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Kia Ora!

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

I’ve been in New Zealand for five days now, and we’ve been going non-stop. But I’m having a great time. The flight over was amazing and one of the best flights I’ve ever been on. The flight attendants were all great (and beautiful too), the meals were wonderful, and each seat had it’s own little mini entertainment center with tons of movies, TV shows, and music to choose from. I saw some great movies, and also a documentary about this great Maori singer named Anika Moa who cut an album in the U.S. a couple of years ago. The flight was right on time and we landed in Auckland about 5:20 AM on Sunday. It took me about 30 minutes to get through customs, and the only thing I had to have checked were my hiking boots to make sure they were free of dirt and mud. New Zealand is very careful about what they let into the country, especially anything biological that could introduce any foreign species into the country. After getting through customs, I relaxed in the terminal and waited for the rest of my Habitat team to arrive. By 8:00 all but two of us had arrived in New Zealand, and the others were to arrive later that day.  [read on]

Posted in Photos, Travel | 2 Comments »

I don’t think we’re in Eugene anymore…

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

I left Eugene just over 48 hours ago and I have to say it feels good. I’m now in San Francisco, having arrived on the train yesterday morning. I thought the train ride was going to be fun, but it turned out to be long and boring. It took 18 hours to get from Eugene to San Francisco, and since it was an overnight trip there wasn’t much scenery. I spent most of the trip reading and sleeping.

I arrived in SF to sunny blue skies, and spent yesterday afternoon just relaxing. Last night my friend Anna and I went to a great authentic German restaurant for dinner. I had Spaten Bier and Jagerschnitzel (sp?) which was a real treat. I also got to meet a friend of Anna’s named Jen who just recently returned from her own trip to South America. It was great to talk wth her, and hearing about her experiences only helped to solidify my own reasons for wanting to take a trip of my own. After dinner we went to visit my friend Justin who bartends at this great little dive bar downtown called the Tunnel Top. Apparently it used to be a Korean gambling club, and although the place was tiny, it had a great, funky vibe to it. The DJ was spinning some old soul and r&b, and Justin makes one of the best Manhattans I’ve ever had.

Today we got up and went for a short walk up the hill to Lyon Street, near the Presidio. There is a great set of stairs there, and I did a couple of intervals on the stairs and worked up a good sweat. Although I’ve been running regularly, it hasn’t exactly been good hiking weather in Eugene so I haven’t been doing much climbing. I think I’m going to feel it in my arse tomorrow.

I fly to New Zealand tomorrow evening and will arrive there Saturday morning (whch will be early Sunday morning NZ time). The one thing I’ve already figured out is that I packed way too much stuff, but I had already planned on unloading a bunch of it in NZ after the Habitat build is over.

Below are a couple of pics. The first is me at the train station with my humongous pack, and the second is the view from the top of the Lyon Street stairs overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

Amtrak, Here I Come! SF Bay from Lyon Street

Posted in Photos, Travel | 9 Comments »

Target: Kilimanjaro

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

In July I will be traveling to Tanzania, Africa with the hope of summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro. This is a big deal. At 19,340 feet (5,895 meters), it is definitely a force to be reckoned with. But what a beautiful thing it is…

Mt. Kilimanjaro

This picture is courtesy of BootsnAll staffer Donovan and MtKilimanjaro.org

Posted in Photos, Travel | 5 Comments »

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