Articles from this Category
20 February 2022
Landing in Nelson after midday, I had to collect my rental car. The last-minute decision to travel meant that rental cars in general were horribly expensive. Fortunately, I found a good rate from Hardy Car Rentals whom I had never used before. I was supposed to ring them for a shuttle pick-up but when I […]
20 February 2022
Above: Flying past the city of New Plymouth. I had wanted to return to the Golden Bay area before summer started to fade. My original dates two weeks ago met with a couple of hiccups. The weather coincided with severe storms in the region. Also, the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak was just starting and contact-tracing rules […]
12 January 2022
I finish my trip today after more than 11 weeks. Because the last few days have been a domestic holiday, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been overseas at all. In fact, yesterday wasn’t even a domestic holiday. After dropping Kim off at the airport, I had lunch with a former colleague, then visited an uncle […]
10 January 2022
We left the Lake Benmore camp site at 0930, heading for Christchurch. It had come highly recommended that we try out the pies at Fairlie along the way. That recommendation came with the advice to order from the side window rather than the front walk-in area where a queue was almost guaranteed. The smoked salmon […]
8 January 2022
We woke to a glorious day with a maximum of 28 degC. Having come from MIQ with limited fresh air, I now have all the air and space that I could wish for. It turned out to be two days of doing very little. I sat down lots to enjoy the view and the sunshine […]
7 January 2022
Above: A train of SpaceX Starlink satellites. (Image credit: Marco Langbroek via SatTrackBlog) Leaving MIQ Today is my day of freedom! I was discharged from Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) at 1530. That’s 1h10 later than expected due to my delayed flight arrival 10 days ago. I consider myself very lucky to have managed to […]
2 January 2022
Above: Our daily (or twice-daily) walks are in the carpark and this adjoining courtyard. Increasing strictness of MIQ Today, I’m halfway through my 10 day Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) stay at Sudima Hotel Christchurch Airport. There have been some differences since my first MIQ stay over a year ago in 2020. New Zealand has […]
28 December 2021
Departing for Christchurch We boarded our replacement A350-900 around 0030, an hour later than its original departure time. Being Singapore, the ground staff started giving the boarding announcement inviting first the Business Class passengers, then high-status frequent flyers etc. Strictly per the manual. Then the senior staff member turned up and told all 27 passengers […]
19 October 2021
A journey born out of spite, as the world learns to live with Covid-19 I didn’t get to see Mum before she passed away a month ago and also missed her funeral. I do still want to get back to my hometown Kuching but airfares are ridiculously high. I would have paid the high price […]
27 September 2021
Ridiculously high airfares I had been wanting to go see Mum in Malaysian Borneo for a while now. But the need to do hotel quarantine there and also upon return to New Zealand was a deterrent. Apart from that, it seemed best to delay the trip until her helper finishes up in December and I’d […]