Unexpected returns

August 17, 2019August 17, 2019 Tigerotor77W#thatwanakatree, Air New Zealand, Auckland International Airport, Blue Pools, Boeing 777, Cape Jackson, Cardrona Distillery, Grandview Mountain, Hapuka estuary, Isthmus Peak, Lake Wanaka, Makarora River, Matukituki River, Milky Way, Mount Aspiring National Park, Mount Cook National Park, Mt. Iron, Polaris Business, Roaring Billy Waterfall, Rob Roy Glacier, Roys Peak, South Island, Sunrise, Sunset, United Airlines, Wanaka, waterfall1 Comment

On the second of my two trysts with New Zealand, one enclave in particular attracted my attention, despite the weather being uncooperative both days of my stay. This year, when I should be galavanting around Europe to take in all I can before I commit myself to the insane asylum of localizing a manufacturing line to Charleston, I admitted defeat to there being too many unvisited places in Europe and booked a flight to New Zealand instead. I landed scrutinizing a rain shower and double rainbows to the north, but Auckland airport — and my luggage — remained, incredibly, dry.

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Splashes of color

May 1, 2019 Tigerotor77W#thatwanakatree, Air New Zealand, Airbus A350, Airbus A380, Aoraki, Arrowtown, Camp Stream trail, Hooker Lake, Hooker Valley Track, iceberg, Isthmus Peak, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo, Lake Wanaka, Mount Cook, Mount Cook National Park, Mt. Sibbald, Sealy Tarns, Singapore Airlines, Snow, South Island, Southern Alps, Sunrise, Sunset, Tasman Glacier, Tasman Lake, Te Araroa Trail, Tekapo, WanakaLeave a comment

If my first post about New Zealand gave the impression that the entire two weeks was colorless, I have some contrasting news: they were not. When I flew toward my layover airport of Singapore en route to Auckland, we floated among azure skies. Even if grey marshmallows occasionally interrupted my view once on the ground, the peacefulness of streaking above the clouds didn’t end with the bump of landing in New Zealand.

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Not sure I’m ready to leave

December 31, 2018 Tigerotor77WFurka Pass, Furkapass, Furkastraße, Grimsel Pass, Matterhorn, photography, Riffelsee, Sunrise, Sunset, ZermattLeave a comment

After the August trip, I wasn’t sure I would make it to Zermatt another time this year. I had plans for a few weekends in September already, and the weather wasn’t pleasant the others. October was going to busy as it was, then I had another trip in November that I was sure would take me up to the first snows. But the weather one weekend looked promising, and I thought I might be able to get away. So flee I did — and I probably don’t even need to mention to where.

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Winter abnormalities

March 30, 2018 Tigerotor77WAllgäu, Allgäuer Alpen, Charleston, Charleston snowstorm, Charlestonsnowday2018, Chicago, Chicago lakefront, China Eastern Airlines, clouds, Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport, DFW, fog, Neuschwanstein, Riedberger Horn, Skylink, Snow, Sunrise, Suzhou, Suzhou Hyatt Regency, Suzhou Industrial Park1 Comment

Travel in 2017 ended not with wistful excursions to Nice and Riffelsee but rather with the standard home trip to the US. After a month without much snowfall, I left the Allgäu in the middle of a snowstorm and left myself plenty of time to get to Zurich Airport. It turns out I planned in too much time, as I arrived before the parking garage opened. I decided to circle the arrivals area, but I forgot I was in Switzerland; of course they would charge drivers to pick up arriving passengers. I drove to the garage after 5 CHF paid for my fifteen minutes of shame, turned on my blinkers, and stubbornly blocked one entrance to the parking garage until I could enter, thinking I had left the snow behind until I got back to the Allgäu in January. Boy, was I wrong.

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A Fool’s Errand

January 14, 2018 Tigerotor77WMatterhorn, panorama, Riffel, Riffelberg, Sunrise, ZermattLeave a comment

I have a bit of a confession: my motivation to visit Nice was perhaps not just based on practicing French. I could have gone somewhere remote and unfamiliar with the English language to force myself into one week of intense immersion. I am maybe just a bit amorous with another country that borders Germany, though, and it just so happened to work out that flights to Nice were cheapest from Zurich (parking, however, was not — shhh!). After touching down in Zurich, I popped in the arrivals lounge for a quick lunch and an espresso, and headed south. The next morning, I was once again alone at The Lake, watching dawn break to a blue-grey sky and a frozen lake against a backdrop I’ve come to know all too well.

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Successful non-panoramas

November 1, 2017 Tigerotor77WGornergrat Bahn, Matterhorn, Matterhorn reflection, Riffelberg, Riffelsee, Rotenboden, Sunrise, Zermatt2 Comments

Since November last year, I’ve been wanting to re-re-re-re-re-re-re-revisit Zermatt and get a panorama of that special lake. I print my photos periodically, and since discovering alu-dibond as a terrific material for displaying images (far better, in my opinion, than on photo paper) I’ve been craving a large format with this lake on it; I have a few walls where a nice 2 m wide print would fit beautifully. I was thwarted last year, so with a fair amount of stubbornness on making this photo myself I started the hike up after an extremely short sleep a few Fridays ago, arriving at the lake as the moonless night began to lighten into a blue wonder. It was my ninth visit to the touristic village.

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Assessing Privilege

May 14, 2017 Tigerotor77W777-300ER, 787-9, A340, Air New Zealand, Auckland International Airport, Fullers Ferries, Mount Maunganui, Onetangi Beach, Stonyridge Vineyard, Sunrise, Sunset, Swiss International Airlines, Swiss Lounge Zurich, Tauranga, Waiheke Island, Whisky Club 28/10, Zurich International Airport2 Comments

Being behind on blog posts affords the benefit of having more time to contemplate my experiences but adds the risk of forgetting nuances. Blowing the dust off a three-month old trip and the thousand photos that accompanied it is a bit of an endeavor, but this post starts another month and a half before that. In January, I had a business trip to China that began with me watching the sun rise from business class, a perk of work travel while on a German contract.

The trip was short and didn’t leave much free time to ponder. The last time we saw blue skies was just before we descended into the industrious smog, but on our last day rains the previous evening washed away enough particulate to allow the sun to poke through just after sunrise.

Less than two months afterward, I would watch a sunrise coming into the same airport (albeit from “poky” economy class), this time, though, en route to a destination where the forecast predicted no smog but rather enveloping fog.

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Unexpected journeys

February 5, 2017 Tigerotor77Walligator, aurora borealis, Ben Ham Images, Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, Charleston Library Society, Chicago, Everglades, Everglades National Park, Florida Keys, Hemingway Home, Homestead, Key West, Northern Lights, Robert is Here, Second Sunday, Southernmost Pier, Steve Cheeseborough, Sunrise, Tradesman Brewery2 Comments

Each year, Bosch offers a home trip to meet with mentors, touch base with former coworkers, and, importantly, see family. Mine happens to coincide with Christmas, so to catch coworkers before the holidays, my first stop was back to Charleston. Due to inclement weather in Chicago forecasted for the day I was supposed to fly in, I ended up changing my flights (courtesy of a United Airliners customer service agent) and in Charleston one day earlier than intended. This allowed me to check out Second Sunday, and after I got over my surprise at the number of changes in the restaurant scene I wandered down King Street. The weather was perfect — sunny and in the 70s. After two winters in Germany, I had begun to forget what attracts so many to Charleston in the winter.

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