So, there we were, in New Zealand, the Southern Hemisphere, Maree and I. The first thing i noticed, stepping off the plane, was that the air contained ample oxygen for survival. That was a good sign. I felt like i could have fun in that kind of a place. The sky looked blue, everyone i met had only one head and no tentacles, and things were unmistakably Earth-like. Also,I was relieved that there was not a sea of corpses like the preacher on the hill told me there would be....
Then we went outside and i was nearly struck down by gamma radiation pouring out of the heavens on a cosmic scale. My cellular DNA began to shrivel and split, and attempted to bond with things it shouldn't, like the darkness in my shoes. It was clearly evident that at least one of the rumors i'd heard was true. The ozone layer, if not absent, was much thinner down there. Sunlight was scorching hot, and the light everyhwere felt as bright as the Badwater salt flats of Death Valley. It at least helped me stay awake.
Getting to New Zealand from Alaska is not easy. Via Los Angeles and Salt Lake City from Anchorage, it's the same distance as taking a direct flight from New York City to the South Pole. Additionally, we had a crushing 12 hour layover before we could get onto NZ Air. Fortunately we got to hang out with my old friend Jimmy Gordon, whom i hadn't seen in around 10 years! He took us on an informal tour of the place he works (Rythm and Hues), which turned out to be pretty interesting, and then he showed us around town a little bit so that we had plenty of conciousness inducing excercise to battle my fatigue from a typically sleepless red eye flight.
Dinosaurs are always cool. And it's great that they're dead.
Jimi and Michi treated us to Shabu Shabu (Japanese Fondu), which we'd never had, and was good.
While in LA we also met his girlfriend Michi for lunch, who was very cool. I was relieved that she was such a nice person because up until then i had this idea that she was super icy-evil, and, uh, tall. I guess it was because the only real pictures i'd seen of her were from a halloween costume party a year or two ago. Her costume must have been convincing. Yes, Maree and i thought Michi was very nice and only wish we'd had more time to hang out.
The official flight to New Zealand went much better than i had expected. They offered a huge variety of free, current, good movies to watch, and i had some ambien samples that worked surprisingly well. So when we finally got to Auckland the next morning (the second night of continuous travel) i actually felt less sleepy than when we had arrived in LA.
At this big city park they were preparing for a night festival celebrating the Chinese New Year. Most of the stuff they were setting out looked like it would light up at night. We were sad that we had to get on a plane and miss the party.
We didn't actually do anything in Auckland that day, which was kind of a good thing. Aukland's more intense level of traffic and intricate road system would have been stressful for me learning to drive on the wrong side of the road in the currently extra fatigued state i was in. Instead we immediately drove for nearly 4 hours to a small coastal town called Whakatani. But, on our last day of vacation we had 6 hours to kill wandering around in Auckland. It's a big city, surrounded by water with a very international mix of residents who were dressed more cosmopolitan than anywhere else in the country.
The Sky Tower is supposedly the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. You could pay close to $200NZ to jump off it and kind of zip-line/bungie down to the bottom. It looked super fun but still that's way to much money for 12 seconds of entertainment.
I think the biggest surprise for me was when we wandered down to the waterfront and found the Queen Elizabeth 2 sitting at the dock. It was on it's final voyage, so i guess i'm lucky to have seen it, and i never thought i would.
A narrow and tall mall that had nothing interesting in it.
These two pics are of the Auckland Hilton,which sat on a pier and was designed to resemble a cruise ship.
So this is the first official post of the New Zealand Edition of my blog. Maree and i took enough pictures to makes posts for the rest of the year, so i'm going to have to get them up in a speedier fashion. I try to update, usually, every two weeks (so as not to die from a heart attack like professional bloggers do). The major posts for our vacation will probably stay up for that long, but the times in between, or minor stops will probably go up for only a week before something else comes along. I can probably handle that. Don't forget, i'm president of two companies now, AND very lazy! Hope you enjoy it.
