October 2014 Around the world and then some, Part I

The following blog entry describes a long trip. "Around the World" tickets are cost effective but a little complicated. This trip is both an around the world trip combined with a massive "around the Caspian" trip thrown in. Once again it combines some work for my employer along with a lot of travel with the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Buckle up!

Snapshot

Do you normally know where you will be going and when before you take off on your trips? As this one begins, it is certain I will go to several cities in Kazakhstan mid-way through the trip but details are not yet arranged.

The trip begins October 8 from IAH to SFO and then off on a very long flight--- from SFO to Auckland, New Zealand. After the four hour trip to SFO it is more than 13 hours to Auckland. Then another 5 hours to Adelaide. More than 10,000 miles and the flights which began October 8 at 4:12 PM end up, on time in Adelaide at 10:20 AM on October 10. Where did October 9 go?

Adelaide

Adelaide hosts the 2014 Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (APOGCE). The current SPE President, past-President and President-elect are committed so the opportunity falls to me as 2016 SPE President (not yet President-elect) to give the welcome remarks to the YP workshop, a presentation at a Young Professionals (YP) workshop, remarks at the opening session of the conference, speaking in the executive plenary session, making regional awards presentations and many other awards, welcome remarks at the "Education and teacher's Day" meeting and a talk with other teachers, presenting awards at the SPE Regional Student Paper Contest and meeting with regional SPE leaders to review the SPE Strategic plan. Some more talksThe amazing help from SPE staff that make it possible to arrange this and keep everything straight. More about that later.

Adelaide is a vibrant and dynamic city. The University of Adelaide is very open with varies architecture. The parks and walkways along the river are colorful. There is a great "buzz" around the city.

The Art Museum doesn't make a point of putting all the art of one particular style, time or place in specific areas. These three are all right by each other.

Kangaroo Island

Arriving early provides the opportunity to have a "day off" and one of the best day trips from Adelaide is to Australia's third largest island, Kangaroo Island.

The Heath Goanna --- he is a local hero. When people tried to introduce rabbits to the island, the goanna dispatched them all before they could make too large an impact.

Sea lions at Seal Bay. These are amazing animals.

The koalas were just hanging around in the trees. Way up in the trees.

"Remarkable rocks" --- these rocks are perched atop a large granitic weathered sculptures. Sure, they look cool but they also have some large inclusions.

Not far from the Remarkable Rocks is Admirals Arch and a lot of seals.

The Cape du Couedic lighthouse.

OK, this isn't my picture. We also saw kangaroos but none of my pictures turned out.

No operas in Adelaide these days. The flight to New Zealand takes a long time and those movies on the little screen aren't that interesting. What do you do on long flights? On this one I listened to the James Levine, Metropolitan Opera performance of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro while reading the libretto--listening in French and reading the French and English together is quite engaging compared to just listening.

The current plan:
IAH-SFO/SFO-AKL/AKL-ADL (done)
ADL-SIN
SIN-AMS
train to FRA
FRA-TSE
TSE-GUW
GUW-SCO
SCO-ALA/ALA-DXB
car to Abu Dhabi
AUH-AMS
AMS-IAH