If you wish, you can start from the beginning.

Day 1

Upon awakening some time around 10 AM, we got our first view of Auckland from our hotel room. It looked something like this:

View from SKYCITY Grand Auckland Hotel

While we did have some tentative plans while in Auckland, the plan was for the first couple of days to be relatively sedate (considering the length of our trip and unknown impact of moving back four time zones). So, on our first day we opted to simply head out and take a walk.

Coming from the Los Angeles area, the first thing we would notice is how clean the downtown area was. While every city center is going to have its shady side, I felt more comfortable walking the streets of Auckland than I would feel in many streets in my own country. It certainly didn’t hurt that aside from being a little overcast in the mornings it was warm and sunny the entire time we were there.

We (more or less intentionally) lost ourselves in the city, ultimately ending up at Viaduct Harbour. Here, it becomes very clear why Auckland is known as the “City of Sails” – more sailboats are owned (per capita) by Aucklanders than in any city in the world, and this is reflected in its numerous marinas and waterways.

Viaduct Harbour

After subsisting on airline food for most of the last day, we decided to see what sort of food our new temporary home had to offer. Viaduct Harbour held many options, but we decided to do what came naturally when visiting the island country of New Zealand: Dine on Indian food.

It’s not that we didn’t want to try quintisential Kiwi cuisine on our first day, it’s that – walking the streets of the city – there really wasn’t any. We’d have to head further south into the New Zealand heartland to really find that sort of thing. Until then, we would ’settle’ for some pakoras and chicken tikka masala.

Later in the day, we opted to go for another walk in a different random direction, ultimately finding ourselves in an Irish pub. Notice a trend, here? Auckland is a rather cosmopolitan place – full of people from all corners of the world – and this is reflected everywhere.

Suffice to say, Glenna and I each opted to have a pint.

Or two.

They come in pints?!

As luck would have it, we found that the pub was advertising a 7 PM pool tournament for that evening. Having painfully endured entire days without playing pool, Glenna decided to sign up. She didn’t win, unfortunately, though we did have a chance to socialize with some of the locals (including a pair of businessmen – one a Kiwi and another an Aussie – who couldn’t help but, in jest, recount to us the stereotypes associated with their friend’s respective country).

I’d long heard rumors of the famed Aussie/Kiwi rivalry, but figured it would take at least 24 hours before we’d see it first-hand. Nope!

Day 2

Our plan for the day was to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum – an institution that features excellent exhibits about New Zealand, its Pakeha (European) and Maori settlers, its natural history and more.

While at the museum, we had a chance to see a cultural performance featuring traditional Maori haka as performed by members of the local Ngati Whatua O Orakei tribe. Also exhibited were traditional Maori music, instruments and weaponry (such as the mere and taiaha). The performers were very open to explaining aspects of their culture, and it was quite nice to have some context to go along with the museum’s collection of Maori artifacts.

Maori performer showing use of traditional taiaha (club)

True to its name, the museum also had a number of exhibits showcasing the various conflicts New Zealand has seen, from the earliest battles between Maori and Europeans to the country’s role in World War II and on. I found it to be a fascinating take on history that we usually don’t see in the United States (where most history is shown through our own eyes or those of the British).

What struck me most was the great price the small, then mostly-rural country paid during WWII – and am happy that they were there beside us.

Auckland War Memorial Museum

Feet aching after a full day at the museum, we headed back to the downtown area (via Auckland’s surprisingly decent public transit system) and decided to walk around some more, taking in the sights. After running a quick errand to get towels for our next day’s plans, we soaked our feet in the tub and went to sleep. We had a long day ahead of us.

Day 3

We woke up early on our third day in Auckland. We then jump in the car for the first time since we arrived and head north on State Highway 1 – beyond Auckland proper – to the Whangaparaoa peninsula and the northern reaches of the Hauraki Gulf. We had rented a jet-ski and would spend the day hopping from island to island in the gulf.

First things first, though, we needed to grab some breakfast. In a rush for time, we stopped off at a convenience store and surveyed our options. In the end, I opted for something you just don’t see very often in the States: Meat pie.

New Zealand Meat Pie (courtesy of Google)

Okay, so it doesn’t look all that great. And I believe that it’s something that the British cooked up at some point (perhaps as their sole example of flavorful food), so it’s not uniquely Kiwi, either. But – damn it – they’re actually quite good, and they’re available in just about any café-style restaurant and convenience store in the country. As a point of reference: They’re somewhat similar to a beef pot pie, though sturdy enough that they can be picked up and eaten without a utensil if you’re lacking in one.

Once we had breakfast – and picked up some healthier options for later, such as a banana and a pack of M&Ms – we met up with someone from Hauraki Adventures, whom we were renting the jet-ski from that morning. After a short safety talk and overview of the islands we would see, he turned us loose onto the semi-open sea with a map and instructions to make it back both before 4:30 PM and before running out of petrol.

Neither of us had ever ridden a jet-ski before, but it was pretty straight-forward. From the back, it looked something like this:

Glenna, taking the 'wheel' in the Hauraki Gulf

…though it felt a bit more like this:

Myself, island-hopping across the Hauraki Gulf

With little more than a map and some guidance as to what islands were worth checking out, we headed across the gulf at a decent clip. Our first encounter was with Motuora Island. Judging the rocky southern coast to be too dangerous to tread upon at low tide, we headed around the back side and stopped off at nearby Motuketekete Island (“Food Basket Island”) .

Our luck being what it was, after dropping anchor and while in the process of coming ashore, the front strap of one of Glenna’s flip-flops broke.

No worries, right? Wrong.

While Big Manly Beach itself is pretty sandy, many of the islands in the gulf reflect the region’s volcanic past. Sharp, pointy and – at best – covered in somewhat smooth/round rocks that are still a literal pain to walk on barefoot. We gave up on Motuketekete Island and moved along to Moturekareka Island (“Pleasant Island”) to have some lunch and ponder our fate. What should have been a 30 second disembarking took 10 minutes as each of us took turns using our single pair of functional flip-flops and fumbled our way to shore. Snacking on M&Ms and nursing our anything-but-pleasant-feeling feet, we decided that our chances of enjoying the natural environment from anywhere but the back of our jet-ski would require heading back to the beach and finding some shoes.

The look of our guide from Hauraki Adventures as we came ashore was priceless (“Usually when this happens, it’s because it didn’t agree with the missus”). As Glenna ran back to our car to grab her shoes, I explained the situation. After that, with the tide finally having come in, we decided to give Motuora Island a proper look (this time from the north shore, which is – surprise surprise – nice and sandy).

Motuora Island is a bit more developed than most of the other islands, featuring a camping area, small cottage and hiking tracks. Unlike most of the islands (which are rocky throughout and covered in dense vegetation), much of it is grassy. The Island has been the focal point of restoration projects.

On Motuora Island, looking out from the north shore

Motuora Island, rowboat

After walking around a bit and having our fill of the beach (covered in shells, by the way), we set off to go check out Mahurangi Harbour to the west. With some dangerous-looking rocks near its mouth and somewhat convoluted geography, we took it slow. Once we were safely esconced in the harbour, we donned our snorkeling gear not too far from shore and looked around for some sea life. Glenna saw a fish or two but, for whatever reason, the location we chose was pretty much dead. I did have a chance to practice my mask and snorkel clearing technique, however (thanks, Paul and Laura!).

Dairy Bay, at the entrance to Mahurangi Harbour (and proof that you can take a photo of almost any random landform and unexpectedly find sheep)

On our way out of the Harbour, we decided to stop off at a cool looking island not too far from the entrance – Saddle Island (“Te Haupa”). The island is quite interesting, featuring strangely colored rocks and an amazing long, soft, sandy beach.

Interesting rocks on Saddle Island/Te Haupa

Sandy beach on Saddle Island/Te Haupa

After a long period of making ad hoc sand castles and enjoying the beautiful scenery, we hopped back on our jet-ski and wound our way back along the coast, passing various landmarks (such as Mahurangi Island) on our return to Big Manly Beach. It was later in the day and – by this point – the water had started getting a bit choppy. Feeling comfortable by this point, we turned the throttle up a bit and had some fun heading back in.

After dropping the jet-ski off, we hopped in the car – tired, wet and having thoroughly enjoyed the experience – and started a long drive south for what would turn out to be a completely different sort of adventure: Black-water rafting/caving in Waitomo.

I did recently take part in something worthy of mention, however. After years of talking about it, Glenna and I decided to make our goal of visiting New Zealand a reality. In the following several posts, I will share some highlights from the trip.

Planning

The first thing we’d need to do is get passports. While we had spent some time out of the country in the past (Canada, pre-9/11), we hadn’t ever needed passports in the past. Contrary to the horror stories we’d both heard about the approval process, it took just a little over three weeks.

Naturally, being the sort that I am, I opted to pick up a few books. The ones I ultimately chose were from the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide series’, as well as a particularly excellent Insight Guide (which included nothing in the way of recommendations of specific restaurants/hotels – which we would mostly ignore – but plenty about the culture and history of the island nation).

With a timeframe in mind and some idea of what the country had to offer, the plan began to shape up. We would pick a few things to see and do in the north island (making reservations, etc), spending about a week there. We would then take the ferry across Cook Strait and spend another two weeks on the south island. Our time there would be a bit less regimented, though there were some things – Milford Sound, for example – that could not be missed.

Unfortunately, we would have only about 3 weeks to explore the country. While I had recently quit my job, Glenna couldn’t spend much time away from hers. I really wish we could have spent more time there (one could easily spend 3 weeks on each island), but ultimately my early concerns over feeling overly rushed were assuaged. Despite what you may have heard, with proper planning you can get a great taste of the country in 3 weeks.

Getting There

Like just about anyone else entering the country from the United States, our flight would arrive in Auckland – New Zealand’s largest city of about 1.3 million people (making it roughly comparable to San Diego, which it resembles).

Unfortunately, our initial foray into the country would be marred in a handful of ways.

First off, it all originated from the horrible, poorly-run airport known as Los Angeles International. Security theater is all well and good, but the TSA really should make a better effort to keep the lines moving.

The flight itself would last 12 hours, arriving a little after 4 AM. Tired (having been too excited for much sleep) and sore (having barely moved), we still had to go through Customs. Thankfully, that wasn’t too bad.

Arrival

Once we landed and took care of the essentials, we had to get a vehicle. I felt some dread in this; in New Zealand, you drive from the right side of the car, on the left side of the road.

Would I crash and burn only minutes after leaving the airport? Would I leave my wife and I squished upon the pavement, undoubtedly next to one of the country’s famed possums? Was starting our journey in the most populated cities a good idea? With some trepidation I took the keys and took to the road.

Thankfully, it wasn’t all that bad. Tired or not, having my initial foray on New Zealand’s roads take place before sunrise on a Sunday morning was a good idea. The lanes were mostly empty and whatever stupidity I would commence in – mostly running the windsheld wipers when I intended to signal (yes, those are opposite as well) – would go mostly unnoticed.

Within a day or so I managed to get the hang of driving (though the windshield wiper thing continued for about a week).

Around 6 AM, we checked into our hotel in downtown Auckland, took our bags to the 20th floor and promptly crashed. Kia Ora, New Zealand!

For the uninitiated, that “Ontario, CA, US” is the city of Ontario here in California – literally the next city over, and pretty much the main land shipping hub for the region.

That’s not to say I wasn’t familiar with what Yosemite had to offer a landscape photographer, however. Photography legend and naturalist Ansel Adams did much of his most famous and best work here, including shots of such landmarks as Half Dome and El Capitan.

So, it was a natural destination for the first leg of my trip.

Yosemite National Park

After departing from Mono Lake, it didn’t take long to find myself pulling off to the side of the road and grabbing my camera. It probably took me three times longer to get to the park entrance than it should have because I couldn’t keep myself from stopping to take more photos. This pattern held true the entire time I was at the park.

I spent roughly 10 hours driving through the park (stop and go, really), both through the less-traveled Tioga Pass route as well as the popular valley areas further south.

There isn’t much that can be said about Yosemite beyond what the pictures themselves show.

Sunny day in Yosemite

Teapot Dome at Yosemite

Frozen stream at Yosemite

Half Dome in the distance

El Capitan

Half Dome near sunset

Twilight in Yosemite

It was a long day – 10 hours or so – and I took somewhere near 700 photos of just Yosemite alone. Be it the excellent lighting conditions or the sheer beauty of the landscape, I was consistently quite happy with the results (normally I have to throw out at least half of my shots right off the bat for being too blurry or other technical defects, but here the real challenge was in choosing which I liked the most).

If you’d like to review more photographs from Yosemite, you may do so in the Gallery.

This is a trip that I’ve done many times but – due to my (as of October 10th) lack of a job and the fact that I would be traveling alone – I decided to take a bit of a detour and drive up highway 395 instead of Interstate 5.

What’s funny is that, years ago (when I still lived in Kennewick), I actually lived about a mile from U.S. Route 395. Now – over a thousand miles away in California – I am still only about 20 miles or so from the same highway.

I’ve made this trip before, but this time I decided to do some photography in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains – specifically, Mono Lake and Yosemite National Park. Both are pretty much a straight shot north for me.

My first priority was to get as close as possible to Mono Lake so that I could get started very early in the morning. After a drive of 350 miles or so, I stopped off in Lee Vining, CA for the night. Remarkably, the southernmost stop in my drive was also by far the coldest (below freezing at night – I had to be careful not to slip on ice as I went to and from my room).

Early the next morning, I packed up and left for the lake.

Mono Lake

The view at Mono Lake, as I arrived, was astounding.

Mono Lake is a bit unusual in a few respects. It is a salt water lake with unusually high alkalinity, and for this reason does not contain any native fish species (though it does have, curiously enough, its own species of brine shrimp – sea monkeys!). This is also responsible for the odd “lake foam” that lines the lake’s shore.

Another interesting feature are the tufa towers, formed of calcium carbonate, which rise from the surface of the lake. Combined with the morning fog, these towers feature an otherworldly appearance.

I was only able to photograph a very small area on its western shore – some day, I’d like to return and spend a little more time capturing it from different locations.

After an hour or so, I packed up and left the lake for Yosemite. More on that shortly. In the meantime, you can review more Mono Lake photographs in the Gallery.

Of course, the actual reasons why so many people opposed the bill – the fact that it rewarded bad behavior on Wall Street, did not address the ridiculous compensation packages given to these firms’ managers and did nothing to stop a continuing wave of home foreclosures – were completely unaddressed.

In every rational sense this is the same bill that was rejected earlier this week.

Needless to say, an ugly bit of political theater was played against the American people this week.

Here’s the final tally of those House members who took part in selling our country out by voting for the bill.

As much as I’d like to celebrate this news, the sad fact is that it’s likely that a slightly amended version of the bill will be put up for a vote later this week. And, by “slightly amended”, I mean a bill that pretty much does the same exact thing – with the sole exception of also enriching a handful of key Congressional districts in some form or fashion.

I do note, however, that my Congress-critter David Dreier (R) from San Dimas voted for the bill. I should also note that he is running for re-election this year.

Update: I sent an email to Russ Warner – Democratic challenger to David Dreier for this election – asking him what his position is on the bail-out. Here’s an article that goes into some detail on the campaign so far.

After 9 and a half years working at DreamHost, I have decided to leave (effective October 10th). This was due to a handful of reasons, but the long-and-short of it is that this is a long time to work anywhere and I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to try something new.

My immediate plan is to go back to school full-time and finish up what I started so long ago (a degree – maybe even two!). Longer term, I have some ideas swirling around in my head and projects that I’ve not had a chance to invest much time on. More on that soon (this is related to the somewhat upbeat post on creative pursuits I made a while back).

It goes without saying that I am going to miss this company. I spent pretty much my entire professional life there, met all sorts of great people (some of whom are reading this weblog right now!) and I’m leaving with a ton of crazy stories to tell.

And – haters be damned – I plan to forever host my stuff here. Makes sense: Through pure luck I managed to end up on a server that almost never goes down.