Tripreport: 2004-08-09 - 2004-08-24: Do Not Disturb; Trees Growing.
Driving away from Lake Tekapo that afternoon was weird. On my two previous visits, I'd left Lake Tekapo by traveling further south. And all three times I'd arrived in Lake Tekapo, I came from Christchurch, traveling out of the Canterbury Plains, up through Geraldine, with the scenery becoming slightly interesting as the road became windy, dipping down to Fairlie, and then up, up and away to Burkes Pass and the astounding views of the MacKenzie Country.And now for the first time I took this journey in the reverse direction - seeing the interesting bits fade away one by one. I'll have to try and avoid doing that in the future; it's too weird.
The flight from Christchurch to Auckland was, as all flights are, boring. There was a token effort for security, but luckily New Zealand seems to be quite impervious to paranoia.
Christchurch airport has one major benefit over the rest of Christchurch, in that it sits at the edge of the city, and thus offers unimpeded views all the way to the Southern Alps. Added to that a very clear sky, and just looking out of the windows at the airport already promised the goodness that was indeed awaiting me - views over the Southern Alps on the way north. Not the highest or most spectacular mountains, to be sure, but still good to see.
Looking at the price of the airport shuttle upon arrival in Auckland, I decided to be stubborn and walk a short bit closer to the city so I could catch a regular bus for a quarter of the price. Setting out over the broad sidewalks, everything went smoothly for the first 15 minutes. And then, about a kilometer away from the bus stop, the sidewalk disappeared, and all that was left was highway. Which is not something generally suitable for walking upon. *grumble mutter grumble* And to add injury to insult, the airport shuttle - when I'd finally walked back - gave me a decent discount for having a YHA card as well. *mutter grumble mutter*
That'll teach me being independent and cost-aware.
After dropping off my bags and such at the all too familiar hostel, I dropped off my shiny new camera for maintenance (dust on the CCD had been evident pretty much from day one (you didn't notice this, as I've carefully photoshopped it away on all the pictures I've taken, but the grey blodges really were getting very annoying to me) - luckily covered under the warranty, and Nikon maintenance cleaned the camera completely (not just the CCD), so that the problem wouldn't be likely to reappear anytime soon either; good service).
Being back at work was good. I got to revisit a lot of problem areas that I didn't have time to rework properly before, being able to go for the right solution as the general thing to do for changing functionality as requested by the client. My original CSS wasn't fully taking advantage of the fixed width design (used as I was to setting up liquid layouts), and so had a lot of slightly clunky bits - all of which I could now happily rip out. (At heart I'm a simple man; easily pleased, really.) :P
Unfortunately I also had to deal a lot with not so very good code left behind by the girl who'd worked alongside me for a few weeks early on. In just ASP she was pretty good - reminding me of myself as I set things up a couple of years ago - but unfortunately she'd never been introduced to modern HTML design (or the more useful tricks of making server-side code maintainable), and so where introducing a new module in my own backend code took only 30 minutes, in hers it took me 3 hours, and required a lengthy ping-pong session afterward to smash all my frustrations away. (But oh well, at least work had that ping-pong table. I wouldn't have survived without it.) ^_^
During this week back at Auckland, I finally got to meet Tempus Vernum (also known as Master[\/]][[\][) to a few of you). We'd tried to set up a meet a few times before when I'd been in Auckland, but nothing had ever come of that, and I suddenly realized I was almost leaving the country again, and that it'd be really pathetic if I managed not to have met him at all.
I don't even remember anymore which movie we went to see (Hellboy I think?), but it was fun. Hell, just by being one of my Vienna Teng victims, he'd already proven to have above average good taste and thus be a good person to hang out with. ;)
After finishing up the week back in Auckland with properly wrapping up an introduction to the benefits of modern web design to the fulltime programmer guy and helping out with fixing up the last few layout problems for a really massive site going live that day, I once more set out to southernly parts. Pangs for home were felt driving through such places as Hamilton, as there were lots of early spring flowers to be seen there. The pangs for home bit was caused by the "lots" being obviously calculated, with the flowers spaced carefully to give the impression of there being veritable seas of them, without these seas actually being there. (In comparison: early spring in the Netherlands gives the impression of entire oceans of flowers having been haphazardly dropped on top of any likely looking patch of grass, just to get rid of all the bulbs. There's no pattern or spacing at all; only fields of colors everywhere.)
The Newmans bus this time actually stopped for a photo opportunity of Mt. Ruapehu. The cloud cover was kinda bad (though not as bad as 5 minutes further down the road, where it was raining), but the idea was still highly appreciated.
The goal of this trip to southernly parts was, once more, the ever exciting Palmerston North, to meet back up with damon, as well as bandit - the same smarch gal who I'd failed to meet back when I was driving through California - who was vacationing in the country for a few weeks. I think that's one of the coolest thing about traveling: being from one remote part of the world, knowing someone living in another remote part, and meeting up in a completely unrelated third remote part.
Hanging out with bandit and damon for the following two days was a great goodness. This was true for obvious reasons (having a fellow non-kiwi in bandit to compare notes with, we could quickly settle upon such inevitable conclusions as beetroot being the root of all evil), but also for not-obvious and just plain fun and silly reasons, such as the goodness in weird hanging out activities like being threatened by secret stalker-swans (and an assortment of ducks and geese) under the guise of feeding them, and for playing Settlers of Catan (at which damon is far too good for his own good).
I swear though, if damon had said
everyone loves berriesone more time...
*grins broadly* Aye... good fun. Hanging out with friends has probably been the thing I've missed most at various times, here all by my lonesome at the other side of the world, and as such these two days were most welcome.
I also took one of the best pictures I've ever taken (even if it was also one of the most mundane and - at first sight - not very special ones), but unfortunately it features bandit, who has strongly requested not to have any of her pictures appear online (despite them being amongst the best people-pictures I've ever taken), and no matter how much I wish I wouldn't, I respect that wish. (I even understand it, as I had the same attitude before I started being someone who always wins camera-duels and could thus not really continue it.) Oh well, next time you meet me, ask me to see those pictures. That'll teach her! :P
The bus ride back to Auckland featured mostly bad weather - which was a good thing, as the bus was completely packed and I didn't have a window seat, and thus couldn't have been taking pictures anyway. A last few wrapping up activities were undertaken. I swapped my kiwi mobile phone for the exact same one (in slightly less pristine state) - but then usable in Australia - with another backpacker who'd just arrived in New Zealand,
burned another DVD with backups of my pictures and sent it home in the company of recently collected books, converted all my remaining kiwi money (minus $25 to be allowed to leave the country) to australian money (at a pretty decent exchange rate), and set off to Joop & Tini to spend my last night there.
...and that, pretty much, was New Zealand. New Zealand, the country with the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the world. New Zealand, the country where the majority of people might passively be aware of this fact, but have never actually quite gotten around to confirming all (or even most) of it for themselves. New Zealand, the country with the most utterly annoying radio and tv commercials I have ever encountered anywhere - and that while I've watched tv and listened to the radio in the USA. (Seriously, the annoyingness factor in the USA is an order of magnitude less. You have not experienced pain until you've heard "john and adrian of magna spinrow", and don't even get me started on the boxing day sales at the warehouse.) New Zealand, the country which seems to be running really far behind the rest of the world in modern technology, until you visit Australia and recognize that things really aren't that bad in New Zealand after all. (I'm talking about things like internet access and mobile phone usage and such here; understandable because of the remoteness of these countries (and the vastness of Australia), but I still highly commiserate with the locals who have to deal with it all.) New Zealand, the country where world news might take up half a page in the newspaper, but never before page 5. New Zealand, the country where the frontpage of newspapers is instead given over entirely to the riveting intricacies of the foreshore and seabed issue. New Zealand, the country where you don't need to go on a single Lord of the Rings tour, because all the scenery is right there all around you. New Zealand, where in any given town or city you can set out and walk around its edge to come across any number of well maintained and worthwhile walking tracks. New Zealand, the country where stores put up notices saying things like "warning: alarm system present". (The word "warning" being what I have an issue with; seemingly accusing any reader of harboring thoughts of theft.) New Zealand, which has forever spoiled me with visions of the true beauty in nature. New Zealand, where the people - like most anywhere - are just people; often smallminded, and seemingly unaware, and yet at a deeper level always very much aware of that they really are quite exceedingly lucky to be living where they are, and how good they really have it. New Zealand, where the idea of a cold day very much agrees with me. New Zealand, where during the summer you sunburn in 15 minutes flat straight through a white t-shirt. New Zealand, where on the same winter day you see some people walking around in shorts and t-shirts, and others with scarves and gloves, and no one but the tourists think this is strange. New Zealand, of the pervasive greens, the soulsearing Blue, and the gorgeous whites. New Zealand, of the countless waterfalls, the rolling hills, the windswept mountaintops, and the endless visions of eternity.
Of many places in this world I have said,
I want to live there for a year, someday. New Zealand is a country where I could see myself living for a lifetime.
In the end, I doubt I will. It's simply more efficient to return shortly once or twice a year to soak up tranquility at Lake Tekapo and then head back to the Netherlands for essentials (like king extra strong peppermint, new herring with onion, five hundred different kinds of black liquorice, real dutch cheese and more variety in cookies and meat than any kiwi supermarket can imagine (not to mention cheap internet access and far higher wages)), than it would be to do this the other way around. But yes, I can imagine it, can imagine myself actually making that decision to leave behind all the Netherlands has to offer and to trade it in for what New Zealand offers instead. Yet at the same time, I am highly in awe of people like my great-uncle and -aunt, Joop & Tini, who actually made that decision - and then some fifty years ago. To explain that awe, there's a quote from Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, which has resonated with me ever since I read it:
quote:
What I am seeking is not so much fulfilment of idle curiosity or of a hankering for worldly life, but experience without reservations. I do not want to go out into the world with insurance in my pocket, in case I am disappointed. I don't want to be a prudent traveller taking a bit of a look at the world. On the contrary, I crave risk, difficulty, and danger; I am hungry for reality, for tasks and deeds, and also for deprivations and suffering.Yet despite the resonance, and despite my seemingly carefree nomad lifestyle nowadays, I am quite aware of all the levels of insurance that I have in my pocket. I am the very image of a prudent traveler. In this modern world, it's hard not to be, as home is never more than a (relatively) cheap planeflight away.
Fifty years ago though... Wow. What an adventure that must have been...