I'm spending a few more days than expected in Wanaka, just north of Queenstown, on the West Coast. While on the road I am doing job applications for my normal profession. I came off the Mueller Hut hike to discover that
1. Two Australian organizations want to do telephone interviews this week
2. They couldn't reach me on my mobile phone when I was at Mt Cook
The explanation I got from 2 Degrees, the NZ carrier is that possibly it was on account of the number of high mountains in Aoraki Mt Cook NP getting in the way. Well, perhaps. I bought a really cheap little cell phone to carry with me during my travels, but it's showing its limitations. I can barely read the screen, I'm only apparently getting texts from 2 Degrees wanting me to "top up" and other things.
I brought my US i-phone with me as well, though I turned off the phone part. I figured it's cheaper just to buy phone cards to call home. Up until a few days ago, it was a useful device to capture photos and quickly load them to this blog when doing a full flash card dump from my camera wasn't convenient. However, I'm having wifi problems with it now, with the wifi carrier used by the YHAs. The carrier is Global Gossip, and I can't seem to rid the i-phone of an error page, which remembers my GG card from Mt Cook, tells me I'm out of $, but won't let me change it to the one I bought in Wanaka. I emailed GG today, and their explanation: "can't use 2 devices at once" to access GG, isn't the issue, and that i need to buy 2 cards, or register two devices, or some other crap that an itinerant traveler surely has no interest in doing. I'm not sure I have the energy to deal with their helpdesk anymore today. It doesn't help that I know I logged out of one device before using the other. I'm sure they will think I don't know what I'm talking about. All I know is the few photos I have taken in Wanaka, are trapped in my i-phone right now and I can't post them until I get the blasted GG message to butt out.
Most cumbersome of all, I brought a notebook PC with me. I did this because my eyesight couldn't handle the idea trying to write job applications, and use different companies' online HR systems to upload resumes, cover letters, references, and all the paraphenalia of job hunting in 2011 on a smart phone.
What the hell happened to travelling I wonder? Back when I first came to NZ, you could barely trust email to do a backpacker booking. When I was here in 2005, a few backpackers had wireless enabled laptops, but the service was still Internet Cafe based, so these poor people had to lug around a useless brick for the whole trip.
I've noticed that a large group of travelers do cart around their notebook, and even their laptop these days. I have to presume a few of the bike tourers do it, but I sure wouldn't do it. I'm in the oddball situation of needing to apply for managerial level jobs, so I have to present an image other than being some sort of eccentric. All I know is the computer weighs a lot and it's a pain having it, plus cables, etc., in my bike bag.
Last night there was a French touring cyclist staying in my dorm. I'm not sure if he had a PC with him or not. What was most impressive about him was the huge number of red welts he had on both legs, from the knee to each ankle. He told me he got bitten badly by sandflies in Haast, when he passed through. I felt for him. He's obviously one of those poor people who is allergic to these suckers [literally]
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