JJ's climbing heaven (Kura Tawhiti conservation area) 

Franz Josef glacier 

Christchurch Stake Center 

One of the many one lane bridges (on the road from Christchurch to the West Coast) 

New Zealand Alps (South Island) 

Rangitoto Island (the largest and youngest volcano in Auckland) 

View from Mt Eden (domant volcano). Gee, what a skinny guy! 

View overlooking the city of Auckland from the Sky Tower 

Sunday Church and Sunday Drive

Aren’t Sundays made for going to church and then for a drive? They are if you’re a Davis. When I first got into Christchurch I drove by what was obviously an LDS church. I looked online to see what time the service started and showed up a few minutes early. There were tons of chairs set up and then someone told me that it was Stake conference. There was a visiting authority, the mission president, temple president, and lots of missionaries. It was a great meeting and I was glad I went. I have had many opportunities to worship with saints from all across the globe. It really is a strength to my testimony. After church, I left for my drive. I started for Arthur’s Pass again because I wanted to get some more pictures of the mountains and beautiful flowers. I came across this unique rock area and I stopped to have a look around. Most of the sites like this are Maori sacred areas. I climbed to the top of one of the hills to have a look around. It was so amazing. My ride continued along the Canterbury plains. Much of the LOTR scenes were shot in this area. I stopped at one of the big rivers to climb down to the banks and take more pictures. From there I headed back east to the East coast. I wandered through little towns, lots of pastures and fields of crops and lots of sheep and moo cows. I got to the coast and drove through the main port city east of Christchurch then up to the top of an old volcano. A spectacular view of the Pacific ocean, Christchurch, and the beaches along the coast. The top of the volcano is a very popular place to hang glide from. I drove down the other side to the beaches. Pretty lame beaches if you ask me. Little surf and lots of shells, wood, and other material washed up on the shore. There was a pretty cool rock formation that the waves had carved lots of holes and caves in. This was quite popular for the children. Well, that was about it for my Sunday drive. The rest of the time was spent working with a couple of different groups in Christchurch. For the most part, I really enjoyed the food. Good seafood, good lamb. The Kiwis are big on ice cream and that suits me just fine. I had Thai food one night and that was also quite good. Most nights I would eat by myself and that is one of the pitiful parts of being on the road. I often would just take my book and sit there and read.

Well, after several hours on the plane, I left the nice warm, sunny Southern Hemisphere for the FFT (Freakin’ Frozen Tundra).

The Long and Winding Road......

Well, I didn’t get a chance to finish my trip details here in Kiwiland so since I have an hour or so here in Auckland, I might as well finish. I think in my last post I pretty much covered my North Island activities. I do need to post a picture or two. I had some pretty good meals in Auckland mostly seafood or lamb.

Now on to the South Island. If you are a fan of the LOTR movies, you’ll know that all three movies were filmed mostly on the South Island. The Hobbitville was on the North Island (kind of in the middle of the island, and the volcano scenes (can’t remember where the place is called in the book) were also filmed on the south side of the North Island. Everything else was on the South Island. I got there on the weekend so I had a little bit of time to look around. I went to the West Coast which was beautiful. From Christchurch it is a couple of hours drive. You go over Arthur’s Pass and through the Alps. It is quite incredible. The only thing that I can liken it to are the Canadian Rockies up by Banff and Jasper. The sand on the beaches is black. As you drive south it is all bush (which I would call rainforest). I was going to title this blog entry as “The road of a thousand one lane bridges”. Every few miles (or “K”s as they say here) you have this narrow bridge. Usually they alternate on what direction yields. I’ll have to post some pictures. The only disappointing part of the whole trip was that it was raining the entire time. It is no wonder because you can look at the surrounding area to see how much rain they get. They say that it rains pretty much EVERY day. I stopped in a couple of the small towns to have a look around. The highlight was my stop in Franz Josef. There are two large glaciers here (one in Franz and the other in Fox Glacier). I was excited to see this even though it was raining. So I switched my sandals for my running shoes and set off. It was raining pretty hard but I didn’t mind (at that point). Beautiful, large waterfalls all along were fascinating. The hike to the terminal face of the glacier was a couple of miles up. By the time I reached it, I was SOAKED. There were a number of “smart” people that were part of a tour. They were decked out in their rain/snow gear. Next time I go, I’ll try one of those tours. They actually take you up ON to the glacier. It looks pretty cool. Well, I couldn’t take it anymore and I headed back. Here I was, the stupid American in shorts, walking along with people with either umbrellas or at least winter type gear. Oh well. On to the next site. Close to the next glacier is Lake Matheson. The reason that I went there is this is “supposed” to be one of the picture perfect places in all of New Zealand. From the lake you are “supposed” to be able to see Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman the two highest peaks in New Zealand. Well, you can imagine all I saw was clouds and rain. Not a problem. It was so beautiful, there was no one around and I had nothing better to do. I had dinner back in Franz Josef. By the time I made it all the way back to Christchurch, it was pretty late.

Kiwiland

Okay, it is the night before I go home, and I thought I would maybe blog a bit about my trip here in New Zealand. Right now, I just want to get home. I've been on the road for pretty much the last two months and I'm looking forward to being home for a while.

Because of a scheduling oversight on my part, I had to leave on Thanksgiving for my trip here. Dinner (and pumpkin pie) was awesome and we had a houseful of people to join us this year. The trip was uneventful except for the fact that Air New Zealand lost my bags for 2 days. Luckily, I had an extra shirt and change of underwear to get me through it.

I spent my first day in Auckland (the biggest city in New Zealand). It is a port city on the northern part of the North Island. I went up the Sky Tower which is the highest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. It was quite pretty to see the entire city and surroundings. I taught for a couple of days, attended a decent conference, and met a number of good people. One of my new friends, Trevor Pilar, was there with his wife and I spent a couple of evenings and an afternoon with them. We went on a field trip which included many of the dormant volcanoes that dot the area. I also took a boat trip out to Rangitoto which is Auckland's youngest volcano.

After spending almost a week in Auckland (a fairly big city), I flew to Christchurch. This is the largest city on the South Island and is situated just about in the middle on the East coast. The South Island is quite a bit different than the area around Auckland. It is pretty amazing. There are parts that remind me of Banff and the Swiss Alps, but there are beautiful coasts, incredible bush (I would call them rainforests or jungles), and miles and miles (okay kilometers and kilometers) of Canterbury fields/ranges/pastures/farmland.

I'll try to posts some pictures in the morning and continue on. I hate reading long posts so I'm stopping here.

The Church in Auckland

Okay, so I did a quick "meeting house locator" for where the Church is here in Auckland. I told the guy I met earlier today that there must be 2 or 3 here in Auckland. I was WRONG. There are 30! Geez, am I in Utah County? I had NO idea.

It's all in Auckland......Bananas

Well, I'll write more about Auckland later (hopefully). I had pretty much finished up doing some work/checking e-mail and I decided to venture out looking for bananas. I find if I'm biking/running/swimming every day, a couple of bananas each day keeps the muscles feeling well. So I went up the street to the gas station I went to the other night looking for juice and water. No bananas. So I kept walking. I eventually found some and bought three. I just ate one and it was actually pretty nasty. I wish I would have waited since I found much better ones at the next store I went to. Oh well. Who wants to waste $2.40. Anyhow, the walk back was just down and out strange. A couple of two very tall transvestites came in the store as I was leaving. I don't know why but they really gave me the creeps. There were tons of young Oriental people out on the streets. A number of Karaoke joints. a few bars, a few seedy dance places, and of course a number or Turkish fast food places. My favorite place I came across was "The White House". It was a really nice place with a US flag on top. I wasn't quite sure what it was but I didn't venture in. Was it a hotel? What? So when I came back to my room I just did a Google search. This is what I discovered: The White House Yikes!!!! Well so much for wondering about the city. You know what they say, "The Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight (or in my case 11:30).

On a more positive note, I had a great chat with the guy in the booth next to me this afternoon about geneology and the Church. I look forward to talked to him again tomorrow. I gave him the LDS.ORG link and told him that he could find out about the PAF program and where a local church here in Auckland where he could do some family history work. He has seen the New Zealand temple in Hamiton. Cool!

Jake the Snake

My son, Jake had to do an autobiography for school. It was so precious so I couldn't resist posting it here:

My autobiography
By: Jake Davis

I was born in Payson, Utah on October 26, 1994. I was born earlier than I should have been. When I was born, I was in the Payson Hospital longer than I should have been. Later my parents found out I had asthma. I currently had one sibling his name was JJ it was he who chose my name. I have 1 sister. I always love to make my sister cry for some reason. I am the type of kid who loves to make chaos everywhere. I love confusing people who live in my house. I also like to sneak around my house and sneak up on people.
I was really energetic when I was two to four years old. My language wasn't too good. I loved hockey as I do know. When I was about 4-and-a-half years old I encouraged my dad to play hockey, and he's ever since then.
I went to kindergarten when I was only four years old. It was really fun because I went to a private school. I moved for the first time in 1999.
The two years I lived there I had lots of friends. I met my true best friend in the year 2000. His name was Steven Richardson. I only see Steven once a year but if I'm lucky two to five times a year. I would always like to play with him but he lives in Sandy, Utah.
On September 15, 2003, I stared to go to Highland Elementary. I had a few friends there. I also had a lot of fun there. On October 3, 2003, I finally moved to Highland, Utah where I currently live. On October 5, 2003, I met William Brooksby. If I am unhappy William will try to get me happy again. I am really fun if you know me real well. I can also help anyone with getting them happy.I always try to cheer people up who are down in their spirits by making them laugh. I have wonderful friends one of them saved my life.
On April 20, 2004, it happened I was hit by a bus. From that moment on for about ten to twenty minute's chaos spread like a wildfire. My next door neighbor was in a car and saw my hair and left to tell my mom. At the moment I was trying to get out from under the bus. Then the vice-principle saw me and came to help me. Then the ambulance came. They helped get me out of there, after they strapped me down in a stretcher. About a minute later my mom came. My mom was told not to look at the bike because it was the scariest part
of the whole thing. My mom was just as shocked as I was from the .
At the age of ten I didn't do much, but I did play soccer. I love to play hockey so at the age of eleven I started playing hockey. It is harder than I thought it would be. If you hold something that has to do with hockey, and take hockey away from me I will tear you apart to get it. I need hockey to survive life. I absolutely would die if there was no hockey on this planet.I love to do any sport nowadays.
I have multiple nicknames my favorite is Jake-the-Snake. I am the type of person who loves school, math, reading, math tests. If you make me sit still for more than seven hours I will explode.
I am an eleven-year-old scout just getting out of Webelos. I have made many friends in scouts because of how nice I am. I will always invite people who don't have anyone to play with to play with me.
I love to go on vacation, My favorite place to go is Las Vegas,
Nevada.It has a lot of cool stuff like this pirates of the carribean show. I
also love to go to St. George, Utah. It has some really fascinating monuments like Zions National Park.
So far my life has been really good. I hope to be nicer to my little sister Olivia. I am going to be a straight A student and a better hockey player. I can't wait to see what the future brings.

Oh, Lord, how long must we suffer these afflictions? 

I'm in Hell........no, it's just Sydney

Well, what a day. I was sitting on the plane from Brisbane to LA minding my own business for several hours and I thought I'd get up and stretch my legs and go potty. While in the lavoratory I heard the announcement that did NOT make me happy. One of our engines had some trouble and so they had to shut it down. They had no alternative but to turn around and return to Australia. We were just shy of being half way. Why we couldn't go to Hawaii, I don't know but we turned around and came back to Sydney. What a disappointment. So I've been traveling ALL day long and I didn't go anywhere. How's that for fun. After going through customs and immigration and all that crap, and waiting to get our luggage, then waiting to get on a bus, I'm now sitting in an airport hotel. I ordered room service and ate my fish and chips. Now I need to call the wife before trying to get some shuteye. So all of you "jealous" folks out there can be thankful that you are home with your wife and children instead of in Hell (I mean Sydney).

Back in Brisbane

This week I went back to Brisbane to do some work with a local engineering firm. Alan from the lab along with several of his students came over to learn about a surface water model and to give a bunch of presentations on stuff that they have worked on. One of my employees, Steve, came with them. He and I have been running and swimming in the mornings. Really not much else to tell. On Wednesday there was a big protest here in Australia. The government has recently passed some laws that are perceived as being anti union. So all of these blue collared people were gathering to protest. My running/swimming area was flooded by thousands of these people. It was interesting to see and then read about in the local media. I had dinner last night with the WBM folks at a decent restaurant. I had the BEST dumplings desert. We also went upstairs to watch the penalty kicks for the Australia vs Uruguay futbol match. The winner qualified for the World Cup in Germany next year. It was a great finish and Australia won. Unless, something else exciting happens that is about all I will write from Oz. Tonight I’m going to John’s house for dinner. I was invited to go with the BYU guys out for a “barbie” but I declined. Cheers!

GBR

Great Britain? The Good-Bad-and Retarded? Nope, GBR is the Great Barrier Reef. This is the King of all dive locations in the world. Norm and I flew to Cairns and then drove to Port Douglas. I did the driving. I was a bit nervous but it actually turned out to be quite easy. You just have to pay attention. The hardest thing was I always found myself trying to get in on the left side. Everything is backwards. The turn signal is on the right side and you shift with the left hand. It also is funny to see yellow road signs warning drivers of kangaroos on the road.

We stayed in this apartment-style place and the hospitality was great. We went out on the Reef on both Saturday and Sunday. It takes about an hour and a half to get out there. The weather was beautiful. We rode on these big catamaran and went to the Agincourt Reef both days. All I can say it that diving was incredible. I thought about buying an underwater camera but I didn’t. I did 3 dives on Saturday and another 3 dives on Sunday. Tons of fish and beautiful coral. I say a few sharks. The biggest was a 12 foot Reef shark. I saw a number of Nemos (clown fish). On one dive we went to Triggerfish City. These big Trigger fish had laid their eggs and were very protective. You would be bitten if you got within a meter or two of the fish. There are these gigantic clams with beautiful purple and green colors inside. You can move your hand close to it and watch it close.

Most of the coral is very sharp and lots of it has a type of poison that if you scraped up against it you would quickly get a good rash. I could go on and on but unless you’ve been there, it’s hard to describe. It is quite a thrill to come around a large coral or over the top of one and you are surrounded by literally thousands of fish.

We had good food their (namely those small bananas that I thought were called apple bananas). You have to be careful along the beaches because of presence of jellyfish. The locals call them “stingers”. If you go swimming at the beach you have to be in one of the net protected areas where there are no jellyfish. Otherwise, you pay.

After dropping off Norm at the airport on Monday, I spent part of the day walking around downtown Cairns and shopping for my wife and children. I bought my wife a number of nice jewelry pieces. After the shopping I went to this crocodile farm. It was quite entertaining. We went out on this boat and watched these big crocs just completely out of the water to get a piece of chicken. Then I got a tour of the farm. It was quite interesting. I finished the visit off with a tasty croc sandwich. Yum yum.

That was my trip to Cairns/Port Douglas.

Bonkers in Brisbane

Okay, it would be really lame if I posted my events of the past couple of weeks AFTER my trip. I have a few minutes so I might as well get it done. The flight was pretty long to get “Down Under”. I thought my 14+ hour flight from JFK to J-berg was long. This one wasn’t quite 15 hours. I flew first to Sydney and then on to Brisbane. The best part of the trip was that Qantas lost both my bags. Darn! I travel enough that I wasn’t worried about it. The Qantas folks were VERY nice about it and besides give me a toiletry kit (complete with underwear) they also gave me $100 for the trouble. My bags eventually showed up the next day.

I spent the first afternoon in Brisbane at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary . This is the world’s largest and oldest koala sanctuary. It was pretty cool to feed the kangaroos and hold a koala. I hung out with my good friend, John Doherty. He is THE king of automated parameter estimation.

The next 4 days were spent teaching a groundwater modeling class to students mostly from Australia. It was a big group and the course went really well. I stayed in a hotel overlooking the Brisbane River. The city is quite beautiful and so is the climate. I would normally wake up around 5 in the morning and would exercise for an hour or so. There are VERY nice jogging/ridding paths along both sides of the river. I am amazed at how many people are up and about at 5:00 in the morning. Lots of runners and bikers. Who can blame them, however. Soon I discovered South Bank Beach. This is a fake beach that the city has built right next to the river. It is a great place to swim. I even went and purchased a nice pair of Speedo goggles. So most days I would run a couple of miles and swim a ½ mile or so. So nice!

One morning, Norm and I ran over to the Brisbane LDS Temple. A small but very nice temple overlooking the city. I’m sure that the Church paid a pretty penny for that piece of property. I was actually hoping to attend a temple session but I got too busy and I didn’t make it a priority. Funny, while writing this post, I happened to check the official Church site and I read that clothing rental is NOT available. So, my intentions were good but I wouldn’t have been able to attend either way. I brought my running shoes and my scuba mask but I did not bring my temple clothes.

The breakfasts have been similar to what you would find in Europe: lots of breads, cheeses, cereals, fruits, and yogurt. I found a great smoothie place called Oasis. I am addicted to the Bahama Banana (Bananas, Honey, and Passion fruit). Dinners have been most excellent with lots of seafood. The best is a local fish called Barramundi.

Well this is the first post. Instead of writing one big long thing, I’ll break it up. My first week in Brisbane. Not bad. Snowy, cold, and crappy weather in Utah but nice here.

Is this an amazing picture or what? I believe credit goes to Nicki Williams.