Aaron Around The World - Fire and ice

Ten years ago today I left my home of New Zealand to embark on an adventure with an uncertain ending. They say time flies when you're having fun, and in that time I've had plenty of it, but that day really does feel like a lifetime ago. I've travelled, I've grown and I've lived, and exactly 51 countries, five new homes and a wife later, I've ended up in the US of A where I'll most likely be spending the rest of my days.

More has happened in these last ten years than I think will in any other period of my life from here on out, but all good things must eventually come to end and I'm about ready for that to happen, plant some permanent roots, and move on to the next phase. With that in mind, Kristina and my plan for the next 12 months is to pack up our life here New York City this coming summer, and set out on a four'ish-month road trip covering the bulk of the United States and bits of Canada before setting up camp in Austin, Texas (an hour north of Kristina's home town of San Antonio, Texas) to start yet another new life for possibly the last time, though that remains to be seen depending on how Texas sits with me. My assumption was always that I'd eventually end up back home or across the ditch in Australia. My heart always has and always will belong there even if I'm not, and ten years later I still get very homesick. Be that as it may, America is a great country to call home, Texas or otherwise, and from a travel perspective it's a great location (because let's be honest, the travelling to weird and wonderful destinations will never end, and there are close to 150 countries I'm yet to visit :)

So, how am I celebrating my ten-year milestone? Well I'm off somewhere on holiday of course, to my 52nd and 53rd new countries. I wonder what (and when) my 100th will be!


This is a random intersection in the Brooklyn neighbourhod of Bedford-Stuyvesant, better known as Bed-Stuy. Not exactly the classiest neighbourhood in the city. Anyway, this is where two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead last Saturday afternoon as they sat parked on the roadside in their marked vehicle. The shooter, a complete loser with a long criminal record, had just travelled here from Baltimore, Maryland, after already putting a bullet in his girlfriend that morning. His Instagram account made it quite clear what he was coming here to do, in the name of revenge over the whole Eric Garner incident which I went into detail about here. Baltimore Police got wind of this and sent a warning to the NYPD, but it was too late. He subsequently ran into a nearby Subway station, was cornered by police, and shot himself dead like a complete coward.		The protests I wrote about earlier this month are still ongoing, except they have been a lot more contentious than when I was out there watching. There have been many scuffles with police, and chants of "What do we want? Dead cops!" New York City's new mayor has handled the whole situation very poorly to say the least, and has exacerbated something of an us-versus-them mentality among the more unsavoury members of the city's population. Despite that, the overwhelming majority of what I'll refer to as 'normal' people have spoken out in support of the NYPD, and the countless thousands of flowers and candles laid here is clearly a testiment to that. Frankly it's a sight the protestors would do well to acknowledge.


The wake for one of the two officers took place today, followed by some sort of event here that I happened to catch the tail-end of.		Other threats to the NYPD have also started to surface, with at least one of them resulting in a highly-publicised arrest of another scumbag at Penn Station's bus terminal after he had just travelled to the city; his Instagram was also littered with murderous intentions. Unreal.


What were your plans for midnight? If you're nuts, you can do a New Year's midnight run in sub-zero temperatures around Central Park for just $65. Ha!		During lunch today I checked out the goings on along Seventh Avenue beside my office. Still the usual chaos but in just a few hours this will be replaced by a sea of over a million people all gathered around and freezing their asses off to watch the annual ball drop in Times Square.		The first crowds were already getting into position down there, with ten hours still to go. As much as this is a cliché New York City bucket list item, Kristina and I have no interest in putting ourselves through it hehe. We did actually get to see and touch the ball last year though :)


Instead, while it was -5 C (23 F) outside, we stayed toasty warm indoors, ate and drank lots, and watched the mayhem in Times Square unfold on TV. Happy New Year all :)


Nothing like a few mates and a New York rooftop bar :) This one is the Refinery Hotel Rooftop, plonked right in the middle of Midtown Manhattan beneath the Empire State Building. I think I've mentioned this before, but the Empire State Building's lighting colours change on almost a daily basis in celebration of, or in recognition of, something or other. If anyone cares, the building's lighting calendar is here :) Tonight, as with the last several nights, we had red and green with red-and-white candy cane stripes up the antenna in celebration of Christmas. Fun fact of the day: the Empire State Building was the tallest in the world from 1931 to 1970, preceded by the Chrysler Building and eventually overtaken by the original World Trade Center buildings (i.e. the Twin Towers destroyed on 9/11).


Looking down over Sixth Avenue and 38th Street. If I had a dollar for every time I've gone flying past here on my bike I'd be rich :)		Concrete jungle.		And glass jungle.


Last week I mentioned the execution-style shooting of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn. Today the funeral took place for the second of those two cops, and was broadcast live on several TV stations. What you're looking at here are thousands of cops from New York, from across the country, and even from other countries, lining the street as the hearse passes by. Damn!


"Arctic blast" was something we heard a lot last winter. The meteorologists here like to use it to describe a weather pattern that pulls down freezing artic air from the north, resulting in sub-zero temperatures, a lot of snow, and just general unpleasantness. Well, it seems they're back again! Despite having had a comparably mild winter in New York so far, it seems it couldn't last and this week is forecast to be miserable for at least the upper half of the US (especially Wednesday). But oh well, Kristina and I fly out this Saturday for four days in Puerto Rico followed by four more in Saint Martin. Current weather forecast there: nice! :)


I mentioned it yesterday, and today we got our real first taste of the first arctic blast of the year. Temperatures in New York are forecast to reach -12 C (10 F) this week with wind chills in the -20s (sub-zero even in Fahrenheit). Lovely. This is Central Park during my cycle into work this morning.				Not everyone dislikes it though :)


The frozen fountain of Bryant Park (and yet still working and awkwardly squirting water everywhere) - something of an impromptu icon during these cold snaps hehe. I took a detour on the way into work this morning to giggle at it, and see what this roadside temperature gauge up the road from my office had to say. 8 degrees again (-13 C). This is the coldest temperature I've ever cycled in, and it's the third time I've done it (twice last winter and now today). I was so sure it was going to say 7 today and I'd break my own record. But no; 8.				Anyway, from -13 degrees Celsius today to 30 degrees (86 F) in Puerto Rico tomorrow! Kristina and I fly out first thing for four days here followed by four more in Saint Martin. Hell yeah!

Ten years ago today I left my home of New Zealand to embark on an adventure with an uncertain ending. They say time flies when you're having fun, and in that time I've had plenty of it, but that day really does feel like a lifetime ago. I've travelled, I've grown and I've lived, and exactly 51 countries, five new homes and a wife later, I've ended up in the US of A where I'll most likely be spending the rest of my days. More has happened in these last ten years than I think will in any other period of my life from here on out, but all good things must eventually come to end and I'm about ready for that to happen, plant some permanent roots, and move on to the next phase. With that in mind, Kristina and my plan for the next 12 months is to pack up our life here New York City this coming summer, and set out on a four'ish-month road trip covering the bulk of the United States and bits of Canada before setting up camp in Austin, Texas (an hour north of Kristina's home town of San Antonio, Texas) to start yet another new life for possibly the last time, though that remains to be seen depending on how Texas sits with me. My assumption was always that I'd eventually end up back home or across the ditch in Australia. My heart always has and always will belong there even if I'm not, and ten years later I still get very homesick. Be that as it may, America is a great country to call home, Texas or otherwise, and from a travel perspective it's a great location (because let's be honest, the travelling to weird and wonderful destinations will never end, and there are close to 150 countries I'm yet to visit :) So, how am I celebrating my ten-year milestone? Well I'm off somewhere on holiday of course, to my 52nd and 53rd new countries. I wonder what (and when) my 100th will be!
		Dad and I about two weeks before I jumped on the plane - the man who kicked my ass when I needed it for the 20-something years prior (and I needed it a lot ;)


From colourful Old San Juan to the Puerto Rican rainforests, and lots and lots of planes! Kristina and I always manage to cram a lot into our vacations and these last eight days have been no different. Photos and all the rest of it to follow from Puerto Rico and Saint Martin!


Early this evening a massive fire broke out just across the Hudson River in the New Jersey town of Edgewater. This huge apartment complex somehow went up in smoke (later found to be accidental and caused by building workers), and it took firefighters hours to eventually bring it under control. I got a push alert on my phone about it, but frankly I get a lot of alerts about fires in New Jersey with the bulk of them being miles away, so I pay little attention them. Had I known this one was so close I'd have been out there in a flash but oh well.		It wasn't until the 11 o'clock news that I realised it was right on the opposite shore of the Hudson, and a 20-minute bike ride would have given me a front row seat hehe. Instead I whipped down to the river at 11:30pm and this was the scene. Plenty of smoke and a faint orange glow as fire crews continued working on it. Somehow there have been no reported injuries or fatalities - just a lot of pissed off residents with little more than the clothes on their back and whatever they could grab on the way out. Incidentally, the same building burnt to the ground back in 2000 while it was under construction, so it all had to be started again which will likely be the case again here. Bummer.


I'm working from home at the moment, and while I was sitting here plugging away today I heard some yelling coming from outside. People raising their voice is hardly uncommon in this city and nine times out of ten it's nothing - just someone having a conversation with his mate on the other side of the street or someone hollering up at an apartment (or even just somebody singing, badly). This however sounded like the one out of ten times that it's something more, and sure enough I stuck my head outside to find this silly old git screaming at the driver of the Black Integra hehe. "You stole my park!" "Get the fuck out of here! I was waiting and you stole my fucking park!" Ahhh the old parking space argument, also hardly uncommon in this city :) Right as I was about to start recording a video of all this, granddad gave up and drove off, but not before telling the Integra driver that he had his license plate number. I'm not sure what he plans to do with that - it's hardly a crime (as far as I'm aware) to 'steal' another man's parking space but whatever. I had the same argument with a guy over a bicycle rack when I living in London hehe. Good times.


Two to three feet of snow was the forecast combined with ferocious high winds that would make this blizzard one for the New York City record books. The storm was to hit the city late yesterday morning causing white out conditions, with the worst of the snow fall to hit in the evening and continue overnight. This was the scene on my way into work yesterday morning as the snow was starting to fall.		Fast forward eight hours, conditions had significantly worsened and people were scrambling to get home, but not before raiding supermarkets for the essentials.		Except for this guy - he was walking around with this sign and asking everybody if they had any weed he could buy hahaha! I guess we all have different ideas of what constitutes the essentials.


Grand Army Plaza at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street / Central Park South, completely deserted aside from a couple of tractors ploughing snow off the road. In fact, apart from a few other people who had ventured out to take photos and have snow fights, the city's ploughs furiously clearing the streets were the only sounds to be heard. No car horns, no sirens, no nothing - just ploughs, wind, and snow hitting my head.				Central Park was looking stunning but was officially closed as well due the risk of falling tree limbs from the weight of the snow. That didn't stop several folk sneaking in with their toboggans though hehe.


All the photos from Puerto Rico are here, and all the photos and videos from Saint Martin are here :)


The roads were already a mess and the snow was starting to freeze and compact, but that didn't stop me getting stuck into it :)


As the eye of the storm moved in, word started to spread that all non-emergency vehicles (including bicycles) would be ordered off the city's 6,000 miles (10,000kms) of roads from 11pm until further notice, and the New York City Subway would be completely suspended system-wide for the first time in its entire 110-year history. Be that as it may, I wasn't not going to be out there getting photos of it ;) I left the apartment on foot shortly before midnight to experience the city that never sleeps virtually silenced, and the streets all but completely deserted. The shot on the right is looking north along our nearest Manhattan avenue - First Avenue.


Looking north along Park Avenue.		And looking south along Fifth Avenue beside Central Park. Needless to say, even at this hour of the night, this road would normally be full of traffic. Instead I had the whole thing virtually to myself. Quite amazing! Video of the scene here.


Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. I work in the UBS building which can be seen in the shot on the right with the red neon letters at its top.				One block over to Seventh Avenue at Times Square - always choked with traffic at any time of the day or night. Ellen was certainly enjoying the rare peace and quiet.


Absolutely amazing to see Times Square so empty, and so silent. In 2012 I saw a large section of lower Manhattan in complete darkness following the power shut down after Hurricane Sandy, and now I've seen it practically deserted and silenced.		The 24 degrees up there is -5 Celsius. My camera and tripod had icicles starting to form on them hehe. By now it was 3:30am so I started the long walk back home, along the middle of the street the whole way, just because I could :)		On the way I broke into a Subway station to grab a shot that is normally impossible. No people and no trains. The storm unexpectedly shifted about 30 miles east of the city and so New York missed the worst of it and ended up with barely a foot of snow in total. That's left a lot of people questioning the decision to shut down not only the streets but the Subway especially. Better to be safe than sorry though, and the parts of the country that did get the full brunt of the storm are a complete mess right now. News article here.


Ever wonder what the pigeons do during these persistent freezing temperatures? Me neither.		But evidently they congregate around the underground steam pipes and steam vents that make the road surface warm to the touch (and dry as you can see here). Good thinking. Better thinking would be to make their way south (like Kristina and I plan to do), but oh well.		Anyway, I stuck a few of my late-night blizzard photos from Tuesday on Facebook, and a friend back in New Zealand requested I put up a shot of the "Central Park lake frozen". Despite there being several lakes in Central Park, I assume she's referring to The Pond here since it's the most photographed. So I wandered on down there at lunch time today and took a few snappy-snaps.


It's always noticeably cooler by at least a few degrees in Central Park, and after I got done in here I went and sat with the pigeons for a while to warm up.		Bonus shot during the 'blue hour' after sunset when there's still a little light left in the sky.


I woke up this morning to several alerts on my phone about a massive fire in a document storage warehouse in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg. It had been raging out of control since 6:30am and was apparently getting worse, so with Williamsburg only a short bike ride away on the other side of the East River I figured I'd go take a look. This was the view of it across the river. Nice one!		The warehouse across the street, part of the same complex, is what it used to look like. Despite the nice sunny day, the ambient air temperature was about -5 C (24 F) and the wind chill was considerably lower.		After a short and chilly ride I arrived in the area to find it completely shrouded in thick, acrid smoke, and man did it stink!


The fire had been burning for about eight hours at this point. Video here of some of the action. This huge warehouse apparently contained millions of boxes of paper documents stacked floor to ceiling, so once the fire took hold of them there was little hope of containing it quickly. New York government files, including documents from the state court system, the city Administration for Children's Services, the city Health and Hospitals Corporation, and members of the Greater New York Hospital Association, were all stored here. As such, there are a lot of photos on Instagram and the like of charred documents that have been found nearby, some as far as several blocks away due to the strong winds. This one here was part of a trust certificate. Others have found bits of old health records and other financial documents from as far back as 1990.				Just another day in the life for these boys. There were about 275 firefighters on scene for much of the day, fighting a losing battle thanks to all of the flammables inside. Another video here.


Next door to the warehouse is an oil refinery that had been evacuated as a precaution. With that being the case, I (along with a few other photographers) pretty much had free reign to wander around the scene and shoot the action hehe. The fire chiefs didn't seem to care as long as we stayed out of the way (crowd control at these things is handled by the cops, but there didn't seem to be any of them around). By the way, check out the frozen car on the left.


I hope the owner of this hadn't planned on driving it home tonight.		Nor the owners of these hehe. Everything that got splattered by a fireman's hose rapidly froze. This pretty much sums up the northern winter in a single photo (and the reason Kristina and I are leaving).


I continued following my nose and trespassing through the refinery to the river, opposite the east side of Midtown Manhattan from where I took the photos earlier.		This is one of the Fire Department's marine units, also visible in the photos above blasting the back of the warehouse.


Well, there isn't much left of that. Video here of the marine unit doing its thing.		Back in the refinery I found a staircase leading up to the roof of the adjacent building, so I wandered up there for a look too hahaha! Video here of the view up there.


Fuelled by all that paperwork, the fire (now almost 12 hours old) was still clearly raging inside despite being pelted with an estimated 20,000 gallons of water per minute.


Smokey sunset over Lower Manhattan.		With the sun going down, so too was the temperature and even my bike had icicles starting to form on it hehe. So I headed home, stinking of smoke and looking forward to thawing out.		Not as much as this guy though!