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Thursday

After a long 24 hours of traveling, I’ve arrived in New Zealand for a three month stay.

This trip, I’ll be house-sitting for some friends here near the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. They’ve got a big house in a nice neighborhood so it’s going to be fun.

I’ll have more to say about New Zealand and my doings here but there’s not much to tell you yet.

Thursday was a bit of a dream day as I was fairly slammed from traveling. Though, in truth, I did spend time with some good friends and it was very nice, indeed, to see them after being gone for nine months. Graham came and picked me up at the airport, took me by the house where I’ll be house-sitting so we could drop my bags and then he took me back to his place for some coffee and a visit with he and his wife, Judy.   Most excellent folks.

After that, I went and tried to get my motorcycle started after it’s been sitting nine months. It was in the parking garage under Judy & Graham’s place. The starting didn’t go well. In fact, there was no starting – to put a fine point on it.

The battery was gone.   Really.   I remembered then I’d taken it out out of the bike as a device to preserve its charge. So, I went and recovered it and put it in and the starting was just as absent as it had been previously – like completely. We might say, as the battery was stone dead, that it started just like when it wasn’t there.

A closer examination showed that not only was the battery dead, most of its cells seem to have no water in them. At this point, I recalled dire warnings from several of my motorcycle buddies that I should NEVER place a battery on a concrete floor for storage. Damn, I guess there was something to their theory.

So, another long period of time went by as I found a small piece of paper and made a tiny funnel and proceeded to try to put water into each of the battery’s chambers from a plastic coke bottle I’d found in the trash. The tedium at this point was considerably relieved by talking with Bob, another American expat who is living in the same building complex as Graham and Judy (Sharon and I also own an apartment there as well but it is currently rented out). The building manager, Keith, another good friend, had brought Bob by and introduced him. That was a good thing because Bob was great to talk with and he helped me work out what was going on with the battery and how to fill it.

So, finally it was filled and into the bike it went again. Turn the key … nada, nothing, zip. Dead, dead, dead.

At this point, Bob and I pushed it up out of the underground garage into the parking lot one story up. I then turned it around, put it in third, turned on the key and gave it some choke and let it run back down the slope to see if it would start. …result? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

This wasn’t a surprise to Bob and he’d said that with zero charge, he doubted that it would run. He was, indeed, right.

Then I pulled out a small battery charger I’d bought last year, Bob said his goodbyes and I put the charger on the battery and went off to kill an hour or so while it charged.

Did I mention I was really tired from the trip? I walked up two blocks and wandered into a local pub called The Buck’s Head and had myself a Guinness, Mate. Maybe the third I’ve ever had. Mmmmm, that was good.

Then I hopped the free-bus and went up the the South City shopping center and went in and had a take-away Sushi lunch. And then it was back onto the free-bus and around to the other end of its route and off for a short walk back to the apartment complex.

I’m getting pretty good by now at putting the battery in and out of the motorcycle. So zoom, it was in – and I turned the key – lights!!!! That means it has some charge!

So, I cranked it. But, other than one cough, it wouldn’t catch and I got worried I’d run all my charge down cranking it.

I was worried about other stuff by now as well. To back off a bit and look at my story from a wider angled view, I’d just arrived in Christchurch after flying 24 hours, I’d done no more than just drop my suitcases at the house I’m to house-sit and I’d spent the next five hours – other than visiting with Graham, Judy, Keith and Bob, lurking about in an underground garage fussing with my dead motorcycle, drinking Guinness like a derelict and riding the city buses around.

I decide now that he best thing is to push the motorcycle back up to the top of the ramp to the underground garage. Good thought – Bob and I did it – no sweat.

So, I start in. Mmmmm. 450 pounds of motorcycle and a steep incline. I soon discover that I can advance it maybe five feet or so up the incline before I have to lock the brake and recover myself. Five feet becomes four. And four becomes three. This is damn hard work. Literally, I’m right on the edge of my ability to do it. I’ve got to tell you that gravity is just as strong in New Zealand as it is up north – if you were wondering.

Finally, I’m 2/3 of the way up the ramp and I’m thinking I’m going to pop a gasket or drop the bike soon. I decide to forgo the ascent get on it and coast backward just a bit to get it turned and facing downwards and then to test if it’ll start. There is no way that this 61 year old duffer is going to get that bike to the top of the ramp without and assist and no one’s around.

So, I turn it around and check that all switches and doo-dads are set as they should be and I let-er’ go. ……VaaaROOOM. Huston, we have lift off! O-weee, that was one good noise to hear.

So, a bit of garage clean up putting things away and it’s off to Bruce and Kathy’s (the folks I’m house-sitting for).

Once there, I give Alex and Tobi a call (some more good American expat friends who now live in Kiwi-land) and they agree to help me move some stuff from our storage locker under the apartment building to Bruce and Kathy’s place and then we’re all going to go out for a vegetarian Chinese dinner afterwards.

So, I’m back on the newly resurrected motorcycle again and off to the apartment complex I’ve just come from. Now I need to dig about in our storage locker and get everything (like my computer gear) that I want to take to Bruce and Kathy’s organized – before Alex and Tobi arrive. I get it done just as they arrive – I’m literally in a sweat.

All of us then proceed to Bruce and Kathy’s to drop the new stuff off and then we’re out for a great dinner and some good catching up.

And after that, it’s into bed with me to sleep like a rock.

Friday

This morning, Friday morning here and Thursday back in the U.S., I get up and start in on the computer gear. I’m on the phone with Bruce and Kathy’s ISP here to see if they can open port 25 for me so I can use E-mail server systems in the U.S. Yes, they can do that – if we switch B&K’s service from a dynamic IP address to a static one for an additional $9.95 per month. OK, I plan to pay for their broad-band while I’m here as a thank you for them letting me stay here at their place – so no problem – yes, let’s do it.

Then I’ve got to noodle around in B&K’s current hardware setup here to make sure that nothing I’m about to do will break their setup. Nope, it all looks good.

An hour or so later, their ISP has made the switch, their IP address is now static and port 25 is open. Yahoo! E-mail is up and I have presence again on the web.

And that brings us to now.

As I said, not much has happened so far since I’ve been here. But, if anything does, rest assured I’ll tell you about. Cheers!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 21:49 and is filed under New Zealand, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.