Beggs and Anderson in America - The Movie!

Well, it's finally out. Two months late is better than never, right?

Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you all are having a great day.

Return to Siberia

It was a few nights before Christmas and I was in the last hour of my shift getting ready to go home, when with an almighty rumble came a major earthquake. It even felt big in Wellington - the building was rolling for about two minutes - and it was obvious that it must have been big somewhere. Within seconds, as the earth came to a stop reports started coming in from Gisborne of houses down, gas leaks, fires, and people stuck in elevators. It sure made for a quick last hour of work!

I cycled back to Siberia Bend on the Rimutaka Incline track, this time going a bit further and doing 26km all up. At one stage I hit 32kph acording to the GPS, which is pretty good for me on a mountain bike. Friends are trying to talk me in to doing the ride around Lake Taupo next year - somehow I think I might need a bit more practice first!

The column you can see to the right-of-center used to hold up a bridge over the creek bed, the site of the only major accident during the 77-year operation of the Incline railroad, when a huge gust of wind blew a train off the bridge and into the gully below. It is called siberia for its inhospitable environment, and even on a nice sunny day there is an eerie chill in this gully and in the tunnel leading to it.

100th Posting Extrordinaire!

Dolphins. A file photo.

Today I went paddling waka ama with some friends in Porirua Harbor, something I've been making a bit of a habit of lately. We went out to a rocky reef at the harbor entrance. After an hour or so of paddling, with Mana Island looming in the background, we were greeted by a school of dolphins skimming the water's surface around our boats. It was so cool to see them up close and in the wild like that!

On the way back in, but still in deep water the waka capsized and I was thrown into the water. Once i realized I wasn't going to die, it was fun. We had to work together to right the boat and get back into it, which was no mean feat.

It should be noted that this is BeggsBlog's 100th posting since it all began in 2005, with more postings in 2007 than any year previously. Go the BeggsBlog! I don't know if many people still read it and I know there has been large gaps between posts sometimes, but it has been good to have somewhere to write stuff down and post photos and keep a record of stuff that I've done over the last couple of years.

The great outdoors

Well it has been a busy couple of weeks! After my last post I returned from Auckland, worked for two days and then went to Greytown for a work trip and Christmas party with the section I used to be on. We rented a couple of holiday houses for the night, did a wine tour, had dinner at a pub and went wild on Greytown.

A few days later during my days off some new-found energetic friends and I cycled across the Rimutaka Incline which is the old route the rail service used to take between the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa before they built a tunnel. Rode about 22km all up, to a gully called Siberia and back. It was well worth it and got me considering getting a mountain bike so I can do it more often.

Last night I went camping with Kevin, Gary, and Kevin's flatmates Linda and Roly (the Germans) in the Kaitoke Regional Park. I turned up after the ranger had gone home so I got away without paying my $5 camping fee! We had a big campfire going and sat around it for several hours. It was a warm, still night and perfect camping weather.

I also attended another work Christmas party, this one for my current section on Wednesday night. It was just dinner and drinks, but a very good night was had by all. It was at a restaurant and coctail bar on the 17th floor of a hotel downtown, they had a live pianist and a wicked view out the window, it was a very classy affair.

Oh and I've also been working on finally editing the video shot on the great American road trip of 2007. You can expect to see the finished product avaliable online in the not too distant future. It will be an incomplete record of the whole trip, on acount of the camera malfunctioning in high-humidity and temperature at Galveston halfway through the trip, and us not shooting any footage after that point. But the footage we do have is good and I'm doing with it what I can.

On Thursday I'm going to Auckland again for undisclosed reasons. Should be a good trip.

Ok I think thats it. Goodnight.

Back by popular demand - BeggsDule II

Click on it to enlarge. You will also find a link to this post on the right hand side of the page, for future access.

Auckland trip

First of all apologies for ending the road trip blog so abruptly. I kind of missed out writing up the last leg of the trip which was the Pacific Coast Highway. I got back and went to work and kind of forgot to update the blog.

After nearly a whole month back at work it was high time for another holiday, I thought, so I have spent this weekend in Auckland. Highlight of trip so far (and unlikely to be topped) was riding along with the Eagle helicopter on Friday night.

It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far, exhilerating, surreal, and a great deal of fun. In all I had nearly four hours with them, 3 hours in the air. When I arrived at the base they told me that we had to go down to Ardmore to fix something on the chopper. I strapped myself in, the chopper lifted off and 12 minutes later we were on the ground at Ardmore. I stood around and watched planes for a while, while the mechanics worked on our machine and I thought this much-looked-forward-to excursion might be a bit anti climatic. Oh how wrong I was.

After lifting off again we heard a job on the radio where a male had abducted his ex at gunpoint and held her for an hour, so we were flew over the area and looked for the suspects vehicle. Before long, a hold-up alarm was raised at a bank and we were directed there, arriving before any ground units to find the bank appeared closed and it was a false alarm. Then there was a report of 6 people fighting at an address that we were just about to fly over, so we swooped in and had a look. Looking down at the house we watched and reported to comms that there were people running from the house, and then back into it and it appeared someone was being chased. With this still going on beneath us, a ground unit got into a pursuit with a vehicle that failed to stop and we diverted there.

In about 90 seconds we had the subject vehicle in sight, just as ground units lost sight of it, and we picked up the chase. The car was stolen, and it was being driven fast and dangerously. We watched as it nearly had an accident no fewer than three times, once coming within inches of clipping a vehicle. As the driver upped the anti and sped off into the Waitakere ranges, it became obvious that he just didn't have a chance. We were all over him. As he drove as fast as he could, we looped around and acended and decended and kept up with him with ease. As the car drove on to a gravel road he began to fishtail out, but he kept going and going. It lasted about 20 minutes before the offenders drove up the driveway to a house and bailed on foot. One ran into the bush and another into the house, while a female occupant made really no attempt to get away. People in other houses nearby hurried outside to see what was going on, waving up at us, it was really quite odd. We were running seriously low on gas and had to leave to refuel, so as soon as the first patrol cars arrived we were off. As we made a quick turn to head back to base, the last thing I saw was 3 officers holding one of the offenders down on the ground as he struggled to get away. Shortly we were back on the ground at the base. The pilot hopped out and refueled quickly, before we were back in the air and heading back to the scene where we still had one offender outstanding. We scanned the surrounding bush with an infrared heat-seeking camera but did not locate the offender that way. Officers on the ground located him in the ceiling space of the house that he had run into bringing a successful outcome to a chase that would have been unsuccessful without the help of the helicopter. Just before 8pm we landed back at base, I thanked the staff of eagle and left. Then went out for dinner and bored everyone with my stories from the air.

Back on the west coast

Wildfires

The trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles should have taken a little under four hours. It took eight hours, including three and a half hours in standstill traffic as I-15 and I-215 at San Bernadino was intermittently closed due to a huge wildfire burning in the area which had already destroyed several homes.

This is the first view we had of the fire, just a smoke plume in the distance.

Before long traffic ground to a halt. Turned on the radio to hear the announcer bellowing out a string of road closures and fire reports. This is one of 12 wildfires burning across seven counties in southern California, and it is still burning tonight.

In the picture above you can see the median strip on fire, with even the wooden posts holding up the crash barrier going up in flames.




















Finally made it to Los Angeles with no problems, city is a bit smoke logged though!

Hoover Dam and Las Vegas

This is the Hoover Dam. We drove right over to top of it, which people are only going to be able to do until next year. In the background you can see the pilons for the new road they are building to take traffic off the dam and supposedly make it safer from terrorist attacks.

San Antonio to El Paso to Arizona

The road from San Antonio was long, and had few stops of interest. It was however along I-10 on this stretch when the speed limit reached the highest yet on this trip, at 80mph (130kph). I killed so many bugs and butterflies with that windshield that it ceased being funny. I concluded the speed limit must be a Texas pest control policy.

On arrival in El Paso I could hardly wait to get across the border into Juarez. It was a hot day and there really was nothing for it but to have another beer in Mexico. At a cantina just off Juarez Ave, about a mile from the international bridge we came in on, we met a waiter who spoke perfect english with an accent from north of the border. His name was Caesar. On account of his accent I asked him where he grew up, and he hesitated a moment before saying "well, I don't have to lie about it anymore because I'm over here now." He told us that he was born in Mexico and when he was two his parents took him to the United States. They bought false I.D. papers, birth certificates etc. Caesar got all the way through school and at 17 he joined the US Navy with the hope of eventually going to college. He served in the 1st Gulf War. In 2002 he left the military and signed up for college. In 2005 he had only one year left before he gained his degree and he applied for a student loan. They caught him out with his false birth certificate and he was deported to Mexico after serving a six month jail term, which is how he came to be waiting tables in Juarez.

The following day in the morning we went to a few stores on the US side of the border, before crossing into Mexico again. This time we went to a resturant first and enjoyed some awesome dirt-cheap Mexican food. After that we went on a bit of a south-of-the-border pub crawl visitng cantina of all variety. I tried four new beers that day - Indio, Carta Blanca, Dos Equis and Bohemia.

One of the bars we went to was about the worst bar I've ever been to I think. It was one of those basement bars, you know when you have to walk down the steps from street level. This may be fine in an ordinary modern western city, but Juarez smells like crap at the best of times, and it gets even worse underground. To imagine the restroom at this bar is easy. Picture the dirtiest public restroom you've ever been into, then add an offensive smell of overflowing city sewers, then smash the toilet bowls and take away the running water.

The next bar we went to was completely different, i mean it must have been a cantina fit for a king in Juarez. And at US$2 a beer, you'd expect nothing less. It was so classy in fact that we met a guy visiting from El Paso for the day who is running for the US congress in the 16th congressional district of Texas. His name was Leeland White and he was a very interesting guy. Probably a bit of a radical, from what I learnt from talking to him, and possibly a serial cantitate who has very little chance of winning the seat, but a very interesting guy all the same. Juarez is a really cool city and it is really bizzare to make the quick transition across worlds simply by walking across a bridge over the Rio Grande, and paying 35 cents to the authorities as you do that.

From El Paso we had another long drive up to Holbrook Arizona, crossing the state of New Mexico on the way. In New Mexico, about 50 miles west of Socorro, we visited the 'Very Large Array', the largest radio astronomy observatory in the world, consising of 27 radio telescopes (which loook like satellite dishes) each roughly the size of a baseball triangle. It is best known from its appearence in the 1997 movie 'Contact' and I tried to find it last time I was in New Mexico but never quite got there. It was an impressive site and amazing to think of all the money being spent on such far out scientific research. However, no matter what the movie portrayed in real life the observatory is much less about reaching out to aliens than Jodie Foster might have led you to beleive.

In the afternoon we visited the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, an environment completely unique from anything I have ever seen before. Trees and wood from millions of years ago which has become solid rock while and even grown semi-precious jewells.

Then finally, we arrived in Holbrook Arizona where we stayed in the Wigwam Motel, a relic from the 1950s on the old Route 66.

From the road

Hey guys, sorry for the long wait since the last post, have been a bit out of reach of the internet for the last few days, in Mexico and the Arizona desert. There are lots of stories and photos to come from Juarez, El Paso, Petrified Forest National Park, the Very Large Array, Hoover Dam, and everything in between, but we've just arrived in Las Vegas and I left my camera in the car... That I don't just go get it makes me sound lazy, but we are staying at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino.. the room is in World Tower II, and the car is way over in West Parking Garage Blue Level 5E. I'm thinking I might be able to fit in a more decent blogpost between going for a swim in the 67,000 square foot pool and my buffet dinner tonight so watch this space.

In the meantime, I leave you with the following photograph. Yes it is exactly what it looks like.

San Antonio

They call it the Venice of the Americas, and it is one of the finest places I've ever visited. Today we made the short trip from Austin to San Antonio and on arrival immediately set out for the riverwalk.

The riverwalk is lined by bars and resturants and stretches out for miles. The resturants serve the nicest Texan and Mexican food ever. Ever.

Also today: we remembered the Alamo. Site of a desisive battle in the fight for Texas Independence in 1836. The building itself was constructed from 1718-1724 as a mission. A garrison of 900 Texans retreated to the Alamo in February 1836 as the forces of Santa Anna advanced. Outnumbered three to one the Alamo fell and Santa Anna advanced to San Jacinto, where he ultimately lost and Texas decleared its independence.

Tomorrow we make the long drive from San Antonio to El Paso and Juarez across the border in Mexico. A distance of 552 miles, the trip will take at least 8 hours. It's still hot hot hot here so I'm going to go have a swim. For your information and in the interests of providing an acurate record I have included a photo of the motel pool. The temperature here reached 92-f (33c)

In the oval office...

Not the real Oval Office, but an exact replica at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library in Austin.

Also in Austin:

The State Capitol building.

We then went out to the 6th Street entertainment district in the evening. Austin has a really cool collection of bars down 6th Street.

Short drive through to San Antonio this morning, going to see the Alamo and enjoy the best Texan and Mexican food in the world!

Lone Star City

Brazos Bend state park yesterday.

Cruising down the freeway in my fast fast car. The buildings in the background is the Galleria district of Houston, where we went to a big mall. Said mall contained ice-skating rink and 500+ shops.

At Galveston Island this morning, the farthest east point of this trip.

Oil tankers lining up to get into the Houston Ship Channel. This is the busiest port in the United States for international freight.

Me with the Saturn 5 rocket which blasted the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, now stored at Rocket Park, part of the Johnson Space Center.

The flight deck of a space shuttle.

The San Jacinto Monument, at the site of the San Jacinto battleground where Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836. The monument is 177.7m tall, a full 8m taller than the Washington monument. Go Texas!

Tomorrow we're off to Austin to see the capitol of Texas.

In other news, Dairy Queen has just released their best blizzard ever. It contains vanilla ice cream and reece's peanut butter cups. Does it get any better than this?

Dallas to Houston

Zig-zagged down from Dallas to Houston, visiting the Dr Pepper Musuem in Waco, and then going east on US-84 to Anderson County so that Daniel could get a photo in front of the sign, and then south on I-45 into Houston.

Hit a bit of a hickup leaving Dallas when an 18 wheeler flipped over about half a mile ahead of us, forcing us to do a u-turn on the freeway and drive across the median strip (with police approval!!)

On the way down I-45 we stopped in Huntsville and went to the Texas State Prisons Musuem.

"Ol' Sparkey", the electric chair of Texas, where 361 men were executed between the 1920s and the 1970s.

Last day in Dallas

The JFK Memorial

Me at Dealey Plaza. The X in the center lane marks the exact spot where the first shot hit JFK as the motorcade drove through on Nov 22 1963.

Looking up at the Texas Schoolbook Depository. The sixth floor, second from the top is where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots from.

Amarillo to Dallas

This was a long boring drive, uniformly flat scenery and a ride road the barely turned a corner. Boring until we got to Dallas. Dallas has the most complex roading system I have ever seen. So many freeways and loop roads and highways all intersecting with one another. We were swept into this whirlpool of interchanges ages before the signature high rises of downtown Dallas emerged from the horizon, the city is so huge.

After finding the motel and getting my bearings and confidence back we set off to go the Texas State Fair. This is one of the highlights of the trip so far. It was such an awesome atmosphere, and there was so much going on. Sometimes its hard to find the true soul of a place when you are staying in hotels and driving everywhere you need to go, but this really helped us see the real Texas. At the fair there was a huge auto show, and I found a vehicle that gets 12 miles per gallon (see picture). By comparison the rental car is getting about 31mpg.

Other photos from the fair:

The state fair was just awesome. The largest event of its type in the world, a sprawling complex of just about everything Texan you can think of. And deep fried lattes. When we got back to the motel Jay Leno was covering the Texas state fair on The Tonight Show.

Update at 1600hrs Friday - I'm in a mall in Dallas using a wifi hotspot that keeps cutting out. Been at Dealey Plaza, the JFK memorial and the Sixth Floor Musuem this morning - photos and more from this to follow next post.