chris

New Zealand Photos

New Zealand Photos are up.

California Pictures

I've finally gotten the california pictures up. There's about 130 of them. Sorry about the format, but there were just too many to use simple viewer.

Look for the New Zealand photos to be up until later.

Yankees v Angels

Tonight, thanks to McData, a few Sun emloyees, including myself went to the Yankees V. Anels game at Yankees stadium. We got a real pimp skybox with free catered food and a bartender, pretty cool. The yankees slaughtered the angeles 12-3, and alex rodriguez (that woman) got 10 RBIs, which is impressive no matter what. I had a good time, even tho I'm a sox fan.

Look for the california, and nz pictures to be up before the weekend.

Things about new zealand

(in no particular order)

• the toilets have two flush buttons (one for #1 and one for #2)
  
• the door knobs are about a foot higher here than at home
  
• they don't have ketchup, they have sweet tomato chutney
  
• on that note, they don't have Heinz, they have Weitzels (same logo and everything)
  
• No shingles on roofs, just aluminum
  
• they call it al-you-min-ee-um
  
• if you say a web site you end it with dot-co-dot-en-zed
  
• pedestrians have no rights that i can see
  
• the country seems like it was made with backpackers in mind
  
• all the food you get while out is holy-shit expensive
  
• you can't get a drip (filtered) coffee, only espresso drinks (I get an americano)
  
• the fasion hawk reigns supreme
  
• it's amazingly beautiful
  

I will be adding to this list as I remember things. Stay tuned.

Random photos

Here are a few photos from early last week:

Downtown Auckland. We never found the Sun Microsystems building.

New Zealand's money has windows in it!

A full-sized maori hut in the Auckland Museum. The carvings were so detailed it was incredible.

Next to the museum was a few nurserys and a fernery (I would find out later that the fernery looks exactly like the wilderness)

I bet sean he couldn't walk all the way around this fountain without falling in.

He won.

Sean in a tree.

The flat in Auckland.

Haha Boy, you couldn't come but your sweatshirt tagged along!

New Zealand Days 1 & 2

Day 1
To me it's Wed. morning right, if you'r reading this in the states (EDT) its Tuesday afternoon. I just got up from 'brown thunder', and Sean is still asleep on 'white lightning' the two couches here in the flat.

When I got here after about 30 hours of travel, I had to wait in an hour-long line to get thru immigration. When I got up to the window, the woman wanted to see proof that I was leaving, but I didn't have a print out of my e-ticket. Oops. I was defered to a side waiting area while they verified with Qantas that they were giving me a ride out of the country in a couple weeks. After that I had to have my boots inspected, and they had to shake out my tent to ensure there were no seeds stowing away.

When I got thru customs, I changed $35 into $45 (magic!), called Sean, and almost got hit by a bus because I looked the wrong way and steped into the street. The Airbus driver was super-nice and dropped me off right outside of Sean's house at about 7am. We went for a walk to get breakfast and paid about $12 each for the meal. I'm still getting used to what things cost here, the conversion rate doesn't seem to help, but it does make it look like you have a ton more money in your checking account when you check it at the ATM. After breakfast we ran up a volcano called Mt. Eden and I could get a vista of the surrounding area, unfortunately I forgot my camera at the flat in all the excitement so there's no photo of that.

We walked down, back to the house, and I met Bhodi, Nick and (procasti)Nadia. All super-nice. I gave them the presents I brought: home-made chocolate chip cookies, bounce dryer sheets (i don't know either), and a bootleg of Sin City. Bhodi then said it was shaping up to be the best day of the year (because of the bootleg). Sean and I caught up, and hung around the house most of the day, then we went out to dinner at Denny's (travel over 8,000 miles to eat at Dennys). Bhodi borrowed a projector from his Dad, and we watched Sin City on the wall, real big. It was great, but I ended up falling asleep because of the jet-lag.

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Day 2
Got up early, and played some xbox with sean, watched some dvds, and then went out to breakfast in downtown Auckland. The bus took us to Queen St. and we walked to a swank section and ate eggs benedict in a cafe overlooking a park, it was great (so was the food). We then went shopping for camping stuff, I got a sleeping bag, boot insoles, and socks. Sean got new hiking sneakers. We walked around downtown, and I was blow away at what a camera shop wanted for a 1GB cf card for my camera ($299!!!! I priced one at B&H photo in NYC for $74). I got a cheapo digital watch to help me better adjust to the time change, and we went back to the house. We ate veggie burgers and fries, and then watched some episodes of this older (late 90s) american tv show Freaks & Geeks, which is really good.

Later today I think I'll write up what we did yesterday, and what we do today. I'll also include the photos.

Mobile Blogging from New Zealand

I'm attempting to post small notes to a log for this trip with a cell phone, and thanks to Logan, they'll show up here.

New Zealand Packing List

So here is what I should be bringing to NZ:

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Bring to NZ

Stuff I have


Misc

• Passport (IMPORTANT!!)
  
• License
  
• healthcare card
  
• checkbook
  
• amex
  
• books
  
  
  
  • stranger in a strange land
    
  • ...
    
  
  
• tripod
  
• sketch pad
  
• pencil
  
• pen
  
• journal
  



Footwear

• Hiking boots 1
  
• sandals 1
  
• running shoes ? 1
  
• casual sneakers 1
  
• climbing shoes 1
  



Clothes

• underwear 5
  
• long underwear 2
  
• shorts 2
  
• jeans 2
  
• t shirts 5
  
• nice shirts 2
  
• socks 6
  
• swim shorts 1
  
• towel 1
  
• Fleece 1
  
• Sweatshirt 1
  
• rain shell 1
  



Camping stuff

• pack 1
  
• tent 1
  
• sleeping pads (one for me, one for sean) 2
  
• stove 1
  
• leatherman 1
  
• mess kit 1
  
• rain cover for pack 1
  
• ground cloth 1
  
• camp pillow 1
  
• camp towel 2
  
• stuff sack 1
  
• compass 1
  
• headlamp 1
  
• moleskin for blisters 1
  



Electronics

• iPod 1
  
• iPod Charger 1
  
• Camera 1
  
• Camera lenses
  
  
  
  • 50mm 1.4
    
  • 18-70
    
  
  

Stuff I should Buy in NZ (thanks to favorable exchange rate)




• summer sleeping bag (make sean buy it, damn jamie burnie) 1
  
• 1gb CF card for camera 1
  
• matches 1
  
• fuel for stove 1
  
• rain pants 1
  
• gaiters 1
  

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Let me know if you think I missed anything.