Where is Darran?

i’m somewhere around here

Recovery Walk Around Park with Errik and Old Man, Steak Dinner with Errik and Old Man, Free Meal in Bar, Pre-party of Nomination Domination, Drinks in Altitude Bar, Then all Hell Broke Loose in Buffalo Bar – Queenstown, New Zealand (Day 19)

Filed under: Status — Darran at 4:56 am on Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A typical Queenstown morning involves recovery and a recovery in Queenstown involves Fergburger. This means Fergburger was for breakfast. I believe I had Fergburger for something like 6 out of 7 meals while in Queenstown. Once you get your hands on one you’ll do the same. Old Man and Errik beat me on the rise and I eventually caught up with them later on in the day. We went for a walk around Queenstown aka Queeny. Not only does Queeny have good night life, but it also has plenty of day time activities like mountain biking, luging, ice skating, and an 18 hole disc golf course. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, there are all the adrenaline activities you could want. The Nevis Bungy, arc swings, skydiving, and jet boating are some of the adrenaline activities you can do during your visit. For us, a nice walk around the town was what we needed and Queenstown is a beautiful town to get out and explore. The weather was cooperative and we had a beautiful day.

One of the main roads in Queenstown looking towards one of the mountain ranges.

A lake that is about a five minute walk from the hostel. A great place to chill. There is also a long walking and running trail that goes around the edge of the lake.

One of the ponds located in the disc golf course

After strolling around and Errik trying to feed gold coins and other objects to the ducks we decided to get some food. Who knows why, but it was during the stroll that I learned that Old Man had gone number 2 in some poor kiwis boat shed that morning.

The ducks weren’t having it

Having some fun in the skate park

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On the way back to the hostel we spotted a restaurant having a steak, salad, and chips special so we dropped in and polished off a steak – the last formal dinner with Errik and Old Man. After dinner, we went back to the room and hung out. We still had some free meal tickets from Base so we went down to the bar and used them. I was not really feeling a big night……time would tell.

Getting geared up

Still not feeling it

Old Man saying hi

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Getting closer

Errik is good with the ladies – I swear he looks like John Belushi

This kid loves to drink. We had a ton of 2 for 1 drink coupons and we took full advantage

In the zone

Best behavior as always

Boogie time

I love Errik like I love air

Somehow the repeated Jager shots have awaken us!

After hours of drinking and dancing it was time to call it a night. The proper way to finish a night in Queeny is the same way you begin a day in Queeny – with a Fergburger. Something mysteriously went wrong with our order and we got an extra Fergburger instead of fries. It was time to tackle back to back Fergs!

Ferg #1 – I am politely holding someones cigarette whilst enjoying a Fergberger

Ferg #2 – Starting to struggle. Why is this happening to me? Only made it through about 75% of the second one before handing it over to Errik

Beautiful day, beautiful drinking session, beautiful get down session (we destroyed Buffalo Bar), beautiful Ferg session, and now a beautiful sleep session!

I get lonely sometimes. Errik and Old Man would be off in the morning.

Squid Not Working After Reboot

Filed under: Status — Darran at 5:15 pm on Monday, November 23, 2009

If your squid proxy is not working after rebooting your PC it is possible that this is because the nameservers for your pc were not set before squid loaded. This leaves squid with no way to resolve the domains you are trying to access. For me, this behavior occured on a squid proxy I have installed in Ubuntu.

A temporary fix:

Execute in terminal

sudo /etc/init.d/squid restart

A permanent fix:

Edit squid.conf (probably at /etc/squid/squid.conf and specify the DNS servers for your connection by adding the following line)

dns_nameservers 10.5.0.1

Note: 10.5.0.1 is the IP of my DNS server it will most likely be different for your installation

Auckland and New Zealand Employers – Auckland, New Zealand

Filed under: Status — Darran at 8:42 pm on Tuesday, November 17, 2009

As part of my job seeking efforts I have searched for and come across a few links that identify employers in the Auckland and New Zealand area. Here we go.

Auckland Software Firms

New Zealand’s Top 100 Companies

CIO NZ – MIS TOP 100

List of Companies in New Zealand (Has Capitalization)

Major Auckland Area Employers

4000 miles – Auckland, New Zealand

Filed under: Status — Darran at 2:36 am on Sunday, November 15, 2009

Put in around 4000 miles on the bike last year. Around 1700 km on the race bike (Giant Trinity) and around 5000 km on the Trek 1200. The Trek is holding up surprisingly well for all the beating it gets.

Puzzling world, View of Wanaka, Old Man Jumps, Explore Queenstown, Crazy Night in Queeny at Altitude and World Bar– Queenstown, New Zealand (Day 18)

Filed under: Status — Darran at 4:36 pm on Thursday, November 12, 2009

Errik, Old Man, and I got up early and started wandering around Wanaka. Kat lost her wallet and spent the morning looking in trash bins and wandering the beach looking for it.

Lake Wanaka in the Morning

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On the Search for Kat’s Wallet

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The View From the Hostel Kitchen

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Lauren Punishing Old Man

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Mark Decided to Stay Back in Wanaka

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After some breakfast, we stopped at Puzzling World. Most people bought the ticket and took the tour, but Errik and I threw the Rugby ball around and hiked to the top of a hill that overlooks Wanaka and Lake Wanaka.

The View

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Next, we were off to Cromwell. In Cromwell we stopped at Mrs. Jones fruit stand. We got to sample bits and pieces of all of the fruit. I picked up some dried strawberries which were very good!

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From there it was onto AJ Hacket bungy.

We got to see a video on the history of bungy and then watch some people take the jump. It was Old Man’s 49th birthday and Errik bought him a jump

Old Man taking the plunge

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From there it was on to Queenstown. We took some group pics on the shore of the lake and then headed to the hostel. Base Queenstown is not where to stay in Queenstown. The rooms are dark, the kitchen is small. It is pretty central, but nothing special. There is a Nomads in Queeny that is supposedly the go. It wasn’t long and we had found Fergberger.

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It was inevitable. Queenstown is by far the best night life I have experienced in New Zealand. Any night of the week you can have a good time and tonight was no exception. We started out at Altitude bar (the bar inside Base) and then headed to World Bar.

Altitude bar had a horizontal bungy competition that night. In the competition either a guy or girl is attached to one end of a bungy cord. The other end is attached to the wall. One individual must run to the opposite side of the bar and grab an alcoholic beverage from a designated individual(the individual is farther than the length of the bungy cable – this is what makes it pretty funny to watch). Then without spilling it return to their partner. Their partner must then down the beverage and place the glass upside down on their head. The entire process is timed and the couple with the lowest time wins 2 free jumps off the Nevis Bungy. James and Jessica from our bus ended up winning the competition. A video of their winning run is below.


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After the competition was full on partying until everyone had enough. Man. Errik took over 100 pictures this night. Haven’t got them up yet on facebook or Webshots, but here is an obligatory Black Eyed Peas video.



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Tour so far:


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