ACR NZ - Day 1

Today was a "work" day. As is typical when I attend conferences, I never even stepped out of the hotel. So, we've been in Queenstown two days now and I have not seen one bit of the town. Of course, the view from my hotel room window (first photo here) is spectacular. And the front of the hotel is all glass, affording exceptional views of the mountains. But beyond enjoying the views in between sessions, I have not seen the town. Hopefully day-after-tomorrow.

My own presentation was in the afternoon. I went quite well. I'm glad I practiced with Sheila and Jay last night as I hacked the presentation a great deal to keep it to the 15-minute time limit. I managed to do it in 16 minutes - quite impressive for reporting three studies.

The incredibly friendly conference management team found a Lord of the Rings tour that picked up the kids at the hotel and dropped them back in the evening. So, they had a great tour in the afternoon and seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Hopefully they will talk about in their blogs here and here.

The friendly conference management team had also organized a supervised all-day ski lesson for the kids at "The Remarkables" for tomorrow. Jay decided he wanted to try snowboarding. So, Sheila is going to ski and Jay is going to snowboard tomorrow. We had to go buy the ski-lift tickets, get them fitted for skis and snowboard, and rent snowpants, goggles, helmet, etc. They will be gone all day tomorrow while I am at the conference and they're excited. At least they're getting to see a lot more of Queenstown than me. :-(

After dinner, the kids went to bed and I went out for a couple of drinks with friends. We were back at the hotel quite early, but we stayed in the hotel bar and drank and sang and enjoyed the piano skills of colleagues until almost 3 AM.