Wellington, not the Duke

Well, it’s day eight of the trip, and we are in Wellington. We have visited a LOT of the countryside so far. I think we left the blog on Day 6 at Taupo. Day 7 was at New Plymouth and now, as we said, Wellington.

On Day 6 we saw the Orakei Korako thermal pits, which were intriguing. According to the Lonely Planet, after the destruction of the Pink & White Terraces, this is the most interesting thermal field in New Zealand, and possibly the world. We saw all of it, and for $38 (each) we were ferried over across a lake via boat, dropped off and given a map. After an hour and a half walk I’d taken quite a few photos of the thermal fields, and saw a small geyser going off. This was a relief as on the day before at Te Aroha the geyser wasn’t co-operating. There is a spa operated below it which taps into the waters and seems to have zapped the life of the geyser. At least at Orakei the geyser went off, albeit only tamely.

Night 6 saw us staying at Taupo on the northern shores of a massive lake, which was the result of one of the world’s biggest seismic events. The lake just blew up, al la Krakatoa, leaving behind a massive crater which is now filled with water. Taupo is a very commercial area with vast numbers of accommodation facilities and tour operators, such as helicopter rides, para-sailing, bungee jumping and the like. However it is a remarkably beautiful area.

Day 7 saw us do the mountains of Ruapehu. This is the first active volcano I’ve ever seen. It last erupted in September 1995, and the local guides were saying it was probably due to go off again, as it had erupted in 1969, 1975 and 1988. He did resist the urge to look at his watch, but I was almost expecting him to. Apparently in a 1953 eruption, 153 people were killed. We forked out $23 each to go up a long way on two of the chair lifts, which took us a long way up the hill. It was a magic experience, and from the top we could see Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) which was 230km away, and where we would be staying that night. A lot of driving saw us land in New Plymouth at the Egmont Eco Lodge, which was fully booked due to the Womad festival being held there for the last three days. Apparently this is a youth Arts festival, but from the looks of those staying in the hostel, the minimum age was 55!

Today we’ve done a lot more driving, all the way around Mt Egmont via the coast and down to Wellington, which is probably about as far south as we’re going to get. We are here for at least two days.

More later. We are not finding it easy to get internet access all the time. New Plymouth’s terminals were down last night. Today, here at Wellington, which is a massive hostel, I actually have the laptop going and have wi-fi access which is pure luxury.  We're more than halfway through the holiday now, and am getting used to the hostelling to a certain extent.  The worse thing is the packing up and repacking every day.  Now we get two days in the one spot!  Luxury!!!

Foreigners, not

Well, we've been in New Zealand now for five days, and it's been heaven.  For a start everyone over here seems to pronounce "kilometre" correctly (ie killer meter) and the street signs, notices on walls and articles in papers all seem to be spelt correctly and the apostrophes are even in the correct places!

We were told New Zealand was like Australia, but just twenty years ago, and they are right.  Although today we drove through a few towns that were probably Australia FIFTY years ago!  The place we have seen so far is very rural.  However we have seen a few pockets of native bush.  Crikey, when NZ was settled there must have been a rampant effort all up to clear the land.  Of what we've seen so far, there are mainly cleared areas used for agriculture or forestry, with occasional bits of bush.  Nothing like the East Coast of Australia anyway where there are huge expanses of native uncleared vegetation.

The places we have stayed in so far are day 1, Auckland, where we landed and had the afternoon/evening.  We went up to SkyTower, which is shown here from the YHA room itself.  Not a bad view (click on the pic for a bigger image). We acclimatised ourselves on Day 1 and got slightly used ti thi uccunt.  Random vowels abound.

On Day Toe (that's how they pronounce it) we headed north and stopped at Paihia.  We saw some magnificent bits of coastline on the way.  The shot on the right here is where we had lunch.  It is an absolutely magic location, but is also home to New Zealand's sole oil refinery.  Over to the right you can see the storage tanks and the incoming ships, and in the background the unspoiled bits!!!!  They need petrol, I suppose, but maybe the refinery could have been better placed.  Speaking of petrol, it's quite different.  The oil companies set a price and it seems all the servo's stick to it.  When we arrived it was $NZD1.77.9 everywhere.  But two days later Shell and Mobil put it up to $1.80.9 and BP and Caltex to $1.82.9 so we bombed out there.  Also, it's weird.  You pull up in a servo and start putting petrol into the car, and they come out and grab the hose off you and finish it off.  We've only been to ONE self-serve station so far, and I'm not used to it  (as I was saying, Australia, but twenty years ago).

Day Three saw us at Paihia in the morning where we went on a Bay of Islands cruise all day.  The cruise was called the "Cream Trip" and goes around visiting all the islands making a few deliveries and allowing us all to swim with the dolphins if we want to.

The pic on the left is the "Hole in the Rock", which we actually did sail through in our reasonably large twin hulled cruiser.  You can't go through on all days when the swll is big, but we were lucky.  The boat ONLY JUST fitted.  The captain, who was Dutch but with a combo Dutch/Kiwi accent was quite a talented seaman, and he slipped through without a problem at all.

In the evening we travelled further North to Ahipara which is the most northerly YHA hostel in NZ.  Next day (Day 5) we started by travelling North to Cape Reinga, which is as far as you can drive in NZ (not exactly the most northerly point, but close.  It's also the most westerly point, so I suppose it's as close to Australia as we're going to get for another week and a half.

Here's the view north from the northern tip of NZ:


The maoris reckon that all the souls travel north upon dieing right up the northern tip of the country and beyond.  After all, they originally came from islands around Hawaii, so it is only natural for them to return.  Sheesh, we got bored on the three hour plane trip over from Sydney - imagine canoeing here from Hawaii...

Day 5 saw us drive for a huge distance, as once we had hit Cape Reinga we came down the highway, back through Auckland and actually made it to Hamilton.  The YHA at Hamilton was full, and we didn't think we'd make it as far south as we did so we hadn't booked.  But we did, so we stayed in a cheap motel on the north side of Hamilton.  Day Six wasn't quite as exciting, as we toured around Hamilton and it was not as interesting as the North.  However along the way we did see this interesting animal constructed from corrugated iron!  The things they do.  So many drivers were stopping for photos, the shops were doing a roaring trade.

Day 6 we've seen the largest tree of some species I can't remember (walked for miles to get there and back) and walked around a thermal springs field.  We are now at the YHA in Taupo, almost at the geographic centre of New Zealand.  Haven't got photos for today as they are on the camera still up in the room.

We took 40-odd photos on Day one.  On Day 2, 130, Day 3, 180 Day 4 only 110, Day 5 a mere 67 and today I haven't looked but it's possibly going to be three hundred.

Anyway, I have eight minutes of internet access left.  It's been a good catch up, we are nearly halfway there already.   Bye for now

Bay of Islands

Day two sees us at Paihia, a little town in the Bay of Islands.  We have decided to head north from Auckland, and tomorrow we are off on a cruise around Bay of Islands, which will take up the entire day.

We wanted to stay a second night here at Paihia, but they are full tomorrow, so we are off to (err) Ahip Ara, which is further north.  The day after tomorrow we are hitting Cape Reinga, so we will be at the most northerly point of New Zealand, and also the most westerly point of the North Island.

We DO plan to do the geographical extremes OF THE NORTH ISLAND, but who knows how far we will get.

The main thing about New Zealand is it does NOT feel like you're in a foreign country.  Everything is soooo like Australia.  The currency is different, there is a difference in opinion on how vowels are pronounced, but the terrain, the roads and everything else looks all too familiar.  Auckland doesn't half remind me of Brisbane.  And the areas we drove through today look so much like northern NSW it's not funny.

Anyway, we aren't getting much down time, so these blog entries are on stolen time.  I will see what we can post tomorrow - we have taken a hell of a lot of pictures at least, I'd like to get some online eventually.  Please be patient.  We are all well.  We are flipping exhausted after today's efforts, but we are safe and well.

Arrivee Auckland!

So we survived a three and a bit hour flight from Sydney to Auckland.  Across the dutch as they said when we landed.  We hope the dutch weren't too put off by that.

So we are safe and well in Auckland.  We have gone up to the Sky Tower already, which is higher than Sydney Tower at Centrepoint.  Today we are heading North and will stay at Paihia tonight.

This is a QUICk blog entry as we have to check out in 15 minutes.  Parking at Auckland has been pretty hard to come by, and we have to move the car.  Apparently, the enforcement of traffic rules is pretty strict over here.  Today we are going to find out as we have to drive about 4 hours worth.

Ao Tea Roa Bound!

Well, the time has finally come and we are off to New Zealand for a fortnight.  We fly out of Kingsford-Smith airport at Sydney on Monday morning at some ungodly hour.  (8am).  We need to be ready to check in from 6:30am.  What a drag.  We are staying at a hostel the night before so we only have a twenty minute journey to the airport rather than a plus-2-hour one from here.

We are driving around the North Island for two weeks in a hire car, staying at YHA hostels.  There hasn't been much planning done, the itinerary will be devised on the go.  We are told there's plenty of stuff to do and we'll not get a chance to see the South Island if we want to properly explore the North.

Hopefully, I can manage to get access to the net sufficiently to blog most of the journey.  In any case, just about every YHA hostel has a few internet terminals in the front foyer.  We are going to take LOTS of pictures and we have the laptop with us, so blog posts can be typed up and then just cut and pasted online while at the internet cafes.  Hopefully I can manage to get some pics up as well, as that sort of thing will look interesting.

I have a gmail address where you can contact me if need be.  It is:

bustopher.deane@gmail.com    (God help me re spam posting that here.  Ah well.)

I cannot guarantee the regularity of posts for the next couple of weeks, but I can probably guarantee an increase in the interestingness!  This is my first real overseas trip (my parents & I did a cruise to Fiji, the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and Noumea, New Caledonia back in 1979.  For that trip we didn't even need passports then.  Since I lost the opportunity for the Europe trip last year due to the ruptured oesophagus this sort of thing is well overdue and at last I can use the passport!

Tenzing fostered out

We took Tenzing up to the mother and father -in law's today.  Tenzing, of course, is our small mainly white himalayan rabbit.  We have only taken him out in the car once before, and that was only to the vet's in the same suburb.  He travels quite well, as he's quite an intelligent rabbit (as rabbits go, of course).

Tenzing is to be baby-sat for the next two weeks as guess what?  We're off on holidays to New Zealand, leaving tomorrow!  Sharon drove up and back, while I nursed Tenzing in the front seat.

Today he went very well while we were on the smooth roads.  He's a bit "clingy" generally, and likes to hug you high up on the chest.  Unfortunately it's an effort to hold him there for a great length of time, and eventually I managed to get him to sit in my lap.  One thing's for sure, he hates roundabouts.  Fair enough, too.  The drive is about an hour and a half, and he'd done very well up the freeway and the main roads, but as you get through Seaham and on to Clarence Town Road the surface quality deteriorates noticeably, and the poor thing was NOT impressed.

When we got up to the folks' place I stayed in the car with him for at least ten minutes, and he was still shaking.  I took him inside, and sat down on the lounge and eventually he stopped shaking.  Poor soul.  Perhaps we worry too much about him.  Not much we can do I suppose now until we get back.

Our thoughts are with you, Tenzing.

A Blast with Microwave

I heat up my hot water in my mug for coffee in the microwave.  I've been doing that for years.  Last year we finally got a microwave with a digital timer, rather than a knob you turn with minutes marked on it - it's far more accurate.  Gee, the old one it replaced could go either 90 seconds or 150 seconds if you'd set it for two minutes.  It was always a bit of a lottery.

Anyway, my mug takes 2:20 to heat up to the ultimate temperature.  So for ease of use, I enter 2:22 and press go.  The number of times I've keybounced on the "2" and gone to put the coffee on for 22 hrs and 22 mins is amazing.

I'm wondering why the microwave doesn't have a failsafe check in there.  After all, what on earth would you ever want to microwave for nearly an entire day and night?  What would be left of it after being subject to such a treatment?  We're talking a microwave oven here - the capacity of which would be limited to something about the size of a shoebox.  Even if it was that big I shudder to think what would become of it should it be subjected to a microwave bombardment for that long.

I've always managed to catch the error and re-enter the time so far.  Ever may that be the case, as even leaving it on for half an hour would have dire consequences.  Although mind you I'd probably be wanting my coffee before then!

Caught in the Net

Wyong Drama Group had a play reading of a Ray Cooney play "Caught in the Net" last night, and it worked out well, with ten women, four men and myself attending.  There are seven roles in the play, so we were able to pull off the show with enough bodies for the roles.

Overall, the play was well received.  It's amazing how many lies you can tell in order to cover an existing deception.  One lies to another and the grave being dug gets deeper and deeper until the final conclusion which had an interesting twist.

In all, I think it'll be a very appropriate play for the Drama Group and it is proposed as the November production.  We need to ratify it at a meeting first, so let's wait for then with fingers crossed.

Even Steven!

Last night was the AGM of Wyong Drama Group, and yes! I was elected unopposed as Treasurer.  I've done it before a few years ago so I know the work I'm letting myself in for.

Most of the other positions were filled by the incumbents.  However we had to have a vote for the two vice-presidential positions (three people were nominated), and for Committee members we had to select three out of six nominees.

What we did was distribute ballot papers with all six candidates and ask people to circle three.  After this process the ballots were tallied, and there were two winners, but there was a three way tie for the final position!

Okay, we thought, we need ONE person out of this three, so we distributed bits of paper asking members to write down one candidate on them.

We tallied the votes again, and you wouldn't read about it!  Another three way tie!!!

At this point we decided to put the three names into a hat and draw out one.  What else can we do to separate them! What an incredibly even split of opinion that was.

Tolerance and Love?

On Sunday Night, Compass on the ABC showed a riveting show called "For the Bible Tells Me So" which concerns the attitude of the Christian Church (actually quite a few Christian Churches) to homosexuality.  Obviously they know the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was on the night before!

The show is highly critical of literalist biblical interpretations.  After all in Leviticus it quite clearly states homosexuality is an "abomination" and anyone participating in it should be treated quite mercilessly indeed.  Mind you the bible also says anyone working on a Sunday should be stoned to death and a father can sell his eldest-born daughter into slavery, no worries.

As is quite clearly pointed out, the bible contains details of customs and practices WE NO LONGER ADHERE TO.  The Old Testament is OVER two thousand years old, and things change a bit due to the change in societal norms.  I would have thought this was blindingly obvious.

However, in the USA (and no doubt in all ostensibly Christian societies) there are vast numbers of people who persecute homosexuals, and one of the worst things they do is to contend that homosexuality is a lifestyle CHOICE that can be suppressed by the "victim" and you can convert people from being homosexual into heterosexual.

If homosexuality was a choice - why would anyone choose to be a member of a minority that's being persecuted, hassled, bashed and otherwise discriminated aginst in often violent and distasteful ways?  Why would anyone choose to put themselves through this willingly?

And conversions!  Huh.  There are cases of people being in heterosexual relationships for twenty years or more, and they'll give the appearance of being straight to all outsiders.  But really, they are supressing deep inner feelings which is not good for their psychological well-being at all.

Why are people frightened of homosexuals?  Might I say from the outset that I am not, but I don't feel threatened at all by them, nor do I consider that society is doomed by their existence.  What does worry me is the outward display of hatred to other Christians by Christians, in blatant defiance of Christian principles.  Universal love is one of the fundamentals espoused by Christ.  He did NOT say love everyone except homosexuals, he said love everyone.  Or have I got the whole thing wrong?

Lots of people certainly have, anyway.  There are vast numbers of extreme right-wing moralists who bay for the blood of homosexuals and would deny them all societal rights if given the chance.  Doing so seems to be quite a profitable operation. The show quoted figures of several churches turning over half a billion (US) dollars annually, based on preaching a non-tolerance of homosexuals.

And worst of all was the story of a mother, caught up in the hype of denying homosexuality, who refused to accept her daughter's position and basically disowned her, only to have her commit suicide feeling that the major cause was her mother's lack of ability to accept her.  This woman has since realised that what the church taught her was plain wrong, and had she not been so dogmatic, her daughter would now still be alive.  Problem is, it's a bit late now.  If there is an afterlife, she can apologise to her daughter.

Prejudice and discrimination is such an evil human trait.  It leads to death, war, genocide, etc, and is such a negative use of human endeavour.  I wonder why it is so innate in many members of the human race?  And why so-called preachers can use it to summon up these hostile feelings in members of their congregation.  They probably think they are doing the right thing.  If only someone with some clout could come down and explain it to them...

ACMA giveth and ACMA take away

A few months ago I had work done on our television antenna so we could get better reception on the digital set-top box (actually a PVR but the same concept applies).  It worked so well, that about a month ago I re-tuned the PVR and picked up ten new channels from Sydney!  They are 4 (a programme guide) 40 (national indigenous television), 41 (ABC News text service), 42 (announcements page), 44 (TVS Sydney Community TV), 45 (Teachers TV), 46 (Christian Channel), 47 (House of Reps), 48 (Senate) and 49 (Expo - flogging stuff).

These are currently transmitted as a trial service from a transmitter at Gore Hill in Sydney's North Shore on the above digital frequencies.  We do well to get them from Gosford, but is exactly what digital TV is about: despite a 2% signal strength, which is pretty lousy, we get an almost perfect image on the screen.  (Mind you in a storm, they drop out, but we are well out of the intended service area anyway).

I've really enjoyed seeing parliamentary transmissions other than question time, the Christian Channel sometimes has reasonable stuff, and the NITV channel is absolutely briliant.  TVS is also finally on the digital spectrum after transmitting on analogue for many years.  TVS is a community television channel run by a non-profit collective rather than a media mogul.  And there is plenty of room for these broadcasters on the ariwaves!  After all, in 1956 when television was introduced, up until only a few years ago, there were stiull exactly the same number of channels, despite a massive population increase.  In reality, there is more than enough room for a new full-blown commercial television network, but try telling that to the powers that be and the existing operators!  In the meantime I'll settle for the extra community channels.  Anything to give us more choice...

The horrible thing, though, is apart from TVS on Channel 44, all the other channels are slated to be discontinued from April 30!!!

I've only just started to enjoy the stations, and they are only going to be with us for another couple of months!  It is hard to believe!  I reckon a lot of people won't even know these services exists as they (a) won't have digital television or (b) won't have them tuned in on their set top boxes.

To register your protest (like I have) you can see the website of the Minister, Stephen Conroy or the Australian Communications and Media Authority.  As always, a WRITTEN or FAXED protest carries more weight than an email one, however feel free to email one as well, it's better than nothing.

If you want to save some typing, here's the text of the letter I sent to the Minister for you to cut and paste:

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

Fax: 03 9650 3251

Dear Senator Conroy,

I wish to protest strongly about the planned discontinuation on April 30of the digital fortyfour services on digital television in the Sydney area.

I have just found the digital fortyfour services on the digital tuner after getting an antenna upgrade and re-tuning the set-top box. I live near Gosford on the NSW Central Coast and prior to the antenna upgrade we just didn't have enough signal to receive these new channels.

In the last couple of weeks I've really come to enjoy the services of parliamentary telecasts, the Christian channel offerings and especially the nitv services. (I am not a christian or indigenous person, but some of the programming on those channels has been exceptional).

Yesterday I was absolutely thrilled to see TVS added to the services.

But I was also horrified by the announcement of the suspension of the trial services on 30 April. Why on earth is this necessary?

Despite their existence for years, I have just started to get to like the new channels, and they are now going to be removed... At least I've been lucky. Many many people are not going to have even SEEN these services before they are discontinued. Digital TV uptake in this country is slow, and I know many non-technical people won't be re-tuning in their equipment to take advantage of the new broadcasts. They will not be protesting about the dropping of the services, because they won't even have known they existed.

Please record my strong protest about dropping digital fortyfour services, and my plea to have the services retained.

Yours sincerely,

etc, etc.