Day 2 Rotorua, New Zealand

Day two Rotorua

Today is the day that I travel off to Rotorua. There is at least a two hour time difference between Ausutalia and NZ. This is only annoying when you have a bus to catch at 9.30am and you are stuck on Aussie time. I was going to follow Pitt street to Hobson which is the street the bus station is located. I ended up walking along Mayoral drive past the strip club that is next door to the Slvation army church next door.  This route still got me to Hobson street via Auckland police station. The bus was already at the station and I had to wait until 915 for the driver to appear and put my bag on. I did have breaky of coffee and sandwiches.

The bus to Rotorua goes through to Manakau city, Hamilton etc. It takes several hours and I did have a rest stop at a town that was part of the land wars between maori and English. The usual sniffing out of the cemeteries told me plenty as I had seen the cemetery as we pulled in. The town was called Rangiriri. The rest stop had a museum, which was closed as I was going to buy books on the subject. Maybe next time. I think I have figured out the problem with my camera. Could there be conflict between the wireless mouse connection and the camera when I have the cable connected? I transferred 20 pics with no problems after I had taken the connection out. Will test it out later again or when I am able to. I will be staying in Rotorua for 3 full days as there is plenty to do in town I think.

The entire trip from Auckland to Rotorua I was listening to my ipod with the podcasts i put on along with some music. The podcast I was half way through was about the Gallipoli campaign through the Australian war memorial. I will listen to the rest in the next couple of days. Ne of the first podcasts was actually about the Clock tower, which I had visited the day before. It is supposedly the biggest in NZ well the clock face that is.

My zenbook lasts longer without power and seems to last longer than my old netbook I have at home. This zenbook is better weight wise in my bag than the other one. Well worth winning the prize. My bag isn’t weighed down, but the snap locks I have are more suited to base climbing and I bought some take to make sure I do not ruin a bag and the tape hopefully protects the straps. I can think of nothing else that could help me other than gaffa tape. I have bought a back up camera from Farmers store, which is like Kmart, but New Zealand. At least I did not go to Harvey Norman that was next door. That would have been a rip off and a half even if I did get the exchange rate. The new camera is also a canon, but a touch smaller with a lithion battery thing you have to charge.

I did walk around quite a large part of Rotorua today well this afternoon and I was looking for the box office for the show I wanted to go see. I could not find it, but found I had walked past it as it was next to the pick and pay. Kuirau Park has not changed much since I was there last time, but they have been doing some roadworks so I don’t know how they would get on with the thermal stuff. I am staying across the road from the park. After finding some of the lake at Sulfur bay, the museum was the next place to walk past. It was closing time so I did not go there and was listening to music coming from somewhere.  The other sights of the Queens park was visited or was it Princes . Deciding to follow the noise meant I found people in pink wandering around. I discovered this was something to do with cancer, so I stuck around and watched the people in pink go walking. By this time it was getting late so I found an Italian restaurant that I had a meal in. Steak with bacon around it and mash kumura too. Once I got back to the hostel I found my card was not working. Seems my chip in my bank card or my mobile phone wipes them. Could be because I walk around all day with it in my pocket.

Tomorrow I am visiting with the Hobbits in Hobbiton in Matamata, which will be a fun day. Something that I did forget about were the bumble bees flying around. I do not like them and felt like Ali trying to get out of their way.

Tip

Always carry a pen with you as you never know when you need one especially when you are on a plane that needs customs forms filled out. Saves time.

Highlight

Following people in pink to find many pink people and a pink catapillar with an annual walk for cancer. Not bad, but Brad follows the noice to find out what is going on. More like my version of an unexpected journey. The cemetery was another one too and the first place I visited.

New Zealand trip, Day one Gold Coast to Auckland

Day one

Was an early start as I was getting a plane to Auckland from the Gold Coast. I should learn not to use two different names as I use Brad and then Bradley on my official documents. They had a 30 sec headache and I was off on my way. Something very special was getting both an explosives swab and a personal search. I have never had the search done at the GC airport and did everywhere else especially when I was in Berlin. The last few trips had taught me what to expect.

The landing at the airport was smooth and it was very easy to enter the country. The immigration card was very strict and wanted info like my email and phone number. Once on the ground they had the epassport stuff and that was very awesome. Especially when they asked what I had and when my reply was water they let me through with a wave. Since it has been at least 3 years since my last visit I thought I would have the shuttle bus with a name when I exited like the first time I went. No such luck, but I had to exit the terminal building to find them. I did find that the day in Auckland was pretty warm and I did not need a jacket at the time.

It was getting pretty confusing on the ride to Auckland as it was 20kms away from the airport and I usually get a bus or train as I have done while in Europe. I was actually the last one left on the shuttle to be dropped off at the hostel. YHA City is actually a little bit out of the usual party part of Auckland as the last times I tried Nomads and Base. They were a little noisy especially when they had club music going. Once checked in I decided to go wandering and I did not really know what time it was going dark.

How I usually figure out how to get to know an area is by wandering off in one direction and see where I end up. I wanted to see how long it took to get to the sky tower, but got distracted by an old cemetery called Symond St Cemetery, which had been made way for the highway through the city. It was historic and I found some historic figures who were part of NZ history. I liked it, but knew I had other things to see or else I would wander the area all day. More wandering later I found Albert Park and the original Mr Grey who was governor of South Australia, Cape town and New Zealand too. I don’t know if I should have, but I did have a quick wander around Auckland University. I was wearing my UNE shirt so that should count for something. After the park I went searching for a memorial that I had seen last time about Women’s sufferage. I found it and it was a dedication to the ladies from 1898 I think it was.

Stopping for fuel was something I needed as a place called burger fuel and something I ate that was called bio fuel. Nice burgers though shhh don’t tell anyone else. I did notice many homeless people on Queen street in Auckland. One crazy drunk maori guy I avoided later on by crossing the road as he was talking to no one and being a pest. I didn’t want to make friends with him. Finding my way to the sky tower where I have to catch the bus was not easy as I thought I had gotten lost as usual. One good way to find the inter city bus is to use the sky tower as a location by sight. You can follow that. I did go up as I wanted to see it before sunset and then head back. Being high was excellent as I used markers that I could see like sights to Head back to the hostel. It did work and I did see plenty of locations like the Auckland museum and one tree hill that I will visit eventually. The walk back did get me wondering if I was lost, but I actually was using the cemetery as a marker / reference to where I had to be and I went down a street too early knowing that the hostel was where I wanted to be.  I thought I had not bought any underwear at first, but had found them after a little search. Tomorrow I am off to Rotorua where I will see hobbits and other creatures of wonder. I am learning the wonders of Maori TV with different shows and another language.

Highlight of the day.

Visiting the cemetery as I had not been expecting it and seen how the city grew around and use parts of the cemetery like the bridge. Some of it is over grown and there are bottles around the area too. I am glad they have preserved some like Hobson’s grave and several others. It also has the names of those who lost their lives in the early maori wars. I did find several monuments to Maori wars and the friendly maori. Another were Boar War memorials.

Boots

My boots had been crushing my feet and I found out why. I had been doing up my laces as tight as i can and my feet had been hurting. This morning they were done up loosely and the surprise was there was no pain. The side of one foot was being crushed before and today showed me loose laces were better for my feet and no problems due to the distance

Euro tour day 31 Homeward bound

Euro tour day 31

Today was the day that I leave Singapore for home. I got up early as I had to finish packing my bags and sorting out what I needed to have for easy access. I had charged my netbook and phone the night before as I would have been without a fully charged phone. The bags didn’t take long to pack at all and I was ready to leave. I was being picked up at 10 am by Dawn in a taxi who was going to take me to her place for a swim before going towards the airport. Dawn was on time and I was actually reading short stories by HP Lovecraft.

Dawn picked me up and I went to her place for a swim in her pool. It was a nice place and the swim was really appreciated. That and the shower I did have afterwards. I did have to dry my shorts afterwards with a hair dryer to make sure it was not dripping and then placed into my bag. There was a small hitch that I did not realise until later was that I had left my toilet bag at Dawn’s place and had left. I was not too worried about this as I knew it was safe where it was. Dawn treated me to lunch at a club she is a member of and it was really nice to spend time there and eat something. I had a steak, which I had been hanging out for. We then left for the Changi museum which is about WWII.

Changi jail and chapel museum is not just how the Australians were treated during the war, but how the people of Singapore were treated and how many were just executed or used for other purposes like the Thai Burma railway on the promise of better conditions. The museum was not just about the people but how they survived during the war and what they actually did to pass the time. I took the audio tour and just wandered around listening to the stories and watching the people who were walking around the small museum. It has been said that it will take around an hour to go through, although I think it took me a little longer.

After changi museum, we headed straight for the airport and was talking to a nice Chinese taxi driver who revealed that he works 7 days a week. He also has to pay the taxi company money as he works for them. I don’t know why he has to do that and if he needs a relief worker then he has to pay half of what he earns to the relief driver. The driver had been in Singapore for around 30 years or so as he knew what the country was like before they reclaimed land and the road conditions. I checked in at the airport with a bag that weighs 19 kilos and Dawn I think was surprised I put this on my back to go places. After leaving and saying goodbye to Dawn, who I will meet again once she ends up in Sydney within the next year. I did wander around the airport and only stayed in Terminal 1 as that was big enough anyway. I found plenty of shops in the airport including electronics. If I had more time I would have gone through the other terminals although I was on the far side of the terminal I was in. 

The plane was late and it had me wondering if I would have problems with getting to the Australia flight. I made it with plenty of time though and it was actually pouring when I flew into KL. The wait was around an hour and then I was off again. KL LCCT airport is boring once you have been to the big ones like Changi, although so is the Gold Coast terminal unless you class that as international when it is more country.

This is the end of my trip and I would like to organise another one for next year although I don’t know where to go other than Berlin maybe Italy, more of England maybe with Ireland and Scotland thrown into the mix. I have found so many interesting places that I want to visit and have made some interesting discoveries too.

Euro tour day 30 Singapore museum

Euro tour day 30

Today Is going to be my last full day in Singapore and I had planned other than meeting up with my friend Dawn for dinner, was to visit the National Museum of Singapore. It was a hot and stuffy day the sort of day you would visit the place like that. I did not want another day wandering around as i did not feel that energetic at all. Might be just the toast I have had for breakfast along with some very bad coffee. I did feel better later after I had lunch and my aches and pains did go away.

I visited the national museum of Singapore and bought a ticket for $11 entry since this would get me into see the paintings that were in Musee d’Orsay. The gallery was not bad at all and I spent some time wandering in it. The art was from Paris and depicted several different topics from warfare to work. When I entered I was asked to give my bag to the ladies as this was something that was not permitted in the particular exhibit. I misheard the bloke standing at the door thinking he wanted me to place everything in my pockets into my bag. I had done this yesterday with the Singapore flyer and I had plenty in my pockets. I took out two phones, one wallet, one camera, some change, keys and my door card for the hostel. The guy explained and I did say sorry, but I had mis understood him and it was all cool. I bet this happens all the time.

By the time I had lunch and visited the History section of the museum the day was nearly over and I did find it interesting walking along the events path of the museum with my audio guide. I was listing to just about everything from the Singapore stone to what had been happening with the individuals during the war. The path from colonial rule to independence was really interesting especially when the airline split from Malaysia and went their own way changing international flight forever. They were the ones who started the free full service food and drink thing without charging for it although the group that was in charge did not like it. The exhibition was both video and audio about the individual exhibits.

That night I went out with Dawn and had dinner with her as she was showing me the culinary delights of Eastern food. I was again subjected to decent food and tried out my chopstick skills although seems no one likes them as I was given a fork. I wasn’t worried although I did try to figure out what people were saying and also do not go eat late at night, but early around 6pm before the mad rush for food takes place. After leaving Dawn from the foodie place in Newton which I cant remember the name of. I wandered to Orchard Avenue where I watched some of the street performances and one huge bookstore that is Japanese owned, but I got lost in yet again.

Euro tour day 29

Euro tour day 29

After a sleepless night where i couldn’t sleep that well and had trouble falling asleep, I got up earlyish and went up to the Battle box where I took the tour. At first I had thought this would be a self guided tour of the location and turns into a audio tour and part interaction as you walk around the bunker area. There are actually stuff written by the Japanese secret police who were stationed there. The battle box tour is mainly about the last several hours of what happened when the British surrendered to the Japanese. It was interesting after a while although it did last only around an hour. Before the tour I was talking to the lady who works the ticket desk who was talking about the Indians when I told her where I was staying. She was also annoyed wit the security lady who had been giving people the wrong info the day before me being one of them. I did surprise the ticket lady when I told her I walked the hill area and went to see the king’s grave. I was told to take shoes off when I go there. The ticket lady was outspoken about her country as well talking about how she had thought it would fall to communism years ago, but didn’t.

After this I headed towards the Singapore Flyer although at the time I was getting really hungry. I found the Subway after I had seen the shop the night before. I had to wait for a bit and then was able to use my ticket. The car before us actually had a dining table and was some sort of restaurant. The person inside must have been some sort of celebrity as she was being filmed although I did see something like that the night before in the Marina Sands shopping centre. The sight from the observation deck was really wonderful and I had actually missed the rain as it had poured while I was at lunch, but stopped while I was on the flyer. I was able to see the ocean from the vantage point along with many areas that I would actually get to walk as well. After I left it actually started raining again and I found out what the rain is like especially when I had a small brolly.

The next destination was to go to Clarke Quay where I was planning on walking to where the Merlion was located. I found a local shopping centre and found several locations of interest to me. One was a store that sold Hello Kitty stuff and another was a book shop that sold books that were non English. I did like wandering around it. The wander was back on when I crossed the river and walked through a park where there was an Asian museum with several asian leaders like from India and Vietnam. I found one person I was after and that was Raffles location of where he had first landed. After that I wandered up to the two Merlions and by this time I was exhausted. I was tired and thirsty and was trying to find Raffles Quay MRT, which was a fair distance away. I did have troubles with a ticket I bought as it would not work and the ticket people did fix it for me when I explained. Usually I have problems when the machines dont work properly and give me a different location to the one I had chosen. Touch screen is not always a good way of working.

After getting back and having a rest I was off again this time to Orchard Avenue for dinner. I bought a black bean rice chicken bun wrapped up in a leaf. I actually liked this and wandered around for half hour or so looking for somewhere to eat. I did eventually find Food Republic an eatery area catering to Asian crusine. I found one where I could put things together to be put into a soup. Always interesting watching people cut things up with scissors. I had made myself some sort of concoction that went into a broth. I ate it after I found a seat as other people mainly told me this seat was taken and I did find one eventually. I felt heaps better after the meal and i did have to use chopsticks. The area at that time of night was very busy with people traffic.