| Airport Express - Don't leave home without it! | | Date Created: 31 Oct, 2004, 11:09 PM |
 So my partner and I decided to skip the country and take a quick weekend trip to New Zealand, about 3.6 hrs to the east of Melbourne, across the Tasman Sea.
It's my first time to the South Island after having visited the North Island many times, often in transit on my way to the U.S.A.
We are in Christchurch, which kiwis shorten to ChCh. This is where expeditions to the Antarctic have left for over a century, and ChCh has a US Antarctic Division based here. Both of us have our Powerbooks with us, 15" and 12" AlBooks equipped with Airport Extreme cards, extreme being a most appropriate term in ChCh's case. Antarctica as a continent is considerably larger than either Australia or the US.
We forgot to check for free wi-fi connectivity in Christchurch, but a walk into the city centre finds us plunging into the bowels of some downtown business, and locating a net cafe and gaming setup. The local youth are shooting each other in network games. Both times we visit the place is jumping with war gaming.
I forked out NZ3.00 (about USD1.90) for an hour and was given an ethernet lead to plug into the Powerbook. Of course, I sat where I could connect my Airport Express to the wall socket, and soon enough, after about 30 seconds, the green light comes on, and we are both surfing and collecting mail. I make a bee-line to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code, and Dave Slusher's Evil Genious Chronicles, then check out Doug Kaye's IT Converations. NetNewsWire is also fired up for the RSS feeds, and I also check the hit counter on the Cyberpsych blog. One of two system software updates are also downloaded.
On Sunday, we drove cross country to the South Island's west coast, through snow-covered peaks to the scenic areas of Greymouth and Westport. The drive north between the two reminds me of the Pacific Coast Highway 1 way south of Carmel, near the Bixby bridge. We locate a trendy restaurant for dinner which happens to have an internet connection, so while our meals are being prepared, once again I hook up the Airport Express and we both sit at the table collecting mail.
I've forgotten to ring my cleaning lady before I left Friday to tell her not to come on Monday, but there's no cellphone service where we are. By the time we get back to ChCh it will be too late to ring, and she comes at 9am tomorrow. What to do?
Ah, Skype! I locate her phone number and with bewildered dinner guests looking on, I ring her and hold a conversation with her, speaking at the Powerbook's screen where this disembodied Hungarian-accented voice answers. It's a little choppy, but I manage to get my message across to her.
We thought the Airport Express would have its travel advantage in ethernet-equipped hotel rooms, but as it turns out its real advantage has been in internet cafes where the owners don't seem to mind us using our laptops. They don't seem to even notice the Airport Express, and probably think it's a power supply. Suits me fine!
So, the lesson is, to paraphrase Karl Malden - Airport Express: Don't leave home without it!
(Sent from Christchurch International Airport - Star Alliance Lounge where the internet connection has been Airported for all in the lounge to share. Ah, the generosity of the Mac community...) |
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