Budget plan, thus far

The goal is to still keep under US$2,500.

Airfare, roundtrip: ~$1500
Travel insurance: $100
Visa processing: $20
Hotel in transit: ~$60
Airport fees: ~$90
NZ departure fee: $30
--------------------
$1800


Hearts Aflame fee: NZ$390
--------------------
~$270


Cook Strait ferry: NZ$195
Petrol: ~NZ$100
Accommodation: ~NZ$110
Food, misc.: ~NZ$60
Horseback riding: ~NZ$50
--------------------
NZ$515 (~US$335)


Total: ~$2405

$2500
-2405
====
$95

I was hoping to have over $100 left over for extra miscellaneous money and gifts to send home but hopefully some of my over-estimation would contribute to that.

Recent shopping excursion, update

I cringed at the $57 reciept; I know, silly of me, but I did get some good stuff and things I needed.

Bought myself a cool, hard-back, hemp string-bound journal and more ink gel pens (^_^). Believe it or not, it took me 15 minutes to decide which journal to get as there were a few others that caught my eye. I finally settled on a hand-sized one with a replica of Chinese scroll art called "Listening to the Bamboo," by Wen Cheng-ming (you're wondering how I knew that; it conveniently said so on the back cover page). I liked the Chinese concept of "virtues" of the bamboo: "resilience, humility, and uprightness; a spirit that can be bent by circumstance but never broken". So it was this one over a hand-sized, scarlet imitation leather bound one with a magnetic clip or a standard-sized one with a replication of medevial art conveying the four Gospels. I decided on something more simple-looking but I was still really attracted to the others. I should think this will be put to good use.

Oh, and I'm reading Gulliver's Travels again. It's probably that cosmopolitan spirit influencing me to pick up such a book, but it's nice to have another read through something you read when you were younger. However, it's this time round that I finally picked up on some of the insanely strange things Swift wrote about...of which I won't go into detail.

I never told anyone this, but I finally fixed my favourite rosary with hemp string. A good thing to have on a 24+ hour trip.

Update: Still haven't heard back from those off-base agents. Maybe they're still finding some deals for me, I'm hoping in good faith. I was told to still check out the American travel agent on base (one that I had a relatively negative experience with), but I fortunately know someone who is good friends with someone that works there who might be compassionate towards this poor working student and not make me feel like a total idiot. Going to check them out tomorrow.

Also, I asked Dad about my going to NZ, and he conveyed the following message without clearly saying "yes": he wasn't going to object but as long as I'm footing the bill 100%, he is inclining toward the okay zone. Cue sigh of knowing that that's how my father is.

(tentative) NZ travel itinerary

I need more interesting titles. Watch, later on, I'll be in the middle of my journey with the light-bulb effect and change it.

Made more plans. It's quite exciting to discuss a roadtrip with friends, especially during holidays and when your destination is a Catholic retreat. But let's not get carried away yet- premature joy in moderation.

We've considered flying to Christchurch from Hamilton but the costs with Air NZ is at least $100 more than driving. Although I could do more research into better fares with other airlines, I prefer hitting the road; it's more of an adventure, in that rough sort of way. Plus, we'll have a chance to budget on the go and hopefully save ourselves some money.

We'll originate from the Hamilton area then take a ferry across the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton. A stop at a youth hostel before or right after landing might be possible- rest before the retreat was said to be most wise. From Picton we'll then head straight to Christchurch, hopefully not too late for registration.

Coming back should be less of a rush. With no time crunch to beat, we might mosey our way back up to the North Island, and being tourists of the South Island, soak up some Southern Hemisphere summer sun provided the weather allows such. I have no idea what we'll do exactly (yet) but that's the beauty of real touring. We'll somewhat retrace our steps and enjoy the views.

The cost of driving, we've estimated, is nearly as much as more than the Hearts Aflame rego fee. Luckily, with three people travelling together, expenses will be split in thirds. The following is a break-down of one's share of travel expenses in NZ$:

195 - Ferry
100 - Petrol
110 - Hostel
60 - Food, misc. funds
====
$465 ~ US$

Shameless vanity

To further spruce this already visually appealing blog, I've added a travel map to the bottom of this blog. You can see where I've already been and have lived. I've managed to mark all the places I've touched ground on, save for a few preliminary markers (the "places I want to visit" ones) whose status will change to "have visited" after actually visiting them. A dotted trail leading to the South Pacific will be added very soon. Much happiness, thank God.

This is the first time I've used this online map so I'm giving it a chance. It may look cool now but time will test its usefulness. I wish it'd show alt text on mouse-overs. ('Course, with Internet Explorer being a pain in the confounded posterior, the map causes my layout to go screwy for IE users. That means the map is probably at the bottom of this page instead of at the right where it's supposed to be. That is why you use Firefox, people. /shakes a stern finger.) Although IE 7.0 came out, and improved enough to display my page properly, I still favour FireFox. Cue sagely nod.