Half time, 2-1 down
Morning all, Evening all.
Time is but an arbitrary concept to the hardened backpacker, as meaningless as days of the week versus weekends.
Tonight, I face into another gruelling 16 or so hours of airport-airplane-airport-airplane existence before arriving very much in unfamiliar territory. The time difference in Santiago is eight hours ahead of Wellington, but it's very much a case of the Paula Abdul's (2 steps forward, 1 step back) as I'm heading back to Sydney first (-2 hours), then to Auckland (+2 hours) and finally onto Santiago (+8 hours).
So with time up in the South East Pacific, this does pretty much mark the midpoint of the trip, it's been great to catch up with far flung friends like Jim, Esther & Jarlath and New Zealand as a place, has been everything it promised to be. The weather can be wild enough but the range of landscape means that it can cater for whatever you may desire.
A very safe, clean place, you'd have to put it up there with the other great social democracies of the world, alongside Sweden and Canada. It has certain peculiarities of course, prostitution and brothels are legal, party pills are widely dispensed and legal (basically lesser versions of ecstasy and speed, with comedown pills supplied aswell!) and in this they are certainly more relaxed than the vast majority of the planet.
Another major plus, versus their near neighbours primarily, is the relatively easy accommodation with the native population. The mana (respect), which is afforded to Maori culture, and the integration of so much of the language and custom into everyday life and the constant re-addressing of historical ills means there is very little surface tension in terms of race relations and the contrast with Australia and the Aboriginals is stark.
Like Ireland however, New Zealand is only at the beginning of the curve in terms of dealing with a marked growth in immigration, despite having the land mass of Great Britain, the population is only 4 million and the South Island is in large parts deserted. So, they're gonna grow, as the census advertisement says, at the moment, I'd wager they'll deal with any associated difficulties alot more sympathetically than either Australia or Ireland.
Country count to date: Czech Republic, England, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand
Currency count to date: Euro, Czech Crown, English Pound, Singapore Dollar, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar
Hasta Luego!
Next Stop: Santiago, Chile
Time is but an arbitrary concept to the hardened backpacker, as meaningless as days of the week versus weekends.
Tonight, I face into another gruelling 16 or so hours of airport-airplane-airport-airplane existence before arriving very much in unfamiliar territory. The time difference in Santiago is eight hours ahead of Wellington, but it's very much a case of the Paula Abdul's (2 steps forward, 1 step back) as I'm heading back to Sydney first (-2 hours), then to Auckland (+2 hours) and finally onto Santiago (+8 hours).
So with time up in the South East Pacific, this does pretty much mark the midpoint of the trip, it's been great to catch up with far flung friends like Jim, Esther & Jarlath and New Zealand as a place, has been everything it promised to be. The weather can be wild enough but the range of landscape means that it can cater for whatever you may desire.
A very safe, clean place, you'd have to put it up there with the other great social democracies of the world, alongside Sweden and Canada. It has certain peculiarities of course, prostitution and brothels are legal, party pills are widely dispensed and legal (basically lesser versions of ecstasy and speed, with comedown pills supplied aswell!) and in this they are certainly more relaxed than the vast majority of the planet.
Another major plus, versus their near neighbours primarily, is the relatively easy accommodation with the native population. The mana (respect), which is afforded to Maori culture, and the integration of so much of the language and custom into everyday life and the constant re-addressing of historical ills means there is very little surface tension in terms of race relations and the contrast with Australia and the Aboriginals is stark.
Like Ireland however, New Zealand is only at the beginning of the curve in terms of dealing with a marked growth in immigration, despite having the land mass of Great Britain, the population is only 4 million and the South Island is in large parts deserted. So, they're gonna grow, as the census advertisement says, at the moment, I'd wager they'll deal with any associated difficulties alot more sympathetically than either Australia or Ireland.
Country count to date: Czech Republic, England, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand
Currency count to date: Euro, Czech Crown, English Pound, Singapore Dollar, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar
Hasta Luego!
Next Stop: Santiago, Chile
posted by Christophe at 12:45 a.m.
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