Trip Start: Oct 25, 1993
Trip End : Nov 16, 1993
Travel Books We Read:
Frommer's Budget Travel Guide: New Zealand '93-'94 on $45 a Day (highly recommended)
Fodor's 93 New Zealand (fair; Frommer's is much better)
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Kathy had been fascinated by New Zealand ever since she saw a slide show on it 15 years ago but until she got me interested, I like most Americans thought it was basically a small island off the coast of Australia. It's actually 2 main islands (3 if you count Stewart Is.) with a total area equal to Colorado lying 1200 miles southeast of Australia.
Lots of people asked us why we we chose New Zealand as a travel destination, and part of the answer is because so many people ask that question; we wanted to go someplace different, away from the usual tourist crowds, but where English is the national language. We'd been to the U.K. twice and enjoyed it, but New Zealand seemed to offer much more and the more we read about it, the better it sounded.
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Tuesday, Oct 26: NY to Auckland, New Zealand
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This was a travel day (a loooong travel day!). Step 1 was to get a rental car and drive the 50 miles from Somers, NY to JFK airport. We allowed plenty of time for this and it was good we did. We used the Hutch River Parkway, which in the Bronx has a drawbridge. I've taken this road many, many times and prior to this trip I had seen the drawbridge raised only once. Well, they raised it again on our way to the airport, which added 20 minutes to the drive time. Normally I wouldn't have been too concerned except that one other time I saw the bridge raised, it refused to come down! Fortunately, that didn't happen, and we arrived in plenty of time.
Step 2 was to take an American Airlines flight from JFK to LAX (Los Angeles). We got lucky here; over the years I had amassed 40,071 AA frequent flyer miles, most of which were due to expire at the end of 1993. 40,000 of those miles got us 2 free round trip tickets from JFK to LAX.
The flight itself was uneventful, except for the Arab terrorist on board. OK, he probably he wasn't, but he looked just like Abu Nidal and he spent the entire flight hidden under a blanket, and when the plane landed he 'disappeared'. I couldn't help but wonder if he had something to do with the World Trade Center bombing.
Step 3 was to take an Air New Zealand flight from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand. This was part of a 'fly/drive' package deal that we arranged through our local travel agency with the New Zealand-based Mount Cook Travel Agency. (Mount Cook is a big outfit; they not only have connections with hotels, rental car companies, and ANZ, but also run tour busses and have their own airline.) We simply told them when we wanted to leave, when we wanted to return, and where in New Zealand we wanted to be for each day of our trip; they then provided us with tickets on Air New Zealand, vouchers for all the hotels/motels we would be staying at, and a Budget rental car with unlimited mileage. They ran into some problems with hotel accommodations but in the end it was still an excellent deal.
Mount Cook offers a choice of hotel accommodations which are arranged into 4 classes: Superior, Quality, Standard, and Budget. We opted for standard since we figured budget might be too primitive but didn't plan to spend much time in hotel rooms anyway. As it turned out, we ended up with budget accommodations for 6 nights and quality for 2 nights, with the rest being standard. The only difference we found between standard and budget was that standard hotels had a restaurant on the premises and budget did not (they provided you with a kitchen instead). Ironically, in almost all cases the budget accommodations were better than the standard accommodations!
In local times, the ANZ flight from LAX left at 9:15 PM Tuesday and landed in Auckland at 5:30 AM Thursday; total flight duration was about 12 1/2 hours. Because it's such a long flight and ANZ uses 747's, I expected the economy seats to be a bit roomier than what I'm used to on domestic flights but noooooo, they were just as cramped as ever. Granted, the food was way above average and you got free wine, but it's still unpleasant. On the plus side, it's one reason why New Zealand is a great travel destination.
The most unusual aspect of the flight was the passenger makeup; at least 95% were 'senior citizens'. I'm 42 and Kathy is 39 so we definitely felt out of place. Many of them wore tags indicating that they were part of a tour group, the kind where you and a few dozen strangers get on a bus and get taken to where all the other tour busses go. I'd never been on such a tour but I couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for them.
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New Zealand is just on the other side of the International Date Line, so you lose a day when crossing it from west to east.
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Thursday, Oct 28: Auckland
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The plane landed at 5:30 AM local time. After getting the bags and going through customs (a few basic questions, lots of form-stamping) we went to the Budget rental car counter where we picked up the hotel vouchers and rental car, a Nissan Bluebird which is roughly equivalent to a Sentra; 4-door, automatic transmission, and much more upscale than cars we've rented in the U.K.
In New Zealand vehicles are driven on the left side of the road. Kathy and I have spent close to a month in the U.K. and done lots of left-hand driving, and I've never had a problem adjusting to it, even with manual transmission cars. However, not everyone is familiar with left-hand driving and international road signs, and 20+ hours of travelling will affect just about anyone, so Budget provides a 15 minute cassette tape explaining the rules of the road and other important things you need to know before you start out. Well, I managed to stay out of trouble for the entire trip, but one thing that kept giving me trouble was the turn signals; the turn signal and windshield wiper stalks are reversed, so whenever I wanted to signal a turn I frequently turned the wipers on instead. (Ironically, when I returned to the U.S. I did the same thing!)
Nearly all of the major roads are 'sealed' (what we call paved). However, the 'pavement' consists mainly of successive layers of tar and gravel. Over time it forms a smooth, hard surface but roads which have just had a 'new seal' are covered with loose gravel which flies all over the place when vehicles drive over it. The risk of headlight damage is very high, and many cars (including our rental car) have Plexiglas shields installed over the headlight lenses for protection.
One interesting bit of road terminology involves what we call 'speed bumps'; in the U.K. the are 'sleeping policemen' but in New Zealand they are 'speed pacers' or 'judder bars'.
I found out that cars are much more expensive in New Zealand. A car costing $20K in the U.S. would likely cost about $35K US in New Zealand, assuming an exchange rate of $1 US = $1.75 NZ.
Speaking of exchange rates, we got lucky once again. We had been monitoring U.S.-New Zealand exchange rates for over 6 months prior to our trip, and $1 US fluctuated between $1.68 and $1.73 NZ. When we arrived the exchange rate was up to $1.77 New Zealand. Our trip coincided with their election year, held on Nov 7, and after election day the rate changed to better than $1.80 because of perceived government instability. When we left the rate was up to $1.83! I estimate that a $1.50 exchange rate makes New Zealand roughly equivalent to the cost of living in the metropolitan NY area, so a $1.83 exchange rate meant bargain rates for lots of goods and services.
I was curious to know what the cost of living was like for the Kiwis, as New Zealanders call themselves. A check of the classified ads in local papers showed ads for jobs like 'production manager' for salaries 'up to $55K' which, excluding the exchange rate, seemed on a par with the U.S. I then checked out the real estate situation. New Zealand is a country roughly the size of Colorado but has only about 3.5 million people so there is plenty of land, but surprisingly most residential housing is crammed together on small lots not much larger than the houses themselves. The houses were generally one-story, with perhaps 1500 square feet of living space, and depending on the location and other factors sold for between $90,000 and $150,000.
One thing that was not a bargain was fuel; even at a $1.80 rate a gallon of petrol (gasoline) is close to $2 US. (New Zealand has gone metric so fuel is measured in liters; prices ranged from $0.899 NZ to $1.039 NZ per liter, with the average being around $0.939 NZ.)
Auckland turned out to be a great town. With a population of over one million it's a city for sure, but it has a small-town feel.
One fashion trend that I noticed was that a fairly high percentage of Auckland women were wearing black miniskirts, often with a red top.
Our hotel was the Imperial, on Hobson Street. This hotel fell into the standard category and while it wasn't bad, it made me wonder what budget was going to be like. For one thing, the room overlooked Hobson Street, which seemed to be constantly filled with truck traffic. This was true all through the night as well, and I found out why the next morning; Hobson Street provides a direct route from the shipping docks to the motorway (what we call a highway). The other concern was the plumbing. The toilet tank was elevated about 1 1/2 feet above the seat and made out of plastic, the sink had separate faucets for hot and cold water, a rubber stopper was used in both the sink and bathtub, the bathtub was also made of plastic, the water temperature fluctuated significantly, and the water pressure was weak. Most surprisingly, the hot water control for the bathtub was on the left (normal) but on the sink it was on the right! (I found out later that all this was pretty common; the quality hotel we stayed in had state-of-the-art plumbing but hot water controls were on the right and they used rubber stoppers also.) Fortunately, unlike the U.K., all hotels had showers. (Some showers were definitely better than others but at least none of the hotels we stayed in had those miserable 'on demand' mini hot water tanks popular in the U.K.)
The travel guides mentioned that outlet voltage is 240 AC, 50 Hz. What's unusual about them is that they all have an on/off switch next to where the plug goes, and the slots are slanted (/ \). Appliances designed to generate heat work especially well. Electric teapots heat water to boiling in under a minute, and tiny space heaters heat an entire room with no problem. |
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