Here in Auckland, we've been having a great time.  With a conference that sold out in 6 days with speakers from all over the globe and very passionate attendees.

 

 

Last night I hung out with the SharePoint community folks here in NZ as well as some high profile SharePoint folks like the author of SharePoint Unleashed (Michael Noel) and the SharePoint Best Practices book and SharePoint Admin Companion (Ben Curry).  As well as top notch SharePoint developer Todd Bleeker whose SharePoint talks are never less than 400 level.  Only the best here for New Zealand.  Chandima and his mates from Wellington showed us a good time as we went from place to place.

 

 

When I arrived in NZ I was so jet lagged I pretty much slept through Friday and most of Saturday... going from Chiang Mai at 1:30PM to Bangkok to Sydney to Auckland at 2:30PM the next day was a killer.  The only thing we made it to was a free bus ride through the city on Saturday.  We rented a car from EXplorer (wouldn't recommend that company as we wasted over an hour getting our car that was reserved) even though we got it for $39 NZD. 

 

We took our car and headed south to Rotorua through Hamilton.  (We saw the LDS temple and school. The school is getting flattened in the next couple years, so it was cool seeing this LDS high school in remote NZ.  The community around the temple is 98% LDS according to the temple visitor center.)  After some soup and bread thing at a local church we went to the hot pots and geothermal activity (like yellowstone, but tons of 'em and in the middle of the city, like in the city park!) with a quick stop by a Kiwi place (rainbow springs).  Amazing town next to a beautful lake.  I highly recommend Rotorua.  Incredible place.  At night we went to a cultural/traditional Mauri place where we saw the dancing, canoe, and haka with the tounge sticking out.  Wild guys.  Fun times.  You'll have to watch my flickr feed for these photos.

 

 

Ben and I on the first day of the conference went up on the Sky tower with my kids.  Scott and Jared both had a blast up there.  The elevator itself has a glass bottom area, and on the top there are areas with glass that you can walk over.  A freaky experience.  We've been debating the jump and the walk around the top on the outside.  Only in NZ!!

 

 

In the hall, I beat the crew running Aerosmith Guitar Hero on Hard.  Good times, my first time on that game.  Not a lot of SharePoint partners in the hall, but HP, F5, Commvault Foundry, and Quest, as well as some SIs were there.  I would recommend checking them out if you're here.  Jelly beans and gummy candy, even a mug with a cozzie are swag you can collect down there.

 

Just finished my global deployment talk... I'll include some links and a summary of the goodness from the talk in a follow up post.  Governance is tomorrow!  Don't miss it.

 

Cheers!

Joel

#TENZ8