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.