January 2008 Archives

Here some video from a Japanese TV show in which the hosts are loving the new Macbook Air.

A lot of people are debating the marketability of the Macbook Air. With the slowest processor of Apple's portable lineup, no optical drive, and an $1,800 price tag the computer will not be appealing to the vast majority of laptop owners. At least in America. In Japan it may become 'the next best thing' for three reasons.

1) Its small. Not just small. Very small. Japanese people like small things, especially gadgets.
2) Its shinny. Very shinny. Pretty. Super cute.
3) Its trendy. Cool. Hip. Its as much a fashion accessory as a computer.

For these reasons the Macbook Air might end up being more popular in Japan than in the US. As long as Apple does a nice job marketing it as the 'next trendy status symbol' over here its no doubt going to be a hit. Just look at the way the TV hosts go ga ga over it.

So New Zealand. I spent 17 days there. It was awesome. Not just awesome. Super wonderful. The country really is something special, and I almost wished I had missed my flight and was forced to live there.

Traveling from Japan to New Zealand was long, but not overly difficult. First the flight from Osaka to Singapore was around 8 hours. Not too bad thanks to the overall decent food of Singapore Airlines and their high tech entertainment system. You could even play old NES and Gameboy games through it. I slept and watched several movies. In Singapore I had some wonderful food from their overly lavish airport. The airport beat out any mall in my area for food and shopping. Plus they had giant pretzels. The second leg of the flight was around 10 hours and also featured a overly nice entertainment system. Though I kept falling asleep and then having my head all on the shoulder of the poor German man sitting to my right. Poor guy.

Auckland. The largest and most fun city in all of New Zealand. Standing at around one million people it isn't all that large as cities go (its actually a bit smaller than Hiroshima City or Milwaukee for instance) but has quite a bit to offer. With many trendy districts, lots of shopping, and a plethora of entertainment I was kept busy for four days. We stayed at a nice Bed & Breakfast housed in an old sea captains home overlooking the harbor in the burro of Ponsonby. The area was littered with old homes and buildings converted into shops and restaurants. Our location was only a quite 5 minute bus ride from downtown Auckland, and while the bus line was no where near Japanese standards of efficiency it was quite nice.

Downtown Auckland is wonderful. There were 100 year old stone buildings standing next to 50 story sky scrapers. After being in Japan, the land of neon and concrete buildings, the mix of classical and modern buildings in the heart of Auckland was rather refreshing. One thing I did find interesting was that there was a Japanese restaurant ever 10 meters. Man do the Kiwi's love their sushi. We took a trip to the top of the Sky Tower which stands at 328 meters in height and got a wonderful view of the city. The Sky Tower hold's the fame of being the tallest free standing tower in the Southern Hemisphere.

We spent a good deal of time walking around the city taking in the sights. I was taken back by how clean it was for a large city. Besides the plague of graffiti, which seems to affect all of New Zealand, the city was rubbish free. The city has a lot of open green spaces which made me happy. We eventually made our way to the Auckland Museum which sits on top of a large, green, tree covered hill overlooking the city. The museum had a very impressive collection of Maori art (the native people of New Zealand) as well as a nice visiting Darwin exhibit.

The next day we took a boat out to Waiheke Island where we enjoyed the local wine culture. Our B&B hooked us up with a local tour guide named Dave. Dave was a retired school teacher who had lived on the island for ages. He was very friendly and took us to some very vineyards. The wine tasting was good, especially when we added the joys of a cheese plate to the mix. After a bit of wine we walked along the island for a bit and took in the lush green landscape. God I miss cheese.

Christmas day was rainy. So instead of spending it outside we went to an aquarium! Kelly Tarlon's Antarctic Encounter was a real treat. We saw penguins, sharks, sea horses, and even got to watch the staff feed the very large sting rays. I was going to go diving in the shark tank, but sadly they didn't have that option available on Christmas day. How sad. Afterwards we saw Beowolf in 3D on the only IMAX theater in New Zealand. Good times.

The next day we took a three hour bus ride to the city of Whangarei, and then a taxi to the city of Tutukaka. I then spent the last five days of 2007 diving my heart out at the Poor Knights Islands. A unique marine reserve with stunning diving. The water was a bit cold, only 19 C, but the sights were wondrous. I took many a photo of large sting rays, kelp forests, and little sea slugs. Besides just diving the islands I did a day of wreck diving, seeing a sunken survey ship and frigate. For a full run down of diving, as well as a whole lot of photos and video, check out my blog post about it.

After Tutukaka we rented a car and drove. And by we, I mean me. I drove a car for the first time in nearly three years and I had to do it on the left hand side of the road. But on the upside driving around the Northlands is quite pretty. We headed up to the Bay of Islands for some relaxing and dolphin watching. Now the Bay of Islands is the tourist place in the Northlands, and I was quite worried that it would be packed full of people. But that wasn't the case. Apparently 'busy' is a relative word and things in New Zealand never seemed to ever be all too busy. Sure there were buses full of people and a whole lot of hotels in the small town of Paihai but I never felt crowded. During our full day at the Bay of Islands we took a dolphin tour with Sailing & Dolphin Adventures, to which we were lucky and did see some dolphins. I wanted to swim with the dolphins but couldn't because of the overly cute baby dolphin that was there. Awwwww.

After the dolphin watching we went to a small island for a while where we climbed to the top of the ridge to get some wonderful views of the area. The Bay of Islands was quite busy with holiday boaters and sailers, including a couple really big sail boats. The landscape reminded me of Fiji.

After the Bay of Islands we headed north to the cape! The very north part of New Zealand had very few people, and I often worried about running out of gas randomly. On the upside I did see quite a few sheep running around, and was even tempted to ride a horse down the beach. But that would be way too weird for me. We did stop to take random photos of a lot of the coast, as the views were too good to pass up.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel we drove up the 20 mile dirt road to get to Cape Reinga for some stunning views. We just happened to get there at the end of the day (meaning after 6, though it didn't get dark until after 9) and got some stunning light for photos. Again, awesome views. Once again, there is like nothing in this part of New Zealand. Its like hanging out in central South Dakota. Except with better views.

So the next day we headed south again. A long drive through more crazy curvy roads. I swear the longest strait stretch of road we encountered was a mile the entire trip. Along the way we made a short detour to look around 90 Mile Beach. Its what it sounds like. 90 miles of pure strait beach. People drive along the beach, so you had to keep an eye out for cars and tour buses moving at unusually fast speeds. Its the kind of beach I wish I could ride a horse along. Maybe next time...

Our last stop was the city of Opononi. A very small city along the Hokianga Harbor, famous for its historical sites and its massive towering sand dunes. They're so big people sled down them like they would a snowy hill. Crazy people. You can see the sand dunes across the harbor in the photo below.

The reason we were in this rather remote east coast city was for the Kauri trees. Massive trees, in the pine family, that live for thousands of years. They were once a major export for both their gum and fine wood. Exported almost to extinction with only 4% of the original forrest remaining. If you don't believe me about these tress being massive, just look at the info posts in the photos below for detailed size information. During the day we did a walk around the park, looking at trees and the wilderness. In the evening we did a wonderful guided nature tour with Footprints. The three Maori guides were amazing and gave us a native history and look at the forrest and its importance to the New Zealand environment. The largest tree Tane Mahute is called the Lord of the Forrest for obvious reasons.

The group of four trees below is called The Four Sisters. Next to that is a forrest path. Many of the pathways have sections that are raised, so as not to danage the root structure of the trees.

The final tree below is called Te Matua Ngahere, or Father of the Forrest. The tree is estimated to be over 4,000 years old. Such wonderful trees. I wanted to hug them.

Sadly our last day in New Zealand consisted mainly of driving the 5 hours back to Auckland through more super curvy roads. (I honestly felt on the onset of motion sickness from the roads) I actually enjoyed the freedom of driving around New Zealand. Being able to stop and see random shops and sites, as well as the joys of the open road. Once we reached Auckland we bummed around for the evening, catching a movie and buying gifts for our Japanese coworkers. Our flight didn't leave until 1 am so we had quite a bit of free time. I was quite sad to leave the city and country.

So thats my trip. I hope there were enough photos to keep you entertained. I fell in love with New Zealand, and maybe, one day I'll return.

For the last five days of 2007 I had the wonderful opportunity to dive at the Poor Knights Islands in New Zealand. The islands were one of my reasons for traveling to New Zealand over the holiday season and I'm happy to say that they did not disappoint. The Poor Knights Islands are located about three hours north of Auckland near the Northlands city of Tutukaka. These islands are special for several reasons. First, they're located along the EAC (The East Australia current. The one that Nemo takes a ride on in the movie. More specifically they're located on an offshoot of the EAC called the East Auckland Current) which picks up tropical fish, eggs, and larva from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and deposits them in the Poor Knights. This causes a unique situation where tropical and subtropical fish mix together in the same environment. The second reason is that these islands are protected as a marine sanctuary, which means there is no fishing of any sorts around the island. These two aspects make for a world class subtropical dive site like no other.

I booked my diving through the main local operator, Dive! Tutukaka. I'm glad I booked ahead as most days I was out were booked solid with divers. The dive shop was located right next to the marina for easy access. The staff was experienced, friendly, and rather funny. The equipment was in good working order, and I was impressed that they had dive computers on all their setups. The dive operation was quite vast. They ran five boats of various sizes (I think five boats. Maybe 6.) which went to different locations in the area. An added bonus were the optional lunches for $10, which I found quite good. A day on the boat, two dives, full gear, and guide (if needed) ran $225 New Zealand, which seemed to be about the standard price for the area.

Going out to the islands takes about an hour from Tutukaka. On my first day out I was lucky and our boats ran across a pod of dolphins near shore. The islands are not really all that big, and it doesn't take much time to sail around them. In between dives our skippers would do a slow tour of the islands showing off its various natural wonders. These include several large arches and the world's largest sea cave (by volume). The area wasn't too busy the first couple of days, but as the holiday season kicked off the number of small private boats in the area increased significantly. Luckily this didn't impact the diving and usually we were the only boat at a particular dive site.

Much like my dive in Japan, the subtropical makeup of the Poor Knights meant a whole lot of kelp. In fact quite a bit of kelp. Kelp forests. I'd never seen so much kelp in my life and was surprised by the environment. Fish swam through the kelp, slugs hid behind leaves, and divers weeded their way through it in search of photos. Plus the swaying of the kelp was kind of hypnotic at times. The best part of the subtropical setting is that you can touch anything. Unlike a coral reef where a misplaced fin might kill 100 years of coral growth the kelp forest is durable. Not only is it near impossible to actually rip off kelp, even if you did it would grow back in a few weeks. Kudos to you kelp. For a list of all the fish, plant, and animal life found around the Poor Knights check out this webpage.

The various fish in the area were quite friendly. It was quite easy to just rest among the kelp and let the fish swim around you. In the first picture below you can see a massive school of Blue Mao Mao engulfing my dive buddy. The dive site of Blue Mao Mao arch is rather famous for attracting large schools of these fish during the day. The site is the main reason Jacques Cousteau put the Poor Knights on his top ten list of dive sites. The bottom right picture has two Mao Mao fish facing off, possibly to mate.

I was also lucky enough to see some interesting larger fish. Most days I ran across quite a few eels hanging out among the rocks. I was even lucky enough to see a carpet shark sleeping between some rocks.

The Poor Knights is also known as mating grounds for various Sting Rays. Long tailed rays, short tailed rays, and eagle rays are a very common sight around the islands. During various times of the year its possible to see hundreds of rays hanging out together on some of the outer islands. The rays I saw ranged from small baby rays, to rays well over a meter and a half in size. Very beautiful creatures to watch when swimming. For some interesting ray video check out the end of the post.

While I do love fish I became slightly obsessed with taking photos of the various nudibranchs found around the islands. Nudibranchs being sea slugs. I'd say a good 25% of all the photos I took under water were of nudibranchs. As you can see below there are quite a few different types. Some no more than a few centimeters long, while others were longer than my hands.

The first two photos below show the common clown slug in various stages of procreation. The one on the left shows a slug laying its eggs, while the one on the right shows two slugs in the act of mating. The bottom two photos are of very large slugs. You can clearly see the gills on the back of each slug.

The third day of diving I took a break from the Poor Knights and decided to do some wreck diving. Close to Tutukaka are the wrecks of the HMNZS Waikato and the HMNZS Tui which were sank just for diving fun. Both wrecks are in various states of plant and fish growth and are fun dives. The only problem for me were the murky waters and the colder temperatures. I included some video of the wrecks below, if you care to see more of them.

Some pictures of me diving. You'll notice that I'm wearing a hood and a rather thick wetsuit. Thats because the water was only 19 C at the Poor Knights, and even less at the wrecks. It was cold. Probably as cold as I could handle. Many divers were wearing dry suits, and I kind of wish I had one when diving.

Lastly some video I took while diving, in case you wanted to see some fish or sting rays in action.

I really enjoyed diving the Poor Knights. Its a wonderful spot to go diving and I'd gladly go again. One of the best aspects of the islands, at least for me, were that they weren't busy. Even though it was the peak time of the year I never felt crowded at any dive site and often felt as if I had the whole ocean to myself. I can only imagine what the area is like during the cold winter season. Maybe next time.