1.
First, the climate for buying and selling houses is crazy… a house that we bought 6 years ago with zero down and no questions asked is now something that lenders are taking a VERY close look at… one walked away from it, another has agreed to do the deal, about a week late. We’ll make about… get ready for it… $500. Luckily we only put in about $30K in improvements. I’m very glad to be getting out of the real-estate game in Silicon Valley where your half-a-million dollars doesn’t go real far.
Depending on the neighborhood, this could be $500,000 - $1,000,000
2.
It takes a long time to get to Aitutaki… I just did a little Kayak search and it figures it would take about 68 hours to get from SFO to the capital of the Cook Islands (and longer to get to Aitutaki). Man… I’d love to fish with Butch, but that one is going to have to go on the “next 10 years” list.
2 1/2.
Turns out there is a glitch with the iPad kayak.com app in that it seemed to add about 45 hours to the trip to get to Aitutaki. It seems entirely possible to get to Aitutaki in something like 15 hours and maybe even less. I had one reader tell me this… which is awesome.
I think your calculations in flying to Aitutaki are a little off…my wife and I have tickets booked in January out of LA on Air New Zealand. We leave LA on a 9.5hr non-stop to Rorotonga, have a short layover and then 55 minutes to Aitutaki. The non stop is only available one day each week each direction, but it is available. Plan on fishing with Butch 4 days while there and the rest on my own. We’re going for two weeks too!
3.
I have started doing a little contract work (non-fly fishing related, very Silicon Valley related). Work, as it turns out, gets in the way of writing this blog a bit. Still, it might actually make it easier for me to enter into negotiations on future trips with the wonderfully beautiful and intelligent woman I conned into marriage I call my wife.
4.
I really like the Trout Underground… especially when I totally agree with him on things like the re-licensing effort on one of my favorite rivers. I have found that my local fly club has signed up with the lunatic fringe and won’t respond to my questions about why the hell we’d do that.
5.
Frequent Flier miles on Alaska don’t do me a whole lot of good. No (as in zero) flights available for my open travel days to either Puerto Rico or Belize. Looks like I’ll be buying my plane ticket with cashish instead of accumulated miles. To this I say “boooooo.” However, on a positive note, the “SkyRider” seat has yet to become a reality… I don’t to take my red-eye on one of these satan seats.
No... no thank you.
- If you liked the story above, check out these stories below
- Interview with Butch Leone (1.000)
- Playing Tour Guide: Aitutaki (1.000)
- Things (1.000)
Tags: Aitutaki, flyfishing, housing market
Bjorn, I think it would take a little longer than 68 hours from SFO to the Cook Islands by kayak. On a good note, Aitutaki is north of Rarotonga so it would be shorter trip, not longer.
True… very true. Might be something with Kayak… it said the shortest flight to get to Belize was going to be 27 hours… more like 8 in reality. I’d love to get down there some day, but it is going to be a time in my life when I can take off 10 days.