Pizza places sell sides of squid rings. How great is that? A 4-topping medium pizza and a side of squid rings came to US$12.25 tonight, tax included (as it nearly always is in posted prices). In general, there is a much smaller premium for eating out in NZ than in the US (relative to cooking at home). In order to clue in to this, one has to remember that there's never any tipping or extra tax on the bill.

The Tui has become my favorite NZ bird. Not only are they cool looking, they have fascinating, distinctive calls that resemble one another in style but are ultimately unique to each individual. I've heard them every time I've stepped in to the bush, am frequently able to get close to them, and can even identify them by the sound of their flight.

Generally, the birds of NZ are fascinating to see, hear, and learn about. The three parrots alone are cool enough: the Kākā we saw early on at Karori; the Kea, rated the smartest bird and the only alpine parrot; and the Kakapo, the only flightless parrot, a nocturnal one at that, and perhaps the longest living bird (95 yr avg life expectancy).

Today I approached a couple Australian Magpie, which while an introduced pest was pretty nonetheless, quite closely on foot.

I bought some New Zealand green-lipped mussels at the supermarket yesterday. This evening, I steamed them in a typical onions, garlic, white wine fashion and we ate them with rice & veggies cooked in stock I'd made from the carcass of a smoked chicken. It was quite tasty.

Ah, the smoked chicken. Piled up in Kiwi supermarkets are these whole smoked chickens, seal-a-mealed in thick plastic much like comes on stuff like Canadian bacon in the US. They cost about US$7 apiece. The meat is cooked by the Manuka smoke, and the smoky flavor goes all the way to the bone. We're on our second one right now, and I couldn't see wasting the carcass of the first one, so I made a stock from it in our poorly-appointed kitchenette today. It worked out great, and goes to show that you don't need a fancy kitchen to build delightful meals.

I just got a TXT on my NZ prepaid phone (actually the same GSM phone I used in the States; I just bought a prepaid SIM the other day) telling me I had Skype voice mail. I log in to Skype, and there's the voice mail: my bank had called my USA SkypeIn phone number (the only number I currently have over there) checking on recent overseas debit card activity. They have no idea where I am. I had to talk to no humans to set up any of this, and I paid a grand total of US$50 for several months of SkypeIn and the prepaid SIM. 20-30 years ago, this would have been a level of convenience and "follow me" connectivity that might have been available to rich executives with a lot of work on the part of corporate underlings and hotel staff, or eventually hauling around a bag phone. To everybody else it would have seemed hopelessly out of reach. Now, not only is it possible, it's easy and within almost anyone's reach.

At the climbing gym yesterday, I walked up to the counter, paid my NZ$12, and that was that. The fella didn't ask my name, put me in a computer, ask me to sign anything (e.g., the States-usual "I acknowledge I might die; I indemnify the gym."), or do any safety check-out. They had 2 autobelays which I was welcome to use, but I had to go out of my way to ask for instruction (though they are dead simple).

I rode the bus out to the Hutt Valley suburbs to do this. With all the natural beauty, it seems vaguely goofy to go out of my way and spend money to climb indoors, but it also serves to drop me in to a social context, and besides I just like to climb. I think I'll also poke around looking for places to boulder.

On Sunday, Angela and I rode the Wellington Cable Car to the top, then took a nice walk along the ridgetop roads to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw or heard, in the space of a day: Grey Warbler, Saddleback, Tui, Kaka, Weka, Tuatara, Weta, and some very enormous fern trees, and learned a great deal about the native flora and fauna of New Zealand.

Pictures start here. Sadly, I left the CF card out of my DSLR, so the only wildlife shots we got are with digital zoom on the P&S.

( Read More... )

At the library now:

We get "free internet" at the apartment hotel we're in. It's free and it's internet, and despite what I suspected earlier, they aren't blocking ports. That said, it is craptacularly slow and laggy, and I don't think this is entirely to do with being an extra 100ms or so from California.



Even given those numbers, Angela had a successful video chat using Skype with her parents in Indiana.

Still, I'll be venturing out to use some cafe wifi today and see how that goes. There is a single provider for the vast majority of wifi in cafes and assorted other buildings, including the library. And it's a pay service, so hopefully that means high quality and high bandwidth.

Departure to Wellington is imminent. I have assured assorted parties that I will try to blog about—and post pictures to flickr of—my experiences while there. Both a P&S and a DSLR have been accorded space in our luggage.

The flights themselves will take 23 hours including time spent in airports from takeoff in Indiana to touchdown in Wellington. It's better than a full day when you include arriving early to the airport. Not sure how well that's going to work, but we've laid in copious quantities of melatonin and benadryl (couldn't get to the Dr in time for Lunesta), so here's hoping.

See you soon, Kiwis!

ursulas_mom and I will be living in Wellington from about June 11 to about August 17, and we are looking for a furnished apartment in the CBD, preferably walking distance to Te Papa museum. Any help would be greatly appreciated: web sites with ads, good experiences, bad experiences, or direct referalls. Thanks!

UPDATE: 1 bedroom, and broadband internet or its availability is a must.

Dear Lazyweb,

My concern about the ongoing value of the dollar continues to grow, as does that of almost everyone who's paying attention. For long-term investments, it is easy enough to distribute money into international funds. What should I do with liquid assets (savings account, emergency savings)?

I looked at Everbank's products, including their CDs and MMs, but the rates in tempting currencies, like CHF, seem less than tempting. Can one open an account directly with a Swiss bank and achieve a better yield? Is there a better option than simply using the same kind of vehicle I've been using here (CD, high-interest savings) but denominated in a foreign currency?

I conquered this climb today. There is a stop sign at that Y intersection, so I have to start with no momentum, and then it's up, then UP, then up some more. The highlighted part averages 12%, but I think the steepest part is >20%.

People who live near actual mountains would probably think this climb is ridiculously short, but I have to train with what I have, and it's plenty steep for my weak ass. And it comes in at about mile 40 or so on the (not flat) ride I did today. This was my 4th time up this hill and my only time without stopping. I deliberately took it easy, found my cadence, and breathed carefully all the way up. At the top, I could not help myself hollering "Fuck yeah!".

In preparation for the D2R2, I'm ramping up my mileage each week. This week will be 155. Peak weekly mileage will be 225 for a couple weeks, then 2 weeks of less mileage but intervals, then 2 weeks of taking it relatively easy before the ride. I am led to believe that all this is the standard sort of modern preparation people do, though mine is perhaps on an abbreviated schedule.

I rode my bike for exploring and errands today, read Beat to Quarters (Forester, Hornblower) under a nice tree in a deserted park adjacent to grazing cattle, raced (and beat) a thunderstorm to the library, waited it out, picked up disc 2 of Ken Burns' Baseball (disc 1 was really good), stopped by the comic book shop and picked up like 6 Buffys from my box, then rode home on wet streets. And I didn't even have to use my AK.

Just got back from doing this 50 mile ride. I took quite a few stops to cool off in streams and whatnot, so I wasn't super fast. But it was good enough and it was a beautiful day out there.

I'm signed up to do the D2R2 in August, so I'm trying to get mileage in every week and make sure that every day I ride the bike includes some steep climbs and some gravel. Today's route included both.

The equipment for this ride looks like it's going to be my Cross-Check with lowered gearing, Ostrich handlebar bag, and 700x37c Paselas. I'd had 32s on it up 'til now. There is a 37 on the rear and another 37 on order. So far, the new tire has acquitted itself just fine. I can't wait to get one on the front for gravel descents.

I'm trying to narrow my focus, at least for the next little while. In order to do that, I'm trying to enumerate what I'm interested in right now, so I can decide what not to do. For those who are curious what I'm up to, these are the pots that are on the stove, or at least near it, as far as I can recall.( Stuff! )

Note the poor showing of software, or at least, software that is not directly connected to some hardware. Perhaps I'm warming up to what Alan Kay said: "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." More likely, I'm just getting bored and following my bliss. :)

(Although I think I'd be happy doing a contract in the software biz, I'm pretty sure I'm done for awhile being able to self-motivate on software that only concerns itself with the keyboard, the mouse, the screen, and data. I want it to do something more. I myself am tired of only interacting with these machines through my keyboard, screen, and mouse.)

I think I can confirm that the worst day spent wandering the countryside with your dog is better than the best day at work.

Today I rode out to Winterthur for lunch with Angela, then rambled around that part of Delaware which is North of there, and a little bit of Pennsylvania. (map)

The vein I want to explore is up the Brandywine Creek and then west toward Lancaster. Much of what I saw, heard, and smelled today was beautiful, but I didn't stop to photograph much, and it was overcast (which is actually great weather for putting in the miles by bike: 60s and overcast). What pictures I got are on flickr.

I got on my bike today and rode to Arden, which is a quaint, artsy "garden city" community which has been around in something like its current form since the turn of the century.( About Arden )Arden is an amazingly weird spot of artsy nature nestled right up against I-95 in an otherwise unpleasant area. As Angela and I drive around (not just in Delaware), I often say "WTF do people have against trees?" They cut them down, they fail to plant new ones when the old ones die. And then they never spend any time in their front yards anyway. The residents of Arden clearly have nothing against the trees. They live with trees, wildlife, birds, and pleasant views all around, just a stone's throw from the Eastern Corridor and I-95. I made some photos of bits of Arden.