Category: New Zealand

Entry

Have landed in New Zealand, Christchurch. Flew over with Virgin Blue.

Bought a camera in duty-free.

It’s a Canon Eos 350D. An entry level SLR.

Paid ?528 for the camera, battery, case and 2gb memory. Slightly cheaper than you’d find in the high street in the UK.

If you want to go to Pixmania you can get it cheaper, but you get all the manuals in French.

Here’s a picture.
Canon Eos 350D

I’ll be taking the more detailed shots with this one. I’ve found the flash on portables to be really poor under normal conditions.

I’ve still got the pentax optio s5i from Tykeblog south America.

Bought it in Costa Rica, when I got sand in my old one in Rio de Janerio.

I can put this in my pocket and walk around for random, round-town shots.

So. I’m all set.

Tyke’s travel tips

Tyke tips

Here are some travel tips for those planning a trip to south america.

1- NEVER ARRIVE AT NIGHT – chances are you’ll be making those gruelling 20 hour plus bus journeys, the last thing you want is to be wandering round a strange town with all your stuff at the dead of night.

2- YOU WILL GET ROBBED – depending on your outlook, this may be funny, mildly annoying or a personal tragedy. Keep you passport and sexually integrity intact, these things are more difficult to replace.

3- BRING A RUCKSACK NOT A SUITCASE – it may have handles, but I’m afraid that won’t cut it. Lima doesn’t have a Marriott, holiday inn, motel 8 or McDonald’s. Expect to get sand in your wheels and strange looks.
my advice buy a nice purple rucksack (like mine :)).

4- LEARN TO SPEAK SPANISH – better than waving your arms around, you can make friends and get yourself out of trouble, converse in shops etc. etc.
it costs nothing.
invaluable.

Te Papa Museum

We had time before heading for the airport to visit the Te Papa museum – which has got to be the best museum I have ever been to. Entry’s free, and there are about five levels with some awesome exhibits and displays. We wandered through Bush City finding out about plants, animals and their habitats, before checking out an interactive earthquake machine, an exhibition about relations between settlers and Maoris, and a video on some of the settlers who had made New Zealand their home. Whether or not you think you are a museum person, I would recommend that if you’re only in Wellington for one day, you check out this place.

Vomit

The trip back to Wullington was uneventful, although some unsuspecting Kiwi suit emerged from the toilet cubicle at the Shell garage to find me puking my ring into the basin – the expected hangover having by now kicked in. I would obviously rather have vomited in the toilet, but as he was in there, what option did I have? He didn’t seem to see it that way and got rather arsey about having to wash his hands where I had just vomited, despite my pointing out that I’d done my best to wash the worst of it away.