Random thoughts

Sun Dec 21 - Posted on the 23



I’m trying to think of things that make NZ unique, or at least different from the US. ON a day to day basis, I guess it is striking about how inexpensive it is to get along here. Most of that is due to the spectacular exchange rate. A US dollar is worth NZ$1.75 – 1.80. That means that a motel room in a nice place is maybe 60 or 70 US dollars, and the place we are staying tonite, the Chateau at Tongarara is about $100 US. We don’t stay in places like this very often, but it’s nice to do once in a while. It’s sort of like the Canadian Pacfic Hotels, a destination for the non-adventuous, who want to see great scenery.


Tomorrow we do the "Tongarara Crossing", which the guide books call the most spectacular hike in the country. It’s about 10 miles, and a van takes you to the starting point and picks you up at the end of the day at the other end. The whole country is made from volcanic eruptions, and this area has 3 volcanos which have erupted recently, like 2007 recently. Everything in this area steams, there are hot springs, pools and spas all over the place from Rotorua to Taupo to here. Life is very good.


Another thing is the almost complete lack of people everywhere. This hotel could house maybe 500 people. I count 29 cars in the parking lot, and I’m guessing that most of them are just parked there for day hikes. There are lot of people in the big cities a very few medium sized towns, like Napier, where we’re going when we’re done here, and then the zoos at Rotorua and other major resorts, but other than that, you should hope your car doesn’t break down, because there is no help.

Speaking of cars, I’ve determined that it’s impossible to get a speeding ticket here. The speed limit is 100 km/hr and it doesn’t change whether you are on the freeway in Auckland (Auckland is the only place in the country there is a freeway), or on a tiny windy back road.
There is not a gas station whenever you want one. And there are no places to get your oil changed, except gas stations… just like the US in the ‘50s.

Another striking thing is the number of songbirds all over the place. You know when the sun comes up, because the bird racket outside can’t be dulled by putting pillow over your head. I persevere, however.

An odd thing we’ve noticed is that even though most things are a bargain, houses, if you want to buy one are just about what they would cost in the US, or I should say around the Seattle area. That strikes me as odd, because most people really don’t have a lot of money, so I don’t know how they live. There aren’t that many apartment buildings outside of Auckland. A mystery to me.

I had thought that we’d find someplace we liked and rent an apt or a condo or something, so we wouldn’t have to pack and unpack every day. It hasn’t worked out that way. We have two very good guide books, "The Rough Guide to NZ" and the Dorling Kinserly one which has a lot of neat pictures, but not a lot of information. What’s happened is that we read them in the evening and say, "Ooooo let’s got to (fill in the blank) tomorrow." Every 4 or 5 days, we say, this is nice, let’s stay here another night. But we haven’t been anywhere for more than two nights, and it’s been just fine. There is another breathtaking thing to see around every curve in the road, and we like stopping for the night if there is a good golf course or something else which we need to spend time at.

Our ability to do the Tongara Crossing is heavily dependant on the weather. It’s been raining and cold in the mountains the past 2 days, so we are staying in the area until the weather clears. It’s supposed to be nice tomorrow, so that’s what we’ve planned to do. It’s nice to have enough time so that for this "must do" thing, so we won’t have to come home and say, "the weather was bad, so we didn’t get to do it."

Gotta go and make the sandwiches for tomorrows hike.


It's now Dec 23, and we did the hike yesterday. Damned near killed us at our age. More later.
late. We are in Napier now, and will be here for a couple of days, so more pictures will be forthcoming.