Moving from Christchurch to Auckland

I found it difficult to find moving cost estimates and information about doing a DIY move via the ferry across New Zealand, so I thought I'd make a short post about the move I did at the end of 2019.

Since we were transporting our cat and didn't want to do an extensive amount of driving each day, we took three days for the trip. This enabled us to stay overnight at two places and let him out of his cage and let us rest. Except for some traffic on the North Island, the trip went smoothly and all of our stuff made it there.

Actual costs for three-day move:
$1,548 (excluding cargo equipment)
$1,918 (with cargo equipment, which hopefully can be reused in future)

Fuel: $343

• First full tank fill-up @ $2.079/liter: $102
• Partial fill-up in Kaikoura (no receipt): $71
• Partial fill-up out of Wellington @ $2.389/liter: $62
• Second full tank fill-up in Taupo @ $2.159/liter: $108 

A full tank fill-up is about 13.5 gallons (51 liters) and the car is pretty new so it gets good mileage; however, the trailer and weight definitely reduced the usual fuel efficiency. There was about 150km left to go when we arrived in Auckland according to the car's estimate after the trailer was removed, so that needs to be accounted for when looking at the total fuel cost.


Luggage Trailer: $467

• cost is made up of 3 days at $39/day which is comparable to other companies, plus $20/day for $0 damage excess, plus one-way fee (this was supposed to be around $500 but I got them to lower it for me)  
• $100 deposit is required at time of booking

Note that rentals book up fast - many places I called didn't have anything available - so as soon as you know your moving dates, see what's available. U Save was the only place that would let me hire a luggage trailer one-way. Otherwise, the only option was one of the bigger furniture trailers, and I knew we didn't need that much space since we weren't taking furniture or big stuff. I mistakenly thought that I would be able to have some visibility out the car's rearview mirror with the smaller trailer, so on reflection, I might have gone with the single-axle furniture trailer to save the headache of trying to cram everything in such a small space. However, the luggage trailer handled pretty well when full and didn't feel overwhelming to haul for three days, and it fit almost everything I needed it to and forced me to consolidate stuff before moving.

Ferry (Picton to Wellington): $464

• included two adults, one car, and one trailer at a student flexi rate, which seems to be 5% off the usual rate, via Bluebridge

The ferry also books up fast, since there are a limited number of sailings each day, and we wanted one that left at a reasonable hour in the morning. This and the trailer hire are the most limiting of your options for the move.

Accommodation (2 nights): $274

• one night in Picton at Aldan Lodge Motel (pet-friendly, good customer service, and nice roomy place to stay; it has off-street parking, but there were only a couple spots that could take trailers, and it took us a while to back up into one of them - recommend asking in advance to secure one of these)
• one night in Turangi at Turangi Bridge Motel (pet-friendly and decent room; but the parking spots are not long enough for trailers, and one section that could have worked had a big truck and disconnected trailer already taking up the space; we ended up having to work another situation out on the lawn which you're not supposed to do but given that we had stuff roped to the top, I didn't want to leave it out in front of the motel overnight)

Cargo Equipment: $370

• 1 set of crossbars: $120 + $30 shipping, on Amazon U.S.
• 1 roof rack: $109 + $70 shipping, on TradeMe
• 2 ropes: $7.50 (with buy 1 get 1 50% off deal)
• 2 cargo nets: $18 (with buy 1 get 1 50% off deal)
• 2 2-pack of ratchet tiedown straps: $15 (with buy 1 get 1 50% off deal)

A Book A Day

Last week I had several instances of reading a book in a day, which was quite satisfactory. To procrastinate on working on my project proposal (wherein I have to outline everything I'm going to write about and provide a background to the topic), I started reading Ursula Le Guin's The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction (1989) and continued the whole day until I finished it. Admittedly, I have not held her in very high esteem after I was let down by her classic The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). It just wasn't the groundbreaking feminist science fiction novel I was expecting, and her use of the male pronoun always bothered me. This book was a collection of 1970s essays as well prologues to her books, with her going back and providing commentary on them from her 1989 perspective. It gave me some good insight into her perspective on both the science fiction field as a whole, and her works as a part of it. I liked a lot of what she had to say about the genre, and she admitted that she later realized what a big deal it was that she used male pronouns and regretted it. So, I am looking forward to rereading that novel (checked it out of the library today) as well as her other ones from the 60s and 70s. They will undoubtedly be important novels to compare to Dune, and I'm hoping I will like them.

The next day, I read H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895). Nice, quick science fiction with a tolerable frame narrative. Normally you forget the narrator is telling a story by the time you return to them, but this book is short enough that you don't.

The following day, I started with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845). It is supposed to be the closest to science fiction of his short stories. It was certainly an interesting premise (check it out for free from Project Gutenberg -- love stuff out of copyright!). Then I read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915), where three young men stumble upon a land populated only by women and girls. I found several similarities to Dune and marveled that she was writing this so far ahead of the "official" start of science fiction, especially with all of the attention to women's issues. It was great to see the men floundering when they were trying to explain how great their civilization was but kept having to avoid or explain away problems like poverty, crime, and diseases. Unfortunately, most of Gilman's critiques about society and gender still ring true today.

So I'm steadily working through my science fiction classics list. I moved it to a spreadsheet so I could sort it by year, and am trying to read in chronological order when possible to see the genre's evolution. Most of the books are available at either the university library or city library system, although some I might have to break down and buy elsewhere. It's difficult not to accumulate a sizable book collection here, especially working in academia, but I keep in mind the trip back home and how much paper weighs.

We watched Pixar's WALL-E movie and I was able to enjoy some of the references to 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have found that watching movies at different stages in life can render a new response and perspective on them. Maybe it's having more life experiences to compare them with. Just something I've noticed when rewatching movies that I haven't seen in a long time.

We've gone to the first two of the Lazy Sundays free concerts in the park to try to get out and enjoy the summer weather and some live music. Yesterday on our way there I picked up my first found money! A 10-cent piece on the sidewalk. Since they got rid of the penny and nickel, I guess people hold onto their change more carefully.

We took our car in today to get it tuned up ahead of our roadtrip down south. Oil change, new air filter, and new tires (spelled tyres here) since the old ones were almost bald and not very safe to drive on. Also got a wheel alignment and the tech commented on how off it was (it took them an extra half hour to fix). It's probably the first time it's been aligned in a long while. No word back on the check engine light problem, but otherwise it is ready to go. With gas dropping to 1.79/liter ($6.78/gallon) and the weather in the 70s, it's a good time for a summer vacation.