[HQ Ignorance] Re : Re : Re : Re : Scene 122: The Tower of the General

[lev at mimesisrpg.com]

> Have fun! Tell us all about it when you come back :)
>

Well.. since you insist :)

Started in Christchurch, which is a very sad looking town at the moment.
After three earthquakes in six months huge sections of the central city
are still off limits. Some of the more impressive old buildings have been
seriously damaged.

>From there made our way southwards along the cost dropping into to Timaru
and Oamaru. The latter has a a beautiful waterfront of Victorian-era
sandstone buildings; it now is a centre for... steampunk, of all things.
>From Oamaru it's a very short trip to Dunedin.

In Dunedin checkout out our ex-freemason's lodge which is currently rented
to students at Otago University. They're taking very good care of it.
Visited the nearby Port Chalmers for a short visit... Following day
attended to conference dinner at Lanarch Castle, which has all the history
of a Scottish gothic horror-romance. Gave my short presentation at the
conference and then played on the Bluefern supercomputer. :)

After the conference travelled along the peninsula to the Royal Albatross
colony, and the Victorian-era fortifications there (the NZers were worried
at the time that the Russians were going to invade). Day after that took
the Taieri Gorge railway, a rather spectacular trip of tunnels and
viaducts.

On the last night went to see "My Afternoons with Margueritte", a
thoroughly charming film, before hopping on an overnight coach back to
Christchurch. Despite the fact that it dropped to -2 C on the way, the
driver didn't turn on the heating! Arrived at Christchurch airport at
3.30am, didn't board until 6.45am and promptly fell asleep before takeoff.

I think I've recovered now, so back to the game :)