Where is Darran?

Got up early and got my stuff together. The bus leaves Wellington at 8 AM from YHA which is a short walk from Base. The ride to Taupo is a long one. I think I spent most of the time resting and browsing the web on the smartphone. Eventually we got to Taupo and got checked in. I took a short walk around Taupo and made it back to the hostel in time for a dinner that was sponsored by the hostel. Later on we went to the Base bar, The Element, and had a few drinks while playing cards. Most of us were looking to have an easy night and it was a quiet night at the bar so we took it easy. The bar ended up hosting a poker tourney and I ended up getting second after hour or two head to head battle of attrition. After that we headed back to the hostel and got some rest.

Some pics from the ride:

Tour Progression:

View New Zealand 2009 in a larger map

Today was pretty laid back. I got up early, ate some breakfast, took a shower, and packed my gear. Eventually the bus came and we all piled on. Our destination was Wellington which is around a 250 km ride according to Google Maps. The journey takes some time though because you have to get a ferry to cross the Cook Strait.

Below are some pics of crossing the Cook Strait

Even the sheep have to take a ferry in between islands

I was sort of fretting the entire day because one of the Tri-Nations games was in Wellington that night (All Blacks vs. Australia) and I hadn’t booked accommodation. Luckily, my bus driver was able to find me a bed at Base Wellington. When we got in the city you could tell it was game day. The city was packed and everyone was out drinking and partaking in other pre-game activities. I took it easy, checked in, unpacked some gear, and made a trip to the grocery store to get some food for the evening.

At this point in the trip I was looking forward to Auckland and contemplating how to get some long-term accommodation arranged and find a job. All of my friends were now gone or in different parts of the country and the buses heading north only have a handful of people on them making it hard to find and assemble a crew.  Had a great nights sleep.

Below is a short and sweet status update. Going to get through some status and then hopefully get to some travel posts.

Happenings since April:

Helped bang out another pretty major release at SM
Still commuting by bike
Have put in some pretty solid swims at Barton Springs on a consistent basis
Completed Ironman France in Nice, France
Visited Kate Becker in Nice
Saw Lukey B and Dave and some of their mates in Manchester
Met up with Jacko and Michelle in London and went to the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park
Exploratory visit to Copenhagen, Denmark
Visited Uli and Kristin in Hamburg, Germany
Visited Stef and Sven in Halle, Germany
Finished Walden by Thoreau, The Communist Manifesto by Marx, Unit Test Frameworks, most of Java Power Tools, and began the Critique of Pure Reason, The Wealth of Nations, and The Republic of Plato

Looking forward:

Would like to knock off a half or two in the second half of 2011
Complete my current reading and further reading
Get my schedule discipline back to where it was in 2007-2008
Further increase bicycle commuting
Get the diet sorted again
Find or start a running group in the neighborhood – bare minimum: get runs in during the week
Join some kind of social cycling effort
Possibly join T3 again for weekend rides and runs
Have a greater impact at SM
Get some Android Dev going and get further connected with Ubuntu (possibly Ubuntu Orchestra or just more involved in Ubuntu QA)
Control my mouth..hehehe
Last but not least: take another stab at sobriety