New Zealand in Pictures - Days 1 & 2

Right. So, uploading these pictures was much easier than I expected. For one, blogger has made some changes to their uploader since I last used it. And second, I ran all the pictures through a batch conversion to make the files smaller so they would upload faster, and load faster for those of you viewing on the other side of my computer.

Day 1 - HNL airport and arriving in Auckland

Making sure all the electronics have fully charged batteries while still in HNL.  Doug's phone was nearly dead, and with all his texting was barely going to get him out of the airport without dying.  Not a big deal since we had planned before hand not to use the phones on the trip, but he still wanted some phone action before getting on the plane.

In flight food.  Air New Zealand really takes care of its passengers.  This was dinner.  We were also served a breakfast. Note that the wine glass is really glass. And the dishes were high-quality, reusable dishes. Air New Zealand is doing its part to create less trash.

Oooh, dinner came with cake for dessert.

I had beef penne pasta. It looked good and tasted good.

Doug had something with eggs and chicken. It looked less good.

The first picture in Auckland! A giant Santa. All out of place in his giant red suit, considering it IS summer here.

New Zealand money is colorful here.  And it comes in different sizes, with higher value bills being bigger than smaller value bills.

Doug is getting excited about hearing New Zealand accents for the next three weeks.

I'll just look up the deal on tipping while we have some coffee.

Hmm, what should we do today?

Look! We found Seattle Espresso while in Auckland!

New Zealand has a whole street for Vulcans...

I completely agree with the Chocolates For Breakfast sign.  Sadly they were closed, so no chocolates for breakfast for me.

Doug with his second cup of New Zealand coffee.  He is disappointed in it.  As it turns out, there is no such thing as "brewed" coffee in New Zealand.  What he has here is a "long black," which is similar to an Americano, only smaller.

But he is super excited about fish and chips.

I had beef stew with a mixture of mashed potatoes, carrots, and turnips.

Day 2 - Coast to Coast Walk and a fancy dinner

The start of the hike.

Proof that I was at the start too.  Notice the damp roads behind us, and the overcast sky.

The Pacific Ocean is right over there.

A very cool tree in the middle of a very tiny city park. I'm not sure adult-sized people can walk on the path without stooping.  I don't know, since we didn't come through the park on this path.

A neat looking building on our way.

These helpful little signs guided our walk.

Not all were yellow rectangular signs though, some were small and round.

A little duck pond.

The Auckland War Museum.

A fence around a tree.  Is it a special tree?

Not really sure, never found a sign about it, but it did have this smaller, decorated fence inside.

Doug is confused.  These mats were all over the field, but what can they be for?  A nice guy eating lunch in the bleachers told us they're for cricket.

I completely agree.

A plaque of the first 50 All Blacks from Auckland Grammar School.

The main building of Auckland Grammar School.  If you want to know about our tour through Auckland Grammar School, you can read about it on Doug's blog.

Teachers who taught at least 20 years at Auckland Grammar School.

The main hall, where 2,500 students sit every morning for announcements from the headmaster.

The headmaster's podium.

Just a classroom.

From the top of Mt. Eden.

Fog. It was an overcast day, all day.

Various places and their distances from the top of Mt. Eden, Auckland, New Zealand.

Doug showing his appropriate footwear.

Doug showing us what he thinks loose metal looks like.

Another park along the walkway.

Doug was excited about the bathroom in the park.

An electric BBQ. Not sure how it works, but these turned out to be quite common.

A pretty tree.

Look up ahead!

There's SHEEP!!!

Just roaming around in the park.

I wonder if I can pet one? (the answer is no. They run away)

Dog shaped trash cans for dog poop are way better than regular shaped trash cans.

Time for some lunch in the middle of our walk.

This is odd. Tap water in a bottle?

We found the end!

In the distance is the Tasman Sea. We went from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Sea in 16km.

Now time for a fancy dinner.  This is our honeymoon, and we earned it with today's walk.

They had an extensive wine list.  After the wines there was a single page for beer, cocktail, and soda choices.

I tried a Pinot Noir, from Marlborough region.  Notice my sunburned face and neck. Apparently you can get a burn through the clouds.

I thought the little bee on the knife was neat.

MMMM. Roast lamb with garlic spinach and some kind of grain that was similar to barley.

Doug is excited about his duck. Or he is trying to scare me away from it. I'm not really sure.

A nice meal.

Finished with a wee cup of coffee.

Here ends day two.  I still have 18 days of photos to compress and upload.  Doug is typing up his journal from the trip over at Dirtbag Ramblings.  I also kept a journal, but mine is much shorter.  I think he's a better writer, so I'll let him share the words and I'll share the pics. (just know that he is also posting pics, though I'm not sure we'll post the same ones.)

South Island

So far South Island has been great.  We started down the east coast of the island, but only went as far as Kaikoura.  A man who worked at the holiday park we were staying at suggested we skip Christchurch, since it was just another big town.  Not a bad idea from the looks of it, according to the paper they've been having aftershocks from their last big earthquake.

While hiking in Kaikoura I managed to sunburn my feet and legs pretty bad, so heading to Hanmer Springs meant more walking/hiking.  No trip to the hot springs pools for me.  I still find a hot shower uncomfortable.  We didn't manage to see any whales on our hike, but it sounds like they live much further from the coast than those we see in Hawaii.

Last night we saw our first glow worms.  It was pretty cool.  Across the street from the holiday park we are in there is a natural grotto.  When we first arrived around 10pm it was still a little light out, so only a few worms had started glowing.  We stayed for about half an hour and watched more of them start glowing.  No pictures, though they were bright enough to see they weren't bright enough for the camera to pick up.  I tried with video too, but it was just too dark for the camera.

Now we are in Hokitika, which is the hotspot for New Zealand jade (it has a real name, but I don't have the brochure with me).  We're staying right on the beach, and after a quick walk through town we relaxed on the beach, Doug with his book and me with a glass of wine and travel brouchures planning out the next move.  So far planning only for the next day has been great, we've seen things we probably wouldn't have otherwise by getting suggestions from locals.  The only set things in our timeline for the remainder of the trip are the ferry crossing back to North Island (which can still be changed) and a plane ticket back to Honolulu.

Probably won't get another update til we're home, then pictures.  Had to buy an extra 4GB card for the camera, and now we have over 1,000 pictures plus some videos.

Hello From Picton

So, we've been out of the States for over a week now, and this is first we've been in an internet cafe.  (And just so you know, it totally sucks. The keyboard is sticky and Doug's computer won't even load pages. Of course the guy has stepped away from the counter, so he's just staring at a screen that won't load, wasting his time. I can't even check my hotmail.)

We tried to find online contact yesterday, but no luck.  I was able to connect a couple of times with my phone, but Skype wouldn't work so no Christmas calls home (sorry parents!).

The trip thus far is going great. We crossed to South Island last night, arriving a little after midnight.  "Camping" was sleeping in the van in a carpark.  At least it was cheap.  After this quick blog post (and hopefully email checking) we'll be heading south towards Christchurch.  No real plan in mind, just taking our time and enjoying each other.  We've taken over 600 pictures so far, so we won't be posting any til we get home. It would be too much to search through them to post a key few, so you'll just have to wait.

Auckland was great, so was Rotorua and Napier.  I've tried a couple of fantastic New Zealand wines so far.  One from Marlborough region when we went to a fancy dinner in Auckland (I had the roast lamb. I only want to eat that forever), and then another from Hawkes Bay - picked it up when we were there.

Our last night on the North Island (and Christmas Day here) was spent with other travelers, sharing stories over dinner.  The food here is a little expensive compared to the mainland, but so far the beef and dairy is MUCH better.  There is something to say for grass-fed free-range cattle.

Only got 10 minutes left on my time (sticky keyboard + crap internet connection = 20 minutes to write this short post), so I'll catch you later.  Next time we'll look for a real internet cafe, instead of using the computers in the lobby of a hostel.

Fall? Are You Sure?

Today is the first of October.  That means chiller days, sweater wearing.  Thinking about digging out a scarf or some mittens soon.  Digging out all the good soup and casserole and stew recipes.  Making sure the cupboard has a good selection of tea...

Or, none of the above.  Not having seasons makes somethings hard to remember.  Like the fact that Halloween is coming up.  Sure, we get the commercial reminders: suddenly there are TONS of bags of tiny candy bars.  Some stores have put out fall decorations.  Target has all their costumes out, and has for a few weeks now.  But it doesn't feel like Halloween is around the corner.  It just feels the same as always.

Warm, sunny days are nice, but I'm starting to miss my favorite seasons: fall and spring.  Especially spring.  I loved driving through pasture lands to see all the baby cows.  Watching the trees come back to life after sleeping all winter.  And waiting for the ground to send up tiny shoots of green.  I suppose Hawaii gets a rainy season, but it just isn't the same.

Back to the College Routine

Last week was the start of the Fall 2010 semester at the University of Hawaii.  It was also my first week back as a full-time student.  Only this time I'm not in the classroom.  Well, the college classroom.  For the most part, my entire program is online.

I say for the most part because we do meet face-to-face sometimes.  Our first meeting was over the summer, for a class on technology.  The second meeting happened this last weekend.  For two of my classes, it marked the start of the course - we reviewed the syllabus, did some "get to know each other" exercises, and in one class even did one of the four projects for the semester.  For my third class I've already turned in the first homework.

And that's it.  Only 3 classes this semester, 9 credit hours.  At the graduate level that is considered full-time.  Other than another face-to-face meeting in October, the rest of the semester is up to me.

Expanding My Computer Knowledge

Since installing Ubuntu on Doug's laptop, that is all we have been running on it.  Windows still sits in the background, taking up a large part of the hard drive.  Just in case though, I don't want to delete it entirely yet.  Little has been saved to the computer as of yet, so I don't know if I can share files between the operating systems, though I am sure there is a way.  Afterall, the first computer I saw Ubuntu running on was a Mac laptop.  The guy had the Mac OS running at the same time as Ubuntu, and could switch between the two without restarting.

The latest homemade change was to the hardware of his laptop.  After spending hours getting Vista reloaded I learned that the "/?" key was no longer working.  Doug said that it had been giving him some trouble in the past, but that it always worked eventually.  After an entire weekend without that key functioning, I looked around online for a replacement part.  I found several do-it-yourself ways to take apart a keyboard to get tiny pieces to fix it, but that seemed way beyond my ability.  Then I found that Amazon.com had a keyboard for the computer for $15.  A whole lot cheaper than the Dell website.

Sure, the warranty can be voided by not using the proper parts, but it isn't under warranty anymore anyway.  And the fix was easy.  One panel to snap off, and two tiny screws to remove.  Now the computer has fully functioning buttons again.  Still not sure how much I will actually use it for school, but it has been getting lots of use since I got it running better.