Tramped Tarawaere track which gets a bit rough and isn’t the usual way of getting to the hut, but is much more interesting. Having started late, I ended up tramping in the dark by headlamp for the last part along Billygoat track. It is interesting how the colour gradually fades and the shadows get deeper and deeper, but you hold off using a torch because once you do all that is visible is the spot it points at and that lacks depth (is that a hole or a rock?). At least that is how it is with my torch, maybe I need a better one.

Got to the hut about 7pm to find I was the only one staying there that night. And I had been worried about crowds. Slept in the dining area with the fire going.

Next day I climbed up the Pinnacles themselves. DoC have added new steps and ladders, it’s all a lot easier than the mud and rock handholds, I’m not complaining. Got a nice view of the inside of a cloud there. Was hoping it might clear, but I guess I’ve seen the views before.

Came back down via Webb Creek. So many stairs! But nice in a ferny mossy waterfall way. Then back to the car and drove home to soak tired legs.

More photos.

Update:
Found it in the grass out by the clothes-line. It’s been through some heavy Auckland rain storms, but is still ok.

I started thinking about getting a new vacuum cleaner after almost destroying my old one with rotten wood and concrete. Managed to repair it ok, but was thinking it was time to make the move up to a two vacuum cleaner household. And what’s better than a robot vacuum cleaner?

I bought an iRobot Roomba 530 from Noel Leeming. Was a bit unsure about how effective it would be, but it is great! It is shocking how much dust and hair it picks up from carpet that had just been vacuumed manually. It uses three brushes and a little vacuum to pick up the dirt and dust. And in spite of what the salesman warned is much better at getting in to corners than I am. It doesn’t have a huge capacity, but instead of vacuuming being a weeklyish chore it can now be nightly entertainment. For a proper clean it’s better to limit it to one or two rooms. That gives a better chance of 100% coverage, and it will be able to find its way back to the base station for a recharge when it is finished.

It can be quite judgmental though. When it finds a dirty patch the blue dirt detect light goes on and it gives a slow disapproving shake of it’s head (well whole body really) as it concentrates on cleaning that patch.

There is also a serial interface connector under the top plate (which just clips off, took me a while to work that out) with a published API of commands. I’ll have to have a play with that when I get time. Moore details to come.

I’ve built up a bundle of plugins and configurations which I use with Vim. Recently I’ve gone through, cleaned out the ones I never use, updated others and added new ones. If you’re interested you can download the bundle or check out my Vim wiki page for more details.

To install the bundle: untar it, then rename dot.vim to .vim, dot.vimrc to .vimrc, and dot.gvimrc to .gvimrc, being careful to first rename your existing vim files if you have anything you want to keep. There’s not much in my .vimrc and .gvimrc, so you don’t even really need to bother with them. Most of my configuration settings are in my vls-config.vim and vls-keys.vim plugins.

Cool new plugins included are: PyFlakes for on-the-fly Python syntax checking; TagList, a function/source code browser, most recently used (MRU) files, Case-persistant substitutions, and the NERDTree file explorer. I’ve also created myself acustom toolbar which reminds me to use some of the new features of Vim 7.0 such as folding, tabs, and the undo tree. Happy Viming!