So this week I was too head down to Wellington to attend a conference put on by Tourism New Zealand. I heard about this conference last minute so I registered pretty late in the game. By doing so I unfortunately I booked a flight on Jet Star, going against a promis I made to myself to never book on that airline, as Ive always had shit experinces. Looking at flight costs Jet Star was a couple hundred dollars cheaper compared to Air New Zealand, so ill save the company some money and take the cheap flight. Turns out that cheap flight would cost me more in time and money!
The conference started on Thursday at 9am, meaning it was going to be an early morning. I was up at 5am to catch the bus at 5:30am, which would have gotten me to the airport at 6:10am. All airlines will ask you to arrive at least a ½ hour early before your domestic flight. This is what I had planned on, but the the airbus running 5 mins late I arrived at the airport at 6:15am. I really didnt think much of it as it was 5 mins and there was still plenty of time to board. WRONG! I guess Jet Star closes the gates exactly 30 mins priror too departure. Being that I was only 25 minutes early to my flight I was denied to boarding. BRUTAL! I didnt have any luggage to check – I told them that, but they said they had already printed the passanger list. I guess they limited ink and paper, so reprinting was out of the question. WTF! Customer serivice doesnt live at Jet Star. I had to pay $90 and catch a flight at 10:30am making me late for the start of the conference.
I finally get into Wellington and hit up the conference, which is great by the way. Day one went off without a hitch, well other than not catching my flight. Day two was just as good. Learnt lots of useful and interesting things and the day flew by. I catch my shuttle to the airport for my 7:25pm flight. This time I am a good hour early – not missing this flight. Little did I know…
Things are ticking a long like they should. I grab a bite to eat, have a beer, read some of my book and then proceed through security. No problems.. so far. Get on plane, buckle up and we start to make the move to take off and then all of a sudden the pilot comes on and tells us there is a problem and that he will have to park the plane and have one of the engineers come on and take a look at the problem. Ok, a little hickup and we will be off soon. WRONG!
After sitting on the plane for an hour we were asked to get off the plane and sit in the departure lounge. 5 hours later we are still sitting in the lounge waiting for some information – any infomration, but no we are being kept in the dark. We ask the flight attendants what is going on and they give the same old line, ‘we dont know anytthing, but as soon as we do we will let you know.’ There is another Jet Star plane sitting at the next gate and someone ask, ‘cant we just use that one?’ to which they reply ‘sorry, that plane is not working as well.’ My confidence in the Jet Star fleet of planes is at an all time low. Do I even want to get on one of these fucking planes?
All this time Im just rolling with it, what else can you do eh! So im reading, listening to music and just waiting for info. Then I see all of the staff come off the plane, bags in hand and head the opposite way of the passangers. They didnt even bother coming to tell us that the flight had been cancelled. WTF!
As soon as I saw them come off the plane I new it was time to book it to the Jet Star checkin desk to rebook and see where they were going to put me up for the night. The line was long – I pretty much said fuck it and walked to the front of the line and asked what the deal was. I was then rebooked for another Jet Star flight to Auckland the next day at 3:35pm ahha. So there goes my weekend. They were putting us up at a hotel and would shuttle us back and forth. I arrived at the hotel at about midnight and checked into my room. I then called Michelle asked her too book me a flight home with Air New Zealand called Jet Star and refunded my return flight.
Jet Star is just a comedy of errors. In the end it would have been cheaper just too book that flight with Air New Zealand even though the initial cost was a couple hundred more. My only advice is dont book with Jet Star if you want to arrive at your desintation on time. Jet Star definitely lives up to their nickname.. Shit Star. If for some reason Jet Star ever reads this post because you care about your PR and oline profile I just want them to know – YOU SUCK MONKEY BALLS!
I took some time off this week to head down to Queenstown and do some downhill mountain biking on the skyline. As usual it was an early flight, I like to make the most of my time off so I usually fly really freak’n early to maximise my time riding. Well this time it didn’t quite pan out! I flew into some real shit weather. We are talking about a southerly that has just covered the entire country – cold, wet and windy. Not ideal for riding. When it rains hard and the ground is muddy and soft it is best to stay off the tracks since you just end up destroying! So my day was a wash. The skyline wasn’t taking bikers up, so what was I supposed to do with my time?
Yes Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world and there is heaps to do, but when you don’t want to do a bungy, jump in a speed boat or get drunk there isn’t a lot going on especially on shit weather days. So what do I do? I go the library and read. I spent 3 hours at the library and then another two at a café reading and chilling. It’s like when people go to tropical spots to rest on the beach and read… Well I didn’t have the nice weather, but I read.
By mid avro I checked into my hostel and continued reading. I’ve pretty much polished off my book, which is – ‘two seats left’ the story of contiki travel. Good read! I also hit up the local book shop to read and cruise through some magazines. Also I sent a couple post cards… I didn’t bring my lap top so jumping online isn’t readily available. Now I am just praying for blue skies, sun and dry trails!
I guess my question to you is – what do you do when you are travelling and the weather has gone to hell? Also got any good books you can recommend?
Ive been living in Auckland for over a year now and I just can’t understand why everyone hates on this city? If you are from Auckland and you travel anywhere else in New Zealand you will hear this familiar term ‘JAFA,’ which means ‘Just Another Fucking Aucklander.’ I’ve met people from Auckland who cringe when asked where they are from because of the response they will get from other kiwis. In one case a taxi cab driver pulled over and tossed his Aucklander passengers out of his cab because they live in Auckland! How could someone make such a rush judgment about a person just because they live in a certain part of the country.
In any other country Auckland would be the ideal holidaying city. It has a temperate climate, plenty of nice beaches, cool neighborhoods, 2 harbors and enough going on that you won’t be bored out of your skull. I’ve met plenty of kiwis from outside of Auckland that feel the people living here are not friendly – I haven’t experienced that. Auckland is a small-big city with a very friendly feel. If you were to give the city a chance you will most likely enjoy yourself here. I’m not saying that backpackers should base themselves here, but to trash it and really only spend a couple days in the city is not giving it a fair go. Recently I met one backpacker who hated on the city, but now calls it home and has realized that it not such a bad place after living here for a while. Don’t get me wrong, Auckland isn’t for everyone but to say it is not a good place to live is totally untrue.
When I lived in Toronto it was the same thing with the rest of Canada. Everyone hates Toronto. The crime, the pollution, to busy, to much traffic, rude people.. ive heard it all and to be honest I was hater until I lived there. Once I gave it a chance it really grew on me. When I first thought of moving to NZ I didn’t really think I would be based out of Auckland, but when I scored a great job here why wouldn’t I give it a shot. I don’t regret it at all.
I think it all comes down to hating the ‘big guy.’ The UK hates London, Canada hates Toronto, Australia hates Sydney, everyone hates America and I could go on. Hating really doesn’t do anyone any good. So if everyone could just understand that the ‘big city’ isn’t for everyone and that really in the scheme of things you shouldn’t knock a place until you’ve actually lived there the world would be a happier place.
So there is a phenomenon here in New Zealand called ‘Planking’. To take part you lay face down in an unusual location. Your hands must touch the sides of the body, toes pointed out and you then must have a friend take a photo. Once you have the photo you upload on to the internet and you are now a wanker.. opps i mean planker. The location should also be as public as possible, and the more people you have involved the better. Ive done a wee bit of research and it looks like the game was started in 1997 in the UK.. leave it to the brits! Funny 14 yrs later it’s being brought back to life in New Zealand and Australia.
People have been arrested for planking, athletes have used it as a celebration after scoring and unfortunately people have started to die because of this ridiculous game. I guess they were pushing the limits (hahah – like this is some sort of extreme sport) by planking on balconies, on rail way lines, on signs above stores and so on and then falling off dying upon impact. There was a photo of John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand in the background as his son planked across the top of the couch. People were in an uproar, only in New Zealand this would be front page news. If you harm yourself lying down, you are a fu*k’n moron!
Personally I think the whole phenomenon is pretty lame. Is this why people do with their spare time? If you look it up on facebook, you will find heaps of pages dedicated to this. I found this video and it sums it up nicely on what you should do if you, your friends or any family memembers attempt to plank!
So what is going on here? The Christchurch airport was trialing a new luggage handling system and had locals donate old luggage they could use. Here they are simply getting rid of the luggage as the trial is now complete. The video has gone viral and some people are up in arms as they think the airport is tossing out people luggage.
It would have been funny to see all this luggage being binned while you are waiting for you flight. You would be wondering what the hell is going on.
I’ve just returned from a whirl wind work trip. I’ve been down in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Palmerston North on the NZ university career fair circuit. It was pretty much a ‘ground-hog day’ trip, meaning it was the same thing at each of the stops. Different person, same spiel. All of this travel had me on and off planes a couple times a week. Ive noticed that people really need to understand airplane etiquette! Here is a couple things I’ve come up with from my most recent travels:
Mind your space. There is no reason to stretch out on a 1-2 hour flight. Keep your arms on your lap and remember that you don’t own the arm rests.
It’s not a party! I don’t mind friendly conversation at the start of the flight, but by no means do I want to chat the whole flight through. Thank god for ipods and earphones!
If you go to the washroom a lot, take an isle seat. know your bladder!
Mind your volume levels. I don’t want to hear your conversation, when you are sitting 4 rows behind me and same with the ipods, keep the music to yourself.
Reading. Reading is good, but don’t try and read my magazine/book by rubbernecking.
Kids are kids. Baby’s cry, young’ns throw tantrums and they are most likely really excited to be on the plane so expect them to be bouncing around.. it’s just the way it is. Believe it or not you were a child once and most likely cried or had a tantrum.
Don’t race to get off the plane! When the plane comes to a stop, don’t hop up and try to get your luggage unless you are in the first couple rows. If someone in the seat ahead of you is a little slower, give them a hand or be patient. The baggage wont be out for another 10 mins, so chill out.
Wash. Yes, you would have thought this is obvious, but it’s not to some. Deodorant. Easy as.
If you snore, try not to fall asleep on the plane. Nobody wants to hear it.
Carry your ‘carry-on’ luggage off the plane. Don’t try and drag it down the isle since your bag has wheels. The isles are narrow and you just end up struggling.
Make your calls in the terminal. Why are you trying to get your luggage down, talk on the phone and get off the plane all at the same time? You will be waiting for your baggage later, make the call then!
Enjoy the view.. if you are in the window seat. Don’t lean over, it’s rude and there isn’t much room to begin with. Book a window seat if you want to look out the window.
If someone is doing any of these things, but they refuse your polite requests to stop. Talk to a flight attendant. Don’t take matters into your own hands.
Take a look behind you. If the passenger is tall, he needs the leg room. Don’t recline your chair. If it is a shorter flight, keep your chair upright. What’s an extra 10 degrees anyways!
Common sense prevales. Treat people, like you want to be treated. Simple.
I know there are most likely heaps of things i’ve missed and if you have some you would like to share, please post it here!
For the final day in the Southern Lakes district we would take a bit of a tour to Wanaka. Up early as usual we hit up Bob’s Weigh for breakie. It’s a great little place downtown Queenstown that great food and coffee. After a good feed we loaded into the car and headed through Crown range, which I believe is the highest range in New Zealand. Once again, stunning scenery everywhere. This is the kind of road that buses aren’t allowed on as it is windy, narrow and steep!
The first stop of the day was for a beer at the Cardrona Hotel, located in the Cardrona Valley. It is one of New Zealand’s first hotels as it was established in 1863 because of the gold rush. Now a popular tourist stop, it’s a great place to have a drink and take a break while driving through the crown ranges.
After a beer it was back into the car and 45 mins to Wanaka. Wanaka is a small town that started because of the gold rush. Now it is your typical tourist town, with a huge number of people moving their over the winter months because of its close proximity to the ski hills. It’s located on the southern end of the Lake Wanaka, so it is busy in the summer with many locals visiting during their holidays. We didn’t spend too much time in Wanaka, as there isn’t much to do. Pubs, cafes, tourists shops pretty much own the town center.
From Wanaka we headed to puzzle world. Here you can find your way through a maze, (which completely frustrated me) visit the optical illusion rooms and try to figure you more puzzles from all over the world. We spent about two hours here and that was enough. I’m not one for puzzles, so not really my kind of stop, but when you are in the area.. why not!
Done with all of the games it was into Queenstown to head up the Gondola to watch the sunset. We managed to time this perfectly. Some photos on the viewing deck and beers in the pub. From here we had dinner at the speight’s ale house, where you can always count on a hardy meal. That pretty much sums up the last day of our southern trip. I love it down south and hope try life in the south sometime in the future.
For the third day of the trip we planned to visit Glenorchy. Early morning we packed our bags as we stayed another night in Mossburn and headed back towards Queenstown to check into our hotel room. We were back in Queenstown by mid day so we visited the most famous burger joint in New Zealand. Ferg Burger! I know Ive written about about how awesome the burgers are, so I wont go there again. Ill just say.. visit Fergberger and don’t bother with the chips as the burger is big enough to fill your belly! After a mean feed of prime NZ beef, we headed to our hotel to drop our bags.
Once we unloaded all of our stuff it was back on the to road towards Glenorchy. The drive is stunning. There is this one corner you come around and all you see is blue skies, a lake and the all of the surrounding mountain ranges. It was pretty amazing.
Glenorchy is a small town on the northern end of Lake Wakatipu and is a pretty popular tourist stop. A lot of tramping tracks start here as it lies on the boarder of Mount Aspiring National Park and Fiorland National Park. You will find cafes, pub, fur trading post, hotel/motel, petrol station, jet boat and kayaking companies, and horse trekking too. There isnt a lot happening in Glenorchy, it is a very small quiet community, but it is still worth the trip out. If you visit Glenorchy make sure to take a drive out to Paradise. Many people will recongize the scenery from the Lord of the Rings.. so if you are a Lord of the Rings geek… this is a place you would want to go. We chilled out here for a while just taking in being surrounded by the mountains!
After a while it was time to head back to Queenstown where we would spend the night drinking beers and watching the finals of the ABL (australian Basketball League) where New Zealand’s only team would loose a hard fought game 2 in a double overtime thriller. Then it was off to bed, as we would be up early to get out and see Wanaka and Cromwell.
The stunning surrounds you in Glenorchy, New Zealand.
Milford Sound; the most beautiful place in New Zealand!
Today we are off to Milford Sound! This meant for a really early start since we had our boat cruise booked for 10am. Since we stayed in Mossburn we only had a 2.5 hour drive into Milford Sound. We had to get up at 6:30 am to be on the road for 7am. It was a bit of a groggy start since we stayed up too late watching rugby and drinking beers, but we did have enough time to have a stop in Te Anau for breakfast and a coffee! Te Anau is a small community outside of Fiordland National Park, that survives on Milford Sound tours that travel year round. Here we had a great breakie and coffee that fuled the drive to Milford Sound!
If you don’t know, Milford Sound is acclaimed as New Zealand’s, number 1 tourist destination and has been called the eighth wonder of the world. Milford Sound runs 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that raise 1,200 metres or more on either side. Among the peaks are The Elephant at 1,517 metres said to resemble an elephant’s head, and The Lion, 1,302 metres in the shape of a crouching lion. Lush green rain forests hang from the cliff walls. Some wildlife that can be seen is seals, penguins, and dolphins frequent the waters and sometimes if you are lucky you may see some whales. Milford Sound sports two permanent waterfalls all year round, Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls. After heavy rain however, many hundreds of temporary waterfalls can be seen running down the steep sided rock faces that line the fiord.
Milford Sound; home of the waterfall!
It is said you should see Milford Sound two ways, in the rain and on a clear stunning day. It was pissing down from the moment we woke up, so waterfalls, fog, cloud were on the menu. The drive into Milford Sound was stunning. Thick lush green rainforest, rushing rivers, water falls, steep rock faces, fog, mountains – the most stunning scenery Ive seen so far in New Zealand. The road through the park winds through the vallies and along side the river, tunnels through mountains and it absolutely breathtaking.
I was surprised upon arrival to Milford Sound to its small size. It had two hotels/lodges, but no grocery stores or dairy and main building was a visitors center – it is pretty much a port where tour boats take tourist through the fiords. It is no surprise that most tourists only stay for one day. We parked and headed inside the visitors center to wait to board our cruise.
We booked our cruise with Real Journey’s. Once onboard we found a booth seat beside a window and then it was off. The sheer size of the cliffs are amazing. After seeing it you can understand why it is the most visited spot in New Zealand. You are on a large boat, yet you feel dwarfed by the fiords that surround you. The rain and wind just added to the experience. Waterfalls were everywhere you looked. Because of the cloud cover you couldn’t see the top of the fiords. It had such a mystical and magical feel to it. The boat cruised a long one side of the inlet, taking time to put the nose of the boat into the waterfalls for those who wanted to get soaked. I spent the majority of the trip out of the inlet on the front deck taking photos and just trying to take it all in. Once we emerged from the inlet the captin took the boat out into the Tasman where it got a bit rocky. The boat heaved side to side, to the enjoyment of some and the agony of others. Once we headed back into the inlet it was down the otherside of the fiord where we managed to see some seals. The trip out and in was amazing. I highly recommend it. You cannot come to New Zealand and miss Milford Sound – that wouldn’t be a complete trip to New Zealand.
The best time to visit Arrowtown is in the fall. The colour of the leaves reminds me of Canada.
After my bunge and canyon swing I met up with a mate from Auckland and we checked into the the Queenstown Nomads for the night. We grabbed a case of beer from the grocery store and sat on the balcony drinking and talking about the plans for the long weekend. For dinner we hit up Sombrero’s, a shitty mexican restaurant in the heart of the town. The service was shit, the food was average and the prices were outrageous. Never go to Sombrero’s! We had a couple more beers out on the town and then headed back to the hostel.
The alarm sounded at 7:30am and it was going to be a busy day. Michelle was flying in from Auckland at 8:30am so that gave us a enough time to pack up our bags and drive to the airport. A coffee at the airport later and Michelle had arrived. We loaded our packs into the trunk and headed back into Queenstown. We wondered around town and the lake front for a couple hours and then headed off to Arrowtown.
Arrowtown is an old gold mining town founded in the mid 1800’s. When the gold ran out it became a farm service town. Although the population declined after the gold rush it soon became a popular holiday destination. Now Arrowowtown is a popular tourist destination and one of the fastest growing communities if all of New Zealand.
This town is as pretty as they come. All of the buildings have kept the original style, so it really takes you back in time. The town is situated a long a river and is renowned for its Oaks, Sycamores, Cork Elms and Ashes trees. These trees are not native to the area, but were planted by the early English and Irish settlers who missed the landscape of home and planted trees in 1867. What is great about Arrowtown is that it experiences seasons! Fall here is amazing. All of the trees turn yellow and orange and the the hill sides look stunning. It is a beautiful town and definitely worth a stop on your travels in New Zealand.
Arrowtown Bakery... good eats and treats!
We wandered through town and chilled out by the river. It has to be one of my favourite little towns in New Zealand. You have to hit up the bakery for some great bake goods and pastry. They had really tasty pies and deserts which we snacked on for lunch before we hit the road to our next stop, Mossburn.
One of my mates spots.. great place to have beer and take in the beautiful day!
On our way to Mossburn we hit up some backroads and went to one of my mates favourite secret spots a long the shotover river. It was super picturesque and another great place to stop, take some photos, chillout and have a beer! Nothing beats travelling with a local! You get away from the tourists and see hidden gems like this.
Mossburn is a sleep country village with a pub, hotel, dairy and that is pretty much it. If you were to blink you would miss it. It is here where we would spend the night with my mates brother who works in the area. The reason for staying in Mossburn is that we had a cruise booked in Milford Sound the next morning and it is half way in between Queenstown and Milford, saving us 2 hour drive in the morning and of course the cost of a nights accommodation. The evening was filled with beers, rugby and and endless ribbing of being Jafa’s (just another fucking aucklander). It’s kind of like home where the rest of Canada hates on Toronto. NZ doesn’t like Auckland unless you live in Auckland.. something’s are universal I guess – hatred towards the ‘big city’. It was a fun and entertaining night with a bunch of kiwi’s taking the piss out of each other while watching rugby. There is nothing more of an authentic kiwi evening than that – it was a great!
