The beach
at Piha, on the Tasman Sea coast of New Zealand
(photo taken with
polarizing filter)
Mon, 9 Jun 2003 5:41:40 -- On a whim, EduCAD co-owner Robyn Stables sends an email, asking if I'm interested in speaking at a series of seminars in New Zealand .
Mon, 9 Jun 2003 6:12:00 -- My reply: "I would love to visit New Zealand, and would enjoy speaking on CAD management. What sort of arrangement did you have in mind?"
- - -
Little do we know the exhausting adventure upon which we are embarking. A further 296 emails follow this initial exchange as we negotiate the dates (I want mid-August, Robyn prefers later), the itinerary (an early idea is Queenstown to take in some skiing), and the seminar content, titled "Mastering Your CAD System: Breaking Through CAD Barriers."
Erin, my long-time travel agent at Menno Travel, works at finding air fares to New Zealand -- the cheapest possible, because I've decided to bring along my family. Within a couple of days, she discovers an unpublished seat sale that lowers the price to around US$1,000 for Vancouver - Honolulu - Auckland and return. My ticket is more complex: Vancouver - Honolulu - Auckland - Christchurch - Wellington - Auckland - Melbourne - Brisbane - Sydney - Honolulu - Vancouver.
To keep the air fare low, the tickets must be paid by week's end. Robyn takes a deep breath, and emails her credit card to Erin to pay my ticket. "Done. VISA number sent -- if I don't sleep tonight I'll know why -- this is it. Very exciting now," Robyn reports. I take somewhat less of a deep breath, and pay the other four tickets. We're committed.
Volcanic Mount Eden, with downtown Auckland in the background.
In parallel, we develop the seminar outline. Robyn's first rough draft:
"CAD Standards and how they should
be utilitised...
Emailing Standards and pitfalls.
Legalities of Email
documentation.
Management of staff using CAD.
Managing more than one CAD
Software package in your office.
Types of non CAD viewable file formats.
bla
bla"
Surprisingly (or not), that first draft largely establishes the final seminar content. A major change is the addition of a lawyer, who speaks on the legal aspects of sharing drawings. Along the way, variations are thought up, then discarded, such as a second day specific to AutoCAD 2004.
And then there is the issue of the work visa. My "job" doesn't fit any categories at www.immigration.govt.nz/work/, so I leave a message with the embassy in Ottawa. Some days later, they confirm I don't need the visa, normally costing NZ$230. "Cool bananas," Robyn responds.
Seminar locations are booked, and we are well underway firming up the day-long seminar content, when Robyn starts reporting a series of bad news. A mailing contractor screws up, failing to distribute 7,000 brochures on time. Registrations from Australia aren't coming through (just four sign up). In speaking with other seminar organizers, Robyn finds there's no market on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
The hard decision is made: we're cutting Australia. For my travel agent, the work gets harder: re-booking my return flight with less than three weeks is a no-go, initialy. "This puts a spanner in now," Robyn says. Working on her days off, tracking down the options, and pleading my case, Erin finally convinces a special panel at Air Canada to grant me a seat on the same airplane as my family. Would Travelocity.com do the same for you?
Rangitoto is the volcanic island visible from most parts of Auckland.
Meanwhile, my wife is suffering a near nervous breakdown after surfing the Web and discovering the expense of traveling around New Zealand. A one-day bus tour is NZ$640. (Friends in New Zealand later tell us it's cheaper for them to fly to Australia than within New Zealand.) My daughters are disappointed that the "Land of The Lord of the Rings" is but a hollow shell: everything related to the movie has been torn out, but a family can still pay NZ$225 to see empty holes in the ground at Hobbiton ("returned to its natural state"). Would my family be stuck in Auckland for the entire two weeks?
"Remember, it's winter here," email several upFront.eZine readers from New Zealand.
"There must be a cheaper way!" I declare, somewhat grimly. Things start to look up. My wife's Kiwi friend, a travel agent, finds us a brand-new, reasonably-priced apartment hotel on the edge of Parnell, a cute shopping and restaurant district in Auckland. Instead of the $640 bus tour, she rents a minivan for $100 and gets her husband to drive us to the Glow Worm Caves in Waitomo -- I am too freaked out to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.
On the Internet, I discover the TranzScenic railroad has a "Winter Special" -- everyone pays the child rate. I book the Overlander train to Wellington, capital of New Zealand. Fuller's ferry service to the islands in Auckland's massive harbour has 1/2-price and family specials; we get tickets to hike to the top of Rangitoto, the landmark volcano island, and a day in quaint Devonport.
The quaint village of Devonport features volcanic Mount Victoria in its center.
"I will be very nervous until your feet land on our soil," emails Robyn. Our feet land on New Zealand soil early on August 3. Our Auckland friends meet us at the airport, and wisk us to their home for breakfast. Later, we hike (run, actually) down into the crater of Mount Eden.
Mid-week I get together with Robyn and business partner Raewyn Taylor to go over the seminar topics. We figure a morning at EduCAD's office should do it, followed by lunch <http://www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/NZ03/EduCAD.jpg>. Instead, we wrap up at 5pm, with no lunch. Two new clients wait as Robyn and Raewyn hurry to straihten out the training center. "Are you here to learn, too?" one of them asks me.
"Uh, no, I was here for more of a business meeting actually. You here for training?" I ask in return.
"We're here to learn computer-aided design." He adds: "AutoCAD."
"That's probably a good choice," I agree.
- - -
The longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, New Zealand (Maori for "the brow of the hill, where Tamatea, the man with the big knees who slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, who is known as the Land Eater, played on his nose flute to his loved one.")
Christchurch is named after the cathedral that dominates the downtown.
Sunday 10 August, and we're off to Christchurch, the closest I'll ever get (probably) to the Antarctic. It is cold here! As with most homes and older hotels, the Latimer Hotel has no central heating, something not advertized at its Web page. In my freezing-cold room, I turn up the space heater to full, and turn on all lights for added heat. At the bottom of the closet, I eye the pair of red rubber hotwater bottles provided for the comfort of guests.
I have a scant two hours to tour Christchurch by foot, a pity because I'm enjoying this very European city. I'm fascinated by the hoards of international young people thronging the downtown, looking as if they are in search of -- something.
Upon leaving Christchurch, airport security discovers a pen knife in Raewyn's carry-on bag, a knife missed by security earlier at Auckland airport. Nevertheless, they let her carry it through security, upon her promise to mail it to herself.
The anonymous entrance to our
hotel in Wellington.
Look for the statue of the man with the leaping
dog.
Wellington is squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains, its streets straying off at odd angles. It's warmer but drizzling. I get lost trying to return to Copthorne Hotel Plimmer Towers, a hotel with no visible entrance. A passer-by offers to help, but I demur, determined to find my place on the map, a map I later realize is of a different city. Still, I appreciate the friendliness of New Zealanders.
That evening, I meet with an upFront.eZine reader. His firm was asked by a local hospital to come up with a layering standard for all subs working on a renovation. He expresses his frustration at the subs reluctance in adopting the standard.
The next day at the seminar, I meet one of those upon whom the layer standard is being imposed. "It makes no sense," he complains.
(Earlier, while preparing my presentation, I had asked, "Do NZ and Australia have national CAD standards?" To which Robyn had replied: "You've got to be joking -- Kiwis and Aussies standardising??? Something is needed, but no-one is interested in committing.")
EduCAD's office outside of Auckland.
Back in Auckland, it's sunny and warm. The Carlton Hotel is swarming with police. Protection against terrorists? No, for heads of state from South Pacific islands meeting here. On the weekend, the high level of security continues, this time for members of New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks.
In the evening, I meet another upFront.eZine reader. He's wondering about an upgrade strategy that avoids Autodesk products. His yacht design firm faces a $10,000 upgrade bill, as quoted by Autodesk's representative in New Zealand. His idea is to switch to IntelliCAD or perhaps TurboCAD. In part, he is angry at the excessively high price for AutoCAD LT in New Zealand. We spend a hour discussing strategies, drawbacks, and advantages. He leaves with this new thought: maybe he doesn't need to upgrade.
Not everything is expensive in New Zealand. The city bus is a reasonable NZ$1.20; the Link bus runs an excellent (for tourists) loop around Auckland. Internet cafes are just NZ$3/hr; three out of the four hotels I stayed at had a free Internet workstation. We quickly learned to do our shopping at The Warehouse, a fast-growing chain of discount stores. Because most stores close at 5:30 everyday, we learned to scout for 7Eleven-like Star Marts after hours.
A stress of traveling is finding places to eat. Sadly, we cheat by eating too often at the retro-style Burger Kings. But we highly recommend Tony's Lord Nelson on Victoria, and La Porchetta on Parnell, both in Auckland. And as for the Kiwi burger, well, adding that fried egg and slices of beet doesn't do much for our Canadian tastebuds.
An unfortunate end to a lovely trip, Auckland airport provides the worst international departure experience I've had on three continents. After 16 days "down under," I came home with wonderful memories stored on 1,580 photos in my digital camera's MicroDrive memory card.
In the foreground:
In the
background: