Day 1 – So this is what the Midwest looks like…

Boston: 7:12 PM; Los Angeles: 4:12 PM; Auckland: 11:12 AM (Friday)

Not that I’m surprised or anything. Square farms as far as the eye can see – which is fairly far on a clear day at 36,000 feet. The occasional town appears as if God himself threw it down like a splattered paintball from the heavens. I suppose such views are a reward for the work that went into actually getting here – the paperwork, emails, meetings, etc. Didn’t actually really start packing until the night before the departing flight – typical guy habits – and of course, couldn’t miss out on $2.50 Margarita Night at the Mexican restaurant in my hometown of Montpelier, Vermont; ironically the majority of my consumption was a local amber ale topped off with one Margarita at the end.

It’s going to be quite the change heading “down under.” Of course, the weather will be somewhat a shock, being mid-winter there and all. Perhaps a welcome change, summer finally started to rear its ugly head – northwestern New England style. That means highs in the mid and upper 80s with humidity that one could take a knife and cut blocks out of. Having that annoying Windows Vista and all, I was able to place one those weather ‘widgets’ on my desktop, and keying in Auckland, I happened to see that the weather hasn’t been getting much above 50 and nighttime bottomed out in the upper 30s.

What else can I say I’m looking forward to? Well one of the first things I will have to accomplish is finding out what the local brew is like – I’m guessing descending from British roots, perhaps there will be some very good IPAs and Bitters – neither of which I can espouse to being my top picks – but beer is beer I suppose. (Natty and similar brews notwithstanding)

It will be neat to find a ski area and perhaps take a few runs in July. I did read about the presence of some areas, including one just a few hours away from Auckland. I figure being volcanic islands, the mountains will be impressive and actually give me a good run for the money (pun intended? You be the judge :-))

Wow, twenty minutes later – still more square farms for infinity. Wake me up when we reach the Rockies.