Winter?

Good evening all, time in New Zealand appears to be permanently on fast forward, I continuously seem to be apologising for the infrequent posts and making various excuses for not having written in a while. Hopefully you can get the impression from my ramblings that I manage to keep myself entertained and fully occupied most of the time. And the last few weeks have been no exception.

The weekend after I got back from Scotland my flatmates (Con, Cat and Andrea) and I went to a place called Waiheke Island (pr. Why-hee-kee), which is half an hour from Auckland by ferry, where we rented a 'bach' with some of Andrea's brother's and sisters and other friends of ours, there was around a dozen of us in total. Waiheke is somewhat of a retreat for New Zealand's arty and hippy populations, or possibly where the rest of the population has chosen to locate them as all the 'locals' we encountered were bonkers! With little else to do other than frequent the many vineyards and sit on the sandy beaches it's probably worth going round the bend for.
Andrea, Yours Truly, Con and Cat wine tasting at a vineyard I can't remember the name of...

Renting scooters was a highlight and provided an excellent reminder why four wheels are safer than two... I'm proud to report that I am still in one piece but did have a minor altercation with a bush... Another highlight was the snorkel ling, Con and I went snorkel ling all three days (it was a long weekend) and saw plenty of Eagle rays (see other posts for pictures) and on the last dive Con came very close to swimming over a Stingray that, no word of a lie, was the size of a dinning room table. We tried to get it to move so we could watch it swim but it wasn't having a bar of it and we decided not to pursue this line of entertainment given it's tail (the bit that killed Steve Irwin) was the size of a broom handle.
One of the bays we snorkeled in, the ship in the background is a tall ship called 'The Spirit of New Zealand' which takes kids on a life skills/team building type of activity weekend/holiday

Con, Sam and I on our scooters down by one of Waiheke's numerous beaches

Work is great at the moment, Steve and I are making some good progress on the product definition and user research stages of the paediatric nasal cannula project and I'm getting to grips with the medical and therapeutic terminology. I've also formalised a business plan for producing the underwater hockey stick that I've co-designed with two other guys from hockey. By adding a more formal and business like structure to proceedings we hope to do a better job of producing and selling the stick. We're aiming to make and sell 1000 pairs by the beginning of 2009.

All is well in the flat, the weather hasn't been too cold here in the last two weeks so no need for the heater in my room. Went kayaking with my friend Kieran from work this afternoon, first time I've had the kayak out in a number of months and although it was a bit choppy it was refreshing to be out on the water. I think that's me just about out of news for the time being, I hope you are all well and I will speak to you in the near future.

Love Nick xxx

Pictures pictures pictures...

I've just had a rude realisation that I last wrote on my blog in MARCH! Well at least I can say that I've seen you all in person in that time so I don't feel quite so bad!

I've landed back in NZ in one piece and straight back into work where I'm in charge of designing a paediatric nasal cannula with my colleague Steve. Today was our first hospital visit to establish a relationship with the nursing staff on the Paediatric ICU at Auckland hospital, they seem quite enthusiastic and willing to help with our research which is going to be a very important part of the project.

I'm back playing hockey although not quite as well as I'd like after effectively about 6 weeks off. I'm playing wednesday night 5-a-side football with a team from work which is not particularly competitive but a lot of fun. Tonight I've finished a big portion of the 3D CAD work for the next underwater hockey stick protoype that I'm making with one of the guys from my club so I'll be busy over the coming weeks making that computer model a reality that we can play with in the pool.

I thought I pop a few pictures in this post to make up for the months of not having written. As I'm sure you've all heard Ewan's wedding was tremendous fun and well worth the trip. It was lovely to see you all again despite the brevity of the visit.

Enjoy: