Larnach Castle Taken from Wikipedia: The castle was built between 1873 and 1887 as the residence of William Larnach, a prominent entrepreneur and politician in colonial New Zealand. Much of the construction was carried out under the guidance of local architect R.A. Lawson, who was also responsible for many of the other fine buildings in Dunedin. The finished building contained 43 rooms plus a ballroom, and required a staff of 46 servants. The castle's ballroom was built as a 21st present for Larnach's favourite daughter Kate in 1886. Sadly, the building, which Larnach himself simply called "The Camp," did nothing to stop his own downfall. After a series of personal and financial disasters he committed suicide in New Zealand's Parliament Buildings in October 1898. The building, which had over many years fallen into a state of disrepair, was bought by Barry and Margaret Barker in 1967, and has since been restored to its full glory. Spectacular views of the Otago Peninsula and Harbour can be gained from the castle, which is 10 kilometres by road from the city centre. The castle and its grounds are regularly open to the public, and Larnach Castle is now seen as one of the jewels in Dunedin's tourist crown.

Southern Scenic Route We definitely didn't have to take this part of the drive to get where we were going, and for all practical purposes, it was definitely much longer than the regular route. Still, the New Zealand Southern Scenic Route is definitely a nice drive to anyone who has the time. One of the branches of it (which we did [album=92]visit later[/album]) was off to Milford Sound. Unfortunately the tunnel leading there was closed on this particular occasion due to some avalanches.

Queenstown Queenstown was the last stop on our two month voyage in Campy "YM7 636". We stayed in one of the camper parks just outside of where the Queenstown Gondola is and for the first time in two months, someone at the camper park questioned our disposal method. We didn't have a bathroom in our camper van, but we did have a sink where we'd brush our teeth and such. On our very last morning in the van, a woman happened to notice Tisa washing some dishes and saw that all of the dirty soapy water was running out the bottom of the van. She scolded us and pointed out how we were supposed to put a bucket below the sink drain and then dispose of the waste properly. Oops.

My 28th Bday My 28th birthday was fairly uneventful, but I met up with Amy, Dreux, and Emerson at Trudy's for dinner and drinks, and then immediately afterwards we headed over to the new bar, Bagpipes, for a few drinks. Amy and Dreux went home after Bagpipes, but Emerson and I headed across the street to Sherlock's pub for a few more drinks. There was a band playing by the name of Jawbreaker and Emerson did his very best to introduce me to their hot lead singer. Although he succeeded in introducing me to her, the best I could think to talk about was how she messed up a line in Nina's "99 Red Balloons". Needless to say, that was about the end of our conversation. Another highlight of the evening worth mentioning was Emerson scaling one of the drainage pipes behind Trudy's. We were impressed.

Around New Orleans On my second day in Mandeville, Brooke took me across the Lake Ponchartrain causeway into New Orleans so that I could see some of the remaining damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita (the year before). To say the very least, New Orleans was still in a complete state of shambles. As politically incorrect as I can say this, the United States government has failed, and has failed miserably with this situation. I'd definitely say that this is just ONE instance of our 'big government' not working at all.

Property Hunting One of my many days out in the east side looking for some large properties in which to make a claim. This happened to be the same day that I came across my Axel Lane property.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot I can't begin to explain how long it took me to get all of the photos that I wanted to for my 2006 Christmas Card. This album has all of the various poses that I shot in hopes of getting something good. Fortunately one of them was adequate enough.

Trip to Seattle I was fortunate enough to work on a contract through our company that happened to be located in Seattle (Bellview to be exact). The day that I landed in Seattle turned out to be one of the largest blizzards that they had seen in a long time. Needless to say, it was a very good thing that I got a navigation system with my car rental because I desperately needed it to avoid the hours and hours of traffic jams that had built up around the city.

Night out in San Fran This turned out to be a pretty interesting evening for a number of reasons. When we set out on the town, we headed to one of the few areas of town I've regularly visited, the area where Vesuvio's bar is, and had some dinner. After a nice dinner, we actually went to Vesuvio's for a short while and then some other pubs in the vicinity. We eventually made it to a pretty neat Irish pub that had some great music going, but decided that we should press on and see what else we could find. As it was a weeknight, we quickly learned that it was slimmer pickings than we had hoped and just asked a cabbie to drop us off somewhere. As it happens, he dropped us off at some sort of metal bar. Though we didn't exactly fit in, we had a great time. I also seem to recall us ordering a pizza when we finally got back to our hotel - though this would have been around three or so in the morning.

Bodie Ghost Town This was one of the more interesting stops on our voyage out west. Just outside of Yosemite National Park (to the east of it), lies an old gold mining town by the name of Bodie. This was the first ghost town that I had ever been to, and though I probably wouldn't plan a future vacation around seeing a ghost town, it was definitely something unique.