Waikiki beats the winter in Wellington

On Monday we got up early to get out to Kahului Airport for our flight to Hilo. We had such a great time in Maui but it seemed to go so quickly.

We picked up a rental car in Hilo and took the scenic drive around the coast to Kona. The resort we stayed at was located in a nice bay with heaps of restaurants and souvenir shops. This was a good chance for us to sit back and relax for a day or so, soak up a bit of sun and even squeeze in a bit of shopping at the new mall in Kona.

On Wednesday we drove down the coast and up the mountain towards the volcano. Unfortunately the weather changed pretty quickly and before long we were driving in torrential rain. It didn't let up and a lot of the roads were closed due to dangerous levels of sulphur and recent lava flows so we bailed and drove onwards back to Hilo.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived back in Honolulu. Our flight was interesting as the plane was mostly full with US marines coming to Oahu before they head off to Afghanistan.

Waikiki is a pretty mad place, there are people everywhere! Who said we're in a recession? The hotel we're staying at is just across the road from the beach and the view from our room is pretty awesome. It's really warm here - 30 degrees today so we hit the shops this morning and then went down to the beach later this afternoon. We'll try and get down to the beach earlier tomorrow before it gets too hot. Having a great time!

It's a hard life

Over the last few days we've explored all over the island of Maui.

On Wednesday we drove around the west side of the island and had a good look around the shops at Lahaina. The road around the NW part of the island was pretty narrow and a far contrast to the 4 lane highway that goes from Kahului to Kihei - well worth it though as the scenery was spectacular.

We tried to drive down the road to Hana yesterday but had to turn back as the road was closed due to roadworks - this was the perfect excuse to grab some lunch from the locals cooking some delicious teriyaki bbq chicken.

I've windsurfed the last 4 out of 5 days and decided to chill out today and watch some of the action at the Maui Race series. Yesterday I swapped the slalom gear I had rented for a freeride board and a few wave sails - this was heaps of fun in the 25-35 knots at Kanaha yesterday. I'm hoping to get a final sail in tomorrow afternoon before we head to the big island on Monday morning.

The place we're staying at is really cool - a nice swim in the morning and a bit of sunbathe to get things started has become a favourite of ours.

This afternoon we drove up to the Haleakala crater - it was really cold up the top but good to learn about how the island of Maui came to be how it is today.

We've uploaded plenty of photos for you to see more of our travels.

Fun times in Maui

Sheryl and I arrived in Maui yesterday afternoon. First stop was to pickup our rental van then we headed down to Neil Pryde Maui to get sorted with some windsurf gear for the week. What a cool shop, the crew there were really friendly and helpful too. Thanks guys!

Armed with some great gear, Neil Pryde MKII slaloms (the same as I use back home) and a JP Slalom board, we then headed down to the beach where the whole atmosphere was buzzing. Kanaha Beach Park is really cool, heaps of space for everyone to park their vans and wagons and plenty of lush grass for rigging.

I headed out on the 5.4 and was soon getting dialed in. The JP is a bit more full on than I am used to and my 2 months of hibernation prior to coming to Maui meant I was a bit rusty. Soon I was getting back in the groove and getting some good downwind runs and fairly decent gybes.

Shez got some nice photos and braved the wind for an hour!

We then headed down to Kihei where we checked into to our accommodation then went out for a nice relaxing dinner - we had some local fish which was delicious.

So that was our first day in paradise!

Here's a few more photos

A better way to build web apps

I haven't done a tech post for a while so here goes...

Google launched their App Engine project about a year or so ago and have just launched support for Java. I've always been a fan of Java & mySQL as it has always been up to the task with any problem I wanted to solve. Here are my thoughts on how this stacks up.

It rocks... I had to download the latest version of Eclipse and then install the Google plugin for App Engine. I followed the demo app and was up and running in the cloud in less that 30 minutes with a site working off my own domain. I can deploy a new version of an app in a matter of seconds.

In another 30 minutes I've learnt the basics of how to use JDO (persistance) and now can start thinking about building a scalable web app. Using servlets is very straight forward and with JDO I think the amount of code you need to write is pretty minimal, basically you can just focus on the task at hand.

The dashboard in App Engine looks pretty good so you can see exactly what's going on.

It will be interesting to see how many others choose App Engine to be their platform of choice. I think for a startup that wants to get something up and running quickly and not to have to worry about hosting costs initially this is a really viable option. Nice work Google.

Round the Bays 09

Well it was another epic Wellington days for the Round the Bays run today. Thousands of Wellingtonians packed the start line at Frank Kitts for the 7km dash around the bays. I wasn't quite keen enough to do the 1/2 marathon - we'll see what next year brings!

It was great to have a crew from work all keen to enter this year. I completed the race in under 32 minutes - we'll get the official times out of the paper tomorrow. I paced myself pretty well and went the same speed the whole way with a short sprint at the end in the usual Forrest Gump fashion. I'm pretty pleased at how I went - I didn't feel exhausted at all the whole race other than the dash at the end. It was really hot!

Its was a cool event and good to see so many people right on the pace - there is plenty of fit people in Wellington that is for sure!

Fun day at Eastbourne

After a great sail at Pauatahanui Inlet yesterday we headed out to Eastbourne for the Wild Winds fun day event. It was pretty strong breeze with most pretty comfortable on 4.0's and wave boards. I rigged my 5.4 on my speed board.

Sheryl took some awesome photos - the kitesurfers were pretty amazing with their insane air time.

Dave had a new RS Slalom MK III on the beach which looks pretty radical with the shortened boom length - will be keen to try one sometime soon.

Saturday fun

Went for a quick run round the bays this morning to get motivated for the day.
I then had another great sail in the Ditch, it was pretty windy - was on my 6.2 and 104.
It was a bit choppy so only managed 28.4 knots today - great condition for practising slalom gybes. I've uploaded a few photos to Flickr

Great fun!

Flying in the Ditch

Had a great afternoon sailing in the Ditch (that's Evans Bay) today. The southerly was around 15-23 knots so I had my 6.2 and 104 slalom board rigged. My best time of the day was 31.2 knots. A few more photos on Flickr

Cruising to San Francisco

We headed south towards Santa Cruz. The wind farm just on the edge of the Interstate Highway was amazing. We decided to do a splash more shopping before we got to Santa Cruz - not that we hadn't already seen enough shops!

The next morning we had a quick look at Google Maps as we'd be travelling the previous day without a detailed map of California which makes navigation a bit tricky when you have multiple main highways running in parallel - "winging it" was not an option today.

Our first stop along the way was the Apple HQ at Cupertino. We drove onto the campus and proceeded to drive around "Infinite Loop" - a cool name for a street and saw lots of press hanging around the side entrance to the press conference for the new MacBooks.

Next stop was Mountain View to have a look at the GooglePlex. Just a few minutes down the road and we were there. Again we drove around the buildings and had a good look. The atmosphere at both Apple and Google was really cool - these guys sure know how to build a really nice work environment - plenty of open and green areas for their staff to chill out. We then got back onto the 101 and headed for San Francisco.

2000 miles

We drove back to Las Vegas and spent a night at the Excalibur. The next leg of our trip took us through Death Valley and then staying the night at a place called Beatty. From there we drove through Yosemite National Park in the snow and ended up in Oakdale.

It's amazing the contrast in going from a dry place like Death Valley to snow all around in just a few hours. Sheryl has written heaps more detail on her blog and we've uploaded quite a few photos.

We've clocked up just short of 2000 miles in the PT Cruiser - so we'll easy tick over 2K as we head to San Francisco.

Route 66 and Grand Canyon

We picked up a PT Cruiser (much to Sheryl's disgust) and headed for Flagstaff. I'm lucky I have such a great driver - Shez took to the roads like a duck to water. The copilot had general navigation under control - the road signs are shocking over here so it was often it a bit of follow your nose. Only a few wrong turns after about 1000 miles so not too bad. We reckon Chrysler did a deal with all the rental car firms cause we've never seen so many PT Cruisers. Their would be one for about every 20 cars on the road and at least 2 either side of us at any shopping mall. Sheryl now has 7 pairs of new footwear - I just can't keep up!

The Grand Canyon was awesome and it was good to see lots of the countryside.

Vegas Baby!

We arrived in Vegas a long time after we left Rockford! We boarded our plane at Chicago O'Hare airport after the usual full body inspection (SSSS Security check) expecting to be in Vegas 3hrs later. Shortly after getting on the plane, the pilot advised us that our plane was broken and they were looking for a replacement for us. Eventually (like an hour later) they found a plane so we all had to get off and board a new plane.

Mc Carran Airport was pretty cool - slot machines as soon we got out of our arrival gate - a cool train to the baggage area and then a quick taxi ride into town.

Sheryl has blogged about this already so I won't go on - heaps more photos to show you that we haven't uploaded to Flickr.

The place was huge, it is setup to cater for thousands and thousands of people every day. The casinos and hotels are massive with thousands of rooms at each place. The streets were clean, heaps of people everywhere but everyone was chilled out and having a good time. I really liked it.

Chicago was cool

We had a great time staying with Nicky and Gavin (Sheryl's cousin) at their place in Rockford (about an hour west of Chicago). It's interesting to live in suburbia for a week and see all the subtle differences in the lifestyle over here compared with back home in New Zealand.

Heaps of the housing here is condo style - from the outside the houses look the same - but the owner can add their individualism on the inside. The gardens in these neighbours were immaculate and no fences anywhere. Interesting to see houses here having basements, so the they are actually way bigger than you realise cause a good chunk of it is underground. Central heating is pretty much standard as is a 42" Cable TV, a huge fridge and oven.

Food is an interesting one to look at - I've been gob smacked at the size of meals, soft drink bottles and food packet sizes in the US. Everything is pretty much 50% bigger - no kidding! Softdrinks are dirt cheap. You can get 2 x 24 pack of Pepsi for $9 - which is about $NZD 16 - so about 30cents NZ a can - easily less than half the price we pay. Bottled water is cheap too - you buy that in bulk as well.

Dining out - you have heaps of choice - pretty much every place has a drive through option as well - pricing is about the same as NZ. I found the drive through drugstores (chemists) and bank's slightly amusing.

On to clothing and footwear .....where do I start! The range available is massive and pricing varies from ridiculously cheap to really expensive. On the whole, things that are way cheaper include jeans and alot of labelled sports clothing. Shoes are generally alot cheaper as well. A good pair of Levi's can be found for $30US so thats about $NZ 53 - easily half the price we'd pay back home. You do have to shop around though as you could pay double in a non "outlet" store.
Running shoes are heaps cheaper here - a good pair will set you back between $35 and $85 .

If you want electronics and computing gear - you aren't really going to save anything - Apple's are the same price as back home - you get a bigger range of accessories over here - but pretty much the same deals.

Sheryl has already posted a great summary of our time in Chicago. We have loads of photos up on Flickr too.

Thanks again Nicky and Gavin for your great hospitality - next stop is Vegas.

Fantastic Florida

Shez has already written a great summary of our 3 days down in Florida.

Cocoa Beach was really cool - I wish we could have spent some more time there. The local Ron John's surf store was bloody huge and it is open 24 hrs a day! We had a place right on the beach, which despite the stormy weather was pretty awesome.

I really enjoyed the trip across to Tampa - a splash of shopping at Orlando on the way there. I think my girlfriend is a shopaholic but thats ok because apparently I've become one too!

Clearwater Beach was so much fun - simply the best beach I've ever been too.

We caught up for lunch with the guys from Wufoo at the Cheesecake Factory in Tampa. It was cool to share some stories with young tech entrepreneurs from the other side of the planet and hear their take on it as well.

The interstate highway's are just amazing - pretty much 3-4 hrs in a straight line back down and across to Miami for another night at the Hilton before an early 430am start for our flight to Chicago.

Miami madness

We got picked up by the Super Shuttle at 910am to head out to Newark International Airport for our flight down to Miami. We were scheduled to stop over in Charlotte for an 1hr before flying to Miami International Airport.

All went well until we in line to take off for the last leg to Miami when the captain said we were returning to the gate as we had a cracked window down the back of the plane. He then went on to advise us each passenger window is in fact 3 windows -1 cosmetic and 2 structural so this was a simple procedure to fix. We took off about 40 minutes later heading for Miami.

About 1/2 hr out of Miami we were told there were thunderstorms that were bad enough to have closed the airport and as we running low on gas we were diverted to Fort Myers. We stayed on the ground there until the thunderstorms had moved on and finally took off again to head to Miami. We finally landed, grabbed our bags, got the courtesy shuttle across the Interstate to the Hilton. Thoroughly exhausted we arrived at our destination at 910pm - some 12 hrs after we left Jacqui's apartment in New York.

A night on the town

We've just got back from a great night - went and saw Katie Holmes and John Lithgow in "All my Sons" on Broadway.

The lights in Time Square at night are amazing.

Off to Miami tomorrow - have got quite a lot of flying to do to get there so it'll be an early night - he says at 12:46am!

Natural History

We caught the train uptown and walked up the west side of Central Park and went to the Natural History museum.

After wards we headed down to the Apple store on 5th Ave and went to FA Swartz - the coolest toy store you'll ever see.

We're off for dinner up in Harlam tonight - will upload some photos tomorrow.

Power shopping

Got back to New York at about 10pm last night thoroughly exhausted from pounding the pavements at Woodbury Common - an outlet shopping mall north of New York. We were shopping non stop for 5 hours and barely touched all the stores. Every brand you could imagine was available, some at ridiculous prices. $10.50 shirts from Quicksilver, $30 Levis were among the bargains I grabbed.

There are some photos on flickr from the last few days. We're off now to go to the Natural History Museum and then off to the Apple Store on 5th ave.

New York on foot

We walked for miles today, all over Brooklyn, back across the bridge to downtown Manhattan which was really cool. The girls did some shopping at Daffy's - I snuck a few goodies into the bag too! Managed to navigate our way to Chinatown for some dinner and then checked out a few of the shops down there this evening. Really tired - but been a great day.

Sheryl and I took heaps of photos, we're uploading them to Flickr now.

Downtown in the Big Snapple

Had a great last few days in New York city. Find out more on Sheryl's blog.

I survived my first cab ride to Penn Station - quite an experience.

Have a look at all our photos.