My trip was alternately comprised of densely packed activities and laid back days in cafes. Starting the journey, I arrived in Auckland from a San Francisco direct flight on Air New Zealand. As luck would have it, this was the one route which had their most up to date entertainment system, complete with 20+ movies and the ability to select, play, pause and fast forward the shows of your choice. A couple of Lord of the Rings, two meals and a nap later, the trip blew by even without the use of my laptop or DS Lite.

For those that don’t know (and I didn’t), New Zealand comprises of two islands – creatively named the North Island and South Island. Auckland is by far the largest city with a mere 1 million in population and is on the North Island. Near Auckland, just 3 hours south, is Rotorua, an activity center and a good home base for North Island exploration. My friend of 22 years Derek and his wife Cat started off my trip without any time to catch my breath – embarking immediately for Waitomo, a small detour towards Rotorua.

Waitomo offers one of the best Black Water Rafting experiences there is. What’s Black Water Rafting? It’s you, an inner tube, a headlamp, and a lot of dark caverns through which you trek, float and fall through, with the occasional sighting of glow worms on the ceiling to illuminate the caves like tiny constellations.

Derek and Cat had additional plans for the day upon arriving in Rotorua but I was pretty spent from travel fatigue but they made sure I was fed well at the Fat Dog Cafe, apparently a staple of Rotorua.

Sunday, I was introduced to all the offerings of Rotorua, and there were certainly more than I could handle in just a day but we managed to pack a lot in. There’s luging down a hill in a tiny cart, the geysers, the Maori traditional dances and a New Zealand original – Zorbing. Zorbing is where you put yourself inside a giant ball and roll yourself down a hill. I don’t know what it is in New Zealand that makes them compelled to come up with these activities and moreover, make them commercially viable and safe, but so far, I’m liking it.

Returning to Auckland, I spent a day exploring the city on foot by following the coast-to-coast walk provided in one of their walking guides at the tourist office (I swear they have more of these i-site offices than they do Starbucks). Starting first with some sightseeing in Devonport, just north of Auckland, I walked from the Auckland ferry terminal down to the Auckland Domain – a large park with numerous gardens and a rather busy duck pond. The walk continues down to Mt. Eden, which offers a great view of the city and a view of the perfectly shaped crater from the inactive volcano (you’ll find that much of Auckland surrounding area seems to consist of inactive volcanoes). I couldn’t complete the walk in time but it continues on to One Tree Hill, ironically a hill that lacks any tree at all because the ancient Maori tree it was named after was chopped down. That visit would have to come later.

Within the city, I dined at Orbit, the revolving restaurant on top of the landmark Sky Tower, which proudly advertises the opportunity to jump from the tower down 192m. Every city seems to have a landmark tower and bridge but trust the Kiwis to make it possible for you to climb or jump off both of these for a not-so-small fee. I thought about how the Golden Gate bridge has free bungee jumps and on average, one person does it every month – they juts forget to put on a bungy cord.

The majority of the first week was then spent on the South Island. First stop: Queenstown aka Earth’s extreme activity central. From one shop, you can book yourself on paragliding, skydiving, jet boats, sky swings, water safaris, windsurfing, luging and of course, the one item on my list, bungy jumping.

Queenstown itself is pretty small but interesting enough to walk around and explore. The perimeter of the Queenstown gardens gave some pretty spectacular views of the Remarkables, the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to the Rockies. I don’t know who gets to name these things but, “Remarkable” seems like a bit of an understatement. One great vantage point of said view is from the Coronation Bath House Restaurant which easily showed off just how good food can be in New Zealand if you’re not a vegetarian. The degustation menu included lamb, scallops, beef, venison, hare and local wines. I’m sure it would have been even better with company, if only that I can then indulge in their share of the food, too.

Weather grew progressively worse but not bad enough as it turned out. My first full day was spent on a full day trip to Milford Sound, a misnomer for a fiord offering many of the postcard pictures seen of New Zealand. You see, Milford is best seen either in calm sunny days when the landscape reflects perfectly off the water or when it rains, causing an atmospheric mist and an order of magnitude more waterfalls to flow down the rock faces. Not that I wasn’t treated to some waterfalls even on my overcast visit. I took the Real Journeys tour bus and cruise but the average age of that seemed to be around 60 so depending on what you’re looking for, it may be worth going with a different company.

The next day, as the weather worsened, I sadly wasn’t able to go on my horseback ride around Glenorchy, where much of the Lord of the Rings scenery resided. There’s even a Ride of the Rings tour specific to the sights though I’m sure it’s gimmicky. This cancellation gave me a chance to check out Vudu Cafe, though, and their ridiculously tasty blueberry and blackberry pancakes. Sadly, they did nothing to help me reconcile that I was about to jump off a bridge with nothing but an elastic band tied to me in a few short hours.

AJ Hackett. the pioneers of commercial bungying, took me out to the Kawarau Bridge, the first site they made public to bungy jumping. The other locations are the Ledge, overlooking the city and the Nevis Highwire, the tallest jump at 132m and 8.5 seconds of free fall. Kawarau is one of the shortest now at 43m (134ft). No problem. Okay, it was no problem until I stepped onto the platform and suddenly realized I was now in a position where I could choose between jumping into the abyss or looking really stupid. Jumping it was …

A healthy climax to the adventure capital, it was time to take leave and head to English influenced Christchurch. One could drive there from Queenstown in a hired car but getting a one way hire is difficult without a minimum of 7 days rental so I took a Newmans coach bus instead – one which stopped at several of the places I had intended to stopover at. The two major stops were Mt. Cook, the highest point in New Zealand and Edmund Hillary’s warm up before he took on Mt. Everest and Lake Tekapo, one of two lakes with a distinct turquoise color caused by the glacial flour that’s settles in the lakes.

Christchurch is a much larger city than Queenstown and like its namesake, is built around the central Cathedral Square. The city has a lot to offer in both indoor activities like shopping the local arts and crafts in the Arts Center or outdoors like the massive botanical gardens and the gondola that gives a 360 view of both Christchurch and nearby Lyttleton.

It’s also just a few hours away from Kaikoura, a small town with very close access to some of the most vibrant wild marine life. Apparently, there’s a sea canyon just off the shore there that causes a mix of cold and warm currents leading to a large amount of plankton which then leads to an entire food chain developing in the area. This food chain results in sightings of everything from pods of hundreds of dusky dolphins to colonies of albatross and sperm whales and even orcas.

An abundance of marine life equals an abundance of activities, the highest rated of which is the chance to swim with wild dolphins and swim with them I did. Dolphin Encounters takes you out on their boat and equips you with snorkeling equipment and wet suit as well as tips on how to interact with the dusky dolphins. Their philosophies are great: you’re there to entertain them and being with them is a privilege, not a right. I spent half an hour playing with the dolphins, having them circle around me and trying to keep up with them as they made tight laps around me.

On one particular instance, when I surfaced, I found my snorkel mask inches away from a bird resting on the water. We had a nice conversation about philosophy, war on terrorism and environmentalism before he grew tired of my shallow views.

Thus ended my South Island adventures. Sights I missed which I must return for include the Doubtful Sound, Glenorchy, the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, the Marlborough Sounds up north and the Trans Alpine train from ChristChurch to Greymouth.

Returning to the North Island, it was time to head to what I came here for: the Wedding. The location of the wedding was Waheke Island, the largest island in the immediate Auckland vicinity. Another college roommate of mine, John, set up a fantastic place for the entire group to stay at called the Villa Pacifica. True to their word, the view from the villa was nothing less than stunning – at least when the weather was clear.

Sadly, large as the island is, there isn’t much to do there especially if you’re not terribly inclined towards vineyards. We visited the Stoneyridge vineyard for a great brunch but the one I wanted to visit for their reputed 360 views, Te Phau, was closed on the day we were available. The other main attraction, a set of World War 2 underground bunkers and tunnels called Stony Batter, was also inaccessible to us that day due to transportation limitations so we were left to wander the beaches and little towns on the island.

We thought the villa’s view was unbelievable but the view from the Estate, where Sean and Catherine had their wedding, was even more impressive – a perfect view of Auckland and Rangitoto volcano island. Cliche as it may sound, it really did seem like the clouds parted for the purposes of the wedding itself. The couple’s planning could only be described as immaculate in its details. Every little thing seemed to have been thought long and hard about and everyone had their role to play in helping make it a success whether it was coming up with the a decoration scheme, keeping everyone on schedule, or just bringing some champagne or wine over from North America.

With Sean’s epicurean reputation on the line i was no surprise that the reception meal was also finely tuned with scallops made in balsamic vinegar brought from Canada as a starter and matching wines literally spanning the globe for each course down to the ice wine to accompany the dessert.

The remaining days of my trip were much more laid back. I was beginning to feel a bit of burn out and sought something a bit more relaxed and yet New Zealand in flavour. What better activity, then, than to go fishing for some fresh New Zealand fishies? Elvon, yet another elementary school friend of mine, graciously woke up at 5am one morning for our drive to Taraunga for a full day expedition on a Blue Ocean Charters fishing boat. I was to embark on my first fishing experience ever (we’ll discount the vague memory I have of going as a little kid in Canada). Ever the trooper, Elvon not only made the trek out with me, he also endured a full day of unanticipated sea-sickness. For my part, I caught myself a nice sized kerahki and a couple of snappers, though one had to be returned due to size.

Nearing the end of my trip, Derek, Cat and Elvon took turns showing me various Auckland vicinity sites, including the “None Tree Hill” that I missed previously, the “K Road” alternative shopping area, High Street’s high fashion shopping and Ponsonby’s cafes and hipster stores. The last stop was Muriwai, one of the black sand beaches in Auckland. En route, we stopped for brunch at an isolated cafe called Bees Online. In spite of its location, Bee Online had flocks of people coming in and lining up for a table for brunch over the weekends.

Speaking of flocks, Muriwai also happened to be home of an ever growing (and protected) Gannet colony. The colonies were densely packed nests, resembling a parking garage in Manhattan on Friday night. It seems like even the most minor of attractions in New Zealand can’t help but carry immense natural beauty – at least to my LCD laden eyes.

All in all, the trip was not only an adventure but also a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and play with my latest toy – my camera.

Photos: condensed | full | wedding

Hey, I get it, everyone’s experienced that to some degree and I travel a lot so I can take a lot of punishment but see, I’ve got a screaming baby girl in front of me, too and she’s knocking the seat down so much I think my laptop might crack a second time soon. Not to mention, while yours is uttering cute words, she’s just bawling and here’s me without my Shure earphones. They’re in San Francisco somewhere.

Normally, I just sleep on planes but hey, the guy next to me? He’s not overweight or anything but he’s one of those guys that spreads his legs like he’s Jenna Jameson readying to break a marathon porn record and it’s really crowding me. His elbows are taking up both arm rests on each side of him and beyond that, when he sneezes, I could swear the rain I just left in Christchurch was still around.

At least the chatty Japanese tour group is far enough back that I can’t hear them. Or maybe I’m just disracted by your boy.

On my way back from DC, I had the pleasant experience of once again having my first leg of the flight delayed and thus running through the terminal to catch the connection. US Airways was less than apologetic about the possibility that my luggage may once again not make the connection with me and I didn’t really feel like they were making much of an effort to find me alternative routes. I guess that’s my last time flying with them.

Thankfully, I did make my connection and got my luggage this time. On the longer leg from Philly to San Francisco, I sat next to a kid named Jonathan and his mom, Angelique. Jonathan’s “almost 8 years old” and like any kid his age, very talkative and curious. I found it amusing that when we shook hands, he made a point to make it a very firm shake.

Two things stood out in particular for me when talking to Jonathan. First, because they’d flown in from Europe, we were discussing what was permitted on the flight when flying from London: nothing at all except maybe a newspaper (not even a book). “Even pens aren’t allowed because there’s liquid in there,” I told them. “Ever seen James Bond?” I asked Jonathan, “You know where you click three times and it blows up?”

“Yeah!” Jonathan makes the clicky clicky motion then pauses and follows with, “it’s probably just a fuse and some nitroglycerin.”

Now, technical accuracy aside, the fact Jonathan, “almost 8 years old,” is exposed to words like nitroglycerin struck me as quite a sad statement on the state of affairs. It’s not that he’s about to go and make himself a bomb (oh noes, did I just say that word on my blog? I wonder if DHS uses Technorati or Blog Searches) but it feels like an early infringement on his innocence. Or maybe I’m just over-dramatizing.

Second, I’m actually popular with a certain age group of kids. I’ve never thought of myself as good with kids. I’m too self conscious to start talking silly or making funny faces, which makes me more likely to make little kids cry than giggle juts from looking at them. With kids that are around Jonathan’s age though, I seem to be quite the hit. Mostly because he’s hit the age where video games, comic books and the internet are a big part of his life. Considering I work at Yahoo!, was returning from giving a presentation on comics, and my brother makes his own videogame, I guess that pretty easily makes me a hit.

Jonathan and I spent much of the flight talking about Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii (which he’d never heard of but now probably wants one for Christmas … sorry Angelique), Star Wars (he likes Episode 3 because it has the best fight scenes and Episode 6 because it has the best space battles and Anakin becomes good again), and how to draw. Angelique told me that he rarely sits still long enough to really draw anything and when he colors on paper, he can never stay within the lines but when I gave him my Tablet PC to play with, he was diligently working on his masterpiece for at least an hour. I gave him a Manhattan skyline as a watermark that he could use to trace and then he gave it a bit of flourish by adding Jedis from all the episodes. I call it, “Jedis in Manhattan”.

Today 1pm: I grab lunch nearby just in case the luggage gets delivered. It doesn’t. I call the automated service and it says it’s with the delivery company and will arrive in 4-6 hours.

3pm: My friends and I go to midtown then up to lower Central Park. If the luggage comes, they’ll call.

5pm: Still no word. I call and automated service says as of 5:20pm, the delivery company has it and should arrive in 4-6 hours.

7pm: I call again and get a real person. They find out for me that it should be there in half an hour.

7:45pm: I call again and they said there was a delay and I should get my stuff in 20mins.

8:45pm: I call again and they say it’ll be there by 11pm. I have a dinner with a friend at 9pm and had I expected this, I would have bought clothes by now because I’m feeling nasty. Now I’m pissed. I get the delivery company’s number. I also ask how it takes them 10 hrs to deliver something (they told me it was on the truck by 10am). They said there’s a lot of bags but TEN HOURS?

9:30pm: I call the delivery company and ask them to deliver directly to the restaurant. They say they can’t change the address.

Midnight: I’m kind of resigned at this point but call again and they say they’ll be there within the hour.

12:30am: I finally get my luggage. There’s still a bunch of luggage in the van. It’s now 14 hours … I feel for the others.

I’ve never been happier to see my suitcase but I am not a happy camper.

I’m traveling for Adaptive Path’s UX Week in DC where I’ll be doing the Communicating Concepts Through Comics presentation, this time without the aid of Jane.Before that though, I’m making a quick stop in New York to hang out with my friends on this coast. Of course, no travel of mine is complete without a story. Not that I didn’t have a feeling something would happen given Thursday’s incident with the foiled McGyver bomb plot and my flying to New York the day after.

The day started with Orbitz calling me to tell me my flight was delayed by half an hour. Off to a great start. As I take the BART over to SFO, I wonder about what I should do with my bag. All shampoo, gel, contact solution and other liquids were no longer permitted on board in the cabin area. As a friend joked, “your hairstyle is banned in the UK.”

Technically, what I use is a wax so it would have been fine anyways but I kind of doubt a run of the mill TSA person would say, “Oh that’s fine. That’s a Sumotech Bumble and Bumble hair wax as opposed to a Revlon Super Hold Extra Shine Fozzie Scented Gel.” Not to mention I had completely forgotten about the whole contact solution bit. I’d already checked in online but figured just in case, I’ll check my bag in.

Surprisingly, checking in and going through security went without a hitch. As I stopped somewhere to get some lunch I looked at the signs and realized that not only can you not pass security with drinks, you also can’t bring the drinks you buy on the air side onto the plane. H’okay … more on the stupidity of this later.

The flight makes reasonable time back and we arrive at 10:22. My connecting flight is 10:35 in another terminal for which I have to take a shuttle to. Half the plane runs off the plane and towards the shuttle, each of us trying to yell our respective gates and flights to a US Airways staff member to get them to wait for us. I get there and it looks closed but it turns out they’re working on their standby situation. A crew passenger was on the flight taking a standby seat but I was a confirmed passenger so they let me on … by kicking him off. He looked rather pissed to say the least and I can’t blame him. Apparently they had put him on and off the plane a couple of times already.

Arriving in New York, I’m happy that I made it today instead of staying the night in Philly. As I wait and wait for my baggage, I see the handler picking up the bags off the conveyor. This meant only one thing: there were no more bags to come. Fuck.

In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious that my bag would still be in Philly since I barely made it on the plane myself, the likelihood of them putting that kind of efficiency to my bag was…zero. Actually, less than zero because I found out that now ags go through homeland security again when transferring flights. Because I’m so likely to have stopped by and added something to my checked bag.

When I finally got to Jeremy’s place, I passed a Ben & Jerry’s underneath his apartment and it was still open at 1:20am. A
Cherry Garcia was exactly what I needed. I may have to move to this city after all.

Random Security Observations

During the course of this I was thinking about whether these measures were just a facade and how much they accomplished. It’s good actually that they don’t allow drinks on even purchased on air side since it’s easy enough to plant something in the supply and have an air side employee “sell it” but there’s no checks in place to enforce this. In fact, on my PHI-LGA flight, I saw the woman in front of me had a bottle of mineral water in her purse – on the first day of high alert.

Lighters have always been prohibited and yet they still always seem to pass through—again, on the first day of high alert.

The plot in the UK involved one airport staff person yet there’s no noticeable action being taken to do additional background checks on the staff. How hard is it for them to substitute the airline provided soda bottles?

I was discussing these and other things with the US Airways person handling my lost luggage (I’ve done this stuff enough that I don’t get mad at the wrong people) and how the security measures didn’t seem to help and how people were blaming US Airways when they had no control over it. Through the conversation I accidentally said, “bomb” in a sentence and covered my mouth…he said it was fine where we were (land side I guess he meant) but as we got to talking about how an airport staff was involved in the UK plot, he lowered his voice and told me there was a camera and we were being recorded and probably should stop talking about that. Land of the free!

“So you mean to tell me that you can open your apartment complex door, pretty much from anywhere in the world.”

“Uh – I guess so.”

The phone rings again. I reject it. Once more, I reject it.

“Who could it be? If it’s my friend, they’d just call me instead.”

The phone rings again. I can’t take it anymore. I need to know who’s so damn persistent at the door to my apartment complex.

“Hello?…No…I didn’t order any pizza.”

This time, I was travelling to San Francisco to attend a friend’s wedding (which, I might add, was a very beautiful wedding – a great time would be understating it). At the Vancouver airport, I encountered my first obstacle of the day:

US Immigration

US INS: “What are you coming to the States for?” flipping through my passport

Kevin: “A friend’s wedding.”

U: “Are you sure you’re not coming for a job interview? You’ve got a lot of work visa stamps here.”

K: “No. I did the last few times I was in town but this time it’s for a wedding.”

U: “Why d’you want to work here? Haven’t you had enough?” pointing at many US Stamps

K: chuckle

U: “I’m not trying to be funny. I’m serious. Why? You’ve worked in the States a lot.”

K: “Uh ok…because you…pay more?”

U: “‘you’ as in my country? USA?”

K: “Uhm. Yes.”

U: “Why? Why don’t you stay and work in Canada?”

K: Why did your Mexican parents move up to the States, you dick? ”…”

U: “You were working here in November.”

K: “Whoa there. No, I wasn’t. I definitely wasn’t working there in November. I haven’t worked there in awhile.”

U: “No you were here in November.” points at a stamp

K: “I was studying in London in November so I couldn’t have been. There’s a visa to show that there.”

U: “What are you doing now?”

K: “I’m not working. That’s why I’m interviewing.”

U: “How are you supporting yourself?”

K: Have none of these people heard of savings? ”I was contracting for awhile.”

U: “Where are you living?”

K: “At my brother’s.”

U: “How do I know you’re not coming for a job interview?”

K: “Look, I don’t really have any reason to lie to you. I’ve told you guys every time I did go for an interview.”

U: “Do you have the wedding invitation?”

K: “I have the save the date card…”

U: “Let’s see it.”

K: “Here.” passes card

U: “What’s this? This isn’t an invitation”  throws it back at me

K: “You didn’t even read it. It’s a save the date card” hand it back to him

U: Glances at it, throws it back ”I’m going to have to ask you to go to the back room.”

K: sigh of resignation and inevitability

U: “Don’t do that. Don’t give me attitude.”

K: “…”

In the end, the lady in the back was much more straight forward and reasonable, and within 5 mins, let me continue on with my thus far eventful day.

The flight itself was uneventful, as was the commute to the hotel. On the way to the hotel, I stopped by a phone store to figure out why my Cingular Go phone was no longer working even though it shouldn’t have expired.

The Cingular Experience

Cingular: “How can I help you?”

Kevin: “I have a Cingular pay as you go phone and it seems to have stopped working.”

After several minutes of figuring out my number, etc

C: “Sir, were you in…Honduras?”

K: “Uh. No?”

C: “Oh wait, there’s a correction here. Did you try to use your phone in Hong Kong?”

K: “Nooo but there’s a chance I turned it on whilst there.”

C: “It looks like they cancelled the phone because you tried to turn it on there. I’ll just turn it back on for you.”

tap tap tap

C: “Looks like I can’t do it from here.”

Gets forwarded to fraud dept

Gets forwarded to customer service

K: “Well at least now I know it’s not only the customers that get the run around.”

C: Talking to phone ”I really don’t think getting forwarded to the fraud department will help. I was just talking to someone from there.”

Finally, it looks like they simply can’t turn the phone back on so I agree to let them give me a new number and credit the account.

It then turns out they don’t see any credit on the account, which strikes me as pretty much impossible because I had a fair bit and could not really have used it in 4 days of SF from my previous trip but I don’t remember how much was there exactly. The rep offers to put me on a zero term contract and waive the activation. He’s been at this thing for over an hour and I just want a working phone at this point so I accept.

After getting my information, he lets me choose from three numbers. None are appealing, I choose the least offensive and convoluted. It ends in “26″. But then it turns out there were some issues with the computer system so I couldn’t be automatically billed. We try a different card, still no dice.

Finally, I accept manual billing for the moment and have him process that. He hands me all the paperwork, sim card, etc. and I notice the number is different. “The number you chose wasn’t available by the time I tried again so I picked the next closest one,” he said. It ends in “46″.

“I don’t really care,” I said, “but I know some who are pretty superstitious and well, that phonetically sounds like path of death in Chinese.”

“Oh,” he says.

I’m sure he was dreading doing more paperwork after spending two hours, very patiently, working through all the issues with me so I let it slide. I’ll probably change it later. But now the time has passed for potential lunch with all the people I know in the area so I check into the hotel and order room service.

Hotel Room Service

The cheapest real meal on the menu: $11 Portobello and Chicken sandwich. Sounds tasty.

I ordered that and a coke. Half an hour later, the food and the bill arrive.

$23.00.

Checking the bill to see just how bad California state/sales tax is, I see two glaring items:

Delivery fee: $3.00
Coke: $4.00

A FOUR DOLLAR Coke?! It wasn’t even a large coke. It was in a tiny 295 ml glass bottle. Needless to say, I was not happy.

The really kicker to this was when I noticed later that the 355 ml coke cans in the minibar were $3.75.

Sigh.

Epilogue

As if all this wasn’t enough for a day, Kathryn equally didn’t have too fun of a day. She got delayed I think three times on her flight, such that she was leaving four hours later than the original departure time (and as I write this, she had a one hour delay on her return flight, too—I hate United). She arrive in SFO at around 1:00am.

My only advice for days like this: a Sony PSP can get you through a lot of this crap. I used it in the INS waiting room, at the Cingular store, and at the hotel.

Chinese New Year Fireworks, originally uploaded by kurioso.

A view of the higher fireworks was visible from our balcony. Despite the imagery, it was only a fraction of the show that could be seen from the harbour, with four boats firing simultaneously.

(Testing flickr blogging photo functionality).

When you’re traveling and living out of a suitcase, and you’re not really sure which suitcase half of your stuff is in, every day feels like a laundry day.

To me, travel days == laundry days.

- Dec 22 – Dec 24 : Brussels, Belgium
- Jan 07 – Jan 09 : Rome, Italy
- Jan 11 – Jan 24 : Spain and Portugal
- Jan 30 – Feb 06 : Vancouver, Canada
- Feb 07 – Feb 26 : Hong Kong
- Feb 26 – ??? ?? : Vancouver, Canada

Just in case you were wondering.