Fun And Games On Weather Hold...
Christchurch, New Zealand must run on coffee. I have not seen a single Starbucks anywhere, but I have found as many as three independent coffee shops within 100 feet of each other several times.
I took a more leisurely morning today. The flights are delayed still, with the fifth weather hold grounding the first flight down to the ice. I am manifest on the second, so it could be a few days yet. That is not such a bad thing, as the Kiwis are a friendly lot, and this is a very pretty country. Christchurch was built from the start to feel like Oxford, and still resembles that old English town.
Of course there are exceptions...
I ran an errand looking for a bookstore. No Barnes and Nobles here... nope, in the same indoor mall that had a Kmart in it, there was a little mall bookstore, just like you remember indoor malls used to have. The music playing on the radio today had the coolest selection too, including:
Elvis Costello
The Clash
The Cure
Kate Bush
U2 (circa Joshua Tree)
The B52's (but not Love Shack)
The Cramps
and Iggy Pop
There were others that I have never heard of, but were discussed by a live DJ.
HERE is the radio station website. They rock!
New Zealand... familiar and exotic.
I did see this when I went out driving...
He's a synchretistic agriculture god of old New Zealand. A couple of months back, pagan Kiwis farmers would have brought some foolish foreigner to be tied to the base of the post and sacrificed to the sheep at the winter equinox to bring the spring back. If the foreigner saw his shadow, so the folklore goes, then he would be released before the sheep got too hungry.
And this, has been my trusty ride the last couple days. I won in a card game with some tough blokes near the airport.
It may not look like much, but the Hebdomadal Waka has it where it counts. It can make the Tasman Run in 12 parsecs, and I don't even need a hirsute co-pilot.
I took a more leisurely morning today. The flights are delayed still, with the fifth weather hold grounding the first flight down to the ice. I am manifest on the second, so it could be a few days yet. That is not such a bad thing, as the Kiwis are a friendly lot, and this is a very pretty country. Christchurch was built from the start to feel like Oxford, and still resembles that old English town.
Of course there are exceptions...
I ran an errand looking for a bookstore. No Barnes and Nobles here... nope, in the same indoor mall that had a Kmart in it, there was a little mall bookstore, just like you remember indoor malls used to have. The music playing on the radio today had the coolest selection too, including:
Elvis Costello
The Clash
The Cure
Kate Bush
U2 (circa Joshua Tree)
The B52's (but not Love Shack)
The Cramps
and Iggy Pop
There were others that I have never heard of, but were discussed by a live DJ.
HERE is the radio station website. They rock!
New Zealand... familiar and exotic.
I did see this when I went out driving...
He's a synchretistic agriculture god of old New Zealand. A couple of months back, pagan Kiwis farmers would have brought some foolish foreigner to be tied to the base of the post and sacrificed to the sheep at the winter equinox to bring the spring back. If the foreigner saw his shadow, so the folklore goes, then he would be released before the sheep got too hungry.
And this, has been my trusty ride the last couple days. I won in a card game with some tough blokes near the airport.
It may not look like much, but the Hebdomadal Waka has it where it counts. It can make the Tasman Run in 12 parsecs, and I don't even need a hirsute co-pilot.
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