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This picture hangs on the wall of my living room and was painted by a talented local artist called Brendan Grant. Brendan specialises in painting everyday Wellington scenes rather than the hills, beaches and mountains. This particular scene is looking across to Kent Terrace, which is my favourite and certainly most visited spot in Wellington. If you look closely you can see the De Luxe Cafe, The Embassy Theatre and Wellington Motorcycles, all places close to my heart.

The De Luxe makes Wellingtons best lattes and also some particularly fine date scones. Neena and I spend a great deal of time in this establishment.

The Embassy Theatre is actually a cinema and boasts the southern hemispheres largest sreen. A considerable sum of money has been spent restoring it its former Victorian splendour.

Wellington Motorcycles I guess, speaks for itself.

All in all, a great little setup. I can have a damn fine latte, watch a movie and lust after motorcycles all in one go.

European Pictures

This and the next few pictures were taken on my little jaunt through Europe.

This was taken in Basel, a city which is famous for its fountains. This is one of many..

Again in Basel. This a ferry on the Rheine. The ferry uses the flow of the water to power it both ways across the river

The Materhorn taken from Zermat in Switzerland.

Monta Rosa.

Queen Charlotte Track and Nelson Lakes

In March this year I went over to the South Island with Neena. As well as some chilling out time we walked the Queen Charlotte track. This is a four day walk of 71kms along the the Queen Charlotte Sound. This walk is unique in NZ in that the track has lodges and hotels and water taxis to transport ones bags to the next nights accomodation. A welcome change from the usual rat infested huts.

After walking the track we stayed a few nights at Nelson and then at St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes. N.P The weather was a tad wet and chilly for March, but we still had a pretty good time.

This is a view looking over Queen Charlotte Sound.

Another view looking across to the North Island, this time artfully framed.

We stayed here at Punga Cove on the second night. We stayed at a small lodge. Our chalet is just visible in the bottom right corner of the picture.

This was taken towards the end of a very long last day. The last section is 23km long and involves a number of steep climbs. This was one of my favourite sections of the track as the vegtation is very lush, almost prehistoric iin feel.

This was taken at St Arnaud. The scenery is really stunning, or at least would be, if I hadn't got in the way!

Trip to Mitre

This picture was taken on the first day of a three day trip to climb Mitre which at 1571m is the highest peak in the local Tararua range. This picture shows me taking a well earned "breather" on the way to Mitre flat hut, where we stayed the night, before attempting the peak. In the end we turned back about 30 minutes from the summit, due a deterioration in the weather. It was very cold and windy and common sense prevailed. Mitre is therefore still on the list of things to do, but will have to wait for the summer. To friends accompanied me on the trip, namely Simon and Paul.

Taupo Trip Xmas 2005

This and the following picture were taken on a visit to Taupo over Xmas and the new year. The weather had that traditional Xmas feel, in that it was absolutely diabolical! We had high winds and heavy rain on the drive up to Taupo. Fortunately it stopped raining when we got there just long enough for to put up our tent. Despite all that nature could throw at us, it was a very enjoyable and chilled out trip. The above picture by the way, was taken at the "Hidden Valley" thermal area near Taupo.

Neena and I

My Bike

You cant beat a "big twin".

Her name is Xev.

















While not as fast as my ZX6R, my SV1000S has real soul. The ZX is all about high revs, and really flies when above 10000rpm. The SV on the other hand revs much lower, but also puts down its power much lower, which in the real world makes it more usable. More so than power is the “feel” and “noise”. There is nothing quite like the feel and sound of a large capacity 90º V-Twin when accelerating hard out of a bend, particularly when fitted with a nice pair of Scorpions!