On a Whim Wm's world travels

It only took me about a week to become used to driving on the left side of the road here in NZ. Probably because I lived in England for a year and drove on the left there, but that was back in the late 80’s. So far, I’ve only goofed up once, and that was a few days after arriving. I exited the motorway and merrily went down the side road on the right side, until an approaching truck in the same lane as me tipped me off to my error.

More difficult is getting used to the turn signal lever being on the right side of the steering wheel. Our car has the windshield wiper on the left side, so you can tell when I want to turn by the fact that I turn the wipers on. We all still do it from time to time, but it still makes us laugh when we do it.

Even though I’ve driven on the right side most of my life, I actually think it makes more sense to drive on the left side. When I lived in England, someone told me that the reason people there drive on the left is from the old days of horses. If you are on a horse and riding on the left side of the road, when you meet another person riding toward you, you can shake hands much more conveniently. Or have a sword fight I suppose, for that matter.

Interestingly, people in New Zealand also walk on the left. In England, they could not make up their minds, probably because of the close proximity to the rest of Europe, which drives (and walks) on the right. Japan, which also drives on the left, also does not have a clear preference for walking. But here in New Zealand, people definitely walk on the left side.

Today, we were at Franz Joseph Glacier, and the trail to see it was one of the busiest walking paths we have yet seen in NZ. And many of the people walking on it were tourists from various places around the world. It was interesting to see how people negotiated which side of the path to walk on. Some people stubbornly stayed on their side (right or left) and expected you to go around them on the other side. Others tried to accommodate oncoming pedestrian traffic. I was one of the latter.

New Zealand (at least the south island, since we haven’t driven around the north island yet) seems to be littered with one lane bridges. Even on major highways, you’ll be zooming along at 100 kph (just over 62 mph) and suddenly there will be a bridge ahead of you, barely wide enough for one car (I’d be afraid to drive a truck across one). Some of these bridges are quite long. On the longest ones, there will be a “passing bay” — a place in the middle of the bridge about two car lengths long that is wide enough for cars going opposite directions to pass each other. We went over one bridge that was long enough to require three passing bays.

We have perversely noted that many of the one lane bridges are in places where you don’t have a really good view to see if there is traffic coming from the opposite direction. After going over a few one lane bridges like this, we will suddenly come to a bridge that is two lanes wide, and will joke that they put a two lane bridge there only because there was a clear view in both directions.

The most bizarre one lane bridges we have seen were originally train bridges. Or should I say, are still train bridges. They paved the bridge around the tracks (sort of like the light rail tracks on city streets where you can drive in Portland). So the same one lane bridge not only serves for traffic going both ways, but for trains too. It feels weird enough driving over a train bridge, but you need to watch out for oncoming traffic too. Yow. I’ll post a photo of one of these.

Even more frightening than the one lane bridges are places where the road is cut into the side of a rocky cliff, and not only is the road one lane wide, but only tall enough for a bus. These are particularly frightening because (for some perverse reason) the road always curves around so you cannot see oncoming traffic. Luckily the speed limit is 15 kph (less than 10 mph) so assuming that oncoming cars obey the speed limit, you will have plenty of time to stop (and then negotiate who will have to back their car up on a curving one lane road on the edge of a cliff). Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of these one lane cliff roads, because usually everyone in the car has their eyes shut tight — except for the driver of course, who is watching out for oncoming traffic. After negotiating the first one of these we came to, Yvette, who was driving, screamed “They’re trying to kill us all!”

The most amazing thing is that in all the one lane bridges we have crossed, (and I’d guess around 30) we have only had to wait for oncoming traffic twice. As you approach the bridge, there will be a sign saying which direction has priority. Of course, if there is already someone on the bridge coming toward you, you wait, no matter if you have priority. And they do the same thing for you.

The beauty of living in a place with so little traffic.

Ok, photos are updated. There are even some photos from first week of our trip to the South Island, showing dolphins, whales, and lots of other stuff

http://www.leler.com/NZ-SouthIsland

I also updated the photos taken in Wellington before we left, nearly doubling the number of photos, including photos from the Medieval Folklife Festival, the Extreme Sports festival, our hunt for a car and for a place to live.

http://www.leler.com/NZ-Jan

And finally, I put all of your favorite photos of Mo and Jo into one place, including new photos of Mo and Jo touring the South Island

http://www.leler.com/NZ-MoJo

We aren’t getting very frequent access to the internet while traveling around the south island of New Zealand, so I’ll give updates when I can.

On Monday we took the 6am ferry from Wellington, to a glorious sunrise (see photos). Had a wonderful breakfast in Picton, then drove down the east coast to Kaikoura, which is famous because there is a deepwater trench that comes up within a new kilometers of the shore, so they have lots of marine mammals. Tuesday we had a fantastic time swimming with dolphins and watching them leap out of the water, even turning complete somersaults in mid-air. Wednesday we went out whale watching, since there are sperm whales that live there year-round. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale.

Then we drove inland to a hot springs, where we lay around quite happily all afternoon. We also visited a wild hot springs alongside a river. Now (Thursday) we are back up north, where we are going to spend a few days at the beach, before going in to Abel Tasman national park.

More later — see the photos!

So, now that the Vonage phone is working, everyone wants to use it! Cindy got up early (6am on Sunday morning!) so she could call a bunch of people. I called my mom. Yvette is on it now. Both Jacob and Robin (our housemates/landlords/friends) used it last night to call people in the US and Canada (Jacob is originally from Canada).

The reactions from people we call is very funny. The audio quality is excellent, so nobody knows we are calling from New Zealand. Cindy called her friend Darleen, who when her caller ID showed “von ofenheim” assumed it was Cindy’s sister calling. Since Cindy and her sister have similar voices, Cindy had to say it was her. Then Darleen freaked out, asking where she was calling from, and how much was it costing per minute. Everyone is amazed at the fact that our Oregon phone (including its number) is working here in NZ and it doesn’t cost anything per minute. Vonage charges a $25 monthly fee for unlimited calls to the US and Canada, and cheap rates to other countries. Like 7 cents per minute to NZ. And not only can we call people in the US and Canada, but they can call us by dialing a phone number in Oregon. Robin’s sister in in the US has some calling plan where she can call anywhere in the US for free, so she can call Robin here in NZ on the Vonage phone for free. Everyone loves it.

It is amazing how much better I feel now that we have a fast internet connection. Using dialup for the last 3 weeks was just wrong. And even though there is a fast internet connection at the University, it is so heavily firewalled that you can’t even use a regular email client there — you have to use the web interface to read your mail. Which means that weird stuff, like the internet phone, chat, or even ftp so I can upload photos, is right out.

So, we packed up the last of our stuff this morning and drove out to our new place. We are living in Tawa, which (as I mentioned) is about a 20 minute drive to Wellington. We are up in the hills, and out of the windows on one side we have a view of the valley below us, and on the other side some wild hills covered in what they call “bush” (bushes and small trees). Jacob is just now telling me about some walking trails just a block away. sweet.

So what is the first thing we do? We go shopping! Our new room is unfurnished so we had to get some essentials. We didn’t have sheets or anything yet, so we drove to the next town (only 10 minutes away) and discovered… the mall. Yikes, they even have K-mart here. Bought some sheets, duvet cover, and a beautiful sheepskin mattress pad (extra plush!) that was on sale. (No, not at the K-mart, but at a place called “Farmers” that reminds me of Target). So we are ok for sleeping tonight.

Then I set to work hooking up the Vonage box. Our new home comes with a fast internet connection, so I could finally plug in our internet phone. It took me a while to configure it (still not sure if I have it set up right, but at least I got it working). So now we can call anyone in the US (or Canada) for free! The first call was Cindy calling her sister, and then I called in to work for the first time. Even Jacob (one of our housemates) got to call a friend in Canada.

And with a fast internet connection, I should be able to upload more photos. When I have a spare minute or two.

Prices of things compared to the US seems to be erratic. Phone rates are extremely expensive. I’ve mentioned the 49 cents per minute to use a cell phone. Long distance is similarly expensive. CDs and DVDs are also expensive, but other things are cheaper here. Some you might expect, like our sheepskin mattress pad, but other things are fairly cheap too, like food. Car insurance is very inexpensive here, probably because everyone is on nationalized health insurance. We are paying around $200 for full coverage on our car — for the entire year.

So it took all week, but we finally picked up our car today. Which is good because we have already booked the ferry to the south island early Monday morning. We also arranged for car insurance, as well as contents insurance for our stuff (mainly to cover our computers and cameras, I suppose). And made some copies of our new keys. We also took a load of our stuff to our new place. Tonight is our last night in our temporary lodgings. The house’s owner is coming back tomorrow at 1pm. We’ll take the rest of the stuff over in the morning. Our new digs have a fast internet connection, so it should be easier to upload photos to the web. And the big thing we’ve been waiting for — hooking up the Vonage phone to the internet, so we can call people in the states whenever we want.

We also did some shopping today for some stuff we will need in our new place. The room is unfurnished, so we need to find a bed. Until then we will be sleeping on an air mattress. We bought a wool duvet, which is relatively common here in the land of sheep, and two pillows. Now we need to find a duvet cover and some sheets. And some other furniture. But most of that will have to wait until we get back from our tour of the south island, which is supposed to be very scenic and fun.

The car we bought is a Japanese imported used car. Very common here. The Japanese do not buy used cars, so when someone sells a car there (or buys a new car and trades in their old car) the used cars are normally shipped to other places. Since the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, same as here, New Zealand is a common destination for these used cars. They are typically in very good shape, so they are a good deal. The only funny thing is that the user manual for our car is in Japanese. But other than that, you’d never know.

Well, it looks like we found a car to buy. It is a boring used Nissan station wagon, but it will be a good car to travel around in. We have an appointment tomorrow morning with the AA (New Zealand version of AAA) to give the car a full inspection to make sure there are no problems before we actually buy it.

Poor Yvette. She arrived here on Sunday, and so far has spent most of her time here helping us shop for a car. Yvette knows more about cars than I do, so it was good to have her along. We have spent some time in the botanic garden, for a concert and then going to see the glow worms. And this afternoon we spent a few hours at Te Papa, the huge museum here. But I bet she will be happy when we take off for the south island in our new car in a few days.

Te Papa is very nice, and the best part is that it is free, so you can go in even if you have just a few hours to spare, and do the museum in sections. Which you pretty much need to do because it is HUGE.

So now that we found a place to live that will require a commute, we need to buy a car. Spent yesterday looking at cars. Toyotas are VERY popular here. Will probably end up buying a small Toyota station wagon, which is a good compromise between good milage and a car that will be good for traveling around.

One thing that is interesting here is that used car salesmen are actually nice here. And helpful. It kind of freaks us out! Like, when they tell us something we automatically don’t believe it because of our experience with used car salesmen in the US. But they seem to be telling the truth. Takes some getting used to!

“Wellington today is more than hobbit forming… it’s absolutely positively addictive”

– Gourmet Traveller Magazine, Australia, May 2004

When we arrived at the Wellington Airport two weeks ago, Gollum was there to greet us. We actually came in to the gate right under Gollum. We have a photo of him on our page of photos, but here’s a better one from the airport site.

Well, yesterday when we picked up our friends from the airport, Gollum was gone! Gone I tell you. I can’t find any mention of it on the web, so we don’t know if he was supposed to be taken down (it has been over a year since the last movie came out), or if he was damaged by the big winds we had a week ago, which closed the airport. Well, I’m glad we got to see him.

I’ve been asked how the dinner party went — well, it was with the friends we decided to share a house with, so I guess you can say it went very well. It must have been the yummy pumpkin cookies that Cindy made for dessert. Jacob is originally Canadian, and one of the things he misses is pumpkin ice cream, and although that was a bit too difficult to bring with us, we brought a can of pumpkin to make cookies for him. The funny thing is that pumpkin is common here, but only eaten as a vegetable (like carrots or beans), not as something sweet. So if we are going to make any more pumpkin cookies, we will either have to make them from fresh pumpkin, or find someone to bring us over more cans of pumpkin. They don’t seem to sell canned pumpkin here.

Today we pick up two friends at the airport who are coming to visit. I hope this is a harbinger of the future, and lots of people will come for visits. Like you! We plan on taking off for the south island with them for some traveling while summer is still going strong here.

This weekend is the Extreme Sports Festival in Wellington. We walked down this afternoon for a couple of hours and watched bicycle riders launching themselves off a ramp like a ski jump and landing in the bay, breakdancing, inline skaters, and other bicycle riders doing flips and twists and other tricks in mid-air. But the most amazing thing was the FMX (which I think stands for Freestyle Motor Cross). These motorcycle riders would ride full-tilt at a ramp that would launch them a couple of stories (30 to 40 feet) in the air, where they would do all sorts of tricks before landing (in one piece) on another ramp. I have no idea how they did the things they did. They would do handstands on the motorcycle handlebars, or completely separate themselves from the motorcycle in mid-air, before miraculously getting back on before they landed. And worse. Cindy was freaking out just watching, thinking every last one of them was going to die in some horrible twisted heap of metal and flesh. I have to say I’m not sure how they did the things they did without killing themselves frequently! Next time I get a chance to upload photos, I’ll have some photos of them doing tricks in midair. What you can’t see from the photos, however, is that they were doing this stuff way (way) up in the air.

There is bad news and good news today. The bad news is that we gave up on looking for a place to live. We’ve been looking at all sorts of places, but couldn’t find any place we liked. Or worse, where the people liked us. We were trying to find a place fairly close to the University, so we were competing with lots of students for housing. The good news is that we decided to move in with our friends Jacob and Robin. The only problem is that they live in the ‘burbs — a good 20 minute drive when there is no traffic (and we’ve heard it can be an hour or more when there is traffic). Since I’m not on any particular schedule at the University, it should be fine, but it does mean that we will be buying a car. So now we need to look for a car. At least living in the burbs is cheaper, and we really like Robin and Jacob. They are musicians and dancers, too!

Just after Cindy posted her blog entry we both felt an earthquake. It rattled the windows and shook the house but didn’t do any damage that we know of. There were a bunch of smaller earthquakes last Tuesday, 8 over the course of the day, including one that Cindy felt (but I didn’t). We definitely felt the one this morning, even though it was only 5.5 magnitude. Rock & Roll!

Here’s a link to a listing of New Zealand earthquakes.

Sorry this has taken so long, but I’ve finally uploaded some photos from New Zealand to the web. See http://www.leler.com/NZ-Jan.

Here’s Mo and Jo (or is it Jo and Mo? who can tell?) — the cake toppers from our wedding — watching me type this blog. They are traveling with us in New Zealand and there are lots more photos of them on the photos page.