Happy New Year from Auckland, New Zealand!

Janis and I celebrated the New Year in style, but being the cynical curmudgeon I am, I gave no credence to the millennium hype. As far as I was concerned, it was just another opportunity for self-serving promoters to play on peoples' ignorance and for self-annointed philosophers to tell us "what it all means." Spare me pain.

That said, I've never been one unable to find any excuse to party hearty. And it was definitely Party Central here in the "First City of the Millennium." (Besides, it served as a warm-up for the "real" millennium celebration in one year's time — I'm selling tickets, if anyone is interested.)

We first joined our next-door neighbors, Colin and Jennie Loveridge, along with a few of their friends and fellow scribbler John "Robo" Roberson. (Right: That's Robo and Jennie singing and dancing -- Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?)

Prince's Wharf was chock-a-block with partiers packing bottles of bubbly awaiting the fireworks. And Waitemata Harbour was crowded with party boats. We were chucking water balloons at any who ventured too close.

Later we elbowed our way through the tide of people crowding the waterfront to view the fireworks from my editor Sean McNeill's "penthouse" flat on the 32nd floor of the Quay West building.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. It was foggy, then the City of Sails became the City of Pails as the rain came down in buckets. It did make for some errie images as the bright light of the fireworks was diffused by the mist.

Some millenniots stayed up until dawn to watch the Dawn 2K, but most of New Zealand was socked in and all they witnessed was black turning to grey. The Maori didn't name this place Aotearoa -- land of the long white cloud -- for nothing. Janis and I and Helen Tunnah, our flatmate for the night, slept through it.

Yawn 2K
As for all the disasters that were supposed to strike, the prophets of doom were wrong again. They will no doubt be consulting Revelations and Nostradamus' mad mutterings for a rationalization of this misfortune and pick another target date for the end of the world.

As for the Y2K Bug, it was Yawn 2K here in Auckland, as it was throughout most of the known world. Well, it was nearly a yawner. I was actually struck by the Bug, but not until several days later when I went to the money machine.

The ATM worked fine. But my card was rejected. "No longer valid" I was told by the impersonal glowing green graphics on the digital display panel.

I was cashless in Kiwiland.

I only determined the cause of the problem was after making a series of phone calls to San Diego. Our bank, in its infinite wisdom, decided that to avoid the Y2K date problems, it would simply issue a new ATM card, effective 1 January 2000, and invalidate all the existing ones. But with Janis and I in New Zealand at the time, we didn't get the notice or the new cards.

Janis was leaving for San Diego soon, so it didn't affect her. But the ATM is my lifeline, because my paychecks go directly to the bank in San Diego.

Luckily for me, her sister Suzanne was collecting our mail. She and sister-in-law Ellen expedited the delivery of the new card to me so I could buy groceries and pay the rent (and pop into the pub for an occasional pint).

The crisis is now over and things have returned to normal. At least as normal as they can be when considering I'm in a foreign country covering this barmy boat race.

           Cheers,
           Larry