Before continuing on, I thought of a few things which aren’t related to any particular port so I’ll just mention them before I forget.
First, the birds are back! Apparently, Hawaii doesn’t have a monopoly on intellectually-challenged seabirds. The bird blackout again went into effect once we reached New Zealand. However, seabirds in this part of the world must be slightly more intelligent than their northern counterparts since the blackout only affected the upper decks of the ship. To quote from the ship’s daily program:
New Zealand Seabirds
We encourage you to assist us as we work to protect the environment both on board and ashore. Please switch off your balcony lights when not in use. All lighting on the Sports Deck 9 and Lido Deck 8 aft will be switched off each evening, so please use caution. Lighting on Lower Promenade Deck 3 will remain on.
To be completely honest, this caused no real inconvenience for anyone since the top decks weren’t used much at night anyway. And, in spite of the policy, a couple of birds were found injured on the outside Lido deck. They were captured and turned over to the New Zealand authorities. So I suppose it was a legitimate concern.
Second, New Zealand (and Australia) is extremely strict when it comes to going ashore. Because of the closed ecosystem on an island, they closely monitor everything that’s brought into the country. Before we were allowed to leave the ship, a very long announcement was made regarding prohibited items. When you reached the gangway, inspectors were waiting to check all bags, totes, purses, etc. They were assisted by “sniffer” dogs (beagles mostly) which sniffed every bag. They were adorable little dogs!
One of the joys of foreign travel is dealing with various currencies. All the way through the islands, US dollars were accepted in addition to the local currency, so there had been no need to bother with exchanging money. That all changed when we reached New Zealand and Australia. Neither accepts anything other than its own currency. I normally try to use a credit card in order to get the best conversion rate (plus, it’s just easier) but, since we were going to be in New Zealand for more than two weeks, I decided to exchange some dollars. The ship had a decent rate so I exchanged $100 US for the equivalent in New Zealand dollars. The reason that I’m mentioning this is that I think the United States could learn from these folks. The smallest bill is five dollars, with one and two dollar coins. The smallest coin is ten cents, no nickels and pennies. Prices are rounded up or down, making it much easier to transact business. The downside for me was that, while it was easy to spot the dollar coins (they were gold), I never became very good at the smaller denomination silver coins. As a result, I usually just paid with dollars as I didn’t want to take the time to figure out what small change I had in my hand. Of course, every time I did that, I wound up with more coins! Eventually, I started dropping the coins before leaving the cabin rather than carrying them in my pockets.
One last thing: the people! I think the thing that impressed me as much as anything else on this trip was the people. I mentioned earlier how happy the islanders seemed to be. The thing that struck me about the Kiwis and Aussies was their friendly, laid-back attitude. One of the catch-phrases that you hear on a regular basis is “No worries”. That sums up the general attitude of the people that I met while in New Zealand and Australia. They seem to just take things as they come, without getting too stressed about anything. We in the States could probably take a lesson here, as well.
Okay, I think that just about covers the miscellaneous stuff that’s been rattling around in my head. If I think of anything else later, I’ll come back and add to this post. Let’s mush on…..
First, the birds are back! Apparently, Hawaii doesn’t have a monopoly on intellectually-challenged seabirds. The bird blackout again went into effect once we reached New Zealand. However, seabirds in this part of the world must be slightly more intelligent than their northern counterparts since the blackout only affected the upper decks of the ship. To quote from the ship’s daily program:
New Zealand Seabirds
We encourage you to assist us as we work to protect the environment both on board and ashore. Please switch off your balcony lights when not in use. All lighting on the Sports Deck 9 and Lido Deck 8 aft will be switched off each evening, so please use caution. Lighting on Lower Promenade Deck 3 will remain on.
To be completely honest, this caused no real inconvenience for anyone since the top decks weren’t used much at night anyway. And, in spite of the policy, a couple of birds were found injured on the outside Lido deck. They were captured and turned over to the New Zealand authorities. So I suppose it was a legitimate concern.Second, New Zealand (and Australia) is extremely strict when it comes to going ashore. Because of the closed ecosystem on an island, they closely monitor everything that’s brought into the country. Before we were allowed to leave the ship, a very long announcement was made regarding prohibited items. When you reached the gangway, inspectors were waiting to check all bags, totes, purses, etc. They were assisted by “sniffer” dogs (beagles mostly) which sniffed every bag. They were adorable little dogs!
One of the joys of foreign travel is dealing with various currencies. All the way through the islands, US dollars were accepted in addition to the local currency, so there had been no need to bother with exchanging money. That all changed when we reached New Zealand and Australia. Neither accepts anything other than its own currency. I normally try to use a credit card in order to get the best conversion rate (plus, it’s just easier) but, since we were going to be in New Zealand for more than two weeks, I decided to exchange some dollars. The ship had a decent rate so I exchanged $100 US for the equivalent in New Zealand dollars. The reason that I’m mentioning this is that I think the United States could learn from these folks. The smallest bill is five dollars, with one and two dollar coins. The smallest coin is ten cents, no nickels and pennies. Prices are rounded up or down, making it much easier to transact business. The downside for me was that, while it was easy to spot the dollar coins (they were gold), I never became very good at the smaller denomination silver coins. As a result, I usually just paid with dollars as I didn’t want to take the time to figure out what small change I had in my hand. Of course, every time I did that, I wound up with more coins! Eventually, I started dropping the coins before leaving the cabin rather than carrying them in my pockets.
One last thing: the people! I think the thing that impressed me as much as anything else on this trip was the people. I mentioned earlier how happy the islanders seemed to be. The thing that struck me about the Kiwis and Aussies was their friendly, laid-back attitude. One of the catch-phrases that you hear on a regular basis is “No worries”. That sums up the general attitude of the people that I met while in New Zealand and Australia. They seem to just take things as they come, without getting too stressed about anything. We in the States could probably take a lesson here, as well.
Okay, I think that just about covers the miscellaneous stuff that’s been rattling around in my head. If I think of anything else later, I’ll come back and add to this post. Let’s mush on…..
No comments:
Post a Comment