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| All my junk. |
Loading my pack. |
Dots. |
Dots. |
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| Inscrutable boarding pass code: “RT”. |
3D flight visualization. |
Jackpot! |
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My first time crossing both the International Date Line and the Equator. |
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No “no photography” signs at passport control, so I took advantage. |
This dog was sniffing for fresh foods being imported. |
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| More inscrutable scribblings. “IC.” means I had to get interrogated by a customs agent. |
This is the little room where they checked my tent for biosecurity. |
“No spitting - Please use toilets.” |
My first arrival in the Bavaria B&B in Auckland. |
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| A nice little room. |
The bills have transparent plastic windows in them. |
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Zebra crossing! |
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| Steep steps in a back alley. |
I never saw grass up the middle of the driveway before. |
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| The path up to the top of Mount Eden. |
A light refreshing rainstorm. |
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It's hard to photograph, but there's a deep volcanic crater here. |
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Auckland from Mount Eden. |
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Here's a shot of the crater. |
Some of the bigger cars have this strange third mirror on the passenger side. |
“Don't run, skip! As if the path ahead is full of daisies.” |
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| Auckland Domain, a great big park. |
Cricket pitch. |
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Birdies. |
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Some ferns in the fernerarium. |
Giant lily pads. |
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Nice unintentional street art. |
Kebab and “chips” and L&P. |
Queen street. |
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| Spooky smoky Sky Tower. |
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Hokey pokey ice cream. |
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| This was a crazy steep staircase. |
In Auckland, you can write “no junk mail” on your mailbox, and it works. |
Auckland Harbor bridge. |
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Cricketers in Victoria Park. |
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Albert Park adjacent to the University of Auckland. |
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Going up the Sky Tower. |
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Triforces. |
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Bike mailman. |
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Cookie time! |
The north entrance of Cornwall Park. |
Rugbiers. |
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The side of One Tree Hill. |
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Gear up for the bungee jump. |
A forced smile. |
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Before the leap. |
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| Splash! |
Winch me up. Check out the movie too. |
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“Cara was here XXX AC/DC.” |
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| The bridge from which I jumped. |
Here's inside the museum. |
Edmund Hillary's ice axe that he took to the top of Everest. |
“EP” stamped in the metal. |
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V-1 flying bomb. |
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Wow! What an effect! I think it was done with paint remover to reveal the black metal underneath. |
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| Close up of the graffiti showing it's not just drips. |
Burger Wisconsin where I ate lunch. |
New Zealand plugs. |
Hillary on the $5 bill. |
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| Free Internet access at the airport is a good idea, worthy of emulation. |
So, the airplane couldn't land at Queenstown, so we landed in Dunedin and had to take a four-hour bus ride. |
Cromwell. |
Finally in Queenstown. |
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| Cat at Pinewood hostel. |
Not a bad room. |
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| Lake Wakatipu. |
Irn-Bru for $52.80! It's a sign. |
Much manlier than South African Iron Brew. |
Tourist boat. |
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| Morning at the hostel. |
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Feels like summer in a Colorado mountain town. |
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| Cricket bowling cage. |
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| Stop sign inventory number, and a palindrome. |
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Paraglider. |
Steve arrived and we started getting things ready for a hike. |
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A bowling lawn. We didn't figure out how it works. |
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| Me at Joe's Garage. |
Pikelets and crumpets are new taste sensations. |
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A sultana is a kind of grape. |
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| Backpacking food. |
Gearing up for the ice bar. |
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| Ice glasses. |
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A little squirrel from the Kinder egg. |
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| Views on the way to Glenorchy. |
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Glenorchy is govenment by Glen Orcs. |
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Lovely fields of clover at the trailhead. |
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| All fixed up with a wooden splint. |
There were a great deal of these long bouncy bridges. |
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The water was unbelievably clear. |
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Routeburn Flats, the first campsite. |
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| Traipsing with our friend Daniel from New York. |
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This was a really stupid snow traversal that had to be supervised by a ranger. |
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My eye. |
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| So long to Daniel. |
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| There were some great views through the spotty clouds. |
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Mackenzie campsite the second night. |
A big rock called Split Rock. |
This is a crumpet on the inside. |
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| The latrines were awesome. We could learn a thing or two. |
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Earland Falls, height 174 m. |
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We got wet going through it. |
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David Peaks! All right! |
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Howden campsite, the third night. |
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The top of McKellar saddle after a long wet ascent. |
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| These wiffle-ball fungoids littered the forest floor. |
A very rooty path in contrast to the Routeburn Track. |
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Mid Caples site, the fourth night. |
Nested parentheses. |
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| Big scary spider in the hut. |
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What the hell? A dead calf and cow while hiking out the last day. |
Maybe it died just giving birth. Note all the maggots. |
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| It rained hard all the way out. |
Poor little wet cows. |
Fast-forward back to Queenstown. |
South African biltong, made in New Zealand. |
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| There were all kinds of signs cautioning not to drive too fast. |
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A lake, I forget its name, on the way towards Mount Cook. |
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Māori rock art. |
Sundial. |
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At the penguin colony. However you don't get to see them until nightfall when they return from the ocean. Don Knuth has the same sign. |
Old gun emplacement. This is in Oamaru. |
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| A red New Zealand flag. |
Delicious ice cream. |
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Bought me some cheese. |
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| Will it be you? Slow Down. |
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Me with red eyes for some reason. |
A dinner of monkfish and couscous we cooked in the kitchen at the hostel. |
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| An aviary in the Timaru town park. |
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It's called Caroline Bay. |
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| Dead shark! |
Strangely deserted, like in Spirited Away just as night is falling. |
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| Ahh! Breakfast man! |
The little squirrel came back. |
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| The finishing post. Don't race. Slow down. |
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Now we're in the RNZAF museum. |
Heavy gyroscopic fin stabilizers. |
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Blam! Blam! |
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I wasn't feeling well so we just sat by the beach for a while. |
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Flight back to Auckland. |
The view from Queen Street Backpackers. How noisy on a Thursday night. |
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| I don't get it. People travel across the world and then do nothing but sit in the hostel and check email. |
There was a series of benches with a word latter that transformed “word” into “deed” in two different ways. WORD. |
WARD. WAND. Not pictured are WANT and WENT. |
SENT. SEND. |
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| SEED. |
DEED. |
WORD. |
WORE. |
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| LORE. LORD. Not pictured are LOAD and LEAD. |
HEAD. HEED. |
DEED. |
Some nighttime Auckland lights. |
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The next day I took the ferry to Devonport. |
This is the top of Mount Victoria, where there's a weather station or something. |
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| Mushroom air vents. |
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Steamboat. |
There is also a giant “disappearing gun” left over from World War II. |
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| A bright colorful parrot just walking around like anything. |
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A little American flag. |
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Footpath closed. Please use other side. (Or die trying.) |
Somebody wrote “SOS HELP US” in the sand. |
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There's Auckland on the left and Mount Victoria on the right. |
10-, then 5-, then 3-way symmetry. |
Very effective moiré in front of this shop. |
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So long, New Zealand. |
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| Mac and cheese with hokey pokey. |
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This kind gent is cleaning my boots to protect American livestock from New Zealand pathogens. |
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| You inconsiderate boob! |
You say “American ginger ale”; I say “frisdrank met gemberextract.” |
