Filling the Gaps – Somedays you just gotta get out

Sometimes you find yourself in a long gap between trips, time starts to drag and you feel the need to get away growing.  Sometime it just really isn’t possible to get away on long trip, to do the whole hearted travel, separating yourself from everything in your day to day life.  It’s these times when you need to take part in micro tourism.

Fuck me that sounds like wishy washy sales talk.

Basically the idea is that you need to travel to somewhere that’s a little closer to home and just go for a short trip.  A day or two perhaps of just exploring somewhere near to hand and getting to know the places in your own backyard.  Like so many things on here it sounds simple, but actually it ends up being something that we never do.

How many of the tourist attractions near to you have you ever been to?  Many of us will travel all over the world turning up in far flung destinations and furiously taking in every facet of them that we possibly can.  How often have you been out to see the tourist attractions in the next town though?  Or even your own town?  It’s like we need to block these things in the day to day life and then because of that we forget about them, they become part of the background and somehow we never notice them again.

Take the time to go out and notice them. Really do.

The problem can sometimes be just taking that first step, getting out and taking that different perspective.  viewing things through that different set of eyes and viewing things almost like a visitor from elsewhere might.  Sometimes its easiest if you just start venturing down those streets you walk past and exploring the little corners that you haven’t looked in before, finding out what behind various alleyways and buildings.

Another method to viewing things differently is to take a camera with you and turn the whole thing into a project.  Set out to document the sights and sounds that you see almost as if you need to show everything that there is to offer and every little niggling detail that people should look out for.

Lonely Planet did a very interesting book of other ideas that can be adapted for days like this called Experimental Travel (The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel ISBN 1741044502).  Some of them seem a little strange at first and almost certainly some of them you will look at and think that there’s no way that you’re ever going to do that.  But give one or two of them a try.

They may help to brighten an otherwise dull weekend.

The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel

What happens when I’m asked for travel advice

What happens when you get an email asking for a little travel advice on going to New Zealand?  Why you give them a few pages of pointers thats what.  Points all documented below for you interest,

“Just a few things really,

*  There are two main hostel groups in New Zealand – BBH and Base.  BBH hostels are like a grouping of Independant hostels that are relatively reliable and usaully quite nice to stay.  Base tend to be very large hostels with very little to distinguish them from each other – kind of like mass produced hostels.  Price wise both are pretty similar, although getting a BBH card definitely makes the BBH a Hostels a better deal in my mind.  It’s NZ$45 for the card, which includes a $20 phone card and knocks off about $3 a night.

Guides for locations of both are common as muck.

*  I may be looking at things though rose tinted glasses, but I think there’s less bother in terms of keeping possessions safe than you would have in this country.  The main thing I guess is always to keep your important things to hand (money, passport etc) and then to just be sensible with the rest.

*  Places not to miss is a hard one really.  I had to trim my own trip down a bit in terms of things to see, although there a few things that are probably worth making an effort to see.  I will confess I don’t know really how the seasons will effect these.

-  If you can get out amongst the mountains and trek a bit.  It’s the single biggest thing I wish I’d had more time to be able to do.  Of what I did see though the Tongariro crossing (North Island) is a one day walk and is worth every bit of effort it takes.  There are a lot of good short treks around the Mt Cook village as well.

- Wanaka is a beautiful place.  It’s a bit like Queenstown in a lot of respects but without so heavy a party atmosphere.  You’ll find plenty people in Queenstown who go there, get drunk and never really appreciate the landscape they are in.

- In terms of the three big cities I think Wellington is the nicest and has the best selection of things to see and do.  There’s a good arts scene (if your interested in that kind of thing) in Wellington which isn’t really so prominent in either Christchurch or Wellington.

- You’ll almost certainly be heading for it anyway, but the road out to Milford sound has some beautiful sections to it.  There are a few obvious places where the buses stop here but if you can do this (and you’ll find this in quite a few places on the south island especially) in your own transport then its a lot easier to simply stop and admire the view as it takes your fancy.

* Places to miss

-Invercargill
-Palmerston north.  You will inevitably pass through it but do your best not to end up staying here.  It is a big expanse of boring.
-I wouldn’t recommend giving too much time over to Auckland.  There are some nice areas around it (Waiheke island) but the city itself is not the most exciting place.

* You’r unlikely to find yourself using trains much in New Zealand, but there are quite extensive bus and coach services.  Did a lot of travelling with Intercity (www.intercity.co.nz) who have some good pass deals and probably have about as extensive a bus network as anybody. They don’t really organise anything for you but you do basically get to just make things up as you go along. Can’t say I know a great deal about internal flights, although from what i understand you can hop relatively easily between a lot of the major towns.

A few other things you may be interested in,

* Before you can start getting paid in New Zealand you’ll need to get a tax number.  If you can avoid it don’t apply for this through the systems described on the tax offices website.  Find an agency that deals with organising temporary work for backpackers as they have ways of fast tracking the number and meaning you aren’t stuck waiting for several weeks.

* In terms of local guides and maps, there are two places you want to look for.  iSite are the New Zealand equivalent of Tourist information offices here and pretty much all of them have maps that they dole out to anybody of the local area.  Department of Conservation offices, of which there are plenty, are often joined on to iSite offices and will be the best source of any information on wildlife or treks you may want to do.

That was a much longer email than I thought It was going to be really. I’ve attached a few photos of the places I’ve said not to miss incase they’re of interest to you.  Feel free to get back to me if you have any other questions.

Sam “