Where is Darran?

There is no denying I have let the site go on the fritz. Regardless of this disconcerting realization, I have decided to turn it around by making a few posts tonight. Additionally, I believe I am determined in my effort to exhibit better discipline in keeping some fresh content headed this way. I will keep posting the New Zealand tour progression(probably a bad idea to have started this) and then look to make some posts on some of the generalities around travelling/backpacking and some of the highlights I’ve had when getting out and about. Google Analytics says the How-To’s are where the traffics at. Apparently, people like to learn. I will look to putting out some more How-To’s, but my focus will most likely be travel related.

Note: This is not a complete fix, but more of a hack to get internet working on client VM’s when bridged networking does not allow client VM’s to access the internet.

After switching a Windows XP VM to bridged ethernet, the XP VM was no longer able to access the internet. I found a few solutions to this problem and this one seems to be the easiest.

To fix the loss of internet when using a bridged adapter on Virtualbox, configure the VM to have both a NAT and Bridged ethernet adapter. (see the screenshots below). To do this select the VM (must be powered off), click the settings button and then navigate to the network section of the Settings wizard. Configure Adapter 1 to bridged and then enable and configure Adapter 2 to be NAT. Press OK to save the changes and then turn on the VM. Give it a few seconds for the resources to be provisioned. You should now have access to both local and internet resources from the VM.

The NAT interface will be used to connect to internet resources, while the bridged adapter will be used to connect to local resources. This allows you to RDP  or console into the VM from other computers on your local network and still have internet access on the VM.

Adapter 1 (Bridged)

Adapter 2 (NAT)

Today was a good day. Having had an a night of great food, drink, and festivities, we were ready to summit Mt. Fyffe and then move on with life. We woke up, had a hearty breakfast, packed our bags, and then made the last charge to summit Mt. Fyffe.

Brekky

We encountered some snow on the trail, but most of it was easy going. The winds were pretty high, but we were in good spirits. Eventually, we made it to the peak. The view is spectacular and I carried a few cups and the rest of the bottle of Johnny Walker to the top. Mikey and I finished it off while reveling in our own glory.

on top

Kaikoura from Mt. Fyffe

Now it was time to head back to base camp, pick up our packs, and return to our starting point. From there we would grab some groceries and then make our way to Hanmer Springs.

base camp

The drive to Hanmer Springs took a while. We ate sandwiches at a highway rest stop and arrived at Hanmer Springs in the night. By the time we got to camp we were knackered, but still needed to eat dinner and clean up. Mikey and I made Chicken Tiki Masala. This was my first time to be introduced to the dish and since then I have made an effort to keep it in my normal routine of dishes I make at the house. Thanks Mikey! I think Mikey and I browsed the internet and watched TV in the community room and then went to bed. Our bed just happened to be in the back of a minivan from Spaceship Campers. It’s good to have a bed while on the road. Tomorrow we would check out Hanmer Springs and then head to Christchurch.

This was one of my favorite and most memorable days of New Zealand.

It started off by picking up some passes for the Mt. Fyffe Hut. The hut is maintained  by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and a pass is required to spend a night in the hut. The pass is a steal at 5 NZD a night for an adult. This hut is well maintained, has 8 bunks with mattresses, back-country bathroom facilities, and a wood fired stove for cooking and heating. There is also a rainwater collection system for drinking water and washing dishes.

Next, we went to check out the Kaikoura seal colony. Mikey had already been there, but was nice enough to go back so that I could see it too. Seals are very good at blending in with their surroundings. Unless you get a close up picture of a seal, your seal pictures are most likely going to look like rock pictures.

On the way to the seal colony we noticed a Cray stand. Cray is crawfish in Kiwi. They were cooking up a few different things and we settled on Cray fritters. It was a good choice.

We were going to spend a night on the mountain which meant that we were going to need some food. The grocery store was next on the list. We decided to eat right on the mountain and settled on some steaks, potatoes,  and vegetables for the evening meal. For breakfast we got some eggs and other tasty items not normally found on the trail. From the store, we headed off to the trailhead. Once there, we packed our bags and started our way up the mountain.

The trail is an access road making it not too hard to hike, but there is a good deal of elevation change. The hut is at 3600 feet in elevation. Below is a picture of Kaikoura from somewhere along the trail.

With some good conversation and Mikey’s good singing we made it up to the hut, dropped our bags, and attempted to summit Mt. Fyffe. After analyzing the pace Mikey and I were holding, we decided to head back to the hut and summit the peak the next day.

If you do make it up here, make sure to bring a cook kit and some cooking utensils. Mikey saved the day by bringing a cook kit. Without that, we would have had to get very creative preparing and eating our meal.

After doing some dishes Mikey and I got into the bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label he had purchased the night before. We also got some good games of Backgammon going before going to bed. Below is a picture of Kaikoura at night from the hut.

Tour progress so far:

View New Zealand 2009 in a larger map

There are quite a few programs for watching TV with on linux, but the best one I have found is me-tv! You can download me-tv from https://launchpad.net/me-tv/+download or via your distributions package manager. It makes scanning for channels, adding channels, watching TV, and recording shows a cinch. Big up to me-tv!