Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing 3 (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!
Well, it turned out opodo had its disadvantages after all. As I suspected, there was no Rail&Fly for the return leg; half an hour of telephone queue was necessary to order one, with a special “late fee” added. All in all, R&F might have advantages for the traveller and the environment, but in practice it sucks massively, and a discounted train ticket for the journey to Frankfurt and an ordinary ticket for the return are not much more expensive. As some research on opodo’s booking system shows, R&F can be automatically booked for a “simple” return flight, but as soon as there is a leg outside Germany (as in a Y-flight), R&F is no longer available for subsequent legs, even if they do end here. Hey, no worries, the internet was only invented yesterday, right? Bookings within New Zealand have appeared to go much more smoothly. The Department of Conservation’s hut booking system is a case in point. I knew that trying to get a booking for the Milford Track was going to be difficult, and all places until well into April were booked out by the time I started looking. But every now and then a place would become free (especially around the first weeks of January, when trampers had to be evacuated off the track because of rain – some people were getting wet, er, cold feet), although generally on dates that were not suitable. Finally, on New Year’s Eve a place on a suitable date did become free and I hit it for a six.
Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing 3 (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!
Now, the trick to the system is that it doesn’t have any waiting list. That’s right: No waiting list! Because if they had one, that would be an invitation for all goons and trolls in the known universe to put themselves on it, as if free beer was on offer. Alone trying to administer the places that did become free would be unimaginable. Don’t even try to set up a system with a nonbinding registration or a waiting list. At least the DoC got that right and I got my place. Such booking systems were behind the design of my very own: PAMS (PHP Appointment Management System, http://moodle.fsz.uni-hannover.de/daad/daad.php).
However, for the rest of the trip there are some unusual pricing practices. The bus from Christchurch to Invercargill will set me back just under $70 one-way; but then the bus to Bluff and ferry to Stewart Island is just over $180 return; a flight from Invercargill to Oban just under $190. Guess what? At least if I have to chunder, there’ll only be 20 minutes and not an hour and a half of it.
Oh, and I must admit to succumbing to AirBNB for accommodation in the larger localities. We’ll see how this goes; sounds like a nice idea, and prices can be reasonable. Hosts have generally been friendly and quick to respond. One gent, though, insists on arranging having all the pick-ups and drop-offs paid for in advance; and I can’t for the life of me understand what good it is tying up all that money with airbnb. Will have to have a word with him about it.
