Prologue: Just a few words before we begin our adventure

".36 Al, .36" I said to my co-worker and friend, who laughed out loud and so went my job that dealt with computer security.  We had just finished a meeting that still, to this day, I find hard to believe actually happened.  I found a devastating security hole and brought it to the attention of the other programmers.  They asked me how to I caused the breach and I told them the steps I took.  They said, "That's preposterous, why would anyone ever do that?"  I replied, "Curiosity, ignorance, malice?"  One of the programmers said, "We can't guard against malice, so why bother."  I said, "That's our job."  I thought that if we aren't trying to guard against malice, why don't we stick a little post-it note on the data and say, "Don't look!"  It went downhill from there.  They just didn't say it once but they went on defending such silliness.  All I could do was say, ".36".  

What does this number mean?  I was a contractor and my layoff date was at latest, August 22.  One can also write this as 8/22, which is also an division equation:  .36 = 8/22,  so whenever I would get frustrated (which was often), I would say to Al, ".36", who was the only one at work who understood what it meant.  I knew that when the day arrived, I would be starting my travels.  I would hike the Superior Hiking Trail, mountain bike in the western U.S., dive in Fiji, see my friends, and tramp in New Zealand.  But of all these things, I most looked forward to tramping in the New Zealand rainforest.

I've been to New Zealand three times before and always had the time of my life.  I truly came to love the deep rainforests of southern NZ.  So when I knew that my job was ending, I debated where I wanted to go for an extended period of travel.  I wanted to head to South America or Africa, but the rainforest kept calling me and I knew that I had to return.  And that is why this travelogue has been titled Rainforest Reprise.  I enjoyed seeing my friends, I enjoyed hanging out, I liked hitchhiking, but the rainforest is what drew me back most of all.  The day finally arrived when I was freed of the shackles of employment and the wide-world called my name.

There is so much that happens during such a trip.  In these writings, I hope I can bring you to a distant land and impart upon you, some of the wonder that I felt and still feel to this day.