Larry and I met up in the Auckland airport after 20 hours of flight time to New Zealand. I feel cheated because Day 1 with Larry should have really started on Friday, but BI and Pfizer travel departments were not coordinating our itineraries. Hence, 'Day 1' is really day #3 of journey as it is Sunday here - 18 hours ahead of eastern standard time.
We arrived in Queenstown at noon (36 hours after leaving my house in CT) and immediately went to Lunch with Jon D and Peter F comparing and contrasting our trips on Air New Zealand and Quantas. While BI saved a thousand dollars per ticket by flying ANZ, Larry was spared the 5 hour layover in SanFran and another 6 hour layover in Auckland. We learned over lunch that with more than 40 in-flight movie options we all somehow managed to watch the Woody Allen film - 'Vicki Christina Barcelona'. Larry shared that he also watched and was deeply moved by 'Mama Mia' - the broadway musical hit turned Hollywood production story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular '70s group ABBA. We noted how stereotypical this was of Larry to be watching a fantastical movie based on a broadway musical, and he responded with his patented line "I'm really not as gay as everyone thinks!" Several jokes related to "Queenstown" immediately popped into mind, but we are here for two weeks and I have limited material so I'll have to spread them out.
Larry brought a very high end, albeit cumbersome, digital camera with him on the trip. Given his artistic eye and knack for finding great shots, we all designated him the trip photographer. My camera will stay in my hotel for the rest of trip.
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