It's been a while, old friend

Last the intertubes heard, I was on a ferry to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. Since then, things have happened. Let me elaborate a bit:

Got to Wellington and it became clear that Wellington is one of those cities that you should plan ahead for. I was having trouble finding accomodations to last the weekend. I eventually went to the YHA (Youth Hostel Assoc) of Wellington and checked into a single for Thurs and Fri night. I was impressed with it for what it was.

Wellington is a cool-looking city. The center of town stares into a massive harbor and they've done a really good job of making the area around the harbor look very nice (take note all you eastern seaboard cities that have wasted your waterfronts). It's turned into one large sidewalk/running area that people are constantly using (lots of runner, in Wellington).




The city's not that large. Population of the proper city is below 200,000 and for the area is around 400,000 but the nightlife is concentrated into a couple areas and gives ya some options.

Suits! Never before I have I seen so many suits at bars before (outside of happy hour in midtown). When I was hanging out Thursday night at the bar of Tasting Room, I heard one guy beside me explaining FRA (forward rate agreements) to his buddy (CFA covered this stuff). But, being in the know, he was referring to them as "frah"s. To let them know that I was one of them and yet different, I said "Wow, future rate agreements. I feel like I'm back in New York."

Speaking of which, my new favorite fun thing to do over here is to say that I'm from New Zealand. This was prompted (couple nights later) when some drunk guy was trying to talk to me and I couldn't understand him. He was this big Maori looking guy and I honestly thought he was sarcastically (or over-drunkenly) trying to talk to me in some sort of native Maori language. That's how unrecognizeable his accent was at first.

Him: gibberish, possibly Maorian, gibberish... Wheel are da gills?
Me: [pause, considering the context - we're at a bar with almost all dudes - lightbulb! girls!] I don't know. I thought you were bringing them.
Him: [pause] You're not from around here. Are you?
Me: Born and raised!
Him: [quizzical look] Nah.

But, I should give credit where subconscious credit is due. This has long been a shctick of Darragh - where he tells girls that he's from Vermont and is a lumberjack.

Anyway, back to Wellington: Thursday night was fairly boring. The FRA guys were on their way out and I sat alone for most of the night. I woke up Friday morning contemplating windsurfing or actual surfing but decided it was way too damn cold.

Wind! Wellington wind is on par with the windiest Boston days (I'm talking crossing the Harvard bridge wind) because of the harbor. 20 mph wind seems to be the norm.

So, I decided to walk around for a bit. I came across a little skateboard park area but notice an empty basketball goal. I keep walking and I come across a bastketball goal with one (1) guy shooting around. I sit and watch him for a bit wanting to play (I'm dressed in jeans but at least I have my running shoes on). Eventually, some of the skateboarders are shooting around with him. A couple of his friends show up and we're in prime pickup-game territory so I jump up and ask if they're playing. They let me in on a four on four half court game. Skateboarders vs non-skateboarders. This quickly becomes boring (skateboarders = not-basketball players) and the skateboarders move on.

Two on two time. This quickly (d)evolves to basically a one-on-one game where the good-player (university student, about 6'3", 185, and could reverse dunk) and I go at each other and pass it to our teammate now and again. (I actually kept trying to get my teammate to drive cause he was quicker than the guy guarding him but he never wanted to and would pass it back to me.) The wind's blowing like crazy so 95% of all shots are layups and post-ups (I had a shot from the block affected by wind), but I manage a couple jump shots in lulls. I can handle the ball and shoot better than him but he's quicker and has much more ups.

What really messes me up is there are no lines on the court and the courts extends about twice as far as it should behind the backboard. I kept driving baseline and when I'd rise up to lay it in, I'd realize that I was too far behind the backboard. Rather embarrassing. Made me realize how much I subconsciously rely on the court-markings when I'm playing.

We played a good hour before we decided to keep score. During most of that time, we were pretty even, both getting the better of each other offensively about 60% of the time. Then, I started getting tired and he started to show off how much energy he had. We decided to play to 5 and (t)he(y) won 5-3.

I hung around them for 45 minutes getting something to drink nearby. They were all university kids, two of them in architecture and the other one was just ending his first year (so, undecided, I gathered). We talked the usual (politics, my finance jobs, NYC, NZ). And, I met the first person from New Zealand that seemed to have heard of MIT.

In Queenstown I read an interesting article saying that New Zealand males have the lowest ratio of college degree to non-college degree wages in the OECD (females are fourth lowest, I think). So, given the cost of education, college in NZ makes less economic sense than elsewhere (US has the highest such ratio). But, the article wasn't very specific and I don't know if this was just a starting wage or what.

Anyway, they gave me some nightlife suggestions and we parted ways. I went to the museum here and learned that the Maori tribes signed over their sovereignty to the British Crown in 1840 with a ~200 word treaty and saw a lot of exhibits lamenting how much forestland has become pasture in NZ.

Friday night I met an American girl at an Irish pub. She was a few months into traveling the world for two-years "doing some soul searching" after she got her chemistry degree from somewhere in Colorado.

Me: So, have you found your soul yet?
Her: No.
Me: Don't worry. You still have some time.

Pretty sure this annoyed her. But, I'm generally annoyed with this notion anyway. This notion being that one finds their true self while traveling around and living a life of leisure. It's just a romantic notion that people use to justify taking extended vacations. Don't get me wrong. Vacations are nice, and they allow you time to think and some new experiences. But, I think the best way to try and find out what you want to do with your life is to try doing something with your life and seeing if that works. If not, try something else.

Luckily, some Baltimore businessman enters the conversation "What's the likelihood of three Americans sitting down next to each other in Wellington?" I quickly kill a tiny bit of the mysticism "Yea, I guess we're likely to find Irish Pubs familiar".

Anyway, the three of us talk a while before the businessman leaves. The American Girl (Leelee) and I are pragmatic at this point and realize that neither one of us knows anyone else in this city. So, we keep hanging out. The notion of karaoke comes up and we find a karaoke place and put in songs. We play pool forever waiting for our songs to come up. They finally do two hours later. I sing Brown Eyed Girl and have three fans in the front. She sings Goodbye Earl and these same three time don't know that one. We call it a night.

Next day I get up and head a few hours north to Palmerston North. I have time to do all my laundry and pick up my laundry-book again (Cryptomicron). I have been reading it on and off for six months now whenever I travel. But, while spending some time reading it while doing laundry here, and after 300 total pages (it's 950 in total), I have really gotten into it. I spend the evening reading it until it's time for some food and the big rugby game.

Turns out Palmerston North is a college town and a small college at that. Everyone seemed to know everyone at the bar and everyone seemed to not know their own drinking limits. It's been a while since I've been stumbled into that many times in a night. It's hard to break into conversations in this type of environment and the game was a blowout (in the wrong (non-NZ) direction).

Sunday morning I drove to Turangi where I did a three-hour kayak trip through a couple rivers and a lake and read my book in the evening. Monday I did a 12-mile hike during the day (more book reading in evening). Today I drove to Rotorua (along the way I saw the largest thermal lake in the world (Thanks Alison for the heads up)) and I've been sitting around my room reading more book. Tomorrow is some hot springs. I'll add more details and some pictures for all mentioned in this paragrah in the near future cause I'm tired of typing and no one has actually read this far down.

Ok, you get a picture: