Driven to Hamilton
Visit to Power Station
Tea
People I met at the talk

Fly to New Plymouth
Lunch
Up mountain
Road Blocks
Visit to Power Station
Tea
Demo at Polytechnic
Discussion at Carols

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was able to work out pause

MOTAT
Sky Tower
Look around town

On Sunday we met with the American Ham at Ian' s home. We left
at about 10:00 for Auckland reaching Hamilton at about midday
stopping for lunch there. We heard Alan on the radio just as
he was getting home so we did not have a chance to speak to him directly.
After lunch we continued on to Auckland Driving past Huntley power station.
When I got to Auckland I checked into new President Hotel where I was
upgraded to a two room suite. After looking around Auckland I ate tea
at a local pizza shop.

Drive to Rotorua
Looked at hot areas
Met Ian and Raymond
Had smoked trout
Met ??? for drinks
Had tea
Went to Teds for the demo at his place

Drive to Gisbourne
Meet wife and one son; Introduction to Burger King
Log in
Attenpted demo of Satellite Internet
Demo at night

Pick up by Basil
Drive to Wind Turbine
Travel to New Plymouth
Drive to Havelock North
Lookout
Log in at Havelock North
Demo at Hastings - David Inster

Te Papa
Star Trek
Bungy
Walk around city
Music Stores

Train to Picton
Ferry to Wellington
Walk around Wellington
Tea at the Pizza Place

Ring Laser
Antarctic
Evening with Roy and Carol

My Talk

I did not get around to getting any breakfast, so I walked to the
conference venue and got my email, and the email I had written off line.
Then there was the conference opening. Angus Tait gave a great
introduction for the conference. Then was morning tea, and
time for the NZART conference. Since I was not a member I decided to walk
to Riccarton Shopping Centre.

The walk was a little long, but good exercise. It was too cold not to
have a jumper, but not cold enough to be without one. Basically one side
of the body froze, whilst the other side was too hot. On getting
to the shopping center I got some breakfast/lunch and something to
drink. I then had a look at 'The Warehouse'. At 'The Warehouse' I bought
four Jean-Michelle Jarre CD's and a Leather belt. I think I bought
some batteries at the same time.

I then walked back to the hotel, dropped my bag off and went off for
some lunch at the racecourse. After lunch I went back to my room to wait
until the keynote lecture. The lecture was fantastic with Lyle
Jonstone talking how ham radio is like a national park for the
electro-magnetic spectrum.

On getting up I ate the welcome present, then went over to the venue
to get my email. I was also invited to the AKOROA trip with the wives
of the councilors, whilst the council met. I was invited at the same
time that Lyle arrived. I finally got to meet him - and we had not met
before.

I was told 10:00 for the Akoroa trip, whilst others were
told 9:30. The transport arrived at 10:15. Basically this is New Zealand
time. I got into the car with Gareth with two of the
women. The other car was driven by Winton and had two of the other women.

We took the scenic route to Akoroa, via the local substations,
inspecting the grounds. This is because Gareth wanted to claim the fuel.
It was really scenic. We arrived at Akoroa around midday and
looked round the city. City is perhaps the wrong word. It is more like I
suppose what Dawson's Creek would look like - It is only a summer city
really. On looking through the city we finally saw Winton and
then found the local community radio station open. The station
used transmitting equipment leased from one of the Auckland hams.

Following that we went onto the warf for lunch. That was nice.
It was a bit expensive, but was a nice wooden building. We heard about the
poor driving of Winton. After lunch we made our way back to Christchurch
over the mountain. This provided some good views. We also
went via the local cheese factory, but it only had a shop
open - the factory was closed for the season.

In the evening I went to the
conference venue and found a phone line. I needed to use an implement to
unplug the phone but at least I could log in. It was actually a free local
phone. I then picked up my attendance badge and my
conference pack. After getting my nametag I walked back to the
hotel, and got some tea.

Woke up late. When I woke up, Steve and I went into Christchurch by bus.
This was interesting. As soon as I got down town, Richard gave me a ring
on my Cell Phone. The cell phone dropped out soon after, due
to a network problem, rather than a signal problem. Steve told me to
give him a call on the repeater when he finished.

I went for a walk round Christchurch during the day. I first went to the
Cantabury Museum, which was interesting. They had an antarctic
museum which I think I took a few photos of. I then walked all arround the
city further. During that time I found an Air New Zealand office, and
booked my flight from Auckland to New Plymouth. It cost all of NZ$127.

I then found a DSE store and purchased a phone cord. I had lunch
at McDonalds, and then walked back to the town square.
When I got there I made a call on the repeater. Steve had just
been talking to a guy called Gareth, who worked as the
property manager for the local electricity distributer. Gareth offered
to pick me up - Basically he wanted some help to pick up a photocopier
from his work. So we went to the training rooms and grabbed the copier.
Then he took me to his office and system control for the area. The
tour was not quite your normal tour. They have an L&N 2600 for their
system control. They have recently lost their customers so they are now
only the distributors. We also picked up a laser printer. Then
we got Steve on the radio, and aggreed to pick him
up and visit the conference venue.

At the venue we dropped in the copier and printer off and went to the
hotel. I checked in, and made myself at home. I then tried to dial in.
This did not work. It worked out that there was a large 50 Hz hum on the
line that could not be fixed. The organisers had left a plate
of chocolates, fruit and biscuits as a welcome gift. This became the
next mornings breakfast. . I chose a ham roast which was nice,
with a pavlova.

Take the plane from Sydney to Christchurch - The flight is
somewhat empty - Just about all the flight got a window seat. I was
actually able to get a GPS lock whilst on the plane - The GPS logs are
in WinAPRS, and also in Waypoint files.



When I got to christchurch,
imigration and customs was easy. I was about 2nd in line for imigration.
It took about 5 minutes to get the
bags - Quite quick really. New Zealand customs were more interested in
food rather than any other imports. As soon as I went through customs, I
found a guy with a NZART sign - Turned out he was John Walker.

John turned out to be the editor of the NZART journal named Break-In. He
took me the short distance to Steve Davis' house in Upper Riccarton. Steve
turned out to be about the age I thought he would be, but was taller. I
also met his wife Libby a little while later. He has a 3 year old, and a
13 year old.

I just had a little time to relax. Steve went back to work. He got back
from work about 6:30 after I had eaten tea
with his family. Turns out his daughter had scouts to go to, and
that she wants to be a Queen's scout just like his mother.

That evening we had the first of my New Zealand talks at the Christchuch
05 meeting. It went well, with about 50 people present. Afterwards we
played a bit of APRS with some trackers with Steve, and a guy from the
University of Cantabury.

On getting back to Steve's place afterwards I logged on, finding out about
the BT phone connectors.