Day 4 in Auckland

Have I said I’m liking it very much here? I’m liking it very much here. 🙂

People are friendly and the city is interesting, and so far there’s been a lot to think about at the conference. The food at this conference has been superb so far – a lot less of the deep fried stuff I seem to come across a lot at Australian events, and my vegan meal yesterday was quite nice. I even found the other two vegans at the conference and we sat and ate together and talked about the impossibility of growing bananas on the North Island (which explains all the bananas from Ecuador and the Phillippines I see around the place – I am never complaining about Queensland bananas again!).

What I’m not liking is my lack of connectivity: neither of my two mobiles are working, and Internet access is not as easy as I would like. As I’ve mentioned, the hotel’s wifi is reasonably priced at $40 a week, but of course I am not spending that much time in the hotel and getting online means staying up late and getting up early. Wifi costs an exorbitant $60 a day at the conference venue! Ah well. Internet access still seems to be seen as some quaint luxury that providers can fleece you for – I think I shall have to investigate other options for myself next time I travel… I am quite behind on my conference blogging as a result, but if you are interested in what’s going on here do read Kathryn’s and Deborah’s blogs (is anyone else blogging this conference?), and of course there is also the conference blog to keep an eye on.

Today Lawrence Lessig is giving the keynote address, and Kathryn and I are giving our presentation at 4pm. We’re then going for a sail around the harbour and following that by the conference ball. It should be an interesting day!

the weather has  been a bit variable