Browsing tag: travel

I’m starting to get excited about my upcoming tropical birthday trip. In my usual rather haphazard fashion, I think I will print out some info for possible bike hires/fishing charters etc – but not make any solid plans. The basic itinerary reads something like: relax. eat. walk. snorkel. sunbathe. drink from coconuts. sleep. Perhaps one bona fide activity every other day, leaving us with nothing to do but explore and laze around on the others.

At the same time, I’m really nervous. So many things could go wrong! I’ve probably mentioned this before, but the last time I left the country was about 8 years ago. With my parents. So for the first time in nearly a decade, I will be boarding a plane as a grownup, just T and I. There are so many points at which we could trip up. Forgetting to pack something. Getting to the airport. Getting on the plane. The transfer to our resort. Feeding ourselves (it’s hard to tell but I think there are fresh markets every day). Overspending (although I don’t think we’ll be doing anything expensive. I reckon a $100 a day budget should do us). Some accident befalling us. Getting back to the airport. The flights home. Getting back to our place.

What kind of holidaymaker are you – go with the flow or planned to the T?

Sometimes I forget that other people have weekends off, much less that they share days off with their partner. That weekend trips are an option. Jaunts to other cities, or heck, over the ditch. With so many great deals to Australia of late, it’s a bloody good thing T has stocktake coming up, or I just might have booked us a Gold Coast getaway.

But I have to remember my big goals. Remember the big travel plans we’re saving for, for a start.

Yes, Aussie destinations are CHEAP, and can be done in a relatively short span of time – and, most importantly can be done when we’re older. Now is the time to focus on saving like a maniac while we have cheap rent, no mortgage, and are still young enough to stomach the idea of a month-long road trip or backpacking around Europe.

So. Instead, I have updated my travel bucket list (only for the millionth time!) and I am adding a progress bar to my sidebar to track my travel fund. Eyes on the prize!

I have a new favourite city. I’ve been to Wellington once before. I was about 11. And I was on a school trip. This time around it was eleventy billion times better.

Seriously. I love my big city, but in comparison it is grey and soulless. (Although all I have to compare it to is Singapore, KL, and, er, Hamilton?!) Wellington is SO walkable. Everything in the central city is amazingly flat. Check this out for a footpath:

There is a skate park in the CBD. There are murals. Countless cinemas. Galleries and museums, all free or dirt-cheap.  Even the scaffolding on construction sites are arted up. Everything is so buzzy and colourful and inspiring.

And OMG a sushi place with conveyor belt (Anyone know of an equivalent place in Auckland???):

T loved it too, mainly because it was so cold. I eventually got used to the wind, although the first night everytime the windows rattled I thought it was an earthquake, and by the end of the weekend, my chin was so dry and chapped no amount of cream applied continuously could save it. And I was very grateful to have brought jeans, because walking along the harbour from arena to arena was not the warmest of undertakings. Thankfully, it turned out the arena was set up literally five minutes from our lodge.

The gig

The one good thing about having each stage at a totally separate venue was that at least you weren’t forced to buy snacks and drinks there. You could go for a wander into town and get anything your heart desired, or in my case, back to our hotel to eat our own food.

But seriously. My first stop was TSB Arena for Midnight Youth. Homegrown specifically said we could bring in as much food as we wanted. And what did they do at TSB? CONFISCATE MY DAMN LUNCH, the venue making its own rules. “Can I get it back after?” I asked. No. They told me it would probably go to the “needy”. Bullshit. Y’all will get first pickings, then it will go into the bin. And I was already late for the act at that point, not to mention still full from our big breakfast, so I wasn’t going to stand there and stuff all my food down my gullet. I let it go. And of course, at NONE of the other stages did they care, and when we returned to TSB at the end of the night for Blindspott, they didn’t even check bags, let alone our wristbands.

And, as I should have guessed, Blindspott played Phlex as the second-to-last song, and dedicated it to all the Christchurch people in the crowd.

There’s no reason yet
why they took your friends
there’ s no reason at all.

For me, all the two-minute silences in the world could not compare to that one song, originally written after the loss of one of their friends.

Not one day that you are here on this earth
Has been promised to you
So make the most of every day as if it was your last
And every breath, as if it was the same.

I spent almost all of the day on my own, as the bands I wanted to see (Phoenix Foundation, Kids of 88 – as below) weren’t remotely interesting to him or his mates. (Nor did I have any interest, really, in attempting to tag along with their girlfriends.) There is really something to be said for going it alone. No compromises!

The road

The drive down was long. We left at 5am, just so we could go down with another carload of T’s friends. In fact, we spent more time with them on Friday and Saturday than I bargained for, and more money (all they ever do is drink, basically, and spend without thinking twice). Driving down the Desert Rd was particularly scary; we hit a random storm and at high altitudes with big trucks roaring past and blinding you with spray, well, it toes the line between exhilarating and terrifying.

And we were in a borrowed car – a Rover, no less – that did NOT like to take corners. Also, the indicators were on the left of the steering wheel, not right, so he was constantly flicking on the wipers when changing lanes.

I don’t like leather seats or wood panelling. But those blind-spot mini-mirrors on the wing mirrors are nothing short of genius. Why do all cars not come standard with them??

I quite enjoy long drives. It gives me time to think. For example, I decided that I’m against mining (we should focus on thinking up more sustainable ways to make money) and that if only we could all telecommute, and we got fast broadband, people could live ANYWHERE and maybe property prices would start to go down. (Probably wishful thinking.)

And I get to marvel at tiny little towns and wonder how impossible it must be to get a good curry paste when you live somewhere like that. But seriously, some of the produce prices towards the lower North Island…50c lettuce, 50c pumpkins, 99c a kg for apples! Unbelievable. I wish we’d picked some up on the way back.

Last thoughts

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in one of the places I was most excited to go to. Schoc Chocolaterie had an amazing selection, although most of the flavours were too out there for me (strawberry and cracked pepper?). I bought their lemon white chocolate, and don’t regret it, but for $13 (750g) I won’t be back, I don’t think.

I’m already planning our return. I still have to visit the famed Bordeaux bakery, and I missed out on hitting the clubs; although just from walking around at night, I could already see why their nightlife kicks ass.

And Wellington will have a special place in my heart from now, I guess, as it’s where T proposed. I was in the spa bath. He did good. Lucky I decided to go with a nice place and not an el cheapo backpackers, eh? (We stayed at the Halswell; I can’t speak for the motel rooms but the lodge building is nice and oozing Victorian charm, if a little small.)

(That’s my new hair, by the way, Young and Thrifty!)

Wellington, I’ll be back.

I’M GOING TO RAROTONGA!!

Yep, first week of July, I’m off. Farewell, winter birthday – I’ll be celebrating on the beach.

In the end, the Cook Islands edged out my other choices. Vanuatu would have been a lot pricier, and they don’t use NZ currency. The Cooks do – so that’s one less headache for a first-time traveler. Niue, another of my top choices, just couldn’t compete package-wise either and I simply wasn’t sure we could entertain ourselves on such a secluded island for an entire seven days, as there is only one flight a week (although I think I’d quite like to visit Niue at some point. Who wouldn’t want a whole island practically to themselves).

This will be my:

• First overseas trip since I was 15
• First overseas trip without the parents
• First air trip with T
• First overseas trip with T

Up until now, life has always been about studying, getting to graduation, job hunting, making ends meet. That we have just booked this trip is…well, I’M SO STOKED!

And I can’t recommend visiting the Travel Expo enough. We went on Saturday, collected oodles of brochures, and, overwhelmed, I opted to go home to look them over and Google reviews. Sunday, I was better prepared and knew what I wanted. Best of all, it turns out my birthday doesn’t fall in the school holidays this year! (All my life it has – and people go away and can’t come to my party, I never got sung Happy Birthday by the class, and so on. I was grateful once I hit uni though as it meant I couldn’t possibly have any assignments due on it.) I’m told they changed all the holiday dates due to Rugby World Cup, which I find outrageous…yet totally believable). That means we’re less likely to have to deal with lots of kids at the resort.

Initially I wanted a full package deal, but once I saw Edgewater Resort was doing a stay 5 nights, pay for 3 discount, I decided it was worth the hassle of organising separate flights. I found an awesome consultant at the St Lukes Flight Centre booth who walked me through the process and then took me around to the wholesaler’s booth to confirm flights and dates. And what do you know? They conjured up a full package deal for way less than I could have ever hoped for. I’m talking stupidly cheap – $1362 for both of us for the whole shebang. It’s a shame all the flights are at ridiculous, middle-of-the-night times, but what can you do?

My only regret: I shouldn’t have bought travel insurance there. I didn’t even think to have a look online before going, so I was lured in by the “10% off policies here and the chance to win back the value of your trip!” I could have probably halved the cost, but you live and learn.

Oy. Who would’ve thought it’d be so hard to find reasonable accommodation in Wellington on Homegrown weekend a month out? I guess there really are that many outoftowners descending on the capital to rock out, or else there’s some other major event on. Or maybe they just don’t have as many hotels as we do, which I highly doubt.

Originally the plan was to go down with a group of others on a converted bus (which has beds, a bathroom and kitchen.) However, having now seen said bus, coupled with the fact that I don’t particularly wish to spend time with that particular group of people and that I have more plans for the weekend and don’t want to be constrained by their schedule – we’re going to drive down by ourselves.

It seems that practically all the city’s accommodation has gone. Especially any in my price range. This leaves us with a few options: backpackers, staying away from the city, gambling on a last-minute hotel deal, or simply making the most of it and staying at a swank hotel. I am yet to make a decision; can anyone recommend an affordable and not too shabby motel/B&B? Cooking facilities a bonus, we’ll probably be there three nights.

Confession time: I don’t generally budget for trips. But I’m going to try it out and see how that goes.

Estimated Budget

Tickets are paid for.

Petrol: $200 (probably a tank or just over each way)

Food: $150? We’ll bring some food for the trip down, to bring into the concert, and to cook. Sandwich stuff, fried rice, baking, noodles…uh, other quick and easy things *temporary brainblock* Even if we don’t find a place with kitchen facilities, we have a mini gas cooker which lives in the car. I assume we’ll purchase some food at the arena, make a stop at a supermarket, plus we’ll want to eat out – I’ve got my eye on a French patisserie and a chocolate bar.

Accommodation: As yet unknown. Ideally around $300. Possibly more like double that. Or half that if we “rough” it, by my standards. But hopefully not.

Rough Itinerary

Friday: Drive from Auckland to Wellington. Arrive in the evening. Check in, maybe wander the streets and stretch our legs, then sleep.

Saturday: Check out aforementioned eateries. Concert. Stumble back to wherever we’re staying, and collapse.

Sunday: Sleep in. Ride the cable car and visit my friend L. Perhaps a stop at the museum and a stroll along the waterfront.

Monday: Check out. Drive back to Auckland.

I’m just coming off a four-day weekend and a recent music festival but by Jove, am I looking forward to it.