Liz in New Zealand with minor comments on Australia

Liz in NZ with comments on Australia too

Australia and New Zealand governments advertise for the sake of their citizens to a greater degree than the public service announcements that I observe in the US. They are more Nanny-like. They also support tourism with I-Site centers throughout both countries. Practically every town has an I-site where an attendant will answer questions and hand out a local map. In one town in Australia the I-site was in an art gallery. Just as long as someone keeps the door open and will talk to a visitor. Cigarette retailers post the telephone# of the Quit Line. No smoking except in certain limited places. Call the national Quit Line and Nicabates are shipped to a citizen for a cost of as little as $3. (Mike pays $30-$50.) Highway signs warn motorists to Rest, Stay Fresh, Share the Drive. A Micro Nap kills...Enough to make a motorist sleepy. A poster shows an assembly of macho men united against battering women. Bowel cancer incidents are high in NZ. Since it is highly treatable they post signs about bowel movements and pain. Do not use candles in Camper Vans is another warning in a place just loaded with RVs. A free brochure on preventing objects from falling during earthquakes is a handy dandy booklet to take home since my mom’s china cabinet rattled during a quake in Washington, D.C. and we read about a tremor in Ohio, of all places. Governments give a voice to prevent horrors that confront firemen, teachers and medical workers. Government I-sites assist us, the budget traveler and that broadens their tourism industry.

I asked Jean Dunstan in San Remo in Australia how Mums potty train their children to push which of the 2 buttons on toilets. I asked because I did not really understand the buttons. Do the plumbing pipes vary for the 2 buttons? I wondered if one pipe is for pee and if a second pipe eliminates black water. She said the waste pipe is the same. A child learns to ask, little flush or a big flush? The flush simply varies by volume of water.

Mike can't get over the cattle and sheep on steep hillsides. They're in separate pastures on the steep hills. It's a wonder they don't tumble down. While biking in Wanaka I heard a sheep on the back of a truck bleating woefully. Then I saw the same sheep at the Wanaka Lion’s Club Fair and offered to feed her the crust of my meat pie. Her shepherd declined for the obvious reason that the pie crust had been near meat (Mad cow). He expressed sympathy for her bleating and her hideous fright. He said that  she’d never been transported before and that she’d seen numerous of her friends go off and not come back.

Hostels continue to be excellent and their operating mechanics interest me. In Rotorua the bed frame was made out of plywood. The window had a sheer curtain and a pulled-up Roman blind, both apparently locally made. The hostel in Kaikoura won a prize for best small hostel in 2010-11. It felt intimately small sandwiched on a beach road with a straight up cliff in back. The road led to a seal colony. 

Meanwhile Indonesians were by far the largest nationality to attend the show at the Agridome. Not Chinese as I first assumed. I enjoy a chain store called I think, Cost Plus World Market. It sold numerous Indonesian-made household items. 15 years ago or so I remember reading that their currency fell badly and that wages went down to $1 per day. I felt sorry for Indonesian woodworkers and guilty for buying their wooden carved exports.

Context on population has to assist in understanding peoples so here are some statistics. New Zealand has 4.5 million people while Australia has 22.5 million. The Netherlands has 17 million while the UK has 62 million. England alone has 50 million. Germany has 88 million and ranks 14th in national population. Vietnam is 13^th next to Germany. Indonesia is the world's 4th most populated nation. The US has 311 million and ranks third after China and India.

Rain fell in New Zealand for 5 days without let up. We rode most of day from Rotorua to Wellington, the capital. We visited the very convenient and comfortable Te Papa, New Zealand’s great national museum. We saw interesting public architecture along the water front. We apologize to Liz Boss and Sci Fi friends for skipping movie set tours for Lord of Rings but they are not that important to us. Wellington is at the bottom of the north island and where we take a ferry to the south island. From the ferry we are bussed to the beach town, Kaikoura.

In the hostel in Kaikoura we met a 26 year old Australian woman who came from and then returned to Christchurch on our bus. She told us to expect tremors. She also said that Re:Start was an interesting outgrowth built from colorfully painted shipping containers. Meanwhile a German tourist deliberately rerouted her trip to avoid Christchurch while I asked myself why I accepted the suggestion to go through there. I woke up in the middle of the night unsure if I were feeling a tremor. I had a bad dream about crawling insects and denial. Then the whole YMCA hostile actually shook in the morning (Jan 5) so I learned the difference between a vibration (feels like an electric blanket) and a mild earthquake.

In Kaikoura and Christchurch Mike and I slept in private rooms on twin beds. He is the most wonderfully tactile cuddly man. Before I met Mike I was not sure what cuddling meant though I’d heard it defined in Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Mike holds an embrace as he stretches out his arm that is so comfortable. No wonder I don’t sleep as well in twin beds.

Mike admired Burt Munro played by Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a motorcycle racer who raced on Bonneville Salt Flats from Christchurch, New Zealand. So when asked if we’d go through Christchurch, I said, yes because the bus driver would manage snarled traffic. 66,000 residents have moved out of the city so traffic volume is fine. When we arrived our cab driver said that he knew Burt Munro and that Anthony Hopkins portrayed him very accurately except for accent. We did not find a restaurant open. Few businesses are open after 5pm. Good thing we had cheese, ham, crackers and a banana for the first night. Christchurch is in the province of Canterbury. Very near our YMCA is the Canterbury Museum. That and the botanical garden amused us during our day in Christchurch. The very crisp and clean Y cost $72 NZD per night or we spent a reasonable $110 USD for 2 nights.    

Our cab driver from Tarras to Wanaka told us that New Zealand tourism is continuing to be really hurt by Christchurch’s tremors, that people are not just avoiding Christchurch but entire New Zealand. Apparently Japanese tourists visit anyway. They understand the minimal risk of earthquake. Japanese appreciate the favorable exchange rate, wide open vistas of mountains and seashore and the diversity of natural beauty that makes New Zealand. 

Diane, you asked what defied planning? What were biggest surprises on the trip? I worried needlessly that Uluru would be too hot and that Wanaka would be too cold. I also did not anticipate that Christchurch would scare me (needlessly) but I was scared at first.

With you and George in mind, I really wanted to see the fiords because you said how stunning they are. It really upsets me is that we cannot afford to visit Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound and see the fiords. The whole effort and expense of getting to the South Island was so that we might see the fiords. We spent $830 NZD on the Great Sights Bus Line but that bus line does not serve Wanaka. “Ya cain’t git thar from here.” We can but only for a prohibitive cost. $1000 is too much on top of what we spent. I am too newly retired to spend that much for a single day. Bad enough I spent half that on the Great Barrier Reef. I was really angry and aggrieved when I learned that yesterday in the Wanaka I-Site. I raised my voice. How could we come 6000 miles and miss the fiords! I feel tricked because Wanaka is less than 100 kilometers from Queenstown. Tours to the sounds leave from Queenstown. When I called up the RCI number for New Zealand and found a week in Wanaka, I took it imaging that Wanaka to Queenstown to the fiord would work just fine. We would have been far better off for sightseeing to continue with the bus and hostels but instead we are in the nicest time share I ever remember. If only I had not booked this time share! I looked at car rental at $60 per day with a charge after the 1^st 150 kilometers. Queenstown’s one day boat tour to the fiords costs $170 per person and leaves awfully early and returns by 8 PM. Driving on the opposite side of the road in wee hours is just not the thing to command of Mike and me. Instead we are kicking back in the luxury of a very well appointed townhouse that we may not see the likes of in crowded Asia for the next 3 months. A fly over to a ship (fly/cruise/fly) from Wanaka is a $1000 for 2. Moral of story is do not book a timeshare in Wanaka if you only have 2 weeks in New Zealand.          

While I was upstairs reading and then meditating Mike heard someone stomping in another unit. He worried if I was still acting out my anger. Our 2^nd night in Wanaka we finally watched The King’s Speech. For me it was a story about a man managing anger and discovering friendship in the process. It was a movie that my mother said that she liked and it was Best Picture, so I really wanted to see it. For me it was a movie about the benefits of psychotherapy; feeling listened to is such a gift. We are visiting constitutional monarchies. The Queen of England is on the coins in Australia and New Zealand. The Economist is a magazine referred to here by newspapers. Its surveys show constitutional monarchies far surpassing the US in a number of measurements of democracy (like fair elections). Increasingly the US is struggling to sustain democracy; pressure to be an oligarchy run by the 1 percent is huge. We liked the suggestion that Margaret Thatcher’s funeral be privatized.  

Our Wanaka timeshare, The Pines makes The Moorings in Tomakin, NSW, Australia seem like a dump. I did not want to be too critical on The Moorings since we had just arrived in Australasia and didn’t have a frame of reference. Both were booked through RCI.

Language

In Australia and New Zealand reception is the word used for Guest Registration. When checking in to a hotel, hostel or timeshare, you go to Reception. When I asked if they’d have a reception for guests (typical social mixer in a timeshare) the receptionist looked confused. A reservation is called a booking. Instead of reservations required, they say, bookings essential.