• Agile Software Development with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle
• Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, by Eric Evans
• Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, by Martin Fowler
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler

Next up: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, by the Gang of Four. Yes, talk about classics and shame on me for not having ordered it sooner! Also reading Implementation Patterns, by Kent Beck at the moment.

My adventure into Kiwi-land started with a long and interesting trip to San Francisco. The interesting part was my new book: Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, by Eric Evans. This book, combined with KLM’s excellent on-board service made my flight to SF a breeze.

It was only 2PM when I arrived in SF, so I had to wait another 4 hours before my flight to Auckland even boarded. The waiting wasn’t too bad. It was great to get out into the sun and to grab some decent food and coffee. Didn’t get to see much of SF though, which was too bad.

The flight to Auckland wasn’t that flawless unfortunately. There were some technical problems with the airplane, which caused quite a bit of a delay. Because of this delay I had to run to catch my flight to Dunedin. The flight was all set to go and was waiting for me… I barely made it in time!

When I got to Dunedin I was welcomed by Jesse, Tracey and Lindsay. It was great to meet them in person. The first order of business for me was to get some coffee, because I only got roughly 3 hours of sleep on my way there. After a little tour of Abbey College (that’s where I’m staying) it was time for our first meeting. No time for sleep! Finally, after dinner at Abbey, I decided it was time to get some sleep. When I woke up the next day, the jet-lag was no more!

Abbey is a great place to stay by the way. It’s not far from the office or from the city center. The people who are staying there are great as well. Just check out the site. Abbey’s got it all!

So what am I doing here in NZ? We’re currently working on writing the software for the PBRF initiative. It has already taken a lot of late hours, and it will probably take a lot more. It will be worth it though! After that, we’ll be working on a great and exciting cutting-edge open-source project. Unfortunately I can’t say a lot more at this point, but you can rest assured that it includes the latest Zend Framework technologies.

Seeing as I don’t have internet-access at Abbey College yet, I’ve got lots of time for other activities. I’ve finished reading the better part of my Domain Driven Design book and I’ve ordered Martin Fowler’s Patterns Of Enterprise Application Architecture, which should arrive this week. I’ve also bought myself a brand new bicycle so I can get around. Cycling here is a bit more dangerous than in the Netherlands though… it definitely brings back memories from my bicycling trip in Scotland! There are lots more things on my todo list: winery tour, surfing, snowboarding, skydiving, bungee-jumping, renting/buying a Harley… six months in NZ is not going to be enough time!

Well, that’s my first NZ blog-post. There will definitely be more of these! Let’s hope they fix my internet soon… See my Flickr photo-stream for more pictures.