Soon it is time again - I'm off to Tenerife in eight days from today. It is going to be wonderful to get some sun, since the summer here in Sweden has so far been the wettest and most miserable in ages.

This time I'm actually going to do something during my stay in Tenerife. Yes, I'm taking a diving course to get an open sea diving certificate. How about that? It is going to be great fun - this is something I've been wanting to do for many years. I will post more reports when I'm there.

Yes, I've been to Tenerife again. Third time in 8 months. Maybe it is time to move there permanently?

This time the reason (as if I needed one?) was to celebrate Mum's 80th birthday. Me and mum stayed for two weeks, my sister had to go back after only one week. Mum is pretty mobile for her age, but she is 80, so no mountaineering or other strenuous activities like in last summer. We did go on a couple of trips, among those one to La Gomera which is a really, really nice place to which I will definitely go back.

Images in the gallery as usual.

I encountered a funny scam here in Tenerife that seems to be pretty popular. As you might know, there are a lot of electronics stores here with pretty aggressive sales people. A new way of getting tourists to buy terribly overpriced stuff they don't need seem to go like this:

You are grabbed on the street by someone who wants to look at your digital camera and wants to know if "you have an infrared or regular memory card". You go, "huh? well, a regular one, I guess" and the person drags you into the store "just to show you the difference, no need to buy anything." After complimenting you on your excellent camera the person (or persons) hook it up to a tv, snaps a few pictures to your own memory card, and shows the images that looks really awful - murky and fuzzy. He then swaps to the "infrared card", repeats the process, and - lo and behold! - the images are bright and clear.

Been here in San Eugenio, Tenerife, for six days now and I am starting to feel something like a human being again. Too bad I have to go back to the dark, cold and rainy soon.

Yes I know, I am a bad person. I am not going on long hikes, seeking places where no tourist has been before, or any cumbersome things like that. I am just here to relax, get some sun, and have a few drinks. OK? Do you have a problem with that? Well? Yes, I am talking to you!

I have been on a short vacation in Tenerife. I joined forces with Mats and Marie, who stayed there much longer. This was great, the climate in the southwest is probably the best in the world. Warm, damp, and even – same all year round.

We did a bunch of touristy stuff, you know, swimming and such – and we also got up to the top of the volcano Teide. That was really cool! Perhaps I'll write some more about this later on, but for now there are images in the gallery for your viewing pleasures.

I'm back from a trip to Oban and Glasgow together with Mats, Marie, and Anders Prytz. We had a great time listening, among other things, to the senior piobaireachd and big MSR. Winners of these events were Angus MacColl and Gordon Walker (third year running) respectively. More results from Oban here.

Images in the gallery.

I've wanted to see the bronze age rock carvings in the Tanum area of nothern Bohuslän for a long time. And since I'm on vacation and don't have much else to do right now, I went there a few days ago. It was really amazing and I can recommend it to anyone interested.

I have put a bunch of pictures in my image gallery for those of you who can't go there and see for yourself.

In my Mad Dash™ of the south island, I arrived in Te Anau yesterday intending to check out the alledgedly extremely scenic road up to Milford Sound. Today was another beautiful, sunny, and warm day, as they all have been since I came to the south island. Hard to imagine that it was snowing here only two weeks ago.

Well, I set out along the Milford road, and I have only one thing to say - wow! It is just beyond belief! Sooo beautiful! There was just one slight problem - one section is called Avenue of the Disappearing Mountains, because the mountain tops usually disappear in the clouds. Well, no clouds today, not that I am complaining.

The last bit, just before crossing the mountain pass heading down to Milford, had avalanche warning signs all over, and true enough, it was clear that an avalanche had hit the road only the day before. The highest point of the pass, at 800 m., goes through the infamous Homer Tunnel. This is a bit scary, since the tunnel is unlit, and cut into dark granite, so it is very dark indeed. Coming in from bright sunlight is a bit of a shock. Still, I survived that too.

I took a tour of the Speight's brewery today. Quite interesting, this is one of few breweries (at least in the southern hemisphere) that uses old batch brewing methods, and has a full set of copper vats still in use.

They have several brews that are quite drinkable, and since I like dark beers myself, I took a fancy to the Speight's Old Dark, a 5 malt dark ale, and the Speight's Porter, which has only been brewed for about a year. I got the opportunity to mention the Porter Drinkers Association, which much impressed the tour guide.

I also got an explanation to the strange fields I had seen around Nelson when I was there a few days ago. There were huge fields with no visible crop, but with wires strung all over to a height of about 4 m. They grow hops there, and the New Zealand hops are actually exported all over the world, even to England.

Today I went whale watching in Kaikoura on the east coast of the south island. Due to special sea floor conditions and streams, this is one of very few places in the world where you can be almost certain to find whales every day of the year.

It was fairly expensive, costing 110 NZD, but everything was tip-top, and we got to see 5 sperm whales close by, and had contact with another two, so it was all-in-all a great experience.

Kaikoura itself is absolutely stunningly placed, at a penninsula with the Inland Kaikoura Range and Seaward Kaikoura Range mountains close by. On a clear day such as yesterday, you can see Mt. Fyffe, Manakau, Tapauaneuku, and several other mountains frome here. Tremendous!