1. Sydney – Auckland

Posted on 5 February 2013 by SkepticaLee

Chinara S., Mahara Ave, Birkenhead, Auckland 0626, via airbnb.

Sunday, February 3: Sydney: overcast.

We were in Sydney on time, and I had had a bit of a sleep after the beef with fried rice, and The Words with Jeremy Irons and John Malkovitch, a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

After security and a random exam of me for explosive remains, there was an extra long wait for the further boarding pass to Auckland, which was with LAN on its way to Santiago de Chile. Had a bit of a surf on the internet and have managed to get most things ready for a quick pass through arrivals at AKL (otherwise I might have to wait an hour for the next bus connection). Continue reading →

0. Hannover – Frankfurt – Singapore

Posted on 4 February 2013 by SkepticaLee

Friday, February 1: Frankfurt: Rain and cold

I was up rather early and did one last washing machine load while stripping the bed and getting everything packed. Called into the language centre for brief farewells, then it was back without any lunch and I ended up throwing everything I could into the suitcase to weigh in at 23 kg. This time the laptop is in there, so it doesn’t have to be carted out of the rucksack each time at security. Continue reading →

Lost soles

Posted on 29 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

Before and after. Boot on the right after 3400 km.

Ah, boots! Can’t do anything without ’em, can’t do anything with ’em.

A long time ago I had an old pair of hiking boots that were well past their prime and I seemed to have gained a couple of blisters from them and lost a couple of toenails in return on their last journey. A mate of mine, Chris Thompson, on hearing of my mishap, had bought a pair of boots that were too small for him, but he reckoned they might be OK for me, so in the style of we’re all one big family, he made me a present of them, when it turned out that they were a good fit. Continue reading →

Kiwi III, 2010

Posted on 25 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

Sunset at Sunset Beach, 2010 (bracket of 47 exposures)

On the success of Kiwi II, I decided that a trip in early spring (August – October) might be the next goal, at least to explore the North Island more fully. I wanted to go to White Island, Cape Reinga, and do the remaining NI Great Walks. Auckland never seems to be cold, and while it was a little wet… It also very much brought back the Augusts and Septembers of fallen-in-love. Continue reading →

GPS

Posted on 22 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

Getting from A to B on your own two feet may be becoming a lost art. Not just being able to follow a track and persevere when you think you are lost, but also crunching the kms, one after the other, to reach a distant goal. At the end, you’ll want to know where you’ve been, how far you’ve walked and what time you did it in. Continue reading →

Ticketing 2

Posted on 15 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing three (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!

Well, it turned out opodo had its disadvantages after all. As I suspected, there was no Rail&Fly for the return leg; half an hour of telephone queue was necessary to order one, with a special “late fee” added. All in all, R&F might have advantages for the traveller and the environment, but in practice it sucks massively, and a discounted train ticket for the journey to Frankfurt and an ordinary ticket for the return are not much more expensive. As some research on opodo’s booking system shows, R&F can be automatically booked for a “simple” return flight, but as soon as there is a leg outside Germany (as in a Y-flight), R&F is no longer available for subsequent legs, even if they do end here. Hey, no worries, the internet was only invented yesterday, right? Continue reading →

What CHDK has done for me

Posted on 11 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

After the serendipity of finding CHDK, I set to work on my projects. This is how they turned out.

Grid overlay. Easy, almost trivial to implement, but it’s a great help just having a couple of lines on the screen to check that your horizontal is what you think it is. Continue reading →

Camera Extras

Posted on 8 January 2013 by SkepticaLee

Back: two solar filters, one lens cap. Front: UV/pol filter

Youtube Video

With the camera now functioning like it cost ten times the price thanks to the possibilities of CHDK, it was time to look at a couple of hardware issues.

Filters. A polarisation filter is a major game-changer, as anyone wearing polarised sunglasses can tell, because it cuts down reflection from water and glassy surfaces and thus also the haze in the air that washes out detail at large distances. With a pol filter the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, and the hills are closer. Continue reading →

Choose your weapon, er, camera

Posted on 11 December 2012 by SkepticaLee

Canons A470, SX120 and SX110

If there’s one area where you would be spoiled for choice, it would be choosing a camera. I made my choice, and it turns out that I made a good one, but it is many a snapshot and many a line of programming later that I would be able to say that. But, rather than go into all that, I can give a couple of tips about choosing a camera, any camera, in any case. Have a look for: Continue reading →

Playing with Food

Posted on 4 December 2012 by SkepticaLee

Companions true

Long distance tramping is always challenging when it comes to balancing taking everything that you need with taking only what you need. I have a couple of formulas that I use to calculate how much food I need to take, but there is a more pressing question when most of the food you take is dehydrated in nature: How much fuel do you need to carry to cook it. My favourites of rice, instant noodles and surprise peas still need to be softened for their nutritional value to become available. Continue reading →

Kiwi IV 2013

Voyage to Te Wai Pounamu

Category Archives: Trip Planning