We arrived!

We had an epic travel day getting here. Rather than type it all out again, here's what I said on Facebook, which some of you have seen. If so, skip the next para.

"We are here. That was an epic travel day. Float plane to Vancouver after awesome visit with Susi. Shuttle bus. Short wait in swanky lounge. Pampered in biz class to Auckland, though not as much sleep as expected/hoped. Getting sim card was a horror show, it turned out to be bad and they had to give us another for Linda's phone, meanwhile we are waiting and waiting while it tried and tried to connect. Passport check, bio-hazard check, bus ride, short wait, then another plane ride to Dunedin. Waved to Rick and Fiona as we went over Wellington. Rental car. Drop off luggage in swanky condo, hang out in botanical gardens to relax. Shop for wine. I mean groceries. Now kicking back."

We did kick back. There was wine. I spent some time chatting with a Vodafone rep trying to get my phone working, and we had some success. We got it so that our phones could call one another, but refused to text. Then there was sleep. Linda was out like a light for 12 hours. I had a solid night's sleep. We were in this apartment last time, and knew exactly what to expect. It's nice coming back to a place.

Today we didn't want to do anything too ambitious. After coffee I chatted with another Vodafone rep, who admitted defeat, and asked us to drop into the local store. We strolled the Octagon on the way to the store. They did a little tweak to Linda's phone. It took the people there a few minutes to figure it out. It turns out that even though I'd put Linda's new number into my contacts, the message app wasn't really looking at that. It was looking at the cached version of the phone number for that contact. Once that contact was deleted, and the new number put back in, it all worked fine. Imagine that. Something for iPhone users to be aware of.

We strolled around, dodging some intermittent rain and checking out shops. We didn't buy anything, since at this point we'd have to drag it around for a month. The local art gallery is really cool, and we spent a while in there during a a rain storm. Then a nice fish and chip lunch. Better than any we've had in Calgary, but we've had better elsewhere in NZ. We saw this along the way. They have some amazing murals here.

The prices of camera stuff are substantially more here than in Calgary. Like 2x for the SD cards I'd be likely to buy. An RP camera body is about $C500 more here than in my favourite camera store at home.

Chocolate tour! Ocho imports beans mostly from Pacific islands and makes their own chocolate. It's amazing! 100% dark chocolate. My buddy Jayne is drooling.

More wine. Some photo editing.

This is an art installation in the gallery. Even adults were allowed to play in it. I didn't, in case you were wondering.

I had fun playing with a longer exposure, shot hand held. One of the gallery staff was watching me (photos are allowed, except for a couple specific things), and she was fascinated by them. She had never seen long exposures, and was surprised how people could disappear. She'd been afraid she had got in some of my shots.

Driftwood of the Day
This is still Nanaimo. We haven't been to a beach here in NZ yet.