cheech

after three successful and painless flights i'm here in christchurch new zealand once again. the weather is crisp and it feels wonderful to be back in it. at LAX i met my first fellow ice people who approached me when they saw the green tag on my bag. we all got issued the same bright green bag tags so it was easy to spot others who were headed south. mike and ariel (the only two of the raytheon crew who were hand picked from outside the US ... puerto rico actually) approached me and we fast became friends as we shared stories about how we came to be included in this journey. from there the number of ice people slowly multiplied until the terminal was swimming with other green tag ice freaks.

once in auckland, i snuck in past customs on my returning residents visa which shaved off a great deal of time for my transfer to the next flight. i understand a good deal of people didn't make their connecting flight but i'm sure they eventually made it to chch in time.

i am happy to say too that i got to see my friend maureen and her mom there at the domestic terminal who gave me a little surprise gift of a wool knit NZ beanie and a little warm scarf.

supposedly there is a backlog of traffic (both people and supplies) that is headed south. that could mean a longer than usual stay here in chch so we'll see how that unfolds. if we get postponed too long, there was talk of trying to head to Mt Hutt to do some snowboarding. twist my arm.