I made my first attempt at playing Bandy. For those of you who aren’t aware of what Bandy is, it is a sport which is similar to regular hockey, but is played with 11 players on each side on a huge soccer field sized ice rink with very low boards. The stick is much shorter than a regular hockey stick and you use a small rubber/cork ball instead of a puck. We were only playing in a very small area, more like pond hockey for bandy, but it was very fun. I haven’t quite figured out how you are meant to take the ball off the other person yet as I kept trying to poke check people, but failing as the darned stick was too short!
The photo below is of my lovely new friend Tessa, a Kiwi I met here in Oslo who joined me at Frognerstadion for skating and our unexpected try at Bandy.
This is a lesson in why you should always pack hot water when travelling outdoors in Oslo 😉
This was a yummy bottle full of forest berry flavoured saft (Norwegian drink flavouring stuff, kinda like cordial) before leaving home; 60 minutes later and it became a saft slushy!
One of my favourite hobbies in New Zealand was always finding ice to skate on come the winter months. By the time I arrived in Norway last winter all of the lakes were covered in snow, so this time around I’m trying to keep a close eye on the lakes and as soon as they’re frozen I’ll be skating. I knew there wouldn’t be enough to skate on today, but I decided to combine running with inspection of potential skating spots. Unfortunately the places I’d like to skate are quite a long way from my home. So I ran 9 km uphill to a lake called Kringlevann. As expected, it only had a slither of ice on the top, maybe 10 mm at most. A few more stiff frosts and it should be skateable though. This was also the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life at 19 km for the full round trip. It wasn’t exactly a super fast run at 2 hours and 30 minutes, but I’m happy to have managed the full distance without collapsing part way.
What do a bunch of skating crazed idiots do when there isn’t enough ice to safely skate on? … they attempt to skate on it anyway …
Dave Young attempting to stand on a stupidly thin sheet of ice on a small pond.Dave Young utilizing the "hold onto some other idiot" approach to safety.Edging out onto the ice on a plank of wood.
I went for a walk around Oslo. Here are some snaps from my trip.
A small cemetery in Oslo.Norwegian Parliament building in Oslo.An ice rink I skated on near the Royal Palace in Oslo.The palace where the King of Norway lives.River in Oslo,An Oslo T-blane station.The road enroute to Metronet (where I'm working)
We made a group trip to the Idaburn dam to find skatable ice. That failed in epic fashion, so we did some team shots including the following super sexy duckface shot! Thanks to Devon Wallace for the photos.
Ed Waite on the left, yours truly at the top, Jaydee Cabral in the middle and Devon Wallace on right doing our best attempt at the super sexy duckface shot.From left: Thomas Hedderwick, Jacyln Ho, Dave Patchett, Bret Dougherty, Pip, Ed Waite, Jaydee Cabral, Hernesha Fakir, Ryan Hellyer (me), Liz Roberts, Chris Laing and Keith Dickson.
I helped organise a social hockey trip to Naseby this winter. We were greeted with an awesome snowy experience on arriving in Naseby, including snow during one of our games! My should was too munted to play, so I refereed it instead.
Chris Laing getting overly friendly with a snowman!Brett enroute to Hoffmans damFrom left to right: Unknown (orange) Ryan Hellyer (me as referee), Kelly Cooper-Mitchell (teal), Hernesha Fakir (orange), Thomas Hedderwick (teal), unknown (red), unknown (teal), Jaclyn Ho (teal), Devon Wallace (teal), Brett Dougherty (orange), Keith Dickson (teal), Sonja Texley (orange), Barett (goalie) Liz Roberts (orane), Chris Laing (teal), unknown (teal), Adam Girardin (goalie), Dave Patchett (orange), unknown (teal), unknown (teal), Devon Wallace (teal), Sophie Soph (orange), Jaydee Cabral (orange). Thanks to Adam Girardin for providing the photo.
Dave Patchett and I headed to the Lower Manorburn dam for some ice skating on July 10th. The ice was a bit thin in some areas, but we found enough to skate on 🙂
Yours truly (Ryan Hellyer) standing on the hill above Rushcutters bay. The channel is in the background.Yours truly on the ice. My arm was in a sling as my shoulder was quite munted due to dislocations.Dave Patchett in the gorgeDave Patchett checking out the ice in the channel
I went camping on the weekend with Ed Waite and Dave Patchett to Poolburn reservoir. We headed off on Friday evening packing tents, as much cold weather gear as we could find and a set of chains in the back Ed’s trusty Toyota Landcruiser. The road up to lake Poolburn was nicely frozen and easy to drive on, apart from a large puddle which Ed decided to travel through instead of around. The puddle was frozen, but apparently not enough to support the weight of a fully laden Toyota Landcruiser but Ed’s ninja awesome four wheel drive skills saved the day and we managed to get out of the ice hole in one piece (sort of …). We found a neat little flat spot perched above the dam where we set up camp with a beautiful view out across the frozen reservoir.
Dave Patchett at the camp site above Poolburn damEd Waite chilling out at the camp site
We quicky discovered that camping in sub-zero temperatures is quite cold, duh! We never took an accurate temperature reading, but from what we could tell it was approximately -8° C. Thankfully we were kitted out well enough to survive the night without any dramas, just a little chilly at times.
We awoke to a beautifully calm, albeit chill day and an excellent view from the campsite, out across the Poolburn dam.
View north from the campsiteEd Waite and Dave Patchett on the ice
We were greeted at the lake shore with an excellent expanse of solid hard ice to skate on. We did a full circumnavigation around the lake, including many sections we had never skated on before due to the water level having risen considerably this year.
Ed Waite on the iceEd Waite and Dave Patchett on the iceEd Waite showing off whilst Dave takes a breakView back to truck from the ice. Dave Patchett on the left and me (Ryan Hellyer) on the right. Thanks to Ed Waite for the photo.There were some massive icicles alongside the cliff area by the dam. Ryan Hellyer (me) on the left and Dave Patchett on the right. Thanks to Ed Waite for the photo.
There were some excellent sections of ice on the streams leading into the dam. It was really fun being able to skate downhill for hundreds of meters.
Downhill skating … with a little water hopping 🙂 The segments of open water were mostly jumpable or could be avoided by skating down the edges of them.Downhill skating. This particular section was a little 'cheesy' but was totally frozen over so less worries about falling into water.Ryan Hellyer (me) and Dave Patchett standing on a frozen stream. We managed to skate downhill in that stream for a few hundred meters. Thanks to Ed Waite for the photo.
Ed and I headed to Alexandra later in the day to have a skate on the Lower Manorburn dam before heading back to Poolburn. We had an excellent skate under the stars at Poolburn before heading to bed for the night. Unfortunately the weather packed in really badly and blew our tend down in the middle of the night! Thankfully we were well prepared and didn’t get too cold despite the battering from the wind and some snow blustering in through the tents ventilation holes.
We had a very windy skate across the reservoir first thing in the morning. It was certainly an interesting experience being able to just stand their and be pushed along by the wind at break neck speed.
On our way back to Dunedin we got caught in a fairly bad snow storm. Lots of cars fallen off the side of the road, a bus full of tourists careering backwards down the Kilmog hill and many silly drivers still attempting to make their way back to Dunedin grossly unprepared. Thankfully Ed’s Landcruiser was well up to the task and after Ed and Dave kindly put the chains on the truck in horrid conditions (whilst I took stood around taking pictures) we had no problems making our way back home.
Ed and Dave attaching the chains to the mighty LandcruiserEnd of the carnage on the Kilmog hill. Apparently some people think it's perfectly sensible to drive on crazily icy roads with no chains or four wheel drive!? Thanks to Ed Waite for the photo.
