Further Wanderings

I’d LOVE to write a longer entry about this trip, but given that it’s now less than three days until I leave Wellington I’m afraid there just won’t be time, so it’ll have to be a quicky.

Though the planning for Sarah and I’s trip home had been going well, there was still one major hurdle to clear: obtaining a US visa (if you want to miss out the upcoming rant, please just skip the following paragraph.)

Apparently the US visa waiver program doesn’t apply (even if you’re otherwise eligible) if you plan on spending more than 90 days in North America (not just the USA mind… Anywhere in North America including Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.) So, despite the fact that we’ll be spending a total of 17 days in the US, Sarah had to pay a further $160 for a US visa (not to mention the $35 spent on the pay-per-minute call that is the only way to contact the US consulate.) To make matters worse, the only way to apply for a visa is to have an IN PERSON interview at the consulate in Auckland (NOT the embassy in Wellington, where we currently live) adding a further $250 and an immense pain in the butt to the whole affair.

Anyhow, despite the forgoing, we decided to make the best of a necessity and take the trip up to Auckland together, doing a bit of sightseeing on the way.
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Well well, another couple months another update.
While it’s true that things are happening more slowly here than when I was well and truly on the road things are still happening… Exciting things no less (though you’ll have to read the whole entry [or at least skip down to near the end] if you want the MOST exciting bits.
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As suggested by the subject line (and as any regular readers will have noticed) I've been inexcusably lazy when it comes to documenting my last week or so in Wellington before leaving for Christmas in Argentina. Unfortunately, the laziness ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well then, it’s been rather a while since I last wrote, hasn’t it. But for good reasons, I assure you. What have I been busy with? I shall explain: 1. Cultivating hidden (talent?) I’ve always thought it would be nice to ... [Continue reading this entry]

So you ask, what’s new and exciting in Wellywood? (That’s what some locals have taken to calling Wellington recently. The name comes from the fact that, between Peter Jackson and significant incentives from the New Zealand government, quite ... [Continue reading this entry]

I’ve noticed that my descriptions of hiking/tramping/trekking trips in the past have been, depending on your perspective, exhaustive or exhausting. I’ll see what I can do about limiting this one, but it doesn’t promise to be easy, as ... [Continue reading this entry]

At this point the narrative character of my ‘blog is going to take a downturn for a while. This is explained by the fact that I’ve now been in Wellington for 6 weeks or so, and have actually settled ... [Continue reading this entry]

That's not a rhetorical question that I've been asking myself or anything. It genuinely is the subject of this post. I'm sure at least a few of you might be interested in how my days, weeks (and by ... [Continue reading this entry]

Anyone who's had a look here in the past few days, would have noted that everything since San Diego had disappeared. Hopefully no one went too apoplectic with grief and concern, but if you'd started you can stop, since ... [Continue reading this entry]

You know I’m hard up for creative ideas when I return to alliterative titles. So… what have I been doing with myself over the past couple weeks in Wellington? This will certainly be far from comprehensive since: A. A fully complete description would ... [Continue reading this entry]