If Those D@mn Wipers Turn on One More Time

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Barry

Just a quick note, the blog is running a few days behind “real time”, as internet is not as easily accessible as I had hoped. The blog is being written each night, and is uploaded when I can get the WiFi going.

No rush to get moving this morning. We have found that motels invariably have kitchenettes in them, so in the interest of keeping additional inches off the waste line by forgoing a cooked breakfast every morning and keeping the $$ flow under control (NZ isn’t quite as bad as the Cooks, but it is still more expensive than Canada) we just make some toast and coffee. After breakfast we headed out for a walk through the marina and along the edge of the inlet. There was a large cruise ship in port, which may explain why the Saturday market was open on Tuesday! We didn’t escape unscathed as Lyn found something to buy.

Back at the hotel we packed up and checked out. We liked it so much we have booked our last night in the South Island there before we go back on the ferry at the end of the month. We took the scenic route out of Picton to Nelson. Even though there were rain showers the scenery was stunning, it was like the Scottish Highlands on steroids. The roads were fun to drive, not much traffic and numerous hairpin bends. We stopped in the town of Havelock for a coffee; unfortunately it was at a bakery so the breakfast theory bit the dust. It seems you can’t get a drip coffee a la Timmies over here, they all come from those hissing frothing machines.

I am having one major problem with the car, the indicator and wiper stalks are on the opposite side of the steering wheel compared to Canadian vehicles. I can’t count the number of times I have indicated at turns and roundabouts and the wipers came on instead of the flashers. For some reason the locals don’t understand the concept of indicating with wipers, but they are too polite to complain.

After Havelock we went looking for a 3.2km zip-line ride, but it wasn’t there. Not sure what happened to it, but we finished up at a place called Cable Bay, at the end of an 8km ¾ track lane, the other  1¼  tracks appeared to have succumbed to wash outs. The place was given its name as it was the point at which the first undersea communications cable came ashore from Australia in 1896.

We carried on to Nelson and booked into our motel for two nights, we made some lunch and then went off to the Founders Park. This is an area that has a collection of old buildings that have been donated and transported to, and a small working village has been created similar to Upper Canada Village.

Changing tack slightly, back in the 50’s and 60’s in the UK, there used to an air ferry service from Lydd to France using Bristol Freighter aircraft. I thought all these aircraft had long since been destroyed, since we have been here we have seen 3 of them, admittedly not in flying condition, but still recognisable.

After the village we headed into the town of Nelson to scout out a dinner venue, unfortunately we discovered another quilt store; suffice it to say Lyn has yet another project.

Back to the hotel, Lyn headed off to the laundry, and I sat and watched the planes! We are about 1km from the end of the runway and 200m metres off the centreline, bliss!!

Dinner tonight was a very classy affair, takeout pizza and Gin and Tonic drunk out of coffee mugs.

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From North to South

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Barry

Really must try to get the sleeping under control, for the last week 9PM bed seems to have become the norm, but wake up time hasn’t got correspondingly earlier. Must be all the fresh air! We hit the road about 9:00AM after breakfast and headed South towards Wellington and the InterIslander Ferry. The trip was mostly down hill (physically) and there were more populated areas than we saw yesterday. Also the sheep finally took over as the most populous beast on the island. Again it was mostly two lane roads with passing places, but the roads were not busy and 90-100k was an easy drive. We stopped after a couple of hours to take a walk along Otaki beach to get some fresh air and exercise. The water looked grey, cold and uninviting.  We headed into Wellington (now renamed the Middle of Middle Earth until the end of October in celebration of the city being chosen to host the world premiere of The Hobbit this month). We are now crossing the Cook Straight and will be in Picton in about 3 hours.

 

InterIslander Ferry

We arrived in Picton about 25 minutes late. For some reason the ferry came into Wellington, turned around to reverse back to the boarding ramp and then went forward again and did a tour of the harbour. Must have been a good reason, but we never did find out what it was. We checked into the motel, and got a fantastic room overlooking the marina. Once settled in we headed out to the local pub “The Toot ‘n Whistle” for a pint and some supper. This is the last of the “travel to get there days” tomorrow the explorations should start, although the forecast 90mm of rain may dampen our enthusiasm.

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Goodbye Paradise Hello NZ

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Barry

At 5:33 the minivan arrived to take us to the airport, check in was quick and easy as we had purchased a departure tax sticker (NZ$55 each!!) the day before. However passport control was slow, well at least for us it was everyone else sailed through! It wasn’t until we had both cleared passport control that I realised my document was in Lyns passport and vice versa, no wonder it was a slow process, but the officer never twigged as to the problem! We went into the lounge which was a little rowdy for 6:30AM, but it turns out that the NZ All Blacks were thrashing South Africa in Rugby (sorry Robert). Apparently Rugby is treated as a religion in these parts.

The flight was great, and yet again the crew were excellent, it’s so nice to treated as a human rather than as a piece freight! We landed in Auckland about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Again immigration and Customs was a breeze, there were only about 4 people going through the “foreigners” line, we bypassed everybody. Next stop was to get reunited with the modern world; I bought  NZ$19 SIM card that gives me 60 minutes calling, 5000 text messages and 500MB data, didn’t seem a bad deal.

Next to the car hire, phoned for pickup and got the usual “be there in 5 minutes” response. 5 minutes later we were in the van to rental office. From touch-down to driving out the rental place was under an hour.

The weather was partly cloudy and 16C, so not too bad. We headed SE towards our destination for the night about 400km away. We had planned a quick stop at the NZ war birds hangar at Ardmore aerodrome just south of Auckland. Last week end they were going to test fly a restored WW2 Mosquito aircraft, and we were hoping to see it, but unfortunately there was no one around when we got there.

Motorways don’t really exist except for a few miles around Auckland, but the roads are fine, most people obey the speed limits and are quite courteous. Once clear of the city, we were into green rolling hill countryside with a lot of cattle. It took some time before we found any sheep. This surprised me as I thought sheep outnumbered every living creature in NZ. We started to climb into more hilly country, and in the distance we could see some snow covered mountains (12 hours ago we could see white sandy beaches!) We eventually reached over 3000ft  before descending again.

I wasn’t quite prepared for the lack of towns, or even villages, along the route. It really was quite desolate. Anyway we made it to the motel after another long day. Now it is time to crash. Tomorrow we cross over to the South Island on the car ferry.

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The Non Functioning Waterfall

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Barry

Again this morning the wind was pretty strong so we put off snorkeling until the afternoon. In the morning we headed out on the scooter in search of more back roads that we missed yesterday, as well as a waterfall inland a little way. We found some of the back roads and Lyn was quite excited by the number of different flowers we saw, especially the yellow hibiscus trees, which at home are indoor plants and here they are full grown trees. We managed to find the waterfall, but it seems someone had turned it off; there was only a small trickle of water to be seen. Evidently it only “works” after a good rainfall.

The Water-less Waterfall

Back to the cottage for lunch, and then we headed it up to a place call Blackrock, across the other side of the island which is meant to be one of the better snorkeling spots. Unfortunately it was not as good as the other two places we had been to, the water again was a little murky and there were less fish around, however we did see a few bright purple starfish. After the snorkeling we headed back to the cottage and got cleaned up so that we could take the scooter back into town. Renting the scooter was an excellent move as it freed us from the constraints of the bus timetable, and also allowed us to explore further into the island. Plus it was fun!  In one of the local newspapers there was an airport departure schedule; we noticed it listed our flight as leaving 30 minutes earlier than we had been told. When we got back we checked with the taxi company and sure enough they were going to pick us up at 5:30AM and not the 6:00AM that we had expected. Thanks Aeroplan for keeping us updated NOT.

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Island Night

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Barry

Well our plan to go snorkelling in the morning fell through due to high winds whipping up the water, so we jumped (gently) on the scooter and set off to explore the island. I said a couple of days ago that there was only one road running around the island, in fact in places there are 2. The second road was the islands original main road and was constructed of crushed coral some time around 1100AD. Thankfully the road is now paved so we took it. This road has a lot more islander homes, rather than tourist accommodation on it. Many of these houses were also home to small businesses; it seems many people would prefer to run their business out of their homes rather than a store. Again, with very few exceptions, all the houses and properties were well kept, many had goats in the gardens, as well as the occasional cow or pig; and chickens were everywhere.

 

Back Road

After lunch, the wind had died down a bit, so we headed back to the Fruits of Rarotonga for some more snorkeling  Again the water wasn’t crystal cleat due to the sand being stirred up at times, but we were still able to a number fish. There was a very strong current today, so we had to be careful not to be pushed onto the coral while swimming.

Once we got back and cleaned up we headed out to an “Island Evening”. There are many places that run these events that feature local food and dancing. We signed up for one that had a cultural tour beforehand.  The tour took us through a typical native settlement, with stops in various huts explaining the history of the Cook Islanders and showcasing a number of areas such as boats, fishing, medicine, the history of the Islands and when they were populated  and the use of coconuts. The coconut is used for just about everything from food and drink, to string and rope making, plate and basket making, torches for night fishing and clothing. We were also shown the six stages of coconut development and what uses were made of each stage. There were also demonstrations of how to husk a coconut split a coconut and scrape out the meat. All the narrators had a great sense of humour and put over their subjects very well. The tour was well worth it.

Drummers at Island Night

After the tour we headed over to the restaurant which was located around a small man made lagoon. The food was a little disappointing as we were expecting a lot more local dishes rather than the more “touristy” food that was served.  We mentioned this later, and we were told that originally the local dishes were served but a lot of people would not eat them so there was a lot of waste. However the disappointment of the food was made up by the quality of the show. How the girls moved their hips the way they did still remains a mystery. All in all an excellent night.

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A Driving Test

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Barry

Again we were awake around sunrise, but again it was a little too cloudy to see anything spectacular. After breakfast we decided to hop on the bus and go into the big city, this time with a mission. We wanted to hire a motor scooter, unlike the Caribbean where you just turn up pay your money and ride away, t he Cook Islands require you obtain a local driving licence, and a driving licence requires a driving test! First stop the police station to pay for the driving test (NZ$5). Now you need a scooter to take the test. Off to the scooter rental place with driving test application in hand and rent the scooter. Now drive the scooter back to the police station for the test! Is it just me or is this a somewhat backward process? Now for the driving test, I had read in a couple of places that the test consisted of driving out the Police station to the roundabout (traffic circle) about 200 yards away, go around the roundabout and back to the police station. If there was no blood spilled (yours, someone else’s or any animals then you passed). Evidently this was taking its toll on the local emergency services so the test was reduced to 12 traffic cones, 1 give way sign and one stop sign located in an alleyway by the side of the police station. The test requires that your feet remain in the scooters floorboards from the starting point back to the stop sign. All you now had to do was to zig-zag through the cones, go around the give way sign, return going through the cones again and stop at the stop sign. No problem, got that hacked first time, however the constable said that they still average 1 serious injury and many cuts and bruises per week from people taking the test.

Why do the Cook Islands require you get their driving licence? It turns out that NZ won’t recognize a Cook Islands driving licence (wonder why) so the Islanders attitude was, well we won’t blxxdy well recognise theirs, and while we’re at it we won’t recognise anybody else’s either. With the signed pass slip in hand it’s back to the licence counter to pay over $20 for a nice photo-id driving licence.

There are 3 speed limits on the Island, 30K in town, 50K elsewhere except if you’re on a motorbike and not wearing a helmet, then it’s 40k. The 40k came about a couple of years ago when parliament brought in a law requiring the wearing of crash helmets. There was such an outcry from the populace that two days before the law was to become effective it was amended to requiring a crash helmet for travel over 40k. There were quite a few sea containers of crash helmets at the dock and some very unhappy store owners.

Hells Angel?

I was surprised at the rental car of choice at many outlets, a BMW Z3. Business opportunity Kevin?

While I was doing all this Lyn decided to sneak away and do some shopping, she found a fabric store (thank-you Marie) which also sold kiddies clothes (you have a present Noah)  and a craft store with lots of black pearl jewellery (an Island speciality). We then topped up on groceries and tonic water and then it was time to try two of us on the scooter, amazingly we’re both here to tell the tale.

 

Back at the cottage it was lunch time, and after that we headed out to the Fruits of Rarotonga, discovered on our walk yesterday, for an hour or so of snorkelling. Again it was a little murky, but there were more varieties of fish here, so tomorrow we will try to go in the morning before the tide turns.

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Day One in Paradise

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Barry

After a good nights rest we were up early (for us). We had woken up around 5:30 in anticipation of seeing the sun-rise, but it was too cloudy.  We had a leisurely breakfast then took a stroll in the opposite from yesterday direction to a small beach area called the Fruits of Rarotonga. We sat on the beach for a while watching life go by, then went across the road for a “World Famous Smoothie” made from banana and papaya.

We wandered slowly back to the cottage, the weather was cloudy but warm, probably in the mid to high 20’s but always windy during daylight hours. Along the beach we discovered the Cook Islands Weather office

Cook Islands Weather Office

When back to the cottage we took our snorkelling gear down to the beach and headed off into the lagoon. The water was a little murky, but I think the tide was turning and this stirred up the sand a little. Even so there were a number of brightly coloured fish to be seen. The water was a nice temperature, probably around 25C.

After an hour or so of snorkelling it was back to the cottage for lunch on the balcony. Each day there are glass bottomed boat cruises in the lagoon with a stop for snorkelling. After the snorkelling is finished all the boats head over to the island for a beach party. We can just about see the party from here, but we can certainly hear the drums playing!

After lunch we walked into Muri to look for a restaurant for our evening meal, having found a restaurant we dropped into the local bakery for a loaf of bread, unfortunately they had sold out but there plenty of other freshly baked goodies there. We just HAD to try some! After this it was back to the cottage for the obligatory afternoon snooze.

About 6:30 we headed out to the restaurant for a great meal right on the beach. Red meat is difficult (and expensive) to find on the island, the local food is fish and if you want meat chicken seems to be the choice. We had a starter plate featuring some of the local food; Curried Octopus, Smoked Marlin, Papaya in Coconut Milk, Pawpaw, a pureed Spinach thingy and Island Fries which were like “normal” fries but using potatoes and other island vegetables. Lyn then had a main dish of three different types of fish and I had curried chicken Cook Island style, both were very good and filling.

After the meal we wandered back to the cottage, luckily we brought a flashlight with us as it got very dark once we left the street lights behind. The almost complete darkness made for wonderful views of the stars though.

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Arrival

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Barry

On the aircraft we had the old style seating, not the pods, but the seats were comfortable with plenty of leg room. The crew were very friendly, helpful and efficient. Once airborne we were offered drinks and a meal, the service was fast, but not rushed, to allow the maximum amount of sleep. We managed to get about 6 hours sleep and then the lights came on and the breakfast service began. Shortly after that we began our descent into Rarotonga.

Big Plane Little Airport

I was very surprised how green everything was, I was expecting a dried out brown landscape. We were picked up by a minivan, and with 4 others we were taken to our destinations. First impressions reminded me of a lush Caribbean Island, but as we drove around it was noticeable that the place was a lot cleaner, and there were no ramshackle old buildings. All the properties were well kept.

We got to our cottage around 7:30AM. It is a great cottage in a magnificent setting on the beach with a balcony overlooking the lagoon and across to a couple of small islands and then the reef.  With the sun shining the water is a vivid turquoise colour.

View from our balcony

After we had unpacked we decided to do a little exploring so we walked into the village of Muri about 10 minutes down the road. We did some shopping for food and drinks and got our first introduction to the cost of living on the island. Everything seemed to be 1½ – 2 times more expensive than at home.

With the shopping out of the way, we headed back to the cottage and started a battle with tiredness. Tiredness won, even though we had some sleep on the flight, we still had problems staying awake so we slept for about 3 hours to noon.

After lunch we braved a trip into the main town of Avarua. The island has one main road running around its circumference and two bus routes, clockwise and anticlockwise! Finding a bus stop is not an issue, you just wave the bus down anywhere along the road and it will stop for you. Getting off is the same, just point out to the driver where you want to get off and he will stop the bus for you. It was about a 15-20 minute ride into town. It became obvious on the trip how friendly the locals were, the bus driver seemed to know everyone and most the passengers knew each other. We read later that it is considered rude when entering a store or meeting someone not to exchange a few pleasantries before commencing business.

While in town we decided the best way to see the island was to hire a motor scooter for a few days. More on that later. We wandered around the town to do a little more shopping and just to see the place. It is not overly big and there are no big box stores there, in fact there are only two “supermarkets”. One good point is that all prices are tax included. What you see is what you pay!

As the afternoon progressed, the clouds came in and the rain started, it was more of a drizzle and it was warm, so it wasn’t too devastating. We took the bus back to the cottage and resisted the urge to grab a quick snooze and went for a walk along the beach. The beach is white sand, but strewn with large black boulders that seem to have been swept in with the storms. The water is crystal clear so snorkelling should be good.

Once back from the beach we headed up to the balcony for sunset drinks. After sunset we made up some dinner, and following that spent about an hour trying to keep awake before hitting the sack.

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The Trip Continues

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Barry

This entry revolves around travel, and may be a little too detailed for some, it was written mainly so I could remember the details for future trip planning.

A 5AM wake call started day 2 of the trip. We used the Hotel shuttle to get back to Airport at this unearthly hour after about 5½ hours sleep. The first two of todays flights were on United, of whom I had heard nothing but bad things! When the flights were booked there was no space left in business class so we were both at the back of the bus for this leg. About two weeks ago a seat opened up, so being the great guy that I am (and always in great need of brownie points) I gave it to Lyn! About three days before we travelled a second seat opened up, so I grabbed that for myself UNTIL I was told that taking the seat would result in an additional cost of $80 for taxes, fuel surcharge and a number of other scam-charges that I am sure Air Canada make up depending on the time of day, after all Lyn’s change was free. I then impolitely declined the seat and explained to Air Canada what they could do with their scam charges.

I tried again for my own business class seat when we checked in, but all had been filled, however I did get a premium economy seat which has more legroom than the standard back of the bus seat.

Next it was on to US immigration and customs. For those of you across the pond, a little info. Most major Canadian airports have facilities for US customs and immigration offices to operate. This means all the formalities are cleared prior to take off, and when you land in the US the flight is treated as a domestic one rather than an international one.

Even at 6AM the line-ups were long, it probably took close to 30 minutes to get through. Not enough time for a trip to the lounge this time.

Once on the aircraft (with Lyn happily seated in the pointy end) it turned out to be a very empty flight in the steerage section. Once the doors had closed I move to an emergency exit row seat that had no other seat in front of it, a good 6ft of legroom, or double what Lyn had.

Everything was looking good for an on-time departure as we taxied out until we stopped for a while, then shut the engines down. Not a good sign! A few minutes later they were restarted, and the trip continued normally. Turns out those pesky Air Traffic Controllers had delayed us and the engine shut down was to save fuel.

90 minute later we were in Chicago, and decided to spend the 2 hour wait in the lounge. We also needed breakfast as nothing was provide on the flight other than a dry cranberry scone for those in business class.

The next leg to Los Angeles left at 10AM and got in around 12:30. This time we got a hot lunch service, it was also the first meal I had on an aircraft that served soup. Once on the ground we had an 11 hour wait until the next flight.  All in all United were nowhere as bad as I expected, another good omen for the trip.

To pass the time we decided to go to Venice Beach. For those who haven’t heard of it Venice beach is a couple of miles north of the airport, it seems to attract all manner of people; the skate-boarding guitarist with his on board amplifier, the marijuana advocates (there were at least three stores on the board walk offer medical marijuana assessments) in general just a weird bunch of people. We managed to pass away about 4 hours at the beach, and then back to the airport as it was around 29C and fairly humid.

Venice Beach

The rest of the time was spent in the Air New Zealand lounge, which is one of the best lounges I have been in. The first thing we did was to take a shower which was great after trudging around in the heat., There was an endless supply of good and varied food to keep us going including hot beef, scalloped potatoes, salad bar various breads and cheeses and brownies. Unlike Air Canada this wasn’t a onetime offering, the food was constantly being replenished. The time went reasonably quickly and around 1030 we were escorted to the check in area, past the waiting hordes straight to the front of the line, I am beginning to like Air New Zealand already!

Told you it be a long (and possible boring entry).

 

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The Adventure Begins

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Barry

After a long day of hanging around, packing and closing up the house it was finally time to leave. Paul picked us up and took us to the airport around 7pm. This leg of trip wasn’t available in business class when we originally booked so we were in the back of the bus. We still managed to get into the lounge, so passed the time there with some liquid refreshment. At the gate we managed to get into business class. The trip was off to good start. In Toronto our bags arrived pretty quickly, so it was off to the hotel for a few hours sleep.

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