The End

I thought the top photo was the best one from my trip. I shot it through a spy hole at the Sydney Barracks. I don’t know what the cutouts are doing.

All good things must come to an end. I decided that I wasn’t posting photos consistently enough to make the blog worthwhile anymore. I’d rather focus on making a photo album and moving on to new adventures. For example, I must find better job leads. Plus, I watched my last region 4 dvd tonight Once Were Warriors. What a downer. I’m glad that I didn’t make it to Auckland. The last photo is the sun setting over Kings Country.

Walking Up the Path

I copied three other people's photos of the Cass retreat, so I have a disproportionately large number of photos of Arthur's Pass. Here's a nice one of Dietrich's and Mareike's backside with entomology guy walking up the path.

Arthur's Pass

Bridal Veil Falls.

Night at Cass

Here we are enjoying the fire at the Cass Field Station.

A Classic Shot

I left it uncompressed.

Almost at the Summit

It was a hit or miss attempt to make the red umbrella a theme of my photos.

Cass 2006 Photo 1

I have a ton of photos from the retreat at the Cass Field Station. Left to right and back to front: Dietrich, me, Ramona, Tanja, an entomologist, Simone, and Mareike.

New Brighton

I'm looking south from the pier towards the Banks Peninsula.

New Brighton Pier

Not much to say on this. It reminded me of the pier in Manhattan Beach. I didn't hang out that much in New Brighton. Sumner was more my scene.

An Academic Meeting?

I shot the photo on the last day of the Phylogenetics Conference. I think that we were at the Kaikoura Winery. The whole place was swank, and the wine flowed freely. Academics do hold their meetings in nice places.

Dinosaurs Were Big

The first photo is appropriate. I should begin at the beginning, and the line in the sandstone is it. I'm pointing at the K/T boundary when dinosaurs died and mammals conquered the earth. New Zealand was one of the places that geologists dated the extinction to around 65 million years. The photo was taken during my free day at the New Zealand Phylogenetics Meeting 2006 in Kaikoura.

The Alpha and the Omega

It's an appropriate title for the Easter season. I'm back in Massachusetts after traveling through Australia, Japan, and California. I feel there should be a time component for blogs. They're not like a book and should have an element of the unknown in the future. Too many have books they wish to write. I'll be shutting down this one shortly. I'll post one photo a day in chronological order from the beginning to the end of the trip. They'll be my most interesting photos and when it's over, it's over. Some photos you will have seen before. I'll be opening a Live Journal, but that will only have personal updates. I'll think I'll title it "Yet another blog by an unemployed 30 something data analyst." That will scare potential readers away.

Back in the USA

I'm writing this post in Palo Alto. I'm heading back to MA. I vacationed in Australia and Japan on my way from New Zealand. I'll be having a retrospective and shutting this blog down shortly. There's more to come once I arrive in MA and get on my laptop again. I actually mailed it to avoid the hassle of traveling with it.

Ghost in my Suitcase, Part II

Too bad Christchurch isn't like this. I don't like how they have the sheep turn into humanoids.

Where the Heck? Part I

Look at what I found as I was throwing some papers. I stuck it in my belongings to achieve the most southern sighting of a Wall Drug advertisement. I think that I have a strong bid at 43 degrees 31 minutes and 48 seconds south but I'm positive that if you went to McMurdo Station, you'd see this bumper sticker on a snow plow. I'm surprised I didn't see it in the photos that accompany the Wikipedia article. You'll notice that I didn't link to Wall Drug. It's like South of the Border, you either know what it is or you don't, and if you explain it to someone who doesn't know, they'll say, "That's retarded." Now to stick the bumper sticker on a car and take a photo at the Christchurch city limits where the welcome sign is. I guess it's not official until it's on a car.

Un-PC Title

I wanted to give this post an inpolitically correct title, but my better judgment grabbed hold. This photo is from after the cultural show at Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao. Anyone who calls me on my cell phone and says the name of the village properly gets a bottle of wine. I can't do it, because my Maori is not good. You pronounce the consonants and vowels as if they were written German, but the "wh" is pronounced as "f" as in father. Practice on "Whakapapa" and work your way up.

The village felt like Taos Pueblo with no adobe and volcanic activity. The cultural show was very nice. Plus the photo has the most attractive dancer and you can guess which one that is.

Ghost in my Suitcase

While on my North Island trip, I spent two nights at the Waitomo Caves Hotel. This was the first place that I explicitly stayed at because it was rumored to be haunted. I didn't ask the manager on duty about any activity. The only mildly strange things to report were that my first night I suffered from extremely violent and pornographic dreams. On the morning that I was leaving, a neighbor was complaining in the hallway of loud voices and foot steps at 2 am in the morning. I don't remember waking up and hearing them. The hotel is posh and highly recommended by me, independent of whether it has visitors from the other side or not. Actually, hauntings are a real concern for hotels. They will scare away asian tourists, which would suck.

Zorbing II

Here's a photo after our ride down the hill.

Wasted

I wasted my 100th post on a photo of rocks. I don't know where the bicycling shots are taken.

Yummy!

I was told that I'd get good luck if I licked the rock. The bad news is that I suffered from loose bowels for a week after I did this. The good news is that I no longer get MySpace spam after I made this my avatar.

Glacier

There is ice under all that rock.

Not Me

One activity that I won't be participating in.

Glacier Kayaking

On a glacial lake.

Dave and I

This is a nice photo of Dave and me in front of Mt Taranaki.

Aoraki

The Cloud Piercer, Mt Cook.

Marae

This photo of the marae in Rotorua turned out well. The sky makes me think Papatuanuku is angry.

Zorbing

I went Zorbing.

Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong and me

I'm busy packing my apartment. Does anyone want to buy my car? Someone requested more photos so rather than writing long epics, I'll post a photo and a caption. I'll try to do this more often.

Last week, I was on the North Island. Here's a photo of me and a statue of Richard O'Brien. He wrote The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Hamiltron. I spent two days and thought it was nice. Some call Hamilton the armpit of the Southern Hemisphere, but I'm sure there are much worse places.

In a year of living here, I never visited Auckland. I've been through the airport a couple times. When I told the grad students this, their reply was "Good on you, mate." Auckland is not loved in the South Island.

Grahame Sydney on a Bike

Margee had wanted to bike the Otago Central Rail Trail since before I arrived in Christchurch. We finally biked it on Sunday, February 4th. We rented bikes from Altitude Adventures and hired them to drop us at the Poolburn Gorge. We biked back to Alexandra. The altitude profile of the trail crests in the middle, so it was all down hill for 47 km. We biked to Clyde after and returned on the Clutha River Trail. The ride was a lot of fun and one of the better entertainment values I've found.

We spent Saturday night at a homestay in Alexandra, Marj's Place. It was very nice too. I don't have much to report about the biking, except the weather was sunny and the views breathtaking.

So remember brave Lord Nelson boys, he had never known defeat

And for his reward, they stuck him up in the middle of O'Connell Street - Tommy Makem


I spent January 19th through 21st visiting Nelson. I liked the city a lot. Unfortunately the trip had the feel of that Thursday before going home from summer camp. You upper-middleclass types know what I'm talking about. You know that camp is a lot of fun but you're sort of sick of it. The backpackers I stayed at, Paradiso Backpackers, was swank and crowded. It had a pool, hot tub, and sauna. I didn't avail myself of the facilities though.

I found the exact center of New Zealand as you can see from the first photo. Even more importantly within a kilometer of the center was the site of the first rugby game. I wonder if the correlation in locations is causation? Nelson is close to Abel Tasman National Park, which is one of the smallest and most visited parks in New Zealand. It's known for beaches with hundreds of kayaks parked on them. I didn't visit it, but the surrounding area reminded me of the Oregon coast.

I drove to Takaka with the intent of hiking in Abel Tasman but was side tracked by the Golden Bay A and P Show. It was fun. I saw tug-of-war competitions, horse jumping, and quilts. My best find was Wade who's in the third photo. Who would attached a cross-cut saw to an old two-stroke diesel engine? Do we have the ability to make something dangerous and stupid? A chubber would. Also, if you want to win a prize at a country fair, enter either the jellyroll or silver beet competitions. There were only two competitors for three prizes.

A gem of a national park is Nelson Lakes. I wish that I spent more time than a couple hours hiking around. The last photo is of the park. The Department of Conservation wishes to restore the original ecosystem based on beech sap. Invasive hornets use too much of the sap and native species use other food sources now. I was sorely tempted to rent a kayak and head out.

I've been digging a band I recently heard on KEXP – Bloc Party. I was surprised to see their album at Real Groovy this morning. It looks like you can listen to their whole album on their MySpace page. I like the song "The Prayer" a real lot.

Today is Waitangi Day, the New Zealand Columbus Day. The Wikipedia article is unusually bland.

Tonight make me unstoppable
I will charm, I will slice,
I will dazzle them with my wit
Tonight make me unstoppable
And I will charm, I will slice
I will dazzle I will outshine all

- Chorus to "The Prayer" by Bloc Party

Dark Side of Jade Stadium

I stayed in Christchurch last weekend, but filled it with activities. I played in a beach handball tournament on Saturday, went to the Roger Waters' concert Saturday night, and hiked Mt Vernon on Sunday with Margee.

I'd played European style handball once in Germany, and a bastardized (or betterized?) version was popular in my high school gym class. The gym teacher that would usually run the games was stereotypical. You'd get extra credit if you bled.

My team consisted of novices. It was Kat, Damien, and Philippa. Damien said that his name was not spelled like the antihero's in The Omen, but I don't know how to spell that name any other way. We lost the three round robin games, each in penalty shots. Handball has a retarded rule that if your team wins the first half and the other team wins the second, then you go to penalty shots no matter the total score is. I played goalie. We won our only playoff game and Damien won most valuable player in the novice league.

The Pink Floyd concert was awesome and it was one of my top five concerts I've seen. I don't get out much. Roger Waters was the song writer for Pink Floyd's best albums, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. He went for high production value and his band sounded exactly like the albums. I don't know why I know so many Pink Floyd songs. In high school band, The Wall was a popular movie to watch. I don't own Wish You Were Here anymore and I still knew most of the lyrics to most of the songs. Here's the set as I remember it:

1. In The Flesh (The Wall)
   
2. Mother (The Wall)
   
3. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
   
4. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Part Something) (Wish You Were Here)
   
5. Welcome to the Machine (Wish You Were Here)
   
6. Wish You Were Here (Wish You Were Here)
   
7. 3 or 4 songs from Roger Waters solo career (Who wrote the guitar riffs for Pink Floyd? The solo stuff pales in comparison.)
   
   15 minute break
   
8. Speak to Me/Breath (Dark Side of the Moon)
   
9. On the Run (Dark Side of the Moon)
   
10. Time (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
11. The Great Gig in the Sky (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
12. Money (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
13. Us and Them (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
14. Brain Damage (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
15. Eclipse (Dark Side of the Moon)
    
    Encore
    
16. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) (The Wall)
    
17. Nobody Home (The Wall)
    
18. Vera (The Wall)
    
19. Bring the Boys Back Home (The Wall)
    
20. Comfortably Numb (The Wall)
    

You can see that I was far up in the stands. What you see in the black screen is the video that was playing during the show. The visuals for "Wish You Were Here" were the best. The band stopped "Welcome to the Machine" and a shot of an old radio came up. Hands occasionally fumbled with the knobs throughout the song.

Three things would have made the concert better. First, they didn't play my favorite Pink Floyd song "Fearless." Second, in the second act when they performed songs from Dark Side of the Moon, they should have shown The Wizard of Oz. My neighborhood in Seattle showed outdoor summer movies. (Be careful. The first link is not work safe.) Traditionally, they'd end the season with The Wizard of Oz followed by The Dark Side of Oz. Start Dark Side of the Moon from the third lion roar and the synchronicities are uncanny. When I saw it, they had free beer between the two shows, but you could only drink the beer in the warehouse and not see the screen. You had fifteen to down what you could. Hmmh, maybe I have found the reason for the synchronicities. Three, Dar Williams should have been there to join in on "Comfortably Numb."

The second photo is a shot of central Christchurch from the top of Jade Stadium. I'll finish this entry quoting the lyrics from the second part of the first verse of "Fearless" because I like the song so much.

You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb
The hill in my own way.
Just wait a while for the right day.
And as I rise above the tree-line and the clouds
I look down, hearing the sound of the things you've said today.

Which Science Fiction Writer are You?

From BoingBoing today, I came across this quiz. I'm William Gibson. I'm more pleased about this result than from most internet quizzes I take. I could try to paste the java script from the quiz site into the blog, so you wouldn't have to click on the link to see Gibson, but I can't stand embedded javascript. Controlled in a cascading style sheet, yes, willy-nilly on myspace pages, no. If you are Philip K Dick, please contact me.

West Coast, Part II

I'm a schmuck for letting this blog get away from what it's best as, a travelogue and photo album. It's amazing how days turn into weeks turn into months when I keep putting off updating. For the good news, I learned that I have a reader that I haven't met in person. Yeah! I could find out if there are more, but the interface on Technorati confuses me to no end.

When I was on the West Coast with Ray, I decided that I had to return. There's a store in Hokitika that I wanted to get Emily's birthday gift from. Also, I wanted a greenstone necklace for myself. So I visited Hokitika and Franz Josef from January 4th until January 7th.

Thursday was spent driving. It's not that far from Christchurch being only a three-hour drive. There was a mix-up on reservations at the backpackers. They had me scheduled for next Thursday. It wasn't too busy so, I was able to get a bed. I drove to Lake Kaniere at the suggestion of the receptionist. It appeared to be a great place to holiday with children. I encountered a boat trailer that had jackknifed on the dirt road around the lake. I didn't think that I was going to be able to pass it, but it was easy with someone directing me. I saw the suspension bridge over the Hokitika River and the Kowhitirangi Incident Memorial.

I spent Friday carving greenstone, pounamu, at Bonz' and Stonz'. I recommend the place. I thought that David and his two Dutch helpers were very good at moving the carving process along. The first photo is me at the grindstone and second is of the finished piece. The spiral has a special name and means something, but I don't recall right now. I think that the necklace turned out well in spite of me rarely doing anything artistic or with my hands.

Late Friday afternoon, I drove to Franz Josef. I stopped by the gold fields in Ross and didn't have time to attempt to fund my holiday with gold panning. I wanted to do the hour walk but didn't want to spend the hour, so I followed the example of the biomath group at the University of Canterbury, and ran it. I did the loop in 24 minutes, which is surprisingly good since I don't jog. I left Ross quickly because I wanted to stop in Pukekura and have possum pie. Yah, Aussies, we eat possums here. Unfortunately, the café was closed, so this adventure would have to wait.

Franz Josef was cloudy and rainy. I hung out with two Brits from Liverpool at the bar close to the YHA. I could barely understand them. I drank a bit, but not as much as I did as when they came through Christchurch last Thursday. One was on a three-month holiday from service in the British Special Forces. He'd been stationed on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That led to interesting conversations.

On Saturday, I hiked the glacier with the Franz Josef Glacier Guides. They packed people on ice. There were 44 people in my group and we were the second of the day. There were also other companies that take people up. It was like the Ice Capades while being rained on. I wasn't too happy with the trip and the third photo is from far up on the glacier.

Driving back to Christchurch on Sunday, I stopped by Greymouth for a caving trip. Spelunking was awesome. The last photo is from the cave. We did a move from Goonies and cannon balled into a pool. We floated on inner tubes in the darkness and watched glowworms on the ceiling. There was a natural water slide outside the cave. It was a flat stone with a stream flowing over it. The guide couldn't demonstrate how to ride the mat down it, because it was too dangerous. I decided I needed to do one thing dangerous and stupid here, so I rode the slide. The key was to keep on my back and there was not way I was sitting up. It was fun. At the guide center, there was a spa and they gave us beer and muffins.

I did have a possum pie on the way back. It was horribly sweet and I haven't dwelled on why this might be.

Daily Lit

I tried a web service, www.dailylit.com. You choose a classic book and they send you a little section each day in your email. I tried Wuthering Heights. It didn't work because I found the sections too short and I lost track of what was happening. Plus, reading text on computer screen is not as nice as reading it on paper.

Chance News 22

The latest Chance News has been posted. My probability question is what is my chance that I would die if I stayed at this place? Why isn't it in lonely planet? This Chance News starts with a great quote.

It would be hard to make a probability course boring.

William Feller

Probably, my students would disagree.

Olbermann Commentary

I thought that this recent commentary was very good. Link

Good Grief

I'd finished George F Smoot's answer, and it actually gets worse.

I was able to upload a photo. Here's me overlooking the Otari Viaduct. It's in Arthur's Pass and Ray took the photo as we were heading to the West Coast.

Optimism?

I've taken the past week to reflect on "What's next?" I spent more time reading, Keeping It Real by Justina Robson, than assessing and planning. I assembled part of a West Coast trip for the weekend. I'll be doing a full day guided hike on the Franz Josef glacier on Saturday.

Now, I am reading answers to the The World Question Center's question for 2007, "What are you optimistic about? Why?" First, scientists are such pills for their stances on religion. They're probably right about how religion has dragged us into the current world geopolitical fiasco, but they are so tedious and dogmatic. Second, George F Smoot missed the point of the question. Here's a careful, out-of-context quote from his answer:

A careful assessment and years of experience that show that the long-term future is most bleak: Entropy will continue to increase, and a heat death (actually a misnomer as it means the degredation of usable energy in a dull cooling worthless background of chaos) is the very likely fate of the world. This is the fate that awaits us, if we manage to work our way past the energy crisis that looms as the Sun runs out of fuel and in its death throws expands as red giant star likely to engulf us after boiling away the seas before it collapses back to a slowly cooling cinder eventually to leave the solar system in cold darkness.

This energy crisis will eventually spread to the whole Milky Way Galaxy which will use up its available energy resources in a time scale of roughly ten times the present 14 billion year lifetime of our observed Universe. In that same time the accelerating expansion of the Universe continually reduces what we can observe and potentially access until in the distant future only the cinders of stars in our own galaxy are left. Argument goes on whether a sufficiently advanced intelligent society could manage to live (continue to have experiences and process new information and create new things) indefinitely in such an environment taking on the most carefully constructed and extreme measures that are physically possible. The chances of success look relatively low for even the most optimally managed and intelligent society.

Blogger is not allowing me to upload photos at this point.