Break from the vacation

Well, I'm just attending to all the fun stuff like email, blogging, journal writing, and laundry (a rank lot, that) today in Alice Springs before heading out on a 3-day drive to Darwin. I had a great few days on the trip out to Ayers Rock, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon. It was a little weird being on a tour, but there were some very cool folks that I got to know along the way. Anyhow, here are a couple pictures AR before sunrise and the Gardens of Eden in Kings Canyon.

rainy day in Sydney

Well, today we have some pretty hard rain here in Sydney, so I'm taking care o' business under shelter for the time being. My flight was fine yesterday, and I spent the day wandering around town, mostly around Darling Harbour. I also finally got to see "The Dark Knight", which was groovy. Not only did I finally get to see it, but it was on an IMAX screen, no less. Town was hopping last night with all the hipsters and clubbers flouncing about in their dresses and remarkably effeminate menswear. I so drastically don't fit into that scene, whatsoever!

Anyhow, I plan to go out and see the opera house and the Bay Bridge today if the rain relents. Signing off from Sydney...

Off to see the Wizard of Aus (tomorrow)

Buenos dias amigos!

Well, tomorrow I catch a ridiculously early flight to Sydney, Australia, where I'll actually be able to leave the airport and finally get to experience the country. I'll be there for 3 nights then wing off for the Red Center and Alice Springs. Over the course of about a week I'll make my way up to Darwin and then on to Singapore and subsequent destinations.

I arrived back in Christchurch last night and am just running some errands here in Cheech today. Since leaving Queenstown I have been to the ludicrously beautiful Milford Sound (it's actually a fjord, but who's counting) and then back across the island to Dunedin on my way to Cheech. I don't have the capacity to share any pictures from this computer, so sorry about that.

It's a strange process, this returning to the World. Farewells from friends can be a bit stressful, and you always hope that they aren't final. The Ice already seems a long way away, after just 1.5 weeks, but its effects run deeply. I think there is already some changes in me that are operating at very fundamental levels in my personality/values system. Maybe that's just me realizing I'm an idiot for leaping out of a perfectly good gondola...

I WILL see you later!

So far unemployment is a gas

Here are a few pictures to show what I've been up to thus far:

A pretty self-explanatory picture up on the side of the road while going over the Haast Pass. My sentiments exactly:


Me wearing some gear from Lord of the Rings on a tour in and around Queenstown. The cloak was insured for $10,000 because it is (allegedly) a prop actually used by Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee) in the movies.


Me launcing myself from the 134-meter tall Nevis bungy jump outside Queenstown:


Tomorrow it's off to Milford Sound and the wonderful drive between Queenstown and that particularly scenic body of water and its surroundings. I'll be flying to Sydney, Australia on Nov. 22nd and be on the poisonous continent until the first week of December. More from the road as I can manage the internet access.

Chores done...commence relaxation

OK, so here in the lovely climes of Christchurch, NZ I have now got:

1) air tickets all the way home
2) passport-style photos for my Cambodian visa
3) all my gear shipped away that I don't need
4) anti-malarial and anti-bacterial medications for the less dulcet climes of SE Asia

With the "work" now finished, it is now time to begin this vacation in earnest. Tomorrow I'll head southwest towards Queenstown where I'll hopefully fling myself into a 400+ tall bungee jump and go on a Lord of the Rings tour. OH, SHUT UP! You'd go on one as well if it were your favorite book that you associate with your father and travel and all things good.

There are still some folks gradually coming off the Ice tonight, and other folks that have already headed to the four corners of the compass. I'm sure no small number of them will cross paths with me in the future; some definitely will for certain. It's always interesting to see just who and where you'll run into familiar faces here around town. My most intense experience upon returning to the World was smelling the plants and water as I crossed a bridge over the Avon River here in Christchurch the first night. It was like perfume, it smelled so good.

So, to quote "Closing Time", the last song that the Picardis played last Friday night at our final concert:

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

waiting on transport

OK, so in about 2 hours we'll hop on some sort of transport out to Pegasus Field to catch a C-17 to Cheech. There are all of 14 passengers on a flight on a plane that can have two lanes of traffic drive through it. I'm sure there will be mountains of cargo to keep us company, though. McMurdo is surprisingly not all that busy, but I guess it's still relatively early in the season. It's interesting observing how people won't say "hi" to you in the halls, and how the DAs (I feel their pain) won't make eye contact with diners. I guess it's the same difference leaving my small, rural home and going to the big city where folks don't wave to each other as they pass in their cars. Anyhow, we should be to New Zealand and processing through customs and all that by like 8 or 9 o'clock this evening, and this chapter in my life will be closed.

Well, I'm going to go read a book for a while and not work. This is strange, but not unwelcome, after 13 months on the clock.

purgatory or McMurdo-same diff

Well, we're gone from Pole, but still on the "Ice". The Ice sure looks like a lot of dirty, muddy roads here, though. I guess that's part of being back in the World, though. The flight was nice, and we went over some different stretch of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains that didn't look familiar from the other 4 times I've flown between Pole and McMurdo. It's nice and warm here, and ECW seems pretty superfluous. I can only imagine what warming up another 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit will feel like tomorrow when we arrive in Cheech. Our "bag drag" is at 8pm, and it will be loads of fun packing back up and getting weighed in for the C-17 flight on the morrow. There actually was a C-17 on the ground out at Pegasus Field when we arrived at Williams "Willy" Field, but they didn't try to put us on it. So, I took a nice shower and ate a nice dinner in the back room of the galley, and now I'm enjoying the luxury of 24/7 Internet for a while. I can't actually think of anything to read about right now, though. I'd rather be reading a book in the grass in the Botanic Gardens in New Zealand. But, I'm not on call for a fire brigade and I'm not on permanent call for any science, so (I guess) life is good.