Greg & Veronica's Singapore Update

Volume 18a

Friday, April 16, 1999

Well, as mentioned in our last newsletter, we spent the week of Chinese New Year in New Zealand. Wow, what a country! We spent 9 days driving around the South Island, or, more accurately, the top half of the South Island. We put 950+ miles on our trusty, but un-airconditioned, Toyota Corolla trying to squeeze "everything" in. Not surprisingly, we failed to see everything and spent too much time in the car. However, it was great and we hope to visit again. First, we'll outline our itinerary and then give our impressions of this odd little country thousands of miles from anything.

Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and the third largest in New Zealand. It isn't that big and is very, very English, more so than London. For that matter, the entire country and most of its people seems very, very English. Although it is summer, it was cool, with highs of about 22 C (72 F) and lows about 16 C (62 F). Actually, the evenings were almost chilly, especially if you are coming from Singapore where it never gets as low as 16, even in our apartment with the air-conditioning turned up. We spent our time in the downtown area which is dominated by Christchurch Cathedral, the Botanical Gardens, the Avon River, the old campus of Christchurch University (now the Arts Center) and large numbers of pierced teenagers with attitudes. The Arts Center is filled with artists' studios, galleries and a few little cafes and restaurants. On the weekends, it is also the site of a large outdoors arts-and-crafts market. A lot of the people are selling pro ducts made of wool and/or other sheep parts. Not surprising in a country that boasts 20 times more sheep than people. While we are quoting statistics, we were surprised to read that New Zealand, with a population of only 4 million, has a more burglaries than New York City. In spite of that fact, our impression was this country was way too relaxed to have much crime. Since we were there over Valentine's Day, there was also a week-long Festival of Romance featuring a wide variety of performances and plays. We caught the first few minutes of two Swiss mimes performing a traditional Chinese opera. On Valentine's Day we also enjoyed a romantic bit of punting on the river Avon. This does NOT involve a football, betting or anything unwholesome. It is sort of an English gondola ride; you board a small, low boat that cruises along the river powered by some guy pushing against the bottom with a long pole. Although most of New Zealand's electricity is generated through hydro-electricity, the Avon River is not a very powerful river. In fact, there are drainage canals in Singapore and New Orleans that are much larger. However, it is a very pretty little river shaded by old trees that cuts through the city. Apparently, the climate in Christchurch is ideal for many European plants so they grow much larger than they do in Europe. The Botanical Gardens are filled with these huge trees and plants. It's very pretty, although Greg wondered if it really was the climate or some sort of reaction to all of the above-ground nuclear testing that France carries out in this part of the pacific.

Before heading out for our first day of driving, we visited Antarctica. Christchurch is the launching point for most of the American, British and New Zealand expeditions to Antarctica and just outside of town, there is the International Antarctic Center. In addition to housing all of the support staff and logistical centers, the Center also has a very good museum. It has a lot of very good exhibits on life on the frozen continent, historical expeditions to the South Pole, penguins and, even, the opportunity to "experience" Antarctica. This involves stepping into very large freezer cooled to minus 5 degrees and filled with snow and equipment. Even with the supplied parkas and boots, it was cold. (Actually, we later found out it wasn't really that cold -- they were using degrees celsius, so -5 C was "only" about 20 degrees F). If you want to see the museum, just follow the blue footprints from the airport; it's only an eight minute walk.

A few odd things Antarctic:

• support for all of the American operations in Antarctica are being transferred from the U.S. Air Force to the New York National Guard;
• the round-trip flight from Christchurch to Antarctica takes 15 hours and two in-air refuelings;
• the supply planes don't generally stop---they touch down on the snow, and keep moving as they dump the supplies out the back before immediately taking off;
• Most of the major American base is covered by a big dome.

After Antarctica, we drove north to Blenheim, the center of New Zealand's wine country. The drive was nice but very curvy. Outside of the city, it winds through some dry hilly country dotted by sheep and dairy farms. There's generally not much traffic. However, since the main highways tend to be only a single lane in each direction, traffic occasionally will back up behind some coward too afraid to pull into the oncoming traffic to pass some slow-moving vehicle. Often, Greg was this coward. One contributing factor was where the New Zealand highway engineers determined it was safe to pass. Unlike Singapore, New Zealand road markings have the same meaning as those in the U.S. (i.e. single continuous line indicates no passing; broken line indicates passing area). However, in New Zealand virtually ever inch of the highway has been marked as a passing zone. This includes tight winding curves, hills and anywhere with an obstructed view. While traffic is light (especially by Singapore standards), it does exist. New Zealand highways also are equipped with many one-lane bridges. Traffic from one direction has the right-of-way and the other direction stops if there is traffic on the bridge. It actually works pretty well but in some areas there's a bridge every mile. A few of these one-lane bridges also double as railway bridges. The trains ALWAYS have the right-of-way. To emphasize this, there are no signs indicating anyone in a car has the right-of-way. So, you look to see if its clear, step on the gas and pray that there's no train or crazy tourist doing the same thing from the other direction.

We also saw some odd billboards along the way. The first one appeared to announce a sale on coffins further up the road. It had a picture of a coffin with the words "Hurry! Big sale ahead!" After seeing a few more odd signs, we decided they were all part of an anti-speeding campaign. We even saw a related television commercial featuring scenes of an accident and a very distraught man saying "I never saw the little girl". And then, just to drive home the point even more, it closes with these words on the screen: "The faster you go, the bigger the mess.' While we are on the subject of television advertising, the Kiwis (the people, not the fruit nor the bird) have a quirky sense of humor and some unusual ads. One ad we saw a few times was a public service announcement explaining that family assistance/welfare was available and encouraging people to call and apply. Another ad opens with a close-up of a baby and as the camera pulls back, we see that its mother is breast-feeding the child in the middle of a very chic restaurant. The camera pauses and then pans across the room where another mother is bottle-feeding her infant. As the commercial ends, we see the words "Everyone should have the right to choose." At this point our assumption is this is some sort of public service announcement related to infant care. Evidently, this assumption is incorrect because the last thing you see is the logo and name of a local electric utility. Our best guess is that the New Zealand electricity market is already deregulated or some utilities are fighting to open the market and give people the ability to choose their electricity provider.