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How to make the most out of your trip

January 3, 2010 By Carl View Comments

So you have spent weeks, no months or even years planning your holiday, you have done all you can to make sure that you have done everything possible to make it a trip of a lifetime, or at least stress free!

An unbeatable twilight sunset @ lake Taupo

An unbeatable twilight sunset @ lake Taupo

The last thing we want is a travel disaster, I have met people that have had their trip wrecked because they lost their passports, or dropped the itinerary, or at worst got sick and have insufficient insurance.

So travelMonkee has a list of all things you should cover before you head off in to the wild blue yonder.

  1. Spend time and make sure that all you flights and accommodation bookings are on the right days, often times you are traveling to another time zone, this can make the dates confusing, esp if you are crossing multiple time zones.
  2. Check that your name is correct on the tickets, and that your passports are up to date, if you are recently married, you find that you want to travel on your married name, but your Passport is in your maiden name.
  3. It is easy in this day and age to rely on the internet for all our information about a region we are travelling to, this has been a boon for the modern traveller, however there is nothing quiet like the experience of someone that has travelled there. Their experience will be invaluable for you, often times the guides only highlight the main attractions, whereas you might just pick up a tip on a secluded location that will wow you.
  4. I know it is tedious but make sure your insurance covers you for most eventualities, a broken leg may put a damper on holiday, but a serious incident or illness may cost you tens of thousands.
  5. Ask the locals, get off the beaten track, where you are staying ask your hosts, the thing you must see in that area, often times these places are free, and it will give you that something special to tell your friends about.
  6. Be sure to keep your documents secure, if there is a safe in the accommodation you are staying at be sure to use it, if you have to leave your car parked in a remote location, take your documents and money with you, or leave them with someone you can trust, i.e. if you are going white water rafting, check if you can leave your information with the reception.
  7. Back up your photos, there are plenty of online storage facilities to load your photos onto, make sure you use them, you can replace that lovely digital camera, but not the photos that you had on the memory sticks.

Well that is enough to start with, please feel free to add anything that you think is crucial to achieving a trip of a lifetime!

Read also http://kiwitravelwriter.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/kiwitravelwriter-healthy-travel-good-luck-or-good-management/

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Lake Rotoiti, Rotorua

December 29, 2009 By Carl View Comments

So my family and I have just returned from camping at Lake Rotoiti near Lake Rotorua, we were fortunate enough to know one of the land owners to give us access to the bay were we camped, however if you have a boat, then access onto this lovely lake is made easy.

There are many activities that can be done on the lake from, swimming, kayaking, fishing, exploring the tree clad shoreline, to soaking on the mineral hot springs that gush from the hill side.

There has been a concerted effort by the local council to keep the lake clean, and now all stock from nearby farms have no access to the lake edge, and all streams have been fenced off, added to this a wall has been built to stop water from Lake Rotorua entering Lake Rotoiti.

In places the lake is particularly deep, just off the beach from were we camped there was a rock shelf that went from half a metre to 14 metres in a sheer drop, this made for great swimming and diving.

There is a large catermaran that sails on the lake and takes in most of the bays on the lake and stops at the hot springs, you can find the link here http://purecruise.co.nz/

Lake Rotoiti’s full name, Te Rotoiti-kite-a-Īhenga, links it to Īhenga, the early ancestor from the Te Arawa canoe, who is credited with exploring the lakes district. The lake is graced by Matawhaura, a forest-covered mountain at its eastern end.

Rotoiti is really two lakes in one. The eastern part sits in the north of the Okataina caldera (volcanic depression), and has many hot sulfur springs. The western half – a drowned valley, Te Awa-i-Takapuwhaia – was formerly an outlet for Lake Rotorua. The two lakes today share an outlet at Rotoiti’s western end

Pure Cruise Cat

Pure Cruise Cat

The track in requires full time four wheel drive

The track in requires full time four wheel drive

The bay in which we camoed and swam

The bay in which we camped and swam

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Filed Under: Rotorua, Rotorua Lakes Tagged With: , ,

Lost in Translation

November 24, 2009 By Carl View Comments

When I was 23 I travelled to Germany, I had spent the last 9 months in an intensive phase learning the German language.

Upon my arrival, which was to a friend’s wedding there, and eager to test my language skills, I informed my hosts that we were to always speak their language. To which they agreed reluctantly (as they wanted to test their school English on me)

So the first night I slept on an old mattress on the floor, and as I was jet-lagged, I slept soundly. The next morning I was asked by my hosts (in German)

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes” I replied “the mattress was very comfortable”

My hosts started to laugh, to the point of tears running down their faces.

“What?” I said defensively

“Carl” they replied in English, “You just said ‘the sailor was very comfortable’” more laughs,

“The word Matratze is mattress;

“The word Matrose is sailor!”

Evidently I had got the two slightly mixed up.

I still have a slight blush when I remember this.


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What to do if you lose your Passport?

November 18, 2009 By Carl View Comments

We all hope when we travel that we never have to ask this question, but what do we do if we lose our passports when we are travelling, unfortunately the onus is on the carrier of the passport to hold on to this document, as if your life depended on it (and sometimes it probably does.) The first piece of advice, is try to remember where you last had it, did you leave it at the last hotel you stopped at or is it buried in a one of your suit cases? I know this sounds obvious, but when I was running a motel, I had a number of people stress out about losing documents, only to find them once they had tipped everything out on the floor. Half an hour sitting down and retracing your steps may yield a solution.

Now if you have been robbed or your car been broken into, well then you are going to have very little hope of recovering a stolen passport. In some parts of the world your passport is some ones ticket to a better life, and some devious people will go to any length to get the hands on your identity.

So the first thing you need to do if you establish that you have lost your passport, is to evaluate what else is missing, no doubt that you would have had other documentation, money, tickets and other essential items, that allow you to travel around the world.

So once you have made an inventory of your lost goods, you then need to contact the authorities, this will involve filling out a police report of the lost items, then the fun really starts, you will have to contact your embassy, or consulate, all of which will take time, it will pay for you to contact your the carrier/hotel/car rental firm that you were going to use next, as a no-show from you will be deemed as a penalise able, and you will be charged; for hotels and motels, it is generally one night, or up to 50% of the booking, if you know the flight, then you will have to notify them, in most cases your ticket can be deferred, however this is not a given, and you may have to make an insurance claim, to recover lost flights etc.

So the other major factor is that you may have lost most of your money, if thieves have taken your passports, they would have looked to also take any of your credit cards, traveller’s checks, or cash, this will cause you an issue, as you will need to confirm your identity to release funds to you from your bank.

For New Zealanders there is a site called safe travel, http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/thingsgowrong/passport.shtml

Australians https://www.passports.gov.au/Web/Renewal/LostStolen.aspx

USA http://travel.state.gov/passport/lost/us/us_848.html

UK http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Loststolenordamagedpassports/DG_174163

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