I am lurking at the back of a meeting of the Waikato Linux Users’ Group, which happens to be occurring on the same marae as the conference I’m attending. If you have a mental image of a Linux Users’ Group in Hamilton it is probably fairly accurate, although if any of the people in your mental image are milking cows it is time for you to wake up to the bustling cosmopolis that is twenty-first century Hamilton. There are hardly any cows here, and none of them seem to be Linux users.
I almost didn’t make it to Hamilton. Due to the impressively lateral flight scheduling system at Christchurch Airport, Hamilton was promoted to an international destination for the purposes of the flight on which I was booked. Sadly, although I had been informed of this fact, it was not uppermost on my mind when I joined the end of the queue in the domestic terminal, and my mistake wasn’t corrected until shortly after the conclusion of the final boarding call for my intended flight. I managed to arrange an alternative expedition that took me via Wellington and Auckland, and which saw me arrive dramatically at the last minute to join the tail end of the manuhiri party as we were ushered onto the marae.
Since then I have been engaged in typical conference-related activities: attending presentations, talking about research, and eating too many things with cream in them.