Sometimes you can take hundreds of photos and not have a decent shot. This happened to me today; though I didn’t take that many photos to begin with. The overcast sky didn’t help. I also have a bad feeling that I left the camera in manual focus mode.

The McLeans Island walking track is an 11 km dirt track that loops through the pine forest. It is separate from the bike track but they do intersect at several points. The track is reasonably flat, but windy for the most part. I would quite like to have a run on it sometime. However, the long distance does mean that you need to be committed. The average walking time to complete the whole track is about 150 mins. If you can’t do the full track, there are a few shortcuts along the way. My goal is to run the whole track in under 75 mins someday.

Yay! We have reached a milestone. A hundred posts and still going strong. I’m actually blogging in catch up mode at the moment, but that’s not the point.

I’m acutely aware that the focus of the blog has drifted significantly in the past few months. I apologise if you’re here for the security content. Security is still very much an interest of mine. Just been lacking the time to write about it properly. Check back next year, once I’ve had the chance to reassess my priorities.

To celebrate the occasion, please treat yourself to a coffee and a slice of cake. I strongly recommend Coffee Culture.

The first time was ten weeks ago. I admit I was a bit nervous to start, not knowing what it’s like. I have only seen and heard stories about it. There was a group of us, but everyone else seems to have experienced it before.

Anyhow, ten sessions later, I’m fairly comfortable with it now. I even have a certificate to prove it. Actually, it took only about three sessions to get the basic hang of things. I logged some extra time on my own as well, in order to keep up with the rest of the group. Being the slowest in the group isn’t fun.

I’ve had the occasional falls but nothing too serious. I read somewhere that, if you don’t fall, then you’re probably not progressing as fast as you could. The worst was the time I ran into a little girl and ended up bruising my shin. She fell but was okay, I think. Don’t ask me who’s fault it was cause I rather not dwell on it.

The best advice that I could offer a fellow beginner is:

Make sure your skates fit properly.

I started off with skates one size too big and it made things more challenging than it had to be.

My goal was to be able to perform the backward crossover. However, I still have some way to go yet before I could do that. I still need to work on my backward skating, and balance on one skate before I would dare attempt a backward crossover. However, even though I have not reached my goal, I’m still stoked with the progress to date.

If you’re keen on joining the lessons that Alpine Ice Skate School has to offer, it’s not a bad idea. The ten sessions that I had costed me NZD 135 including skate hire. I appreciated having an instructor to explain how to execute the manoeuvres, and having plenty of space to practice. While you could get a friend to show you the manoeuvres, I find that space is hard to come by. The public sessions are generally quite busy. I might consider going back for more lessons if I can’t master backward crossover on my own. We’ll see.

Harry Ell Walkway is a 3.2 km walking track that runs along Dyers Pass between the Sign of the Takahe and the Sign of the Kiwi. The photo above is a view of Christchurch as seen from the Harry Ell Walkway.

This track is suitable for all levels of fitness. I even saw an elderly man with crutches along the way. The gentle slopes also make it suitable for beginner runners like me, though I only walked today.