Canada - Failing the Science & Technology Grade

I imagine that many Canadians have forgotten about the medical isotope issue from some months ago because it's really disappeared from media attention.

Recall that the aging NRU reactor in Chalk River had to be shut down for repairs, disrupting the supply of medical isotopes to much of the world.

I was reminded of this story while listening to a recent podcast of Quirks & Quarks, reminded that Canada spent quite a sum of money to build 2 new reactors (Maple 1 and Maple 2) to replace the NRU reactor and that the current government, in its "wisdom" seems to have decided to get out of the medical isotope business altogether.

Canadians need to remember that we are (were?) world leaders in this technology, an area where we can be more than hewers of wood and drawers of water. It's just one more case of our political "leaders" lacking a vision and ambition for Canada, relegating us to being "followers" in the area of nuclear technology, not to mention alternative energy development and many others.

New Zealand Retrospective

I’ve had about two weeks to at least partly recover from our trip so perhaps it’s time for a few final comments.

It’s a long way to NZ. Our flight was about 11,500 km. While there, we drove about 7100 km. Then there was the drive from the Koots to Vancouver and back – add another 1600 km. In total, I figure we traveled almost 32,000 km in the space of 6 weeks. With the increasing hassles of air travel, one wonders if it’s worth it. Our experience with Air New Zealand was excellent, though.

My favourite thing about NZ probably had to be the coastline. All of it was wonderful. The ocean had that tropical ocean blue, there were miles and miles (km and km) of beautiful sand beaches, excellent rocky shorelines, great views everywhere. As it turned out, most of our trip followed the coast, so we saw a good bit of the NZ shoreline.

Although there were some very nice areas on the North Island, the South Island appealed to me more. There are fewer people there, there is more “wilderness”, the scenery is more rugged and, well…, scenic, and, interestingly enough, the roads were better. If I were to go back, I’d probably spend most or all of my time on the South Island.

We learned that the weather might be better in their fall – late February and into March. This shouldn’t have been a surprise because it seems fall is a good time to visit anywhere.

NZ is getting to be quite touristy. This was most apparent in prices of some things. For example, there is a Royal Albatross colony near Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula. The whole end of the peninsula is fenced off, which is fair enough if you want to protect the colony, but it would have cost almost $60 per person to visit the colony and we just couldn’t justify the expense. The trip over to Stewart Island would have cost $63/person each way, so a one-day trip would have cost almost $250.

Some places, like Queenstown, seem to exist solely to provide adrenalin-linked activities like bungie jumping, parasailing and so on. Frankly those kinds of things didn’t interest me at all, so I really didn’t give places like Queenstown the time they perhaps deserved.

I was also rather disappointed to see the helicopter traffic over the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. The buzz of choppers was nearly constant and quite annoying after awhile. These are National Parks, but there seems to be some sacrifice of “park values” to accommodating tourists in any way possible.

Internet access is a real issue in NZ. It’s expensive and sometimes difficult to find. I’ve since heard that some businesses have chosen not to set up in NZ because of this, so it’s not just me, apparently. It’s the kind of infrastructure thing that you start to take for granted in a developed country in the 21st Century.

Speaking of infrastructure, roads are also an issue. They are certainly are twisty. I expected this, to a certain extent, because I had been warned. They are also quite rough in many areas. Lots of narrow roads and single-lane bridges. I suppose it’s charming, in a way, but you’d think a country would want at least some efficient transportation links. There comes a time when just paving over a cow path turned into a wagon track just isn’t good enough.

Kiwis are certainly friendly, but we’ve experienced lots of friendly people on our travels, particularly in the USA. I think Kiwis were more interested in what you thought of your travels and experiences than what we’ve encountered in other places.

My least favourite place had to be Rotorua. This is the hot spring center of NZ. It wasn’t that interesting after what we’ve seen elsewhere, not that attractive and so we didn’t stay long.

I liked being able to buy my wine in a grocery store. It would be interesting to know if NZ has more of an “alcohol problem” than more “regulated” countries (like Canada???), not that state liquor stores have anything to do with liquor control in any way.

The wine and cheese were great in NZ and we enjoyed both of them lots while we were there.

Kiwis can’t be into breakfast cereal that much. I was surprised at the small selection of breakfast cereal and what was available was all packaged in small boxes. Maybe they are more into the “full English breakfast”.

It was a good experience being south of the Equator, essentially, so far as we were concerned, on a tropical (or at least sub-tropical) island. It was interesting in many ways. That said, there’s no place like home!

Camping in NZ - Part II - Equipment

We didn’t come to NZ really equipped for the backcountry, wherever that might be, but instead we were kitted out more for travel “camping”. In our case, that turned out to be a small Toyota HiAce van with an extended roof so you could stand up inside. I should point out that generally only ONE person could stand up at a time. The space could be described as cozy or cramped, depending on how charitable you’re feeling.

Our van is shown in the picture, camped at the Holiday Park in Raglan, North Island, underneath a flowering pohutukawa tree, a day before we flew home to Canada.

There were dozens and dozens of rigs like ours on the roads, along with many, many, many other types, most being larger and some even smaller and simpler than our rig. Although our rig was quite small, it had the advantage of being easy to negotiate the narrow, winding roads that were so common in many parts of NZ. I’m not sure, given the narrowness of some roads, if I’d want to be driving anything much larger than the vehicle we had.

Inside was a cabinet with storage and a small sink. Another cabinet with storage and a “cooker” which was a 2-burner propane unit. A small fridge went below the stove.

The unit was small and compact and just barely big enough for the two of us. For an extended trip like ours (about 5 weeks), it was a tad confining. Fortunately, it was spring so we were outside as much as possible. Unfortunately, there were blackflies….and wind….

Some interesting equipment (unusual in our camping experience) was supplied with the van: an electric kettle and an electric toaster. The fridge was also electric only, meaning that you either had to drive some each day to keep the battery charged up or you had to stay in a “holiday park” where you could plug into the “mains”. We also had a little plug-in electric space heater which was actually quite useful on a few nights.

Camping in NZ - Part I - The Holiday Park

Spending a few weeks in NZ “camping” certainly made me appreciate even more the freedom we have in our part of Canada to really camp. I’m sure there must be places like that in NZ, but we didn't really see them. NZ is a small country and there were many sheep farms and other forms of agriculture everywhere. Real wilderness seemed a bit elusive.

Some of the best wilderness is in National Parks like Fiordland, but there you’ll likely be on one of the famous “tracks” where you pay a pretty high fee to use it on a multi-day hike. In some cases you must stick to a set itinerary and might have to use the hut system if tenting isn’t allowed. The Milford Track, for example, may see in excess of 10,000 hikers on it each year. You won’t be alone.

What we saw a lot of people using for camping were vans, van campers, motor homes and the like and they all seem to be staying at the ubiquitous “holiday park” or “motor camp”. We rarely saw tents being used.

To me, this seems a lot like having most of the conveniences of home while traveling. What I mean is it isn't really camping. You get to tent or park on a gravel, asphalt or open grassy space, usually cheek by jowl with other campers. We were lucky: it wasn’t really high season when we were there and few campgrounds were really busy. In some “fields” where we camped, we were the only ones there. Some holiday parks had hedges separating the sites, but most were set up in open fields, usually very well mowed fields.

These holiday parks were everywhere. They had many sites with power outlets for the campers and “caravans” (trailers), but there was much more. They almost all had showers, kitchens, bathrooms, laundry facilities, and often quite a number of older trailers and small cabins (self-contained units). Some of these caravans are privately owned, the space being rented on a yearly basis. At one holiday park, I was told that renting a site for a year cost about NZ$2700. Some holiday parks even had dorms, sort of like hostels.

Speaking of which, there were hostels and “backpacker” accommodations all over the country as well, not something we needed to try out.

Rates for this kind of camping appeared to have increased significantly in the past few years. Few charged fees based on the site, but rather by the number of people. For example, a powered site might be $16/person, so for two people, $32. This was about the top end of what we paid, many were at least somewhat lower, but I understand there are other holiday parks that were more expensive than that.

I’d read about “freedom camping” before we’d left home. This might be called random camping in Canada but where we live, it’s kind of the norm, other than BC Provincial Parks, which usually just have gravel spaces in the trees. We seem to be doing more camping up some logging road pretty much where we want. There seemed to be less freedom in random camping in NZ these days, probably because of increased numbers of tourists, more areas where such camping is banned; the usual situation.

Some of our favourite camping was in DOC (Department of Conservation) sites. These were spotted all over NZ and were often in very nice locations: close to a beautiful beach, in old wooded areas, and so on. These “camping grounds” ranged from basic (pit toilets) to standard (water, flush toilets and some with campground hosts) and charged usually $6/person

Priorities - A Visual

This should make you think...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8381597.stm

A Brief Diversion

The following article caught my attention and diverted it from travel and my recovery from travel to something probably a bit more important:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Huge+stakes+Canada+climate+change+deal/2337221/story.html

Kiwi Speak & Other Random Thoughts

It is well-known that Aussies and Kiwis speak with a characteristic accent. Just a few examples that I've heard or seen on our trip:

On a TV business show that we were watching in Auckland, a woman was describing how a company was going to use the proceeds of a share offering to reduce "net bank debt". How I heard it, though, was as "nit bank dit". This is more or less how the letter “e” is pronounced, as in saying NZ (en zed, but as Kiwi’s say it, “in zid”). The accent was unique, but not too difficult to catch on to.

Many, many of the towns, especially on the North Island, have Maori origins with names that are difficult to remember, unusual to pronounce and confusingly similar, at least to our ears. Finding a specific one on a map is a challenge. We finally got into the habit of referring to "that town that starts with an A", and the like.

As just one example, as we were leaving Rotorua, there were several small towns which went this way: Rotorua, Rotokawa, Ruato, Rotoiti and Rotoma, all within a distance of 20 km. Further along, there is Whakatane, Waingarara and Waiotahi. And then there's the puzzle about how to pronounce Hgongotaha. Suffice it to say, when we run into places like Hamilton and Cambridge and (on the South Island), places like Christchurch, Invercargill, Dunedin and Nelson, navigation seems easier.

We've been told that any name with a "wh" in it has that part of the name pronounced as "f". So "Mangawhai" is, we believe, pronounced "mangafay". There are many names with "wh" letters in them.

There are also untold numbers of place names starting with “w”, and not just easy ones like Wellington. By the end of our trip we were as confused as we were in the beginning.

Judder bars - these are what we know as rumble strips or speed bars or speed bumps. In NZ, the "judder bars" are serious enough to take the undercarriage out of your vehicle if you are unwise enough not to slow down. We encountered some in Franz Josef that were river rocks embedded in concrete.

Road construction is referred to as "works". You "give way" rather than "yield" and if there is a flagperson, you are supposed to "stop when requested". There are many road projects in the "works". In fact, I think NZ must have most of the orange safety pylons produced in the Western World. There were a few roads where travel for us was slowed down to 30 km/hr around and up and down very winding roads. What NZ probably really needs is a good supply of dynamite and some large earth movers to build some straighter roads. It’s made me wonder if NZ could cut their asphalt costs in half if they could straighten out their roads. I'm sure that all the wiggles in their roads must at least double the distance. But I digress.

Hot and cold water taps are often reversed, at least most of them seem to be. Maybe that’s just the “older installations”. Some of the newer places seem to have the hot and cold in the “normal” places.

Light switches are switched on by clicking them down, not up. There’s the left side driving, of course. Wall outlets are all switched individually with small switches on the wall outlet itself.

Camping is different. I’ll call it “camping” but it’s quite foreign to my kind of camping, but then I’ve never stayed at a KOA Kampground, so what do I know? I’ll write a separate post or two about “camping” later on.

Warning signs on the highways are big exclamation points. Some other highway warning signs are unusual and we have some pictures. You might encounter a herd (flock?) of sheep at any time.

Before coming to NZ, I was specifically warned about two things: the narrow, twisting roads (and they were) and the sandflies. The flies seem much like our Canadian blackflies and they are really quite bad plus they are almost everywhere. I guess that’s one good thing to say for high winds!

If you’re a pedestrian, you should be aware that vehicles don’t stop for you anywhere, with two exceptions: at controlled intersections with walk lights and at special “lollypop” crossings. Everywhere else, yer on yer own. Having been pedestrians in NYC and watched how aggressive they are there, the contrast was quite striking. Pedestrians here are very well behaved. Must be a form of behavioural natural selection.

Liquor laws are a bit different in that there are no state or government-owned booze stores (so we were told). You can buy your supplies of wine and beer at any grocery store or at independent liquor stores. The nice thing is that at most grocery stores, you can often find stuff on sale! I found beer more expensive than I was used to but wine was not bad in price and was often on special. Beer is less common in cans. Apparently cans have been decreasing in popularity to bottles in the past 10-15 years.

New Zealand has done away with the penny and the five-cent piece. The smallest coin you will see is the dime. A process called “Swedish rounding” is used to bring sale amounts to the nearest 10 cents. New Zealand also has a $1 coin and a $2 coin. They don’t have any special name for these coins the way we do in Canada. The $1 coin has the Kiwi on it, but I guess there is a limit to how many things you can call a kiwi in a country this size!

The End of Days

We’re finishing up the few days we have left in NZ (or as the Kiwi’s seem to pronounce it – “in zid”).

The ferry ride back to the North Island was uneventful and really quite smooth. We even had some sunny, warm weather in Wellington while we walked around a bit.

Our direction took us across a range of hills to the west coast of the North Island because we wanted to go by New Plymouth and Mt Egmont and perhaps do some hiking. We found a nice DOC campground for Friday night and made it to New Plymouth for Saturday night, with a great view out to the Tasman Sea, a sunset, a nearly-full moon and even a view of Mt Egmont.

Sunday we drove to Mt Egmont’s north side with the intentions of climbing the Summit Track. Unfortunately, the best views were just as we were starting off. The fog began to roll in so we really only climbed about 6-700 meters before giving up. Above that, the route became increasingly rough (Mt Egmont is an extinct volcano, so the rock is volcanic, of course), it began to shower and really sock in, so we dropped down to a lower track and after a few hours arrived back at the Visitor Centre and the van.

From there, we headed up the west coast as far as Mokau where we found a cheap campground next to a beach of fine, black sand. Not much beach walking, though, because the rain really started up in earnest. Maybe tomorrow.

Monday – we’re making our way back towards Auckland and with about 48 hours left to sightsee, find a sunny beach and get rested up for the flight back to Vancouver.

Pictures from Mt Egmont and area have been posted.

Maybe more later on depending on Internet access.

Closing the Circle – Christchurch to Picton

The weather in Christchurch wasn’t the most salubrious; showers and some rain, but it was an interesting place to walk around for a few hours. A very excellent Botanical Garden and nice old buildings in the city, including a cathedral and a stream they called the Avon, where you could take punt rides. Just so very British!

The road north was rather uninteresting – generally flat terrain, rain, cloud, fog and too far inland to see what the ocean was doing.

Eventually we did get back on the ocean where we found some nice beaches and a coastal track that Catherine walked. We stopped briefly in Kaikoura where there was a very nice coastal track.

The coast north of Kaikoura was a bit of a surprise. I had expected sand beaches and low-lying land, but instead the hills (can’t really call them mountains) descended right to the sea and there were rocky beaches and headlands for quite a distance. Hundreds of seals were littering the rocks along the way. Sunshine and blue skies would have been nice, but there were clear spots and a misty ambience to the shoreline that was quite nice.

By Wednesday we had arrived at Blenheim, a city of about 30,000 and the last large place before Picton where the ferry to the North Island docks. We found their library had APN Internet access so we made use of that before heading off to the nearby coast to look for hikes and camping.

Thursday morning was still windy, cloudy and showery, so we did one hike and headed for Picton, found a campground, got some food, found a fish and chips place and did some hiking. The weather continued to improve so that we were able to enjoy spots of sunshine and get our stuff dried out.

The weather forecast seems to indicate better weather for Friday so we’re hoping that the ferry ride over will offer some nice views. Where we’re camped here in Picton we can see the ferries as they come and go out through Queen Charlotte Sound.

We have 6 days left in NZ and will have most of 5 of those days making our way north out along the west coast of the southern North Island, past New Plymouth and Mt Egmont and further north to Auckland.