There is often a queue, so don’t be late
But the climb is worth the wait

Ingrid on Temples of Stone (18)

Tenuite Wall has Go with the Flow
Layback the stal is the way to go,
Just be careful not to slip,
As you’re doing the second clip
The routes on the wall are a lot of fun
But get there early before the sun

Responsible lounges and Convex Slope
Have dashed many climbers hope,
To do these routes, you have to crank,
But leave some gas in the tank
Else your fingers might go limp,
As you do the final crimp

One of the finest is Globe wall
An excellent place for a fall,
Make sure you have a good belay,
On Dave’s arête or Make my day,
The final move before the top,
Is the place you’re bound to drop

If you want to try your luck,
To see if you can Superconduct,
You will need to effortlessly flow,
Else the crux moves you will blow

Greg on a climb next to Superconductor

If these climbs are much to hard,
Then Little Lost Wall may be your card
The cliff is low and not so steep,
The holds are friendly; big and deep

1080’s a route you ought to try,
Climbing upside down like a fly
Keep on moving, do not stop,
And don’t get psyched out by the drop,
Soon you’ll arrive at the cave,
Take a rest; to the audience wave

Jake resting in the cave on 1080 and the letter G (23)

An excellent cliff is the Wall of Thugs;
Don’t expect to find many jugs
Adrift in a sea of slopes,
Your climbing will be franatic gropes,
You’ll be pumped out of your brain,
Before you finally reach the chain.

If you like climbing on rock that’s steep,
Then head to Pohara and Bo-Peep,
Despite appearances, the rock is sound
Better climbing can hardly be found.

Jake on Why not? (26) on Bo-Peep slab(!!!)

At the end of a long hard day,
No more climbing, you want to play,
To the swimming hole you ought to run,
To go for a swim or lie in the sun,
The perfect way,
To end the day,
Of excellent climbing,
In Golden Bay

Rescuing the dog Chewie on the slack line over one of the swimming holes

Todays gravity on Hangdog camp

Maching fake Mad rock tatoos :)

Group photo: Me, Ingrid (cool norwegian), Jake (annoying american 1), Ed (true kiwi), Greg (Annoying american 2), Kristin (cool norwegian)

yea, and i forgot

Greg writes a lot on his blog and have posted pics if anyones interested http://alpinegreg.blogspot.com/

Every ending is a new beginning

I am now in Frankfurt on my way back to Norway. I was really sad to leave New Zealand and all my friends there, but I am really looking forward to see my friends and family in Norway! I have had a nice journey, except my normal messyness :) In Auckland they almost didn’t let me on the airplane because I had renewed my ticket twice, and in that process my name had ended up as Vaine, Ingaringdale, which confused the poor lady in the check in. On the plane from Auckland to Sydney I met a NZ ichocke refree on his way to Finland, lost my booking pass and luggage tickets, and discovered the wearing pink, yellow and orange toe socks with kiwis on and jandals is a great conversation starter. In Frankfurt I discovered that Qantas has lost my tent, used hour on that on got lost both on the air port and the city. And I finally got to see the Simpsons movie! I loved it! Spiderpig is great! And being in Frankfurt I take back everything I have ever said about German bread not being good!

I’ll give a short summation off my three weeks of holyday. More will come later, and so will photos! The trip started with me and Jake taking the plane to Nelson about 3 hours after our last exam. In Nelson we met Greg with a broken yellow van, spent the night getting drunk, buying firework, and managing to get Jake and Greg to be called annoying Americans (they are my favorite annoying Americans though :)

We then got the van fixed and went off to Paynes Ford, Golden Bay the next day where we met Ed, and spent a week. After Ingrid and Kristin came in the end off the week, we went back on the road and drove down to Charlston, where we climbed on the sea cliffs while 20 m high waves washed over us, and Suvi joined us. Wanaka near Queenstown was our next goal, thereafter Wye creek with beautiful climbing and perfect camping. And after Ed and Jake left us, the rest of us got a couple of days in Mt Cook area. Basically what we have done is climbing almost every day. As Lisa uses to say about me: “I don’t know anyone else who have traveled so much in NZ, and seen so little!” To my defence, I have seen a lot of nice rock :)

Quotes of the trip:
“Peer pressure always leads to good decitions”
“Friends don’t let friends climb naked alone”
“Why not? The drawers are up!” (The boys ended up climbing a 26 called why not without knowing it was a 26 just because the drawers where up :)
“It’s gneiss, but don’t take schist for granite”
“Svigermorstopp!” (The one word in norwagian all the boys knew and loved to use)

Activies on the trip except climbing:
Eating
Sleeping
Swimming
Rescuing dogs
Drinking
Mooning
Knitting (Ed, Kristin, Suvi and Ingrid, all the boys got yarn and needles!)
Croucheing (Jake, Greg and me)
Extreme knitting and croucheing (Jake and Ed like to take their new hobby and combine it with their old!)
Card playing
Driving around in Greg yellow van and a rental car

Nick names of the trip:
Jake – Ost
Greg – Shaft, John Shaft (because that’s Gregs song!)
Kristin – Little blue penguin (so Greg could meet one)
Ed – DC (down climber, since he climbed down a 23 because there was a beehive there!)
Inga – Spiderpig (I think the reason was that i actually tought the name was funny:)
Ingrid – Macademia (she is a bit nuts, and also since she got so sad when we ate all the macademia chocolate and left her the paper :)

Convection, confusion and diffusion...

Just one more little geeky poem :)
(since it is kind of amazing that someone manged to make a poem about something as incredible boring as turbulence...)

Big whirls have little whirls
that feed on their velocity
and little whirls have lesser whirls
and so on to viscosity

Lewis Rhichardson 1922

Exam time

Well people, I am now in the middle of my exam period. First one was today and the last is next Monday. This mean I have one really busy week in front of me... But as soon as i finish my last exam (12.30 mon 5th) I leave Auckland for the South Island (plane leaves 17.30 mon 5th.. i know, typical me to be to inpatient to leave time for me to actually pack and move out :) I am really looking forward for getting down to South Island though! The plan for the three weeks down there, is of course mainly to climb, and then maybe be a bit touristic if it is bad weather. It looks like we are getting a big group too, so it will be awesome!

But what this means, is that this is probably my last blog entrance before i get home. Since the internet connections at the climbing crags most likely is non existent, and i wont have anything interesting to write about, or any time to write it, before i leave Auckland.

So, to everybody at home:
Jeg kommer til Trondheim paa kvelden den 27 nov, saa dere er alle invitert paa boller og kaffe (og kanskje litt strikking eller hva line?) i mammas (hvis det er ok for mamma) leilighet paa nardo paa kvelden den 28, og jeg kommer nok til a stikke innom skolen og henge paa gode gamle Sito paa dagen (med forbehold om jetleg :) See you soon!

Kiteboarding

I just came across this nice quote about kiteboarding, while trying to concentrate studying thermo mechanics. Think it describes me and Ingrid really well! :)

what is kiteboarding?

" Careering across the open sea like a pirate and flying through the air like Superman - a real life X-Man with a kite and an attitude problem."

Flash Austin-2000 world kite-surfing champion

Back to the bay

One and a half week ago we finally went back to the bay! The one and only Wanganui bay, one of my favorite places in New Zealand. It's a place that have everything your heart desires (at least mine.. :). It have a lot of really cool sports climbs in every grades, a couple of cool trad climbs a cave you can abseil down in and climb up again (spelonking for the adventourous, like andrew!) and last but not least, tibia! which is my favourite climb, its a three piches trad climb, first a pich chimey, then a pich on the face, and a last pich where you brigde, and/or climb a nice crack. This time i climbed Tibia with Jake and Ingrid, I also climbed it last time with Owen. I actually think it was Tibia that really got me hooked on climbing!

And all this is in absolutly beutifull surrondings!

On the top of Tibia

And btw, i finally updated my gallery :)

Videos

Jake got the videos from South Island out on the web! http://yabodigg.blogspot.com/ (And they are even the right way!! :)

And I just have to mention that my lecturer thought I was a polynesian boy by from my name when he was giving back our assignments... There is a famous polynesian All Blacks wing player called Inga he told me. Maybe that would make me a great rugby player!

Mission kite surfing!

Ingrid does have kind of bad influence on me (or good as I prefer to call it, but i think uni have a different view) What happened is that we decided to learn to kite surf (why not?), which is unbelievable cool, but really expensive and time consuming… So we signed up for a three days intensive kite school. Monday till Wednesday… It is just a matter of prioritizing! (a master in engineering doesn’t demand that you work, does it?)

Well, anyway, Monday morning we took the train out to the kite school, and met our teacher Andrew and his girlfriend Manaou (or something like that). Andrew is a guy who decided to never grow up. He is spending his days chatting about his favorite subject (kiting) to nice people, and playing around with the kite on the sea just down by his house, and he get money for it! Manou I would say has done a really good deal in choice of boyfriend. She came here on a working holyday visa, and ended up staying here, living in a beautiful house by the sea, have learned to kite and are now working part time as architect and part time as kite instructor!

There where two people on the course other than me and Ingrid, two old kiwi blokes, two brothers with children our age actually. They had decided to buy their own kites, and start kite surfing, they just needed to learn how to use their brand new kites. They where actually really good! So, mum, it’s hope for you too! (can I borrow your kite then? ;)

Unfortunately, I only got one day kiting… The second day I got sick (first time in nz!) The third day I was still sick, but well enough to try, so I went out there, but the wind was to strong… Luckily Andrew is a decent guy, and give me one extra day on the water for the day I was sick, and everybody got a extra day for the day without wind. SO WE ARE GOING BACK! :D

PS: Did I mention that I love kiting? :)

About living with a managment major

Quite often people get really into what they are studying or working with. I am like that myself, just check my poem futher down on my blog that me and my friend Thale wrote in firsth year, studying intensly for math exam. For those of you who dont understand norwegian, all you need to know is that its really geeky...

Anyway, I have never really seen that it can by just as bad with people studying a lot less geeky things than engineering. But from living with Lisa, who are dooing post graduate marketing and managment, I have learned that geeks comes in many forms and variations! Earlier today I was trying to decide where to fly on the South Island after the semester, and I asked Lisa for advice. The answer I got was: "I have no idea, but I DO have a GREAT book on decition making in my room if you want to borrow?" Which is not really surpricing since Lisa litterary have stacks of books in her room, more of them and up to a meter tall. (not kidding!)

But books don't necsesarely make you geeky I found out a bit later in the evening when we where both sitting in the coach, me studying statistics and Lisa reading a book called "How to get what you want, and how to want what you have" for her Personal development paper. And since statistics is by definition boring, Lisa entertained me by reading from her book: "With the dawning of the inner light of self-love, your journey trough darkness is over..." The same book also talked about the 10 love vitamins, and about how to meditate by repeating to your self "Oh, god! Pleace come and sit in my heart!" (sit??:) Well, at least it still seems more interesting than reading about confidence intervals!

My birthday

I have now turned 23 and are getting older and wiser day by day! (at least older :) The day was celebrated with a nice little party with som good friends, which was really fun. And i even got a couple of presents! A lot of thanks for all of those! :D

And that my favorite little sister bought me nuts just made me really happy!! No i can climb on natural pros! Ingrid and Kristin even got me a nut tool so i can get them out. And i actually got to climb my first proper lead climb on natural pros saturday! I am really proud of myself!! (sorry to those botherd with bragging overhappy txts :) Me, my always faitfull belayer Owen (and Axel went to the short side of the quarry, where i got to climb a really nice 15 crack. Just perfect! On sunday it was once again back to the quarry, this time the long side, where i got to lead some more, even though it started to rain after about an hour... classic NZ :)

My favorite birthday present though was from Owen, it make light ant it say moooh! :D



And I have tried to upload some of the videos from South Island to test the video funktion of the blog, might come more later to :) This one is Owen on a dyno:

Black is ticker than blood

In these times of the Rugby world cup, I feel I have to dedicate a blog post to the new zealand rugby team, the All Blacks!

The one song that the kiwis loves the most, and always sing when they are either whaching rugby, drunk or preferable both: Why does love do this to me - the Exponents http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwaD4GFjSjY&mode=related&search=

And the coolest thing about the All Blacks is the Haka, the maori war dance, that the All blacks performs before every game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rulZOE8bDa8&mode=related&search=

GO ALL BLACKS!!!!!!!!!!

South Island trip

A little report from our great South Island trip: (more on Jakes blogg, and pictures in my gallery)

Day 0:
Leaving Auckland at 4 pm, driving to Wellington, taking the ferry to Picton

Day 1:
Arriving in Christchuch at around noon. Picking up Ingrid, who took the plane down. Did food shopping for 8 people for 5 days. Driving to Arthurs Pass meeting Stefan, Steffie and Tom.

Word of the day:
Raspe Ost – Grate cheese

Day 2:
Tramping up to Avalance Peak in mist and wind. Returned to Arthurs pass, and had coffe at the café instead.

Words of the day:
Windshiel wipers - Vindusviskere
Boler – Someone using drugs to get big muscels.

Quote of the day:
“I can’t sleep on the narrow bench, because I always sleep in the embryo position” Ingrid trying to decide where to sleep in the shelter.

Day 3:
Woke up to rain and wind. Went to a youth hostel for coffe, and whaching Sylvester Stalone move… Got some climbing at Castle hill in the afternoon.

Word of the day:
Feig – Wimpy

Day 4:
First try on mt Rollerston. Practicing mountaineering skills.

Word of the day:
Svigermorsstopp – Mother in law break (when you stop and wait for someone, and just start walking again when they arrive, so they don’t get any break)

Day 5:

Drived to Christchuch to do food shopping since it was raining anyway. Got to do some climbing in the afternoon, at Porthills, which was way harder than expected, and way harder than it looked like… But everyone was happy dooing som natural pro climbing. Then a second foodshopping. Amazing how much 8 people eat!

Word of the day:
Hail and sleet – Hagl og sludd

Day 6:

Woke up to rain… Depressing, so shought comfort in coffe and nice breakfast/lunch in Little River outside Christchuch. Went then to Christchuch to do some indoor climbing, and got first shower of the hollyday! Then, clean and happy we drove back “home” to the shelter in Arthurs Pass

Quote of the day:
Jake: “No, he don’t need to shower, he showered a couple of days ago” (completely serious about why Tom didn’t shower at the climbing gym)

Words of the day:
Shed – Røyte
Frost røyk – Frost smoke (the damp out of your mount when its really cold)

Day 7:

The day was spent climbing at castle hill, mostly bouldering, but some routes where also tried out. Around the boulders where a cute little layer of snow, and the temperature was just so low that one might wonder why the hell someone climbs on such a day.

Word of the day:
Mullet – Hockey sveis – Fokohile (german -> forne kurtz, hinten lang)

Day 8:

A second try made on Mt Rollerston, this time just by me, Owen and Jake, while the rest of the group went skiing. Also this time we had to turn, due to bad snow and little time.

Word of the day:
Spelonky – Grotteutforsker

Day 9:

Kristin, Ingrid, Steffie, Stefan and Tom went to the montains and managed to get on 4 peaks, while the last three of us where to tired to join after a hard Mt Rollerston try. Owen realxed by reading and finally getting trough 1984 (something he has tried to do as long as I have known him). While me and Jake considered bouldering the perfect rest day from mountaineering (and vice versa).

Word of the day:
Narly – Cool, great, sweet or whatever else positive in some old californian surferslang. (The best part of this word of the day was that when we later, after learning the word, met up with crazy climbing dude Jay, he actually still used the word!)

Day 10:

A last day of bouldering at Castle hill, Quantum field (a name that made physic student Ingrids heart beat fast, and even faster when she found out it had a problem called Quantum mecanics! The only negative thing about this place was that the running, jumping (!) start problem next to Quantum mecanics in Quantum field wasn’t called Quantum leap)

Quote of the day:
“What is the day of the word today?” said by me, and after saying it wrong in that way almost every day… Speaking is hard...

Day 11:

Driving from Arturs Pass at 6 am, arriving in Auckland at 2 am… And then we where back! And everybody agreed it had been a wonderful trip, looked forward to finaly shower again, and wondered if it might have been a good idea to at least have studied a little bit for the test on Monday or Tuesday, but realising the trip was totally worth a bad testscore!

To Sigrid

On recuest from my favorite geeky little sister:

Fader Rottmann, du som er i R^n (n mot uendelig)
La ditt fundamentalteorem holdes hellig
La ditt vektorfelt være konservativt
La din funksjon være kontinuerlig deriverbar i R^3 som i R^2
Gi oss i dag vår daglige differensialligning
Forlat oss våre fortegnsfeil, som vi og forlater våre professorer
Led oss ikke inn i ueksakte svar, men frels oss fra Dragvoll
For løsningen er din, og makten og æren i (-uendelig, uendelig)
QED

(c) Thale og Inga

Some stuff

Here is the link to Jakes blog, where he has posted some pic from last weekend

http://yabodigg.blogspot.com/2007/08/climbing-pics.html

This weekend i'm in Auckland btw, for the first weekend in 2 months!! Trying to finish my assignments before the midsemester break that starts next friday. Funny that next week is my last week before the break, and the first week of the new semester for you guys back home :)

The semesterbreak is already kind of planed (ferry tickets over cook strait bought). Me, Owen, Jake, Kristin and Ingrid are takeing Owens car and are going to drive down to Arthurs pass near Christchurch, where we will meet up with Stafanie and Stefan. And then we are planing on climbing!

New gallery

I have finally got a new gallery too!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ingavatne/

I'm a kayak, hear me roar!

For everybody that have heard me and Lisa talking about beeing a kayak and seen our comments on skype and msn and facebook and been wondering what it means: Here is the scene from Gilmore Girls it's from!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyCfX7M7WtY (big credit to Lisa that managed to get it on You Tube! Good kayak!)

And as a comment to Lisas comment to the Pinapple joke: No, Lisa, not unfair, I think people understand the joke well enough to not want to know what it is about :)

Correction

Marty does not have anything to do with the pinnaples on the blogpost furher down (that one was for Lisa, Carmen, Heike and Aurelie! :)

And to something else, I love comments on the posts!

Mamma

For those not knowing me too well, and wondering why I am as I am: This is my mum! :) (on a mountaineering course, high in the norwegian mountains)

Mt Ruapheu once again!

Once again we went to Mt Ruapehu to do some mountaineering in the weekend, the 5 hour drive each way is starting to get really familiar, and doesn't even feel so long anymore!

It ended up beeing only me and Shiva going this weekend, a really girly roadtrip in other words :) Since two girls alone in a tent in a desert campsite is not to safe, we decidet to spend the nights at the hollyday park in Ohakune, which totally overcharged us and demanded 16$ a night for each of us in our tiny tent ("We could have hired a guy for that prize!" was Shivas comment:)

On Saturday morning we met up with Glen and the other peole doing the course. We had a long day climbing the summit of Girdelstone (around 2600m). The snow and ice where totally crappy, but it was beutifull in the mountain anyway! We ended abseiling down again in the dark, with amazing moon, and the fantastic stars of the southern hemisphere. After 14 hours in the mountain we finally got back.

But the way back was not completly without problems... When we almost had reached the skifield, me and a swedish guy called Magnus walked another way than Shiva and Glen, because Shiva wanted to be more careful. (Shiva is wise!) We where walking down agains a gully near the skifield, when Magnus suddely slipped and started to slide down the slope. He did a almost perfect self arrest, but the ice was way to hard for the iceaxe to get in. It was a really scary experience to se your climbingpartner just slide down the ice faster and faster without being able to do anything, and just see him slide and tumble untill it got flat and he stopped, and just see a light lying still. Espesially since I was the one leading on, and saing the way is fine.. Luckly he got up after a little while and was able to walk the rest of the way down, where we got him to the hospital. He wasn't seriosly hurt, and felt fine the day after, but still it was a shock. Lesson learned: use you rope and pros!

As this wasn't enought, when we got down, we where still missing one person. So Glen got Magnus to the ambulanse while me and Shiva stayed at the skifield waiting for the last guy, which turned up about 3 hours later than us. He had also slided on the ice, lost his ice axe and hammer, and had quite a hard time getting back only with crampons.

This in total made a really long and hard day, it wasn't untill four we finally was back in the tent in the nice and warm sleepingbags. To use the sunday then to just drive slowly back to Auckland, stopping on a couple of nice cafes, and going to a natural warm streem, was perfect.

Funny things

"The dog" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHTQUxwYc2o
For imitation wake Anders up at three in the morning!

Martys english/aussie course: (published without premission:)

stupid
adjective

1 they're rather stupid unintelligent, ignorant, dense, foolish, dull-witted, slow, simpleminded, vacuous, vapid, idiotic, imbecilic, imbecile, obtuse, doltish; informal thick, dim, dimwitted, dumb, dopey, dozy, moronic, cretinous, pea-brained, halfwitted, soft in the head, brain-dead, boneheaded, thickheaded, wooden-headed, muttonheaded, daft. antonym intelligent.

2 that was a really stupid thing to do foolish, silly, unintelligent, idiotic, scatterbrained, nonsensical, senseless, unthinking, ill-advised, ill-considered, unwise, injudicious; inane, absurd, ludicrous, ridiculous, laughable, risible, fatuous, asinine, mad, insane, lunatic; informal crazy, dopey, cracked, half-baked, dimwitted, cockeyed, harebrained, lamebrained, nutty, batty, cuckoo, loony, loopy. antonym sensible.

3 he drank himself stupid into a stupor, into a daze, into oblivion; stupefied, dazed, unconscious. antonym alert.

my fuk'n vapid noddle is flat-out like a lizard
translation: my brain is not working

And last but not least, girls: remember to eat pinapple!

Or wait.... was it the boys...?

Second Ruapehu weekend and bouldering competition

This weekend i was once again on Mt Ruapehu, learning ropework for alpine climbing on steep snow. A really cool guy named Glen are arranging free courses in alpine and ice climbing, and I attended to the basic one. Which was really a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. If someone wants to see some more cool pictures from Mt Ruapehu they should check out Martys gallery (see links).

The only bad thing I have to say about the mountains in New Zealand in winter is that they are kind of disapointing compared to Norway :) Walking with crampons are not much fun compared to walking up with skis with skins and ski down again! And as a addition after Martys comment, Mt Ruapehu is really beutifull, and I have not yet been on the south island and seen the mountains there, they might be even nicer! So I might not be able to compare properly :)

This wednesday I attended to a bouldering competition, first climbing competiton i have ever attended to. Which was really really fun, even tough I ended up with a hurting wrist and 0 points... :)

I also have to mention that I suddenly one day ran into Kristin at the rec senter! Really fun to completly unexpected se a familiar face here on the other side of the world! Kristin also joind AURAC and attended to the bouldering competition, so I could cheer with Hu & Hei once more again :)

Me climbing the first intermidiate problem

Kristin climbing same problem as me.

Edwin on an advanced problem

Andrew on an advanced problem

Garry in the end of on of the advanced problems

Gilmore girls

Me and Lisa had a really sad afternoon here the other day...

We saw the last episode of the last season of Gilomore Girls. After 7 years with 7 seasons, we both where sitting with tears in our eyes, realising that we had seen all episodes of our favorite series.

So i had to write this little memorial post on my blog just for the best TV serie ever!

Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe

The weekend after I came back from Tonga I went to Mt Rapheu to learn how to handle the New Zealand Mountains in winter, and some ice climbing. I learned self arrest with iceaxe and how to walk with crampons. To try out my new knowledge we then climbed Mt Ngauruhoe (also known as Mt Doom :) The last day I got to try out some ice climbing. This time I managed to not get the ice axe in my head as last time I tried (in Jotunheimen, Norway many years ago…)

Marty and Shiva

James belaying and a beutiful sunset!

Mt Ngauruhoe in twilight (we got up at 5 am to go there...)

Me climbing on the back side of the cafe in Wakapapa skifield. Very practical, you climb up and then u can go and buy a coffee!

Owen lead climbing The Waterfall with the Pinnacles in the background.

Tonga

First ten days of the semester break I spent on Tonga, which for those who do not know it is a little pacific island kingdom about a 3 hour plane ride from Auckland. We where ten people travelling more or less together, spending our days on the beach reading, in the sea snorkelling and swimming, travelling around seeing the country and on Friends café in the capital Nukua’lofa (the best and only place with good coffee in the country).

Us at Friends cafe

A group of Tongan men guarding the late kings grave.


The arcway of Maui on the island Eua

Me and the Blowholes. Blowholes are holes in the reef that when the waves hit blows up water

The view from the Hideaway where we lived on Eua

New blog!

Hello again!

I have now created a new blog, since i kind of deleted my old one in a bad moment.. :) This time i have decided to write in english, so that everybody I know can read it. (untatt deg mopap, men jeg lover postkort og brev isteden!). I'll try to be a good blog writer and keep you all a little bit updated on what I do and stuff.