Andrew & Sarah

Sarah and I have now become home owners after buying our first house together in Hamilton East.

It is a 1940s three bedroom brick home it has been fitted with double glazed windows and new carpet! Has a good size section with a double garage, two garden sheds and a large vege garden.

Over summer we hope to do a few projects on the house such as paint the barge board and gabled ends, replace the guttering and do the gardens.

We will put some photos online shortly.

Today I proposed to Sarah on the beach at Raglan and I am now please to announce Sarah and Myself are now engaged!

Together we look forward to planning our Wedding which is likely to take place in November 2009

This morning Sarah and myself had the privilege of going hot air ballooning over Hamilton with John from Cafe Strata in the brand new Cafe Strata balloon!

It was awesome and had perfect weather for it. We took off at about 7am from in the center of Hamilton and flew out over the eastern suburbs finally ending up in Gordonton around 8:30am.

See the photos in my gallery.

Well im writing this as im sitting in Vancouver airport waiting to board my flight home at 8pm 12th. Im flying home with Air New Zealand, on their new direct flight to Auckland, its a 14.5hr flight but hopefully i will be comfortable.I finally arrive in Auckland at 6am on the 14th (Hmmm somehow a day does missing).

I have really enjoyed my time away but looking forward to getting home and seeing Sarah and catching up with friends and Family. Not so much looking forward to going back to work however, but guess i have to pay for my next trip somehow!

Highlights of my trip:

• Catching up with Matt and Kat in Dublin
• Road Tripping around Ireland
• Catching up with Chris in Whistler
• Snowboarding and Snowmobiling in Whistler!

Well today Chris, Janelle (One of Chris’s Friends) and myself went snowmobiling for 3 hours. This was the first time snowmobiling for each of us. But as we felt like a bit of excitement we choose to do the “Extreme Powderhound” tour. The snowmobiles we got given were the top of the line models complete with hand warmers built into the handle bars worth approx $20,000 each.

Our tour started off fairly leisurely taking some fairly ordinary tracks up into the hills. This gave us an opportunity to get used to our new toys. We arrived in a large bowl at which time our guide told us to let lose and have a bit of a play around. We did this for a while just mucking around going up banks, plowing through powder drifts etc… During this time Chris managed to roll his snowmobile while trying to turn on a hill, fortunately he didn’t hurt him self.

We then continued on into the steeper terrain and deeper powder. At one point i got my snowmobile stuck in deep powder, so deep when I stepped off I sunk in up to my waist!

The rest of the trip included steep banks (near vertical), more powder, runs through trees and a lot of fun!  Included in our package was  a BBQ lunch however we decided that we would rather spend more time snowmobiling than having a BBQ as we can do that any old time. We did however stop for a quick bite to eat and a drink. Then proceeded to play on a frozen lake where i managed to get up to 85MPH (137KM/hr) however could have gone faster if they weren’t limited to 85MPH. Upon leaving the lake area we each went over a jump and each got a bit of air under our sleds.

Overall it was an awesome experience which I would recommend to anyone! I will put some photos up in my gallery as soon as i get time.

Well i have one more day here in Whistler before heading to Vancouver for a few days then back home to NZ.

Well the last few days have pretty similar. Have been snowboarding most days with some pretty awesome powder the last few days. Been to a few snowboard events. The Showcase showdown on Saturday night, this was slopestyle event which saw snowboarders competing for $50,000 in cash and prizes. On Sunday night we went to the Fire and Ice show which is a weekly show put on by WhistlerBlackcomb. This show is basically a display of skiiers and snowboarders jumping through a ring of fire. Then finishes off with fireworks.

Other than snowboarding I have just been hanging round whistler. Been out for dinner a few times.

• New photos in gallery