Monday, December 29, 2008

Oz Day 1, 2, 3 - It's beginning to feel a lot like summer

Sunday 12/27: While Christchurch was rather temperate, like the Bay Area in fall, Sydney was hot and muggy, with a side of muggy. When we got to Sydney it must have been about 85 F with a humidity around 70. It almost made me miss the cold, rainy California winter. Almost.

Getting to our hotel was a bit of an adventure. Getting off the Metro led us right into an underground shopping complex with twice the people of Hillsdale during the Christmas Rush (in fairness, it was the middle of a Sunday with after Christmas sales). We eventually made it through and got to the hotel and just crashed (having gotten up in Christchurch at 4:00 am). Upon waking up at the crack of 2 we travelled across Sydney in search of the Australian branch of The Counter. After a lot of walking (and map reading) we found it. And it was glorious. Almost better than the Palo Alto one (probably because it was the most spicy food I've eaten in a week (NZ is culinarily bland) ).

Monday 12/28: Started off the day with a trip to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where we toured a submarine and a destroyer. I can definitively say that I will never join the navy, I'm too tall (and I don't like the smell of diesel). After baking for a few hours, we wandered over to the Rocks for lunch and to pickup a bike tour. The bike tour was called the "Highlights of Sydney," but they just as easily could have called it "All of Sydney" because the tour lasted 5 hours. I learned and forgot more about Sydney than I ever thought I would, at least we got to enjoy a great pub. We eventually found our way back to Darling Harbor for dinner, where we had a solid (but over priced) dinner at the Australian equivalent of Gordon Biersch.

Tuesday 12/29: Today we toured the Blue Mountains. But before we got to the mountains we stopped at a wildlife park in Featherdale. The wildlife park was very hands-on, I got to pet kangaroos and koalas. Frankly they didn't seem that interested in me, only the food I had (so, so similar to dogs). After the wildlife park we progressed into the mountains, where we stopped at half a dozen rock outcroppings to look into the valley. The views were amazing (reminiscent of Half Dome in Yosemite), but they tended to get repetitive (you can only see so many views of a valley before you get bored).

Pictures:

Seemed Appropriate



The Opera House and the Bridge



The Quilt Bird



Wombat



Southern Cassowary



Me and Kangaroos



Me and a Koala



An Emu




An Albino Peacock




The Three Sisters rock formation in the Blue Mountains

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in Blink: 98

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

NZ Day 6 - Fire and Ice (Mostly Ice)

Today was an eventful one. We started off by walking clear across Christchurch to pick up a rental car, which actually only took about half an hour (it's not a big city). Then it took them an hour to get our car ready :/ But it was worth it, because they let me drive (only have to be 18 in NZ), and not only was it a rental car, but it was on the wrong side of the road. There is a pretty steep learning curve, but eventually is feels natural. Except for traffic circles. I fucking hate those.

We drove out to the International Antarctic Center (which touts itself as the world's best Antarctic museum) by the airport where the US (and Italian and New Zealand, etc) Antarctic Programs are based. The museum didn't have much to offer in way of interesting things, but they did have a room with simulated blizzard conditions (awesome) and a giant tractor (like the ones they use in Antarctica) ride (double awesome). If you ever find yourself with a 4 hour layover in Christchurch (but I have no idea why you would), go across the street to the IAC (they even have luggage lockers).

From the IOC we drove out to Akaroa, a little French settlement on a bay on the other side of foothills from Christchurch. I'm sure it's normally a lovely place, but with crappy weather and it being Christmas Eve, everything was closed. When we got back to Christchurch, we stopped at a grocery store (to stock up for our mini roadtrip tomorrow) and an Aussie expat got to talking to my dad and came under the impression that he (my dad) had just returned from the American McMurdo Antarctic Base. No, I'm not making that up.

We had dinner reservations at Cook'n with Gas, whose rather hokey name doesn't do justice to the amazing food. I had the lamb (exquisite) and the crepes (richer than anything I've ever eaten). Their style is apparently New Zealand Bistro, which is very similar to American Bistro, but with great hospitality. We spent more than an hour talking after desert and they hadn't offered us the check once. I absolutely love the hospitality at New Zealand restaurants, they are great to their customers.




Giant Chess. Oh no, it's not the first time I've seen it.




I'm driving on the wrong side of the road!




The headquarters of the US Antarctic Program




It's cold. But I still want to beat kal.

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in ASHONE: Done
I bought Blink by Malcolm Gladwell to have something to read.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

NZ Day 3, 4, 5 - It's a fast day(s)

These last 3 days have been much faster than the first day in Christchurch.

On Sunday we took a tour of Christchurch's Cathedral (history's good, I approve of it) followed by a search (successful) for a sweater because it was about 50 outside and I was freezing. When we left the store we happened upon a busker whose cape proclaimed him to be Basketball Man. He was quite amusing (while trying to get people into it: "Alright everybody, give me the clap"), although he possessed the most grating, annoying (hopefully fake) voice I have ever had the misfortune of hearing. It was like a fake Jamaican sucking on helium while trying to accent all his vowels. It was terrible. After that we had a bike tour through the city (mostly the suburbs actually) with our guide Ben (or as he pronounced it Beeen (rhymes with Ian). Aren't subtle verbal differences grand?).

Monday we took an Alpine Safari, which consisted of a long bus ride out to the boonies (boring), wild life 4WD tour (at times exciting, mostly boring), jet boat tour up the Waimakariri River (fuckin' awesome), another bus ride (I slept through) and Scenic Train ride (actually pretty nice). The scenery was beautiful, but a lot drier than I was expecting. I was expecting completely damp dark (like Lord of the Rings), but it was actually very green and lively (although we did get some LOTR setting on the jet boat ride). Oh, and jet boats are very popular in New Zealand, but I don't think they are common in America. What they are is basically a jetski blown up to the size of a boat and they are amazingly fun. By the way, the town in the boonies was Springfield, NZ, who's claim to fame was being one of the places the Simpsons Movie premiered and the town received a giant pink donut for participating. 
When we returned to Christchurch we went to Flying Burrito Brothers, which I think is supposed to be their attempt at Mexican food. It was a good try (what being thousands of miles away and everything), but it couldn't hold a candle to real Mexican food. The only way to get spiciness at that restaurant was to use one of the (thoughtfully many) bottles of hot sauce, including tapatio.

Tuesday was another day in town. We started off with a bone carving lesson with the Bone Dude, who is this really cool 1-armed Maori guy running a gallery who also does carving lessons. We all made pendants with maori designs and they turned out really nice. We had a lot of fun, he was really welcoming and I whole-heartedly recommend the Bone Dude if you're ever in Christchurch. After that we walked back to the City Center and had a cheese fondue lunch a Swiss restaurant (it wasn't nearly as good as real Swiss fondue) and toured the Arts Centre (slightly fancy clothing/specialty goods, similar to University or the Stanford Mall). I saw "The Pot Shop" on the directory and I had to check it out based on name alone (and my mom was destined to spent an hour looking at yarn). I got some strange looks as I entered the homemade pottery store (being twice the size and a quarter the age of the woman working the counter), but that subsided when I bought a nice big mug. After that we strolled over to the Cantebury Museum, where we perused many mildly interesting (and one utterly awesome, that you can see in the photos) exhibits. For dinner we went to Bohdi Tree, which is apparently really hard to get a table at. The cuisine was Burmese (and very, very good), so I will revise my Thai restaurant count to SE Asian restaurant count. After dinner I went to do a little shopping and what should come on, but More than...  Words. I laughed as other tourists thought I'd lost it.




Sheep are fuckin' everywhere. On farms that is.




I wasn't kidding about the Simpson's donut




Keas. They're a giant, alpine parrot. They aren't afraid of taking food from people, I mean actually taking




A Penny farthing! That works! And that they'd let me ride! I'm excited!




Ducks are also not intimidated by me. I don't know what it is about New Zealand birds.




A better front view of the Christchurch Arts Gallery. I love the design of this building.

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in ASHONE: 270

Saturday, December 20, 2008

NZ Day 2 - It's a slow day

We are all exhausted from traveling so we are (thankfully) took it slow today. We wake up at the crack of noon and it's absolutely pouring rain in Christchurch. Then the wind kicks up and rain starts raining sideways occasionally. After watching this for about an hour we finally get up the gumption to go out and walk about the city. 

Walk, it turns out, is a relative term. We actually walked to the stop for the tram, which we then rode around the city, looking a sights and figuring out what we actually wanted to do. We eventually got off at Cathedral Square, which is a giant, open-air, European-style square. We walked into one of the stores to do a little shopping. As we were walking out I saw a guy in a Stanford Rowing sweatshirt walk in with (who I assume was) his girlfriend. Wanting not to be a jack-ass, I didn't accost him, to the later chagrin of my father.

From the square we walk to the Christchurch Art Gallery, which (shockingly) is full of art. Of the dozen or so exhibits, I can only appreciate one, the White on White exhibit, partially because it was the first one we visited, but also because it had a participatory art piece. That's right everybody, my art hung in a museum. After the gallery, the rain got even worse, so we decided it was time for dinner. When the first place we went was booked solid, we decided to head back to the hotel. On that way we passed a Thai restaurant with a humorous name, that it turns out my dad wanted to eat at, and got take out, and it was good.

Pictures:




The view from the hotel room. A lot of the buildings in the city center look like this one. I rather like the style, definitely old English style.




Look! I'm part of art! Dan, as usual, has his eyes closed.




Deep in thought. I really like the design of the gallery.




Where we had dinner. The jokes write themselves (but the food is quite good).


Thai Restaurant Count: 2.5
Page in ASHONE: 187

Friday, December 19, 2008

Traveling and Sydney Layover

I knew it was going to take a long time to get from San Francisco to Christchurch, but I really didn't know how long it was it was going to take. 38 hours after we left home (thanks for the ride to the airport Jordan) we finally touched down in Christchurch, ah where to start, well, how bout the start.

The flight from SFO to LAX was pretty uneventful. I was over my cold, then back under the weather again. Similar to how the past 2 weeks have been. We had time to eat dinner, so we ate at Wolfgang Puck's, which was pretty good (from what I could taste), but overpriced. We were late leaving (an flight, late, what?), but I had plenty of reading material (A Short History of Nearly Everything, again, thanks Jordan) so I was fine. I even got lucky, getting an aisle seat and having an empty friendship seat. My brother was not so lucky, the guy sitting next to him was about my size, bald and covered in tattoos (including a tear drop tattoo). We were joking about this later and my mom told him that he got the "fuzzy end of the lollipop," to which Dan replied, (in a rare moment of quick thinking) "I didn't get the fuzzy end, I got the shiv end." When I tried to get to sleep, I realized that my seat wasn't nearly as awesome as previously though (44C). Flight attendants are really chatty and people love to run into the first seat following an open space. We eventually got to Sydney's Kingsford (not charcoal) International.

Normally, I don't think much of airport layout or security, but I had to take notice at these. Kingsford is like some cross between a mall and an airport. We had to walk about 1/4 mile through a duty free shop before reaching customs (and later, when we were leaving, we had to walk about 1/2 a mile past shops that rivaled the Stanford Mall in opulence to reach our gate). When we got to customs a fellow passenger warned us that using a cell phone or camera before we left the baggage claim would likely get us thrown in jail. Needless to say, Australia means serious business, they even had a real-life bomb sniffing dog (who was really cute, but I refrained from taking a picture, as per the previously mentioned jail threat). The only humor I found in the whole exchange was when the Quarantine agent (different than Customs apparently) asked us if we had "microwave popcorn." He was not as entertained as I was, but the rest of my family loved it.

We visited assorted places in Sydney that were near the Harbor Bridge including Circular Quay (Quay = Key, why? I don't know), the Sydney and Luna Park (a watered-down version of the Boardwalk with a sign that inspires nightmares). The weather was absolutely wonderful, no a cloud in the sky. 75 and sunny, what a great way to spend December. While wandering about North Sydney trying to find the Counter (oh yeah, like the one on California), we got lost. We gave up and walked back to a Thai restaurant I pointed out because I liked the sign (eh, I'm a design nerd) and the food was absolutely great, but the restaurant was tiny, the dining room was smaller than a Lag mini-double. It's a good thing they do take out, otherwise I don't think they'd be able to make money. Here's a true testament to the goodness of this restaurant: even Dan liked it; and he doesn't like anything. I gotta say, Thai is getting up there with Greek on my favorite foods I didn't realize were my favorite foods list.

When we returned to the Sydney airport to check-in for our flight to Christchurch, we found out that there was an issue with our visa (not our VISA card as my dad initially thought), that Virgin Blue couldn't find it. After a fairly tense half hour of waiting, everything got straightened out and I learned that visas are a lot less impressive than I thought (we just bought one for 20 bucks and didn't even get a hard copy of it, the airline took care of everything). The ticketing agent had to ask us a few questions, during which, this little gem occurred:
Agent: "Daniel, what's your birthdate?"
Dan: [gives his birthday]
Agent: "Daniel, are you a male?"
Dad: "Some of the time"
Everyone: Laughter

Dan and I were two of the last people to board the plane (his fault). While walking down the single aisle of the plane, I look first at my seat, which is next to a tall, lanky guy (probably 6' 9", 220 lbs), and then Dan's, next to a petite girl (maybe 5' 6", 110 lbs). Being the gentleman I am (and not wanting to trigger a tantrum on full flight), take the seat next to My Giant. I decide to size up my rowmates and notice that between the two of them they have half a dozen ear piercings and are both my size or taller. And we fit together fine in a row (probably the strangest thing of the entire trip so far). After a fairly unevenful plane ride, we reach Christchurch and start to deplane. As we walk down the jetway, my dad (also a tall guy) points out the sheer height of the two guys sitting next to me, moments before they start to hold hands. This is met with some surprise, but I figure they are the world's tallest gay couple, or at least New Zealand's.

Now, pictures:




A beautiful day in Sydney, as evidenced by the Sydney Opera House.




The entrance to Luna Park. I swear this thing will give some kids nightmares.




Food at Stir Crazy. Holy crap that was amazing, I'm glad we're going back to Sydney so I can eat there again.




The best designed water fountain I've ever seen. It looks like a can opener, the water flows down the curves back into the water system.

Thai Restaurant Count: 1.5 (I'm counting the Thai Beef salad I had at the airport as a half)
Page in ASHONE: 187

We made it to New Zealand

After 38 long hours, we made it to Christchurch.
When I get a long time to sit down, I'll regale with pictures of the layover in sydney and stories like the great thai restaurant and the world's tallest gay couple.