May 31st, 2010

Short term furnished rental search in Christchurch, New Zealand

For the past 10 days, Jonathan and I have been staying with our friends Matt, Nicole, and their son Caden.  They were kind enough to put us up while we looked for a place of our own to call home for the next month.

After traveling for the past 8 months, Jonathan and I have a bit of a system down for how to search, and what we’re looking for.

Usually, while lengthy, this process is fairly productive.  We’re usually able to find, and move into a place rather quickly.

I’d thought that that would also be the case in Christchurch, New Zealand (where we arrived on 20 May 2010).  I was wrong.

Christchurch ended up being the most difficult location yet.  There are lots of hotels, lots of beach homes, and lots of rentals on the market.  However, we ran into some problems.

The first challenge was being basically told we could have an apartment, and then have it be rented out to someone else.

Other furnished apartment owners / managers didn’t want someone for 4 weeks.  They instead wanted someone either on a per night basis, or 6 months.

We had someone say they could rent us an apartment (based on pictures online), and then came back to tell us they didn’t own the place yet, but would see if they could take possession early.

Then, we had another apartment rented out from under us (after we waited outside in the cold / rain / snow all afternoon).

But, finally, a breakthrough.  We’d finally started emailing real-estate agents to see if they could help.  And, one did.

She found us this great apartment!

While we are so thankful to Matt, Nicole, and Caden for opening their home to us, we’re also happy that we don’t have to trespass on their hospitality too much.

We’ll still be getting together often!

We plan to be here in Christchurch for a month, exploring all that the south island of New Zealand has to offer.

Here are some of the websites we used when looking for apartment rentals in Christchurch, New Zealand.

www.trademe.co.nz

www.holidayhouses.co.nz

www.gumtree.co.nz

www.craigslist.com

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May 29th, 2010

Our first week in Christchurch, New Zealand

We decided to head to Christchurch a bit earlier than planned.  Why?  Because we had friends waiting for us.

Jonathan’s friend, Nicole (whom he’s known for 15 years!), lives in Christchurch with her partner, Matthew, and their son Caden.

They were nice enough to put us up in their house while we looked for a place of our own.

It was a really fun week.  We went to an organic food market in Lyttelton, listened to Matt’s band play (they’re awesome!), ate fantastic food together, went to a really fun pub, and made some new friends, including Matt’s Dad.

We also had fun spending time with Caden.  He’s 15 months old, super cute and really fun.  He loves to dance and loves animals.

Thanks Nicole and Matt for hosting us and giving us a great first impression of Christchurch (even if the weather didn’t cooperate).  It rained for a week straight!

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May 28th, 2010

Craigslist Scammers in Search For Christchurch, New Zealand Accommodation

Let’s face it… there are 7-10 real mean, nasty people in the world.

They just move around a lot, so it’s sometimes difficult to avoid them.

What’s nice about the Internet for scammers is that they can be in multiple places online, and be multiple people, all at once.

The only ads on Craigslist for apartments that we found in Christchurch, responded, and got responses back to, were from scammers.

The email addresses of these scammers are:

• nashlucy41@yahoo.com
• lucy.mjreal@gmail.com
• ginsnzleads@hotmail.com

I realize they can change their email addresses tomorrow, but for anyone googling these email addresses to see if it’s safe to do business with them, or rent an apartment/house from them, you should know that they are scammers:

• nashlucy41@yahoo.com
• lucy.mjreal@gmail.com
• ginsnzleads@hotmail.com

The exchange I had with one of them before deciding to simply make this post to warn others is below.

Do not do business with anyone who does not or can not have a physical person present at the address where they want you to move in.

I can guarantee that there are MUCH better people for you to be dealing with.  These people aren’t even in Christchurch, may not have ever even been to New Zealand.  They are probably posting ads like this on message boards across the Internet, for places they’ve never been.

General words of advice:

• Never send money before seeing an apartment, house, tour, etc.  If you have to secure your spot with a deposit, make sure the deposit is small and do so using a credit card or PayPal.  This will give you the possibility for recourse if things go bad.  However, generally speaking, it’s better not to pay anything until you can actually see the place.  Many hotels/motels, and even some long-term apartments we’ve stayed with don’t expect full payment until you’re checking out, but they all will let us see a room or apartment before asking for money.  Anytime we’ve not followed this rule, it’s not turned out well.
• Never accept keys through the mail without meeting someone or their representative on-site.

Once again, these email addresses are scammers:

• nashlucy41@yahoo.com
• lucy.mjreal@gmail.com
• ginsnzleads@hotmail.com

And here’s my experience:

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May 25th, 2010

Feijoas: Can I Touch Your Feijoa in New Zealand?

Feijoas are fruits.  Feijoas have smooth skin something like a mango.

Feijoas are tart and sweet, something like a kiwi.

They don’t have little black seeds like a kiwi, but the flavor is similar.

To me, the word feijoa just sounds dirty.

It’s pronounced:

fuh juh oh uh

So I’ve been making lots of jokes about them.

“Carrie, let me touch the feijoa!”
“We like the flavor of the feijoa.”
“Would you like to lick my feijoa?”

It just sounds like a dirty word.

But the fruit is delicious.

Video coming soon.

From Wikipedia:

The Feijoa (pronounced /feɪˈʒoʊ.ə/, /feɪˈdʒoʊ.ə/[1], or /feɪˈhoʊ.ə/[2]) (Feijoa sellowiana), also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen (and sometimes mistakenly as Freijoa or Frijoa), is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres (3.3–23 ft) in height, originating from the highlands of southern Brazil and parts of Colombia, Uruguay and northern Argentina. The genus is monotypic.

It is widely cultivated as a garden plant and fruiting tree and is a perennial.

The fruit, maturing in autumn, is green, ellipsoid and about the size of a chicken’s egg. It has a sweet, aromatic flavor. The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear jelly-like seed pulp and a firmer, slightly gritty, opaque flesh nearer the skin. The fruit drops when ripe, but can be picked from the tree prior to the drop to prevent bruising.

Like the closely-related guava, the fruit pulp has a gritty texture which is used in some natural cosmetic products as an exfoliant. Feijoa fruit have a distinctive smell. The aroma is due to the ester (methyl benzoate) and related compounds.

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May 22nd, 2010

Lyttelton Farmer’s Market: Lyttelton Near Christchurch, New Zealand

Nearby to Christchurch, New Zealand is the harbor town of Lyttelton.

It looks like a fishing village out of late 1800’s England, which makes perfect sense, when you learn that Lyttelton, like much of New Zealand, was settled by many British during that time period.

Matt and Nicole were nice enough to take us to the Saturday morning farmer’s market in Lyttelton.  They love Lyttelton and will probably end up living there.  Its easy to see why they love it, even just from 2 hours or so spent walking around town and at the farmer’s market.

The Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market is really a farmer’s market, primarily featuring organic produce grown here in New Zealand.

Among our favorites (and things we bought) were the apples, the organic chocolate stand (cacao imported from Fiji), and the feijoas.  A feijoa is a fruit I’ll be talking about in another post, no doubt.

As you’ll see in the video below from the Lyttelton Farmer’s Market, there were a good number of people there, some fun music, and Carrie and I even got a chance to do a little swing dancing.

It was a good time.  The Lyttelton Farmer’s Market is on Saturday mornings from 8AM -1 PM.  If you’re in the Christchurch area, Lyttelton and the Farmer’s Market are definitely worth a visit.

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May 19th, 2010

Rangitoto Island: Taking the Ferry to Rangitoto Volcano

To get to Rangitoto Island from Auckland, you have a few choices.  Two of the tour companies offering ferries there are 360 Degree Tours and Fullers.  We took the Rangitoto Explorer Tour from Fullers which includes a round trip on a ferry to the island, and a tour of the island.

The tour is good, and is a tractor pulling a giant trailer which holds about 30 people.  The driver is the tour guide, whose microphoned voice is piped into speakers in the trailer.

His tour was fantastic and full of all kinds of interesting tidbits about the island.

Rangitoto is an island which is under

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May 18th, 2010

Walking In The Sky At Auckland Skywalk and Skytower

Walking around on a platform, on a tower high above Auckland is appropriately called the Skywalk.

Auckland’s Skywalk is on a tower which is taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  It is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere.

Suffice it to say that when you’re up on the Skytower, you’re WAY up.

Doing the Skywalk, you’re way up, and outside as well.

You get to wear a special prison orange jumpsuit to partake in the Skywalk activity.

For Carrie and I, it was a bit of a decision whether or not to be skywalkers, as it’s NZD $135 (USD $93) per person.  We’d just spent NZD $110 for our tickets to go out to Rangitoto Island.

And we found ourselves wondering if the Skywalk would really be worth it.

To sweeten the deal (and since it’s fall moving into winter here low tourist season), Skywalk had a 2 for 1 special.

To sweeten the deal even further, after doing the Skywalk, you get a ticket to go back up to the enclosed observation deck on the Skytower, including the highest observation point open to the public (30 feet above the observation deck), the Skydeck.

So for NZD $135, Carrie and I both could do the Skywalk, the Skytower, and the Skydeck.

We went for it.

It was not only worth it, it was AWESOME!

Our guide Lee pointed out lots of points on the horizon and in the city below us, and we learned a LOT about the layout of Auckland and the nearby islands.

Walking around at 600 feet above sea level though gets quite chilly, especially on a cloudy day like the one we experienced.  It was 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the wind chill, it was nearly freezing.

The Skywalk takes you 180 degrees around the tower and lets you see pretty much all of the sights of Auckland from an incredible vantage point.

We also got to watch someone do the SkyJump from the launch point.  The SkyJump is a 180 meter (500ish feet) near freefall from the Skydeck to just above the ground level, which takes about 8 seconds.  Maybe we’ll do the SkyJump on a return to Auckland, but it’s NZD $195/person/jump, and to be honest, having seen both the SkyJump and done the Skywalk, I’d rather do the Skywalk.

Not that I wouldn’t also love the thrill of falling from that height with nothing but a cable holding on to me… seriously.  (Carrie and I are thinking about bungee-jumping here in NZ somewhere – bungee jumping was, after all, invented here in New Zealand.)

So, with the Skywalk, we spent NZD $135 for both of us. We might not have done it at $135/person, but it would have been worth it I think.

The lady at the registration desk (whose name I’ve forgotten), was so helpful and nice.  We got delayed by 30 minutes from the time we were supposed to go up (10:45 AM instead of 10:15 AM), which meant we might be late for our trip out to Rangitoto… In compensation, she gave us free photos and a free DVD of our experience on the Auckland Skywalk.

To say it once again, the Auckland Skywalk was awesome.  When you’re in Auckland, I highly recommend you take a walk in the sky as well.

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May 17th, 2010

Auckland, New Zealand: First Impressions

We were sad to leave our island relaxation and rest time in Tahiti.

We had a wonderful time there.

So far in comparison, where Tahiti was nice but expensive; Auckland, New Zealand just seems nice.

Getting off the plane and on to the airbus express, the bus cost NZD $16. This bus is set up specifically to get people to and from the airport from Auckland City.  The bus driver was really great.

Because we had him as a bus driver during the 25 minute ride to our stop, we learned a lot about the history of New Zealand, and the layout of Auckland.

We learned significantly more about Auckland on the city bus ride to Auckland city from the airport than we did about Tahiti on the “Tahiti island tour”.

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May 17th, 2010

Auckland City Hotel: A Review

One of the reasons we chose the Auckland City Hotel for our two nights in Auckland was it’s location.

From the Auckland City Hotel, there are many attractions, restaurants, and cultural events within walking distance.

The other big factors in deciding to stay at the Auckland City Hotel were:

• Good reviews on TripAdvisor
• The price (which we thought (from the hotel’s website) included Internet access)
• The entire hotel is non-smoking

The room was really nice looking.  In addition to all the usual amenities (closet, desk, television (they have really nice flat-panel televisions – not that we turned ours on…)), the Auckland City Hotel room we were in had a mini-fridge, microwave, two-burner electric cooktop, kitchen sink, pots, dishes, and silverware.

The room at the Auckland City Hotel also provided portable heaters, a portable air conditioner, a fan, a sofa, and nice comfortable king-sized bed.

This seemed like it was going to be a really nice place to stay.

My first disappointment came after plugging the Internet into my computer and discovering, much to my disappointment, that the Internet costs NZD $30/24 hours or 100 MB.  If you go over 100 MB in 24 hours, there’s an additional charge for EACH MB downloaded.

I realize that Auckland is a big city, but even by expensive hotel standards of New York or LA, charging this much per day for the Internet is exorbitant.  The most I ever paid for Internet was at one of LA’s nicest hotels, where 72 hours of unlimited Internet use cost USD $25 (or about NZD $33 – for 3 days’ unlimited use).

However, a per meg charge, in addition to a flat rate per time period, is something I’ve never experienced in a hotel before, even though we’ve done quite a bit of travel at this point.  To me, it’s a bit insulting to be hit up with that kind of charge when I’m already an paying guest of your hotel at NZD $99/night.

About 1 hour after we checked in, Carrie looked over at me and asked, “Do you smell smoke?”

I had been smelling cigarette smoke for about 5-10 minutes, but not wanting to say anything.  She usually spends some time searching online looking for nice places for us to stay, and I had just told her that the room was “really nice” and that she had made a “good find”.

Sure enough though, the smell of cigarette smoke was wafting around us.  As we got up to investigate where it was coming from, it got particularly strong in the bathroom.  We closed the door to the bathroom, which seemed to help some, but the smell continued wafting in to the room.

When we called the front desk of the Auckland City Hotel, they sent someone to investigate almost immediately.  I was impressed with this great response time.

He knocked on our door and asked us if we were smoking.  When we made it clear we were the ones who had complained about the smoke smell and not the ones smoking, he went looking elsewhere.

I really appreciated the Auckland City Hotel’s quick response to trying to take care of this.

Figuring we’d let the air clear, and a bit hungry, we went for delicious middle eastern food just two blocks away at the nearby (appropriately named) “The Middle East” restaurant.

When we came back to our room, we discovered it still smelled like smoke, but not to the same degree.

Totally exhausted after traveling to Auckland, we fell asleep at 8:30PM.

At 9:00 PM, I got up because something was buzzing in our room.  Taking the keycard out of the slot inside of the room (which you have to put the card in to get the electricity to work in your room in the Auckland City Hotel), I discovered (when the sound and electricity shut off) that the buzzing was coming from the fuse box.

So we’d sleep without the card in the slot, I figured.  No big deal.  It’s better for the environment to have the electricity off anyway, and there was a red light to show me where to put the card (in the dark) to get the electricity back on.

Buzzing stopped, and I went back to bed.

Ten minutes later, all was quiet and I was drifting back to sleep when loud popping and a different kind of intermittent buzzing came from the kitchenette once again.  I got up to discover the mini-fridge having some real challenges (from the sound of things).

Agitated, I unplugged the mini-fridge, which continued it’s intermittent buzz clicking a couple more times before shutting down.  Apparently, the microwave and fridge are on a different power source (since they were still on).  Also apparently, the buzz clicks were mechanical, rather than electrical, because they continued after I unplugged the fridge.

After that, all was great at the Auckland City Hotel until about 1:30AM when I woke up, once again with the strong smell of cigarette smoke in my nose.

Carrie managed to sleep through it, but the smell was strong enough to wake me up.

SMOKERS, you RUIN people’s hotel rooms AND their reputations, by smoking in non-smoking hotels.

For the record, I don’t care if you smoke as a habit.  I sometimes chew my fingernails, but I try not to do it around other people.

If you smoke, that’s your choice.

However, if the hotel is non-smoking, and the hotel prides itself on being a non-smoking facility, why do you EVER check in to this place and choose it as your hotel?  It makes no sense.

If you’re a smoker, don’t stay in non-smoking hotels.  If there are no smoker-friendly options for staying in Auckland, be courteous and smoke outside.

Just DON’T smoke in your room.

It makes me want to start a TripAdvisor type web site JUST for smoker-friendly hotels and restaurants.

If a good site like that existed, maybe I could help other NON-smokers avoid waking up at 1:30 AM in a hotel they’ve paid good money for with the smell of smoke in their nostrils.

Those are my impressions of the Auckland City Hotel as I finish writing this our first night here at 2 AM.

I’ll be posting this review tomorrow from a café somewhere (one with free Internet), and perhaps requesting a different (and hopefully completely non-smoking) hotel room.  We’ve already pre-paid for two nights at the Auckland City Hotel, which is definitely nice.

However, the first night has been disturbed from being a welcoming experience by (what in my mind amounts to) extortionist-level Internet rates (though these rates may be normal in NZ), and some rather rude smokers.

Update from Auckland City Hotel May 17th at 10:11 PM:

Instead of trying to “be nice” and/or “make it work,” the next time I will stick to my guns and request a different room upon waking up, if staying another night in a big hotel like this one.

We bought a wireless card today for the computer to have Internet wherever we are in NZ.  I can already tell we’re going to eat through our 500MB limit very quickly, but I am happy to have wireless access from wherever.

Hotel room again smells like smoke, especially in the bathroom, the door to which is closed and covered on bottom with a towel.  It doesn’t always smell like this I’m sure, and probably Auckland City Hotel doesn’t always have problems with smokers staying here.

However, it certainly is highly offensive to the nose of a non-smoker, not to mention the damage the smoker is causing in whatever room they are staying in, which is going to need to be painted, if nowhere else, at least in the bathroom.

Better smoke detectors might be called for in the bathrooms of the hotel rooms if this hotel is to advertise that it is a non-smoking place and maintain a good reputation for being a place that doesn’t allow smoking.  That certainly has NOT been our experience.

The fridge is still making noise and will need to be unplugged again tonight.  If you get put in room (NUMBER COMING SOON) when you stay at the Auckland City Hotel, you will want to also lodge a complaint about the fridge and see if they will replace it for you or move you to a new room.  It really is quite loud.

We complained politely once, but no real results, so we just won’t be staying here again, even though we’re probably staying at least one more night in Auckland and would rather not move hotels.

It really is too bad.

It seems like the Auckland City Hotel is a nice place.  However, the smoke smell in our room is enough to get us to move hotels.

It’s clear that whatever was done yesterday did not stop the smokers from puffing away in their room, blowing their cigarette smoke stench into our room.

Update May 18 10:10 AM

From the Esquires Coffee right down the way from the Auckland City Hotel

I feel pretty bad for the tone of this review.

We just checked out of the hotel.  I called the front desk at 9:05 AM to ask if we could store the bags at the front desk until the afternoon when we would come back to pick them up.

No problem to store the bags.

Not more than 2 minutes later, the bellhop knocked on our door to take our bags downstairs and store them for the day.  We didn’t even know someone was coming to pick up the bags, but this was a really nice service for them to just show up at the door.

Also, the front desk people were so nice when checking us out.

I’ve also since learned that the situation on using the Internet in New Zealand is that it is just generally expensive.

Auckland City Hotel does charge a lot for their Internet in the rooms, but comparatively speaking, it’s not as expensive as I thought it was.

So, final word on the Auckland City Hotel:

If your room smells like smoke, or your fridge is loud, just ask to move rooms.  I’m sure they will be happy to move you.

The Auckland City Hotel is nice, and even though a bit more expensive than the hostels around, it’s likely quite a bit nicer and definitely worth a stay.

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May 17th, 2010

From Auckland: A Change Of Plans For New Zealand

Carrie and I didn’t have definite plans when we landed in Auckland. The reason we even ended up being in Auckland was because of the great airfare/hotel deal offered by Air Tahiti Nui.

We simply didn’t plan to take our return flight and planned to take full advantage of our 3-month tourist visa here in New Zealand.

The plan was loosely (meaning at some point) to go to Christchurch (South Island of New Zealand), and get an apartment. Christchurch is where my friend Nicole lives.

4 days ago, we had no plans other than 2 nights hotel stay at the Auckland City Hotel and to explore Auckland, and travel the north island first before heading to the south island.

2 days ago, (in order to accomplish this), we planned to rent a camper and spend 2 weeks driving the north Island.

But:

• The companies with the campers were 2-3 days out on having rentals available.
• Carrie and I are also feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point (after LOTS of flights and lots of travel).
• It will also be colder in the South, the further we get into June/July (which is winter here).
• Also, most tourists to New Zealand go from north to south, so from time to time there are deals where you can help the companies out and drive cars from south to north. In exchange, you can rent the car for free or very cheap
• Flying to Christchurch from Auckland, there are last minute fares for under $70/ticket.

All of these things combined, we decided that it would be best to head to Christchurch straightaway and get our apartment.

This will allow us to get set up for a little while here in New Zealand, see what the country has to offer, and also be a little more settled.

We still plan to tour the north island in a camper, but we’ll likely do that at the end of June, or even sometime in July.

In the meantime, we’re spending the next day exploring Auckland, then heading to Christchurch where we will visit with Nicole and Matt for a week or two while finding an apartment.

We’re really looking forward to being settled in our own place again, getting out of our suitcases and backpacks, and spending time with our friends Nicole and Matt and their son Caden.

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