With Summer upon us here on the top of the world it has been time to get the bike out of the garage, get it legal and back on the road. After 4 opening shims, 6 closers, oil and filter change, a new set of tyres and a new Yuasa battery the bike was running well.

Last Friday afternoon found me sitting in the shade of the Bluebridge Ferry carpark, heading from my hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, over Cook Strait to Picton. New Zeland has two main islands - known imaginatively as the "North" and "South" Islands. I live at the bottom of the North Island, and all the best roads live in the South. The ST4s was fully loaded; this is my first real trip with hard luggage so I'd decided to take my full camera setup with me, filling one entire pannier. In retrospect this was not the best decision.

Once on the ferry we strap out bikes down for the crossing. The crossing of Cook Strait is a slow and relaxing 3 1/4 hour trip. Sometimes the swell gets up a bit, and occasionally vehickles are known to break loose from their chains and start bouncing around the hold.

We arrived in Picton late afternoon, and after a quick fill of Petrol, we headed off for Upper Moutere, to the Moutere Inn for our first night's stay. The roads were dry and the weather warm. In the Rai Valley the long, straight roads of Marlborough give way to the tight, windy roads of a mountain pass. Despite just getting used to being back on the bike after a long wet winter, this where we really started to enjoy the ride.

The Moutere Inn is a strange blend of a small rural pub and an urban craft beer bar. Laying claim to being New Zealand's oldest pub, the Inn is owned and run by the Hops and Glory group to showcase New Zealand craft beers. We were greeted by the co-owner and Publican, Dave Watson, who was very accomodating, letting us park the bikes in the locked area at the rear of the Inn. Dinner was excellent and accompanied by a few too many fine ales, polished off with a slightly too dry local Perry. The rooms were basic but functional, clean and tidy. I thoroughly recommend stopping here if travelling in the area.

Strangely, the Moutere Inn does not do breakfast. After rising early the next day we went up the road to the Upper Moutere Coffee Shop and General Store, where a breakfast of pies and barely passable coffee were what was available. The gentelman behind the counter was friendly and most tolerant of a bunch of hungover bikers arriving in his store just after opening. On the whole, there's not a lot to reccommend it for breakfast except that it's the only game in town.

Upper Moutere is situated in typical rural farmland, so Saturday's ride began inauspicously with badly maintained, cow pat lubricated roads through a lush and grassy landscape. After a while things begin to change - the landscpe closes in, trees encroach the road and the corners get tighter and closer together. Before you know it the fields become cliffs and the cow pats gicve way to patches of moss. The road towards Murcheson is typical of the best roads of the region, and after lunch and a quick fill-up in Murcheson the Upper Buller gorge continues the trend. You'd have to be made of stone not to fall in love with the roads and the lanscape in this part of the country.

As we approach Wesport the terrain opens up again, and a coastal breeze provides a relief from the clammy humidity further in land. A quick stop in Westport for petrol (I'm riding with a man with a 12L tank) and we're off down the coast towards Punakaiki. The coast here is rugged and wind swept. Cliffs tower above you on one side of the road and jagged rocks await your first mistake on the other. The landscape here is both terrifying and fascinating, the roads slick with moist sea air and unforgiving. Despite the tight roads, tour busses are a regular feature, using up a good part of both sides of the road. It can be hard to drag your attention back to the road, but you know you have no choice. We stop for coffee in Punakaiki and chat to a few other bikers.

Further down the coast towards Greymouth things become more open and more forgiving. We ride amongst fenches and farmland for a while, and eventuiall make it to Greymouth for petrol, before doubling back and heading to our stop for the night, Blackball.

Blackball is a small coal mining town about 20km northeast of Greymouth. It began as a gold mining settlement, and as the gold ran out prospectors turned to coal. In 1908 it became the centre of a strike action, when seven miners walked off the job to protest their employer's refusal to extend lunch from 15 to 30 minutes. Blackball became the birthplace of the Union movement in New Zealand, and later the brithplace of New Zealand's Labour Party. We arrive in Blackball just in time for the rain for which the West Coast of New Zealand is famous.

The people of the West Coast call themselves "Coasters". At the Blackball Hilton we talk to Brian, a life-long coal miner from a mining famaily. Brian holds the joint world record for shoveling coal - 508 kg in 14.8 seconds. Brian, like most people I've met here, is an open, friendly and talkative man. His father died in the Strongman mine disaster in 1968. Last year, his son-in-law, along with 28 others, perished in an explosion at Pike River mine, just 10km up the road from Blackball. The Pike River disaster is still in everyone's minds here in New Zealand, and in Blackball emotions are still a little raw. Queensland Mines Rescue stayed here at the Blackball Hilton last year when they were working at Pike River.

The next day, after a good cooked breakfast we left for the return trip. From Blackball, we turned up Atarau Road towards Reefton. This whole area is farm land; the roads are long and unexciting, the landscape monotonous. The weather had turned, the sky was dark and as we approached Reefton the drizzle turned to rain and the rain to downpour. We stopped in Reefton only long enough to change into wet weather gear, the keep going to Spring's Junction. Towards Spring's Junction, as the altitude increases the farms turn to forest and the road winds alongside a running alpine stream. This is some of my favourite road anywhere. By travelling via Spring's Junction from Reefton rather than a more direct route we're adding about 40km to the Journey, but the road is worth it.

By the time we reach Spring's I'm getting pretty wet. We have plenty of time today, so we take the time to relax and lunch at the Alpine Motor Inn & Cafe. The food is cheap and nasty, the coffee barely palatable. The staff are young and disorganised, but this is what there is. We stay for over an hour before leaving.

From Spring's Junction there are two ways to go - continue east over the Lewis Pass, or up north via the Shenandoah Highway back to Upper Buller and Murcheson. One of our number is heading home via the Lewis. If I had more time I'd go with him. The Lewis Pass continues the stunning roads we've made our way through to get here. Sadly we have to make it back to Picton for our ferry sailing that evening, so the rest of us head up the Shenandoah. This is not the most interesting road in the world, but it has its moments. From Murcheson we turn east and head back the way we came only a day earlier. By the time we reach St Arnaud the roads are long and straight, and the weather is tormenting us with winds and heavy rain. Our minds are set on the ferry home, and we don't stop until we get to Picton.

This wasn't the longest ride, nor was the weather the most pleasant. As always, the company was excellent and the roads nothing short of spectacular. If you haven't been to New Zealand, you should; and when you get here, look me up. We'll go for a ride.

I have just bottled 4 jars of Banana Chili Chutney. A quick taste revealed a delicious, sweet, full flavoured chutney with good depth and just the right amount of acid. I'm looking forward to this once it's had a chance for the flavours to blend!

The Chillis were chosen because they happened to be what I had fresh off the plant. The original recipe calls for Bird's Eye, but I think Yellow Habanero would also be an excellent choice due to their fruity, almost banana-like flavour.

Ingredients

1.5 kg Banana
8 Large Serrano Chilies
400 ml Cider Vinegar
50 g Fresh Ginger
500 g Sultanas
500 g Dark Brown Muscovado Sugar

Peal and roughly mash the banana. Finely chop or blend the ginger and chili. Place bananas, ginger and chili in a large saucepan, then add the rest of the ingredients.

Stir well and then gently bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

If needed use a potato masher to break up the bananas and then simmer again for a final 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and bottle in clean sterilised jars, seal immediately.

I just spent 16 minutes 26 seconds on the phone to Windows Global Support. Their technicians had identified "errors" on the computer I was using and wanted to help me resolve the problem.

Unfortunately I didn't think the start recording until I'd already been transferred to a "senior engineer", and I didn't realise it was set to a 5 minute maximum, but it was fun nonetheless. I think I need to make the shiny fresh Ubuntu Unity desktop behave a little more like Winders.

I'll do better next time - promise.

In recent discussions I have regularly encountered confusion is misunderstanding about copyright and infringing or non-infringing material. A work can be both copyright and non-infringing. There are two independent concepts at play:

Copyright status

A work can be either under copyright or Public Domain. Public domain is where the copyright has expired, or where the copyright holder has explicity abandoned their copyright. The holder of copyright on a work has the right to establish the terms of use of that work.

License

Where a work is subject to copyright, the holder may decide on the terms of use. It is increasingly common for copyright works to be licensed under "open" terms, where the right to distribute or modify is assigned to parties other than the copyright holder. Popular "open" licenses are the GPL, BSD and Creative Commons licenses which give all recipients of the work the right to redistribute and/or modify the work within limits set ny the license.

In case anybody missed it, the Copyright Amendment (Internet file sharing) was passed into law under urgency last week. Being presented under urgency means that there was no select committee process, not public feedback, on the amendment as passed. This makes about 19 (not sure of the total now, was 17 before the last urgent sitting) law changes made under urgency in the last two years - more than any previous government.

http://nzoss.org.nz/content/copyright-amendment-bill-passed-into-law

This article highlights the profound understanding our politicians have of the issues while voting on this amendment:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110413/18085213885/new-zealand-politican-tweets-how-shes-violating-copyright-law-night-before-supporting-three-strikes-copyright-law.shtml