Look what Santa brought me this year!
So this time next year, I should be celebrating the holidays somewhere in Australia…well assuming a snake, shark, spider, crocodile, kangaroo, wallaby, dingo, koala bear, jellyfish or some dangerous animal hasn’t made an afternoon snack of me by then. 🙂
To those around the world, have a wonderful holiday season! I’ll be spending mine in a very non-Canadian way – relaxing on a beach enjoying the summer sun. It certainly isn’t a bad way to spend the day. 😀
Finished up the Tongariro Northern Circuit and I’ll be back to posting like normal in a day or two. Right now, it’s sunny, 23C and I’m near a beach. I’m heading to the ocean for a while to relax. Until later!
After looking for what feels like 20 minutes, you get up and walk away, defeated. You assume the remote tossed itself out a window, grew legs and walked away, someone came in and stole it and nothing else, SOMETHING. Because the remote is nowhere to be found. Yet you know it should be there. And then it shows up in plain site next time you go to watch TV. That sort of describes the search for my camera memory card.
There are several things that New Zealanders have as part of their life that really could enhance life in Canada if we adopted them. And the same can be said the other way. Here is what I’ve found so far.
My travel power adapter has surge protection built into it thanks to a small cylindrical fuse. The fuse blew yesterday (in unspectacular fashion). This left me without a source of power for my happy laptop, which was nearly out of battery power as it was. So updates will have to wait for a couple of days, because while I have found and replaced said fuse (after nearly a day of looking in the sleepy town I’m in), I now need sleep. Lots of updating to come, including camping near Auckland, my first overnight hike…and jumping off waterfalls. Updates in a few days.
New Zealand’s postal system is much like Canada’s, in that it is a large, government run entity (NZ Post). But for tourists there is another option, with ‘Universal Mail’ stamps in most tourist shops. The stamps are often much more touristy, showing pictures of areas, compared to NZPost’s which are all of the same general image. Using Universal Mail cost the same as NZPost to send a postcard internationally, but how is the speed? Research shows they use a courier, DHL for moving the mail international. And how about in reverse, sending from Canada to New Zealand? Curious to see the difference, I got Donna back in Sarnia to help me with a little experiment. A postal race across the pacific.
From my side in Ohakune, I dropped both postcards in the mail on October 16th, a Sunday. This was done on purpose to ensure that they both have an equal start – Monday morning, or whenever mail was collected that day. So the first day of movement was considered October 17th. On Donna’s side, after a difficult search to actually find a postcard with Sarnia on it, she dropped a postcard in the mail on October 17th – which would be October 18th for me. She posted it from the post office so it would get sent that day.
The results:
I’ve specifically stayed away from planning more than a a few days in advance so far but have had to change that for March next year. Specifically, starting March 13th I’ll be walking on the world-famous Milford Track. The reason I have booked so far in advance? That’s the first day of availability. The New Zealand government limits the number of independent hikers to 40 per day on this track to keep it in good, natural condition. The track being a huge draw though means it can be hard to get a spot during the summer months. March is actually fall here, but it will do just fine for me. This was one multi-day hike that I HAD to make sure to do before leaving New Zealand, so I made the booking today. This will fit well – I will already be in the Queenstown area March 2nd dropping off friends for their flight home, and again on April 1st when my parents come for a visit. I’m hoping to get some serious hiking in during the month in-between. There are some absolutely fantastic multi-day hikes in that region.
The big downside to the Milford Track,compared to any other hike here in New Zealand? The price. You can’t camp on the Milford (you can on any other great walk), and hate to stay in huts. The huts are supposed to be great, but the price difference is substantial ($50 vs $15 camping). Add to that you need a boat to take you to the start of the track from Te Anau downs, and then a boat to get you from the end of the track to Milford Sound, and then a bus back to Te Anau…the total cost quickly hits over $300! OUCH. Compared that to most other hikes which require no transport fees or huts (ie the Tongariro Northern Circuit), those costs will be $45-50 for the same amount of days. Oh well, small price to pay for what should be one of the best hikes in the world. It will cost me considerably more whenever I get to do the Inca trail after all…:)
I just hope I get good weather!