“‘Ello everyone. Apologies for lack of midweek madness last week, but hey… It’s summer. Gotta take some chill time. It’s been so nice I’ve even started kayaking to work now… What a start to the day, especially when it’s glassy. The temperature has been in the thirties for what seems like forever now, and it even held out for last week’s League of Gentlemen… Insane.

Rippon. Do Festivals come with a better view?

Props to whoever arranged that impossible feat. It also held out for Rippon music festival which is held every two years at the Rippon Vineyard on t’other side of t’hill in Wanaka. What a day that was. The line up had some big names (all kiwi bands) in the likes of Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Black Seeds and the Mint Chicks to name a few, and for most it appeared that the day peaked with The Black Seeds who were on late afternoon-ish. Unfortunatley after them the energy just seemed to die off, not because of a lack of talent, but y’know, some bands are just better than others at live gigs, and all the remaining acts failed to move people as intrinsically as The Black Seeds. Big up to The Slur Tones, a young three piece Wanaka band who played early and who have recently relocated to Wellington to further their music careers. Definitley one of my favourite bands of the day, showing up some of the bigger names in good style.

Kayaking to work, 7:15am. Beats the M25.

So – music… kayaking… there was another thing. Oh yeh… Bikes. Last Thursday saw the much anticipated Pin It to Swim It down at 7 mile, which took the biscuit as far as LoG’s go. Just the nature of the event, combined with a hot, picture perfect day made for good time all round. The idea was to meet at the car park (yes CAR PARK not THE HUB!), pedal up to a new trail crafted by Queenstown Mountain Bike Club president Lance Brown and his crew, time a run of it, then head up to Cloud Burst and pin it from there down through the Hub, into IB55 (very fun/fast/technical trail) all the way to the bottom where the finish line awaited us… in the lake. Being 30+ degrees meant no one was objecting to such a finish, and the lake provided a nice beer cooler for when we got back.

Pang and Tom Hey refresh after pinning it to swimming it.

Being a self timed event means there are normally numerous different timing devices present… As mine was my phone I opted to leave it in the car along with everything else that normally sits in my pockets (lipstick, small tub of lube, pocket sized copy of Razzle) with the idea being just diving straight into the lake post race. I jumped on the Blender and tagged on behind Dan Thwaite on his Meta and we headed up to The Presidents Trail (is that a candidate for a name seen as it still doesn’t have one?!). And what a corker it is. I hadn’t ridden it previous to the event, so riding it blind at full whack was just the tits. So flowy, so fun. Again, my Blender is just a 7 Mile weapon. When the guys at Charge built it I’m pretty sure this is the kind of thing they had in mind for it. You feel every bump through the back end but you can just keep it so pinned. We continued on up to Cloud Burst and bombed it down to the lake from there. I dunno what our time was in the end, but I don’t really care. It was summer riding at it’s best. If I had to give you an idea of how it felt, well, you know that cover shot on the mag a couple of issues ago, from the Whistler Photo Comp, where there’s lots of dust and dappled sunlight? That’s what it reminded me of. Anyway, Lake Wakatipu is renowned for being very cold, but on this glorious summer evening, it was just right. One by one riders came down and made their individually unique entrance into the lake, including some who couldn’t be parted from their steed as they took it in for a dunk as well. I did that last year and had to get my forks serviced afterwards… so I left my bike on the beach.

Anyway, sun is still shining and I fancy a dip. Until next week, happy riding.

Oh… And also… If anyone in Queenstown knows how a batch of carrots appeared in our kitchen, please own up. We’ve asked everyone we know and now we’re getting freaked out! They just sit there… Staring at us… All orange like…

Jimmy Carling.