Routeburn Tramping

Yay! Another bucket list item for NZ will be checked off next Feb. I'll be taking three days and hiking the Routeburn Track, a stunning 32 km trail in a remote part of New Zealand's South Island. I haven't been down there in ages, and I can't think of a better way to spend some of my Air New Zealand airmiles than seeing some of the fantastic scenery this country has to offer.

Turns out, spending three days in the woods is expensive, despite the fact that the only things I'll have to spend while actually on the trail are my energy reserves when going up the mountains, and eyeball muscles over how gorgeous the scenery is! Costs:

Roundtrip bus to/from airport in Auckland: $28
Flight, Auckland to Queenstown: $140 (Jetstar offered a better time to fly)
Uber or shuttle or taxi to town from airport: $20
Bus to/from trail ends: $119
Routeburn huts, 2 nights: $108
Hostel 1 night in Queenstown: $130 (double private room, still researching how to get it cheaper!)
Uber or shuttle or taxi to town from airport: $20
Flight, Qtown to Auckland: $0 (Air NZ airpoints, but they would have been $154)

Total: $565 (without return flight costs)

Costs of trips like this are usually absorbed into my monthly budgets, and I am able to do so this time as well. I've charged the huts and flight to May's spending. Next month, I'll charge the bus to/from the trailhead and the hostel stay. During the trip next Feb, the travel to/from airports, food, and any incidentals will be absorbed by that month's budget. If at any point the costs cause me to go overbudget, well, I have my PhD Fund to tap into!

Due to the timing of the buses from the trail heads and flights to Auckland, I'll have to spend 1 day in Queenstown (oh darn), which I am really looking forward to. Every time I travel through the area, something happens and I miss seeing the city. I really want to take the gondola up the mountain. Is there anything else I should do while I'm there, besides Fergburger?!

That last $44

I had a bunch of $$ leftover from my travels and just sitting in my bank account, so I allocated it to my next goal that I could think of: 2018 travel to the US.

(Every year, I save up for next year's trip. Meanwhile, I do everything I can to not have to use that money for airfare, preferring to pay for all of my air travel with miles earned through credit card bonuses.)

I was able to put $2,956.45 towards my usual $3K NZD fund goal.

But that last $44 has been driving me nuts! Instead of waiting til the end of the month, I just transferred the cash into savings. I can't look at it any longer!

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I later realized that I had extra cash in my Scholarship account. I have won a few awards for my PhD. The great thing is, they transfer that cash directly to my Kiwibank account. To make it easy to keep track of, I keep ONLY it in my Kiwibank savings account rather than my checking. Then when I buy something PhD-related, I simply transfer the cash over to my checking account. The amount in my Kiwibank savings, then, should match exactly how much I have left to spend on my PhD project from my grants and awards.

(I keep my permanent savings towards goals at Rabobank. My PhD money and personal savings/checking is always kept separate.)

I must have forgotten to transfer the cash a few times, because I had nearly $500 extra in my Kiwibank savings account compared to what my PhD budget spreadsheet says I should have (yes, the budgeting madness has spread to work!). So $488.37 has been transferred to my checking account for now. That money will be transferred to my online savings, and saved towards something, as soon as I can think up a new goal.

How is it possible that I've run out of goals?! Where is my imagination these days? I am going to have to seriously revisit my bucket lists of yore.

Whatever. There are worse neuroses than needing to put a line through a financial goal, and worse problems than being so content with your lifestyle that you can't think of any more fun financial goals to save up for.

Chile, Part III

And, finally, the last installment of my trip pictorial, and part III of Chile:

The cities were my least favourite part of the trip. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Santiago and Valparaiso much better than I did Rio:

Santiago apartment views:



wetland refuge for birds near Concon:


Valparaiso:








funicular in Valparaiso (lots of steep streets!). Check out the bottom of that blue house...would YOU want to live there in a big earthquake?!!




Pablo Neruda's house (I am not one for history/architecture but if you have a chance, GO HERE. The house is so interesting!):



Valparaiso's colourful houses perched atop hills:




The city is famous for its street art:











Lots and lots and LOTS of tolls in Chile (but at least they have a ton of stuff for sale at them!):

 


A cute street in Santiago:



Went up the funicular to see the sights...what we could see through the intense city smog!!
The Andes are back there somewhere...




Santiago:

Chile, Part II

Third installment of my trip pictorial, second part for Chile.

Away from the south of Chile, and up to the desert North! I loved it up there.


The Atacama Desert:






We stayed in a little town called San Pedro. It is the height of cuteness! (Literally--it is at 7,900 feet or 2,407 meters altitude)



 


We self-drove everywhere, and it was awesome to have that much freedom! Everyone else, it seems, takes guided tours. We loved getting to make our own schedules. Most of the time we had the tourist sites ALL TO OURSELVES:

 
































Got some great shots playing around with photography:

Saw some neat animals:

Vicuna:










High altitude flamingos:


Rheas:












and a lizard:






So great. Altitude only bothered us at one location: El Tatio, at 4,320 m (14,100 feet) altitude. Headaches, felt dizzy, kind of drunk. All good otherwise, though!

Chile! Part I

Second installment of my South America trip pictorial. The first (Rio de Janeiro) is here.

A little jaunt to Puerto Varas first:

 

It's gorgeous!! And surprisingly very German in its architecture/food. An artist was working on this sculpture:



Sunrise over the lake/mountains:



Saw some very bucolic scenes:



(near where we got food poisoning from rotten queso de campo)

Saw some waterfalls and prettiness:
  

 

Ate some empanadas (nope. awful. They are obsessed with bread and cheese in this country--but not the good kind. Never had ever met a bad bread/cheese before, but boy did I hit my limit in Chile!):



Saw a picturesque volcano or two:







More waterfalls!


















Bought some wares in Pucon (oh...SO MUCH SHOPPING!!):



Went flying:







Got bitten by some fleas from some cute cats (well, my friend did...I am more of a dog person!):



and ate like queens!

Brazil!

The first installment of the long-promised pictorial of my trip last month!

First stop: Rio de Janeiro.

Flying over the Andes. I had a non-stop flight to Santiago to begin with:



Escadaria Selaron (tiled tourist stairs):




The Big Guy (literally):

Day:





Night:

Went up to Sugarloaf Mountain and saw this guy (along with getting bitten by potentially Zika-carrying jungle mosquitoes...sigh). Marmoset (they are infested with rabies, apparently...not as cute as they seem!):


















Despite the fears of getting robbed/mugged/shot at gunpoint, all was well. I didn't take my nice camera or phone anywhere with me, so these are the only shots I got of this absolutely gorgeous city: 

No swimming in the ocean, though. The night I landed there was a torrential rainstorm. That means: sewage runoff and e. coli counts in the ocean were astronomical during the next 3 days of my trip.

Oh well! Never have to go back there again. It was, honestly, terrifying being there. I don't have the money or stomach for visiting super dangerous places.