New Zealand Adventure - Day 3

[Composed 1/9/2019]

Today's plan was to explore Auckland, but doing some Googling last night turned up a fun adventure just outside of the city. We arrived at the waterfront at 10:00am, just in time to catch a ferry to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto Island is a recent volcanic creation, being about 700 years old. The island promised hiking, views and truly unique terrain. It delivered on all of these fronts.

The popular trail leads from the dock-drop off point nearly directly to the summit, but that's too easy. Instead, we took an out of the way path along the coast. The reward for this was to see the volcanic rock of the island meet at the sea shore, and it was well worth the extra walking time. Even the seagulls looked impressive in the setting, rather than being the drab french-fry stealing birds we're used to seeing on the East Coast.

After a walk along the coast we made our way inland and up-hill to approach the summit. One of my favorite sites on the island was the large fields of black volcanic rock with a single plant thriving in the middle of it. Lava always wins the first battle against vegetation, but in the long run, even volcanic rock is no match for the tenacity of life.

Before hitting the views though, we stopped at a couple of lava tubes to explore them. As we arrived, a few kids came out of one tube and confirmed to us that it does go all way through. Shira passed on exploring this cave, but I couldn't resist. I flipped on my flashlight, and carefully scooted down into the opening of the cave. Within a few steps I found myself in a pitch black cavern that was tall enough for me to stand in. Hanging from the ceiling was an odd form of vegetation. I carefully pressed on, and in another half dozen steps I could see the light at the end of the tunnel; literally. I had to wiggle my way out of the cave a bit, taking a big step up onto a small ledge before re-appearing into the open.

The whole experience took about 5 minutes and was truly awesome. I'd gone caving! Sure, it was the bunny-slope of caving, but I'd climbed into the pitch black and made it out on the other side. What fun!

When I came out I chatted it up with the family that had been exploring the cave when we arrived. One of the children explained to another visitor that inside the cave this person would find roots from the trees above hanging down. Of course! That's what that 'mystery' vegetation had been. How had I not seen that immediately?

After the lava tubes we made our way to the summit for an impressive view and then hurried back down to the ferry. Shira was convinced I'd over-done it - but we had a whole 10 minutes before the last ferry of the day was to arrive.

I can't recommend Rangitoto enough. It's a natural wonder that's only a short boat ride away. But do make sure you bring plenty of water, that sun will cook you on that black volcanic rock!

The ASUS C302C Chromebook | A Traveler's and Hacker's Deram

It's been years since I've bought a business oriented laptop, having relied on desktop machines of late. I did keep an old laptop around for the few occasions where I found myself needing to get work done away from my desk. Sure it was heavy, had subpar battery life and wasn't a joy to work on. But it worked and I used it so infrequently I couldn't justify buying a sleek new machine to replace it.

With our extended trip to New Zealand coming up, I realized I needed to revisit the topic. For most trips, relying on my foldable bluetooth keyboard and phone works. But for this longer adventure, I wanted to know that I could handle any dev request that came my way.

Strolling through Best Buy, it was tempting to go all out and buy a super thin and super light laptop. But the cost, both in dollars and setup time dissuaded me. Instead, I opted to buy a Chromebook ASUS C032C. I hoped Chrome OS would serve as a sort of zero maintenance web terminal.

After having used the laptop on two trips (one to Puerto Rico and the one to New Zealand) I can report that I couldn't be more satisfied with my purchase.

The hardware is ideal. The laptop is thin, lightweight and has a reasonable keyboard and screen. The choice of offering only two USB-C ports for connectivity was off-putting at first, however, the setup has grown on me. The real win is that I can charge the laptop using the same USB-C cord and charger that I use for my phone. Charging the device this way is slow, but it does the job. And speaking of charging, the battery life on this laptop is extravagant. They claim it can go 10 hours on a single charge. It may not last that long, but it does last hours longer than any other laptop I've owned.

The ability to fold back the screen to make either a tent or a tablet is nice a bonus. I typically use the device as a standard laptop, though there's no doubt that portrait tablet mode is a win for reading lengthy documents.

What makes the device truly rock is the software. As I'd hoped, the device is essentially maintenance free. I registered my work and personal Google accounts and just like that I was up and running. Gmail, Drive, Photos--they all just work. It's a joy.

But what about the geeky stuff, you may ask. The coding and such. Here the Chromebook has me covered as well. The secret is the high quality ssh client. Using this, I'm able to connect up to a Linux server where I can do the vast majority of development and debugging tasks. The ssh app even offers the ability to mount a remote host as a local filesystem. The catch here, of course, is that I can only use the Chromebook for development if I have a reliable network connection. Given all the benefits of the setup, I can live with this requirement. (Besides, if I don't have access to the Internet, how am I supposed to push any fixes I make locally?)

Finally, the Chromebook comes with a trick up its sleeve I'd not anticipated: you can run any Android App on the device. So when I needed to have a Skype call, all I had to do was install the standard Android Skype app. And when I needed to jump on a VPN, installing the OpenVPN App did the trick.

In short, I'll gladly take my ASUS Chromebook over a Windows laptop, Apple iPad or Android tablet. This thing rocks.

New Zealand Adventure - Day 2

[Composed 1/8/2019]

The general plan for our trip was to spend a week touring New Zealand then hop on a flight to Melbourne, Australia to take in a few days at the Australian Open. But as luck would have it, Shira didn't need to wait a week to see tennis. The Auckland Open Tennis Tournament happens to be going on this week and today we took in a day of the action. As we strolled the grounds we came around the corner to find John Isner practicing on one of the side courts. The venue is comparatively tiny, so it was a real joy getting to sit court side and watch Isner work on his serves. I was almost too close to the action to use the telephoto lens on my DSLR.

As the first official match of the day was starting up, Shira led us to our seats. To my surprise, we sat in the first row directly behind one of the baselines. We were mere feet from one of the ball kids. Even I have to admit it was a thrilling to be so close.

We cheered on as American Steve Johnson took on Mayer, Marach and Pavic took on Fognini and Berretini and Humbert took on Cuevas. For Johnson, Mayer and the doubles match, we were sitting close enough that we could hear the players as they chattered away. Steve Johnson for his part, thanked the ball boy every time he was handed a ball; so courteous. Fognini and Berretini were far less kind, chewing out a lines person for a call they didn't like and demanding snappier delivery of the balls from the ball kids.

We also got to see the darling of the tournament, David Ferrer. He's made 13 appearances at the tournament, and promised this would be his last. He's retiring this year and this is one of the few tournaments he's playing. Our connection to Ferrer is that we saw him play Nadal in the French Open on our 15th wedding anniversary. Given that we're celebrating our 20th, it seems especially appropriate to see him play again. He won his match and the crowd couldn't have been happier. [Ferrer would end up retiring in the 3rd game of his next match. We therefore got to see his final match in Auckland.]

When Humbert took the court, he was accompanied by a ball kid. The two of them look liked brothers who had wandered onto their Dad's tennis court. Whatever Humbert lacks in age he made up for in skill, besting his opponent 7-5, 6-1. That kid is clearly the future of tennis.

In many ways Auckland has a familiar feel to it. Sure, folks are driving on the wrong side of the road, but other than that and the accent, you'd be hard pressed to know you're not in the US. We're staying on a busy street with no shortage of shopping. Our way to the tennis courts brings us through a delightful park and a college campus. It all feels 'normal.' And then you have an experience like the one we had ordering a grilled cheese at the tournament. I mean technically it was bread, cheese and grilled. But it was an altogether different animal than the one my Mom used to make for me growing up. This was just a friendly reminder that we're half-way around the globe.

Tomorrow is our last day to experience Auckland and then we hit the road to explore more of New Zealand.