Ryan Hellyer » Skating

Bandy

Ryan — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:41:13 +0000

I went to check out a game of Bandy here in Oslo recently. For those of you who haven’t heard of it before, Bandy is a sport which is similar to field hockey, but played on ice. The rink is huge, as are the goals. There is much less contact than in ice hockey and a small ball is used instead of a puck. There are 11 players on the ice and only a few subs. I’d love to play, but my shoulder will need to be in much better condition before I can attempt anything like this.

Game of Bandy being played in Oslo, Norway.

Giant ice groomer gizmo. Doesn't give as nice a surface as a Zamboni, but is a bazillion times faster!

Photos from around Oslo

Ryan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:15:58 +0000

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)

Sognsvann

Ryan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:15:46 +0000

I headed to Sognsvann just north of Oslo to go ice skating. It turned out there was way too much snow on the lake for skating, but I had a nice walk around the lake anyway.

Group trip to Idaburn

Ryan — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:32:25 +0000

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.

Hockey trip to Naseby

Ryan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:08:47 +0000

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 dam

From 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.

Lower Manorburn dam

Ryan — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:22:07 +0000

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 gorge

Dave Patchett checking out the ice in the channel

View of the channel.

View of the middle basin. We didn't skate out into the middle here as it was thinning out too much unfortunately.

View towards the channel

View of Rushcutters bay from above

View of the channel, looking toward the bottom basin.

Camping at Poolburn reservoir

Ryan — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:12:01 +0000

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 dam

Ed 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 campsite

Ed 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 ice

Ed Waite and Dave Patchett on the ice

Ed Waite showing off whilst Dave takes a break

View 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 Landcruiser

End 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.

Poolburn dam face

ryanhellyer — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:16:22 +0000

Some photos from the face of the Poolburn dam. The ice was very thick right beside the dam face due to the shadow it cast.

Coal pit dam

ryanhellyer — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:27:57 +0000

David Patchett and I headed up to Coalpit dam in the Naseby forest for some ice skating. There was excellent ice coverage on one side (100 mm +) but the other half was either very thin or non-existent.

Me (Ryan Hellyer) standing on coal pit dam

Trees close to the shoreline on Coal pit dam

David Patchett posing on Coalpit dam

The shade under the trees gave terrificly thick ice

David Patchett in the distance on Coalpit dam

The trees made a terrific backdrop for the ice. Download high resolution version

View towards the car park at coal pit dam

Idaburn dam

Ryan — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 13:17:01 +0000

David Patchett and I went to Idaburn dam for some ice skating.

Idaburn dam with mountains in the backround. The shiny bit to the right is water. We skated on the bit to the left!

Standing near the waters edge

Sticking my foot in the water

Ice, land, water