Shout A Round

Snowy Volcanoes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Sunrise into Wellington

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:44:00 +0000

I should look so good at 75!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:17:00 +0000

Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:31:00 +0000

Yesterdays lunch spot was next to the most easterly lighthouse in the world!

Volcanoes at the black sand beach

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:04:00 +0000

New zealand is cool.

Swapna and Ryan, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Back in November, we got a much anticipated visit from our wonderful friends Swapna and Ryan. All up, I think they were away for two weeks, including travel time. It was great to finally get them down to this part of the world, and great to get to travel around a bit with them. We got to see a lot of new stuff while they were here!

Since somehow we had five sets of visitors in 2011 (!), we couldn't take the full time off with them. So, on the North Island, we did a couple days trips together, and Swapna and Ryan did a couple day trips on their own.

We joined up for a trip to the Coromandel Peninsula to go to Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. HWB was a new stop for us. The deal is that if you go an hour or so ahead of low tide, you can dig a pool, and the hot springs under the beach fill into your pool, and you can regulate the temperature with ocean water. It's a really popular spot on the backpacker circuit, so real estate is at a bit of a premium.

It's pretty sweet though - you go lie in hot spring water, and let a little more in when you get too cool. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday (I think).

From there we shot over to Cathedral Cove, which is worth a look if you're already over. We had been before, but I think it was a hit with our guests.

After a little interlude back in the office, we rejoined Swapna and Ryan in Wellington. Shannon and I hadn't been at this stage, but it had been majorly hyped, as the word on the street was that Welly is just like San Francisco. It is.

It's got cable cars, nice gardens, and funny shaped buildings. It's got a slower pace of life, friendly people, and a vastly improved beer culture - more selection than anywhere else we had seen in New Zealand.

It's got the waterfront and mountains in the background. It's got more cultural events and arts going on. It really is just like SF.

We loved Wellington. Being there for only a day was the real shame, but, we had to move on to the South Island, from here.

Tongariro Crossing, Winter Style

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:55:00 +0000

The Tongariro Crossing is one of the premier single day walks on the North Island. It's about 19k, and it's a point to point event, going between active volcanoes, across craters, and past strangely colored sulfur lakes before dropping back onto the central plateau. In the summer, it can attract about 800 people per day.

Back in August, Shannon and I decided that we wanted to do it in the winter, which is widely done, but it's high enough that it's buried in snow and ice. It's a bit out of our depth, so we opted to go with a guide company. Bonus - they loan you crampons and ice axes.

We booked the day before, for some reason hell bent on going on a Saturday, and knowing there was a risk of weather, but we went for it anyway. It wound up being rainy at lower elevations and sleeting at the peak with winds in the 45kph range. It was a pretty epic way to slog across the crossing on the ice. On a sunny day, you can see for miles. We got this.

We never saw the volcanoes (including Ngaurahoe, which features as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies), never saw the lakes, only knew we were in craters when it was flat. And yet, it was still a hell of a good time. Totally different than we expected, but sweet.

And about 5k from the end, we descend out of the clouds and gets some views to the north. You can kind of tell that some people were pretty shattered by the whole thing...

Naturally, Sunday was the day that postcards are made of. You may recall a previous stop in the central plateau where we didn't see the mountains either. Sunday was the opposite.

Ruapehu is the wide one, Mt. Doom is the classic cone. Tongariro isn't pictured because it's surprisingly hard to photograph from the Desert Road.

Obviously, and with foreshadowing, this means we have to return...

South Island Road Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Way back in July of 2011, my mom and Fred came for a visit to NZ. The vast majority of the visit was a road trip on the South Island.

We flew into Dunedin and drove south through the Catlins, past the southernmost end of the South Island, and into Bluff.

Day two was a drive from Bluff through Invercargill, and up into Fiordland (Fjordland, elsewhere). Some noteworthy coasts before getting into the edge of the fiords. It's rather amazing how fast out of nowhere the mountains appear that make up the fiords. Fun fact - they are all named as sounds, because the Euros that got there first misnamed them, due to what they were familiar with in the UK.

Day three was dedicated entirely to a cruise on Milford Sound, and the drive to and from Te Anau to get there. Some say it's the best drive in NZ. It's certainly not bad, and Shannon loved it because it has a one way tunnel with no stop lights in the winter. Strange one.

Take a look at the little boat by the waterfall. That's not a little boat.

Amazing cruise in the mist. Dolphins, seals, waterfalls, and blue-green water with cliffs that shoot straight up. Well worth the hype, especially since there was almost nobody on our boat. I hear it can be a mess in the summer. Be hardcore - go winter.

Day four was a quick trip from Te Anau to Queenstown. Queenstown itself is a lot like Vail in the village/upitty/take your money sense. Pretty enough town, nice being on the water, but not the best spot. Amazing stuff around it though. That bridge is where bungy jumping was invented.

Day five took us onward to the Wild West Coast, by way of Wanaka, which is just over the Crown Range Pass. I think I could lifestyle it in Wanaka. To be 40 minutes away, it's an entirely different world from Queenstown, and just as pretty. It was snowing/sleeting over the pass, so not a lot of photos. Past Wanaka, over the Haast Pass and up to Glacier Country, where we snuck in in a dusk visit to Fox Glacier. By the way, that one lane bridge is about 2k long, and on a major highway.

Day five was a much shorter day, as we all needed a break, and the weather was horrible, as it is wont to do on the west coast. We did swing through Franz Josef Glacier after navigating a traffic jam, where we got caught in a torrential thunderstorm about a 30 minute walk from the car. But we got really close to it. Sweet. Wound up in Hokitika for the night.

Day six, and the final day, ending in Christchurch via Arthurs Pass. We had concerns over snow, but it never became and issue - just some dust. Made for a pretty trip across, with a quick stop at Hokitika Gorge on the way out of town.

A great road trip, and great exposure to new parts of the country. If only there had been more time...

Fire Up The Readers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:46:00 +0000

Life, it seems, has gotten well in the way of this blog. But due to recent motivations, I aim to catch up on photos from as far back as last July, and share what's coming next. It should get interesting from here...

Quick update on the beer - brewed a porter on Sunday night. We know of a couple mistakes that we made, so we'll see how it goes. Fermenting away, though.

Traffic jam on my ride to work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Mt. Cook, NZ

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:31:00 +0000

White Island

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:59:00 +0000

So, maybe not only in New Zealand, but not in many places... Two weekends ago, Shannon and I got to walk on an active volcano. But not one of those lava sputtering (or drooling, as the location may warrant) volcanoes, one that blows sulfur and ammonia!

White Island is a privately owned volcano (seriously - the guy wanted to say he owns one, and he won't sell it to the government) about 80 minutes by boat off the coast of Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty. While it was a pretty gray day, it wasn't raining, so it was all good, despite the following day being picture perfect on shore (see prior post).

After arrival, you land in a dinghy that holds a surprisingly high number of people.

And then it's right into it. You're walking through a blown out crater past these mounds. They are like blisters, just waiting to explode with hot gas. Sweet.

A lot of the rocks strewn about have an obvious sulfur content.

Clearly volcanic rock lying around, and big chunks of sulfur. And of course, as you'd expect, bubbling mud.

There is one area with a high concentration of vents. This is the bit where you've pretty much got to sport the gas mask. Some people were still struggling with the air.

It seems pretty clear why that might be. Do you know how hard it is to use a viewfinder with a hard hat and a gas mask?

But you get there eventually, and when the wind is just right, and the steam goes the right way, you can see this tube into the earth, and what's coming out of it. Pretty wild stuff.

And way at the center of the crater is a lake. We didn't get awesome views of it you could still just make out the far side. As you can clearly see, that water is green. It was sold to us as a pH of -0.4, which I didn't know was even possible. The word is that every few years, the bacteria living in the lake changes and it turns red and blue.

There have been many failed attempts at mining operations on the island over the years. The remnants are clear. I can't imagine trying to live out there for three months at a clip. It would be pretty rough. On the days that the seas were too rough to take the boat around the point, they had to climb up and over a cliff before going to work all day in the sulfur mines. Fun.

The weather did clear a bit on the way out, and we got a good view of the island. On a clear day, you can see it from the shore of the mainland. As an aside, I find it interesting that the North Island is referred to as the mainland. All about perspective, I guess.

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:30:00 +0000

This wayback post goes... really far back. To Easter, and a four day weekend.

We had decided to combine two trips into one based on our route. Part one was to head to Cape Reinga, the northern tip of the North Island. Part two was to swing through the Bay of Islands, and take the Cream Cruise, which is a historical route used to take mail and supplies to little islands. It's also an excuse to spend a day on a boat and swim with dolphins. Leading up to the trip, the weather was looking dubious for all but Friday, but we actually got lucky with some great weather until Monday morning.

An early departure Friday and a wise selection of route meant that we never really had serious traffic problems on the way north. We did our usual thing, meandering and stopping when it suited us or when something caught our eye.

The goal for the day kept shifting, but in the end, we opted to try to make it all the way to the Cape in case the weather turned. In the end, we managed to turn a sixish hour drive into ten, which is about par for us since we've been doing the "abroad road trip" thing.

Once getting onto the peninsula, we had a stop at 90 mile beach (which I think is more like 90 km beach). It's a popular stretch to drive on, as access is easy, and the sand is pretty firm. They even take buses on it. I think we could have gone for a cruise up the beach, as we saw 2wd's pulling it off, but we opted not to, as it was fairly busy out there (as beaches go) and it is tide dependent. Really pretty, and I bet if you get away from the accesses, quite desolate at times.

We made a Quick stop at Rawawa beach. This is up near the (claimed) purest deposits of silica sand in the world. I don't know for sure, but it's pretty shockingly white sand even across from the exact spot.

Then we made a break to the Cape.

This sign has a matched pair at the south end of the South Island. See upcoming post.

It didn't capture all that well, but in the shot below, see how there is a wave coming from low/mid left to upper right, and a wave going from sort of upper left to low/mid right? That's the Tasman clashing with the Pacific. You can actually see it churning about. Pretty powerful stuff.

We got there with about an hour to spare for sunset, so we really got to take it in. Lovely spot. As NZ goes, it was packed with tourists, but it's not like it was really that busy. I guess the distance marker is a real destination, as all the backpackers wanted their photo taken with it.

I was more interested in getting the sunset, which turned out to be a bit anticlimactic due to the clouds. But that's how it goes sometimes. I did put together an extremely brief, incomplete time lapse of the event.

After a night camping at a reasonable, but somewhat uninspired DOC campsite (the most northern in NZ, mind you), we headed to the giant Te Paki sand dunes. This is the place where you can go sand boarding. Pretty easy idea - take a boogie board and slide down a sandy hill.

We got there pretty early, but didn't expect we would beat the guys who rent boards. We were wrong, but that turned out to be great. The place was desolate. We spent a long time hiking through the dunes. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. I imagine this is what it's like in the middle of the desert in the Middle East. Truly beautiful. Watching the wind shape the dunes (and cover our footprints) was fascinating, if you could avoid getting sandblasted in the process. And running down the dunes was a ton of fun! Far more than going up them, which was really hard. I was sinking in to mid-shin on what we estimate is about a 30 degree slope.

We decided to leave, get a board, and come back. I'll be the first to admit that I thought it sounded pretty pedestrian, but I was sorely mistaken. It turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun!

Next time, we'll know to go early and prepared. By the time we left, the place was getting pretty crowded, and the vendors had showed up. But early in the morning - lovely.

This was the big event of the day. It was followed by lazy lunches on the water, checking out the local oddities, a stop at NZ's most northern pub (a bit of a dive, I must say), and some hit or miss weather for camping.

Sunday was a cruise in mixed weather Paihia to catch the Cream Cruise on Monday. We went through some nice countryside, but nothing particularly of note. We would up in Paihia only to realize its a tourist trap for backpackers. A very uninspired little place. So we took the ferry to Russell, across the bay, which was a lovely, historic little town. We saw a massive ray (sting? manta? other?), but unfortunately got no photos, as it was nearly pitch dark.

Monday morning came, and we awoke to torrential rain. Luckily, we hadn't yet booked the cruise, as we knew it wasn't looking so great. Turns out, I also woke up sick, so it's just as well, really. Really sick. As in, the sickest I've been in a decade. I took two legitimate, consecutive sick days. Ouch.

So we'll be back for the Cream Cruise in the spring or summer. And I hope back to the Cape, too.

Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:10:00 +0000

You have got to be kidding.

Airfare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Just to prove that no good deed goes unpunished, Shannon and I are out 500 bucks for booking our Christmas travel early. Air NZ has put on a fare sale, and the change fees are 100 bucks more than the difference.

Awesome.

Tiritiri Matangi Island

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:18:00 +0000

Reaching back to the catch up on the blog project... Somehow I've stuffed up the HTML on this post, and the "improved" Blogger setup is too much of a pain to try to sort it out.

A number of weeks ago now, Shannon and I spend two days and a night out on Tiritiri Matangi island, which is a bird sanctuary that's about an hour's ferry ride from city center.

The island was farmed in the middle of the 1900s and has been rehabilitated to its natural state and the bird life is now thriving, if not managed. There are a number of unique birds, including the takahe. Allow me to introduce Greg.

Greg has about a dozen friends, and they are the only birds of this kind left. At about the time of this writing, a few of them were going to be moved over to another island to try to start a new habitat.

The facilities on the island are from the farm days, as well as early navigation. There is a pretty nice bunkhouse that sleeps 15 or so folks. It was about two thirds full the night we were there. It's the red roof.

It's an excellent island for walking, as you can circumnavigate the whole thing in about three hours. And there is plenty of good bird life along the way, including the aforementioned takahe, fantails, hihi, bellbirds, saddlebacks, and many more. There are kiwi on the island, too, but we never managed to see one, despite a long walk in the dark. We heard one though.

The hihi and bellbirds were shockingly loud. This video shows what it was like to stand near a feeding station. What you can't really tell is that they are swarming around you, and they are much louder than the video indicates. It's shocking, really.

It turns out, there is also great coastline and plant life as well. Makes for a pretty lovely day of walking around, taking pictures, and snacking.

There are penguins on the island, too. When we were there it was nesting season, so you could look into the penguin boxes through the glass tops and see mothers keeping eggs warm. They seemed to not be bothered by the visitors.

After a windy night we awoke to find that the ferry ride out was going to be a rough one. So rough that they took the boat away somewhere safer during the day. It turned out to be a pretty serious ride back, with six or seven foot seas and gusts of about 100 kph.

Another lovely place, right outside of Auckland.

Photo of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:42:00 +0000

Sunset from the side of Mount Eden the other night.

Rugby World Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:36:00 +0000

I haven't posted much about the Rugby World Cup being in New Zealand, other than my skepticism of Auckland transit being able to handle it. All in all, the city hasn't been as out of control as I had expected, save the opening ceremonies that were a bit of a disaster.

Shannon's folks were here for the start, and we did all go down to the opening festivities - at least part of it. It was all spread out over the city, so you really could only get to one place and you were stuck - there were just far too many people and far too few roads closed to traffic. But it was cool to see the giant waka come in to the harbor. One was sent in honor of each team, and the people in the boats then paraded through downtown. There was live music, fireworks, and general partying.

People were on good behavior, for the most part, with everyone supporting their countries but being fairly chill about it. Public transit absolutely fell on its face, with trains and buses basically shutting down. But ever since, it hasn't been too big of a deal.

Shannon and her folks went to the Samoa v. Namibia game in Rotorua while they were here and had a great time. While we've gone and watched a number of games in pubs, including most of the US games, but I was pretty well resolved to not get to see a game myself.

But, sometimes, things go your way. These appeared on my desk on Thursday afternoon, and last night we went off to Eden Park with a handful of my work colleagues and watched the England v. Scotland game.

Tragically, my camera batteries gave up the ghost about two minutes into the game, so that's all I have. What a great atmosphere though. It was a great game to watch, and a huge rivalry. Unfortunately, despite controlling the game, Scotland managed to give it away in the last two and a half minutes.

Tonight is the end of the pool matches, and there are still a few teams to be determined for quarter finals. Should be an interesting few weeks to go!

Brewing Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:38:00 +0000

Brown ale is coming out of the bottles. It's actually much better than we expected. It's slightly on the sweet side but it may have a little too much priming sugar.

An IPA is in secondary fermentation/bottle conditioning. We know that we've overprimed it. We're having a little bit of runaway beer. But, it seemed like it was tasting pretty good before bottling. It's got a lot of potential, if we can keep it in the bottles...

Small Airplanes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:45:00 +0000

I recently took a flight on the smallest commercial plane I've ever been on, a Beechcraft 1900D. It sports 19 seats in a 1-1 configuration, has a hump in the middle of the aisle to allow for the center wing spar, and no flight deck door (as they are not strictly required under NZ CAA rules).

The most interesting part was surely during our heavy crosswind landing, where I could watch the centerline yaw back and forth.

Free

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:24:00 +0000

Canoes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:32:00 +0000

Maori canoes in Viaduct Harbour, presumably for the Cup.

Tonga Invades!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:01:00 +0000

It would seem that the Tonga rugby team arrived today in Auckland for the opening ceremonies. Tonga took over the whole place.

My office is a good six or seven hundred meters from the closest part of the airport, and the whole place was gridlocked with red and white clad supporters. This went on for hours. Even the slackest employee was forced to work more than his or her normal 8 today, because they sure couldn't go anywhere.

Half of the city must have turned up. Pure madness! I reckon this is a sign of things to come in the weeks ahead.

I've got to give it to them though - that's the first real Tour de Force of fan support I've seen - even more than the All Blacks supporters. I think that if the expected happens to the USA team, I might have to pull for Tonga, if for no other reason than the fans seem to really get into it!

Photo of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:28:00 +0000

Sky Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:57:00 +0000

The Sky Tower is one of the major tourist attractions in Auckland, at least if you read the literature. it's also expensive to get to the top. My thought is that the free view from the top of Mount Eden is just as good, if not a little better, unless you really like boats.

But when we landed on two for one entry, we went for it. And it was a good view from the top, no doubt. Worth it at half price, for sure. Tricky to take photos though. The way it's lit, there is a lot of reflection on the glass from the interior lights.

This guy is about to jump off. It actually looks kind of fun, except on windy days when they have to let you dangle and settle before you fall.