Well I guess most of you have heard that Chirstie is back home for a few weeks at the moment, which means I now get control of this page!!!!

So here's an update on my solo adventures so far.

Fortunately, or unfortunately in Christie's case, the first weekend she was away was a long weeked with Monday being Labour Day in New Zealand.

An activity packed weekend ivolving my first round of golf in New Zealand.....

.....a trip to the mountains for my last ski trip of the season now that the mountain has closed.....

all finished off on the monday with a trip out in the clouds and rain around Wellington Harbour.....

and then the clouds disapperaing as soon as I got home so a nice sunny bike ride in the hils around Island Bay....

...and back around the coast....

All in all a pretty good weekend but my mind was elsewhere having heard the sad news from Christie.

So now we come to this weekend. It is now Sunday afternoon and I'm writing this with my feet up with no plans for moving for the rest of the day!

The reason being I got the idea during the week that I fancied getting away from it all and going for a walk in the countryside. I therefore asked a guy at work if he could suggest a nice walk for the day - his suggestion was Mount Holdsworth!

Mount Holdswoth is 1470m high, about one and a half times the height of Snowdon and a few hundred metres higher than Ben Nevis - its the one just to the left of the line of the road....

Armed with map, food, drink and emergency Dairy Milk rations I set off.

I definitely got away it all! Walking mostly though forests.....

and getting some breaks in the trees to show how high you have come

.....and also how far you've still got to go.....

For those that aren't as fit (!) as myself and don't want to do it all in a day, they have a series of huts around the mountain ranges for you to stop in overnight complete with water, toilets, bunk beds, heaters, gas cookers. This one is Powell Hut at 1200m high - nice views from here...

Once past the treeline the views were amazing and kept getting more so until I eventually arrived at the summit....

Heres a few of the other pictures I took up at the summit.....

And then after a long slog back down, there was a nice river for a well earned, cold, refreshing dip!

Note to self...must remember to take some swimming shorts next time!!!!

Now where did i put that emergency Dairy Milk....?????