So it has been a bit over a year since we started scratching around in the dirt in the Mapuia reserve. There is still a bunch of work to do, but we have 2 completed tracks and our Freeride/DH lite track is mostly rideable. 

• Conviction - 2 way - from the bottom of Darlington Road to the bottom of the Nevay Rd connector. 
• Boot Leg - 2 way - from the end of Conviction up an over to the Prison sign on Mapuia Road. 
• Jail Brake - down only - about 100m on from the Boot Leg exit and down onto Miramar Nth Road. 

The up hills are small chain ring, middle of the cluster type climbs. There are quite a few switch backs to keep things interesting on the way up. There is still a bit of work to do at the start of Bootleg/end of Conviction. That area goes through a stream so is a bit boggy. But we are just having too much fun digging big banked corners and other fun features on the DH

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary,  we are having a BBQ at the top of Jail Brake. 

BBQ - March 20 , 3pm

taken from Ben's email

""We are planning a BBQ on Saturday the 20th of March at area by the top of Jail Brake to celebrate the first year or so of the project.  Everyone is welcome.

WCC have kindly agreed to supply some sausages, a port-a-loo and hopefully some music.  They are also going to have a crack at cleaning up the area a bit more before the 20th.  We don't have the funding of the likes of the Makara Peak Supporters so any help is much appreciated :-). There will no doubt be some shuttle runs done too as well as plenty of folks riding loops of the park.

The BBQ is not just for those who have already been digging, but also for 'future helpers' and those that just enjoy the new facility.

As the Council will be there it would be handy for those of you who can find a little time to stop by to do so and say hi, as it will help show the profile and usage that the park is enjoying.  The area is very kid and kid-bike friendly for those of you who want to bring the family along""

For more information, check out the Miramar Track Project page on Facebook.

Chris has confirmed the dates for the Koha Conference next year. The conference will be held in Wellington October 25 - November 2 2010.

The first 3 days will be a  conference followed by 4 day hackfest. That gives me 10 months to convince some of the gamma types to get up to speed and ready to do some hacking. There is a wiki page up at the moment, and we are working on a website to go up over summer. 

I can only hope that we manage to get members of the community from all over the world to come. Personally I am looking forward to repaying some of the great hospitality that Paul, Henri and Perrick showed us in Paris and Marsielle back in 06. 

After a good 18 months or more out of the community, I am looking forward to getting more involved. Koha is a cool product, and despite the actions of a few organisations, continues to grow and attract new people. 

Mike has already posted the plot of the race, but what I was looking for before I did the Huka was a write up on what to expect. So here is mine.

So my phone died over the weekend. I had the Sony w950 for two and a half years but the touch screen died, so I couldn't recieve calls. It has also started playing up for recieving SMS. I had to power cycle the damm thing to recieve anything. Unlike Don, who subscribes to the "dropping my phone from chest hieght onto the floor will fix it" school of device repair, I decided to bite the bullet and actually by a new phone.

After looking around, I decided on the HTC Magic. Vodafone have recently dropped the price and on a $60 per month plan, I was able to get the phone for $219. Which put it in the ball park of a lot of standard type phones with keypads far too tiny for my fat fingers.

So far, I am pretty impressed. It is a little smaller than I thought. I pictured something the same size, or slightly bigger than an iPhone, but it is actually maybe 5% smaller. I could go on about apps and stuff, but the killer one for me is finally I have my calendar in my pocket and I don't have to do any crazy syncing - it is just there. Likewise contacts, just enter a gmail password when you power it up for the first time, and you are good to go.

Tonight I played with openGPSTracker, taking a plot of my ride home. Not sure if the battery would last for 7 hours or so like this for the Huka this weekend, but it is fun to have this kind of toy on the phone.

Ok and now to prempt the questions:

Q: Idiot, why didn't you buy an iPhone?

A: Well first up, they are still more expensive. Plus I don't really care about a music player and I'm more interested in Android. We are starting to get into some Android dev at work, and I'd like to convince Chris to work on a Koha client for Android with me.

Q: Loser, why didn't you wait for the HTC Hero?

A: Ok, like I said, my previous phone completely died so I needed a phone. Plus when the Hero comes out in 2-3 weeks,  it will be spendy. Sure the Sense stuff would be nice, but I don't think I will miss anything else. Yes it does have a proper headphone jack, but once again I don't intend to listen to music on the phone, and if that changes I'll just talk to Evonne nicely and see if I can get a snazzy pair of blue tooth headphones from her secret source.

Right off to upload the track, I wonder how much effort m.gamma.net.nz would be...

Just got back from a great weekend riding down south with my mate Zane. I'll edit this and add some more details later, but for the moment here are the edited highlights.

• Saturday: Headed to the West Coast through the snow to ride the Croesus Track. Zane has done a nice write up of this day.
• Sunday: Going Tubeless and an optimistic trip with Bevan to ride the Wharfedale
• Monday: Port Hills, up Worsely's, on to Flying Nun and all the way to Sumner.

It was a great trip, and I can't wait to head back soon to complete the Wharfedale and check out the other riding like Cragieburn. There are some photos up on Flickr.

I have had the Reign for 6 months now, and in that time it has seen a fair bit of riding. I can do basic maintenance, but I just don't have the time or the money to invest in tools and learning the tuning game. I'd also rather spend money on new toys like dropper posts (that's another post).

Now I can get my bike a top notch service and still buy the toys. Nick has packed in the IT game and set up November bikes. Just got my bike back from him, all the creaks are gone and it is looking like new - stoked. Check out his site at novemberbikes.com.