So There I Was…

I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore. I left yesterday morning from Darwin for my four and a half hour flight to Singapore. The flight wasn’t very full so I had an entire row to myself and was able to lie down and sleep through most of it. The Changi Airport was very nice and luxurious, with tons of shops, restaurants, internet terminals, etc, so my four-hour layover went very quickly. I was surprised by the fact that getting through customs in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur was much, much easier than in was in either New Zealand or Australia. It helped that I didn’t have anything to declare (in NZ I had to declare my hiking boots and in OZ I had some food with me), and they barely even looked up at me when they stamped my passport.

One of the first things I noticed in Singapore was the humidity. The second thing was the squatter toilets in the bathroom. Thankfully, there were also “regular” toilets as well. I know I’ll have to deal with the squatters soon enough, but at 8:30 in the morning after a couple of cups of coffee and a four hour flight I didn’t think it was the best time. One of the coolest things about the Changi airport was the indoor orchid garden and Koi pond. I’d never seen anything like that in an airport before. They even had regularly scheduled feedings for the Koi. It was pretty cool.

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I’ve finally got all of my pictures and videos uploaded to a website for everyone to view. Many thanks to my friend Todd Garrison for providing the space to host my pics on his server. I owe you a pint or twelve!

Here’s the link: http://www.substream.com/tmagney/RTW2006Photos/index.html

A word of caution: The bungy jumping videos are about 5MB each, so if you are on a dial-up connection be prepared to wait a while for the file to download. Also, the video files are in Windows Media format, but Mac users should be able to view them.

Tim

It’s been really, really great being in Dunedin with Kevin and Milyn and their little boy, Issac. I got to see Kevin briefly in the States about a year ago, but I haven’t seen Milyn in probably four years. Kev and Mi have been great hosts, and it’s been really nice to have home cooked meals, hot showers and a warm bed.

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Kawarau Bridge, 47 Meters

Nevis Highwire, 134 Meters

The Ledge, 43 Meters 

They call Queenstown the adventure capital of New Zealand, and for good reason. Queenstown is a lakeside resort town set in the midst of the mountain range known as the Remarkables. Every third shop in town is an adventure shop, hawking everything from rafting trips, cruises, jet boats, winery tours, skydiving, caving, river boarding, canyon swings, nature tours, and of course, bungy jumping. (Queenstown was the site of the world’s first commercial bungy jump.)

I arrived in Queenstown on Thursday evening, after a long ride from Franz Josef on the Magic Bus. The west coast scenery is stunning (as is almost all of New Zealand) From Franz Josef we followed the coast down a ways, and then headed inland toward Queenstown. The scenery inland is quite different from the coast, as you leave the rainforest and head over to the other side of the mountains where it is much drier. There are lots and lots of lakes, and most of them are very dark in color and are called “mirror” lakes because the surface is so reflective. The dark color comes from tannin which is carried into the lakes from the water running off the mountains. The tannin is the same substance which gives tea it’s brown color, and I suppose it’s also the same tannin found in red wine.

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I arrived in Wellington late Friday night and it seems to be a great city. As the capital of New Zealand, it’s a bustling city with lots to see and do. I spent most of the day Saturday sightseeing. My backpackers was located right on the waterfront, conveniently located across from the bus station and the ferry terminal. It was an easy walk down to the city square where the city gallery was located. The city gallery had some very unusual and interesting art on exhibit and I spent about an hour there browsing the exhibits. From there it was down the street to Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. There were a lot of great exhibits there also, ranging from the traditional Maori exhibit and a Lord of the Rings exhibit, to a geological exhibit on the earth’s tectonic plates and an earthquake simulator. It was a nice museum, but there were no exhibits that really stood out. So after leaving Te Papa, I walked to the other side of downtown and went to the Moko Museum, or tattoo museum. (Te Moko is the Maori term for their traditional tattoos.) The Maori Te Moko are unique to the individual, and each design is a representation of that individual’s geneaolgy, heritage and life story. The museum also had tattoos from all over the world, and talked about the traditional methods of applying tattoos before the existence of needles and tattoo guns. Picture being tattooed with a hammer and chisel and you get the idea. Ouch. I actually met a guy in Mt. Manganui who had a large and elaborate tattoo done in Thailand. It was applied using an instrument made of bamboo and took three days to do.

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I’m in Wanganui now, a couple of hours northwest of Wellington. It’s a great town with lots of history. The Whanganui River runs through town and Wanganui is one of the oldest towns in New Zealand. (Yes, the town is spelled with a “W” and the river is spelled with the original spelling of “Wh.” You can thank the English for that.)

I arrived here on Wednesday afternoon after hitching a ride from Opunake. Getting a ride turned out to be pretty easy, considering that Opunake is off the beaten track and doesn’t get much traffic. I only had to wait about 20 minutes for a ride, getting a lift from a Samoan guy named Shane who lives in Opunake and is a sales rep for a school supply company. He was up on the Surf Highway calling on a school and was on his way back to Wanganui when he picked me up. It was about an hour and a half ride to Wanganui, and he dropped me off at the local visitors center where I got my bearings and booked a backpackers for Wednesday and Thursday night. I stayed at a place called the Tamara Backpackers Lodge which was really great. I got a good bed, not a bunk, for only $19 NZ a night. The host, Rory, was very friendly and knows a lot about the area. He gave me a map and pointed out all the places to see in Wanganui. After checking in I walked downtown to browse the shops and pick up some groceries. I spent Wednesday evening relaxing and visiting with some of the other travelers.

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Since my last post I spent another night in Paihia, caught the Magic bus back down to Auckland for a night and then took the Intercity Coach from Auckland to New Plymouth. I’m now in Opunake, a small beach town on highway 45, also known as the Surf Highway. The Surf Highway runs along the west coast of the North Island from New Plymouth to Hawera. I arrived in Opunake Sunday afternoon spending the weekend in New Plymouth.

My last night in Paihia was quite fun. I had spent the day just kind of walking around town, doing laundry, and mostly just relaxing. That evening I went to the bar below the backpackers for a couple of beers and met a couple of locals from Auckland, Mike and Adrian, who were in town for work for a few days. Both were sales reps and were in Paihia calling on clients. I had been sitting by myself in the bar when they invited me to join them. This was a little surprising, but the New Zealanders are a freindly lot. We chatted over beers for some time, and they were even nice enough to offer me a ride back to Auckland with them the next day. I had already booked my ticket on Magic, but thought I’d skip it and join them anyway since they had offerred to show me some more of the north coast and share a room with them in Monterey. Unfortunately, as the night wore on and we all got more drunk, we lost track of each other and never did work it out. It was all just as well though because after the hard night of partying, I wasn’t that keen on getting up early to leave by 8:00. So I stuck with the original plan and caught the Magic back to Auckland at 1:30, arrivng at my backpackers around 6:00 that evening. I stayed at a new place in Auckland called the City Garden Lodge, in a district called Parnell. Parnell is a cool little burb near the University with lots of shops and cafes. After I got checked in, I rang Gavin, my friend from the Habitat build, and we met at a local pub for a burger and beer. Gavin had just finished up his work at the University of Auckland and was preparing to leave that weekend for a 5 week trip to Dubai and Europe, and will be running the Paris Marathon next weekend. We exchanged travel notes and talked about the Habitat build some more, but called it an early night and I got back to the backpackers about 9:00 or 10:00.

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I’m starting to settle in to this whole traveling thing. I’m getting used to the hostel/backpacker life, and am enjoying getting to know some of the other travelers. It seems like the majority of the people I’ve met are from the UK, but I’ve also met people from all over Europe as well as a couple of Canadians. However, most everyone seems to be a twenty-something Caucasian so I’m not really experiencing anything new. But New Zealand does have its little differences. Everything is a little slower paced here, and not rushed like in the U.S. Mostly everyone’s just a little more relaxed. When working with the Habitat crew, we always made sure to break for tea at exactly 10:30, and again at 3:00. And most everyone here drinks tea, not coffee. Those that do drink coffee drink instant coffee, although you can usually find espresso in the cafes and restaurants. Also, with your tea you usually have biscuits, although biscuits here are what Americans would call cookies. Another thing you can find all over are meat pies, usually mince or steak, and fish and chips. With the exception of the Maori, most of the people in the North Island are English, so this all makes sense. The prices here don’t seem too different, but gas is really expensive at over 4 bucks a gallon. That doesn’t surprise me much, though, since we are on an island. What did surprise me was that it cost $4.80 NZ, or about $3.10 US to buy a bag of ice. Beers run about $4-7 NZ a pint in the bars, and a good six pack runs about $12 in the stores. But overall, things don’t seem much different here. I am spending a bit more money than I had planned, but I’m still in a kind of vacation mode these last few weeks, so that’s not too surprising. Besides, I’m hoping I can make up the difference in Asia and Africa where things are much cheaper.

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My stint with Habitat for Humanity is now over, and after a few days of R&R, I’ve left the group and am now heading out on my own for the first time. I am excited, nervous, and a little confused, but mostly just happy that the real journey has now begun. The Habitat experience was really a great one, but because New Zealand is very westernized and I’ve been traveling with a large group of Americans, I really didn’t feel like I was that far from home.
 
Since my last entry, we spent another week working on the two Habitat homes, and also had about 4 days of sightseeing. The building was going well, and I got to split my time between both houses, which was nice. On the first house I continued to help with the finish work by installing shelving, prepping for paint, etc. When I wasn’t doing that I was over at the second house helping to build the foundation and getting ready for the concrete slab to be poured. The second house is an “experimental” construction that is built using mortar-less blocks. This is a type of construction that was developed by an engineering student at the University of Auckland, and it was designed to help withstand earthquakes. Unfortunately, we did not get to stick around long enough to see the slab poured and the walls start to go up.
 
Our time on the building sites lasted a week and a half, and we had one rest day on Sunday the 12th. Over that weekend we did homestays with some of the HFH Board members and their friends. My hosts were Ken and Jill Stevenson. Ken is the Board Chairman of the local HFH affiliate, and Ken and Jill hosted a bbq on Saturday night for all of the builders and our hosts. On Sunday we were taken out on a boat trip by one of Ken’s friends, Bill. Bill has a beautiful boat that has been in his family for close to 50 years. We set off from Pine Harbour to Motuihe Island . Even though it was raining that morning, the trip out was beautiful and by the time we got to the island it had cleared up so we had a nice afternoon of exploring the island and swimming in the ocean. Monday morning it was back to work for three more days of building.
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