NZ Travel questions

[dswarthout]

I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip and wonder about the availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might be able to send digital photos to the US via email. I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload capability available, common, rare?

Also, seeing as I'm taking a digital camera and its batteries will need to be recharged every so often, what sort of power line plugs are in use in NZ? Here in the US we use a two-bladed plug that is, well, ubiquitous but I've seen other plugs for travel in Europe that look nothing like the U.S. standard one. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Dave Swarthout
Homer, Alaska

 

[davef]

***
I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload capability available, common, rare?
***

My bet is "rare". My son says, "Starbucks are planning on putting infared capability in their shop in Christchurch". He thinks that maybe if you talk nicely to the provider you could install the software on the computer you are hiring.

If you want to provide some more details of what is involved I could make a few phone calls.

***
Here in the US we use a two-bladed plug that is, well, ubiquitous but I've seen other plugs for travel in Europe that look nothing like the U.S. standard one. Can anyone help?
***

Well, not "ubiquitous enough"! NZ and Australia use a rather unusual 3 pin plug. Also, we are 240 Volts and 50 Hz which might make a difference.

Cheers
davef

 

[Deep Freud Moor]

On 17 Nov 2003 06:30:14 +1050, dswarthout <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip and wonder about the
>availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might be able to send digital photos to the US via
>email. I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload
>capability available, common, rare?
>
>Also, seeing as I'm taking a digital camera and its batteries will need to be recharged every so
>often, what sort of power line plugs are in use in NZ? Here in the US we use a two-bladed plug that
>is, well, ubiquitous but I've seen other plugs for travel in Europe that look nothing like the U.S.
>standard one. Can anyone help?
>
>Thanks, Dave Swarthout Homer, Alaska

Hey Dave,

New Zealand uses the same plug as Australia, with 240V, 50Hz supply. Nothing like any European ones.
You may need a whole new recharger for your camera. If you are coming via SE Asia, stop off and buy
one, coz it will probably be cheaper than in NZ.

Internet cafes are in any decent sized town in NZ, but whether or not they will let you plug your
camera into a computer is questionable.

You should try posting to rec.travel.australia+nz, coz this really is their area!
---
DFM

 

[Hippy]

"dswarthout" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip
and
> wonder about the availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might
be
> able to send digital photos to the US via email. I know Internet for general emailing is available
> everywhere but are cafes that offer
upload
> capability available, common, rare?

Do you mean "upload" as in transfer the images from the camera to the computer for sending or do you
mean, say, ftp to a remote server from an internet cafe?

If you mean tranfer from camera, in Japan I got the photo labs to burn cd's containing the images
taken from the CompactFlash card in the camera. You could get this done and then just email the
images by attaching them from the CD in normal internet cafes. You could also get yourself a small
card reader which just plugs into the computer via USB. These are pretty cheap and heaps faster than
camera-pc transfer anyway. You still have to convince the 'net cafe to let you plug it in though and
it might need driver software on older versions of Windows. The cafes may even have compact flash
(or other) card readers available for use?

hippy

 

[Tony F]

On 17 Nov 2003 06:30:14 +1050, dswarthout <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip and wonder about the
>availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might be able to send digital photos to the US via
>email. I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload
>capability available, common, rare?

We only tried in one, and if we'd had the cables, and software, we'd have had success - but we
didn't. ;^(

Internet cafes were in most big towns and a few smmaller ones.

Someone else mentioned places that will burn from camera (or direct from cards) to CD - these are
everywhere, and have the added bonus of freeing up your camera's card for more shots - and you'll
want to take lots - NZ is beautiful.

Tony F www.thefathippy.com

 

[Mike]

Ray Peace wrote:
> Greetings, You're going to have problems with the plugs, as the US uses 110 volts and NZ uses 240
> volts, so try minimising any mains gadgets you may have, as none of them will work.

Thats not true. Lots of power supplies sold in the US are multi-voltage switch-mode devices. Just
check the label.

 

[Chris Baird]

> I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip and wonder about the
> availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might be able to send digital photos to the US via
> email. I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer
> upload capability available, common, rare?

What I'd be inclinded to do is bring along a laptop with a CD burner and post the CDs home.
(lunky.com has an around-AU+NZ cycleblog that covers the issue a fair bit..)

--
Chris

 

[dswarthout]

Originally posted by Tony F
On 17 Nov 2003 06:30:14 +1050, dswarthout <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm heading to New Zealand in January for a three month bicycle trip and wonder about the
>availablilty of Internet or cybercafes where I might be able to send digital photos to the US via
>email. I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload
>capability available, common, rare?

We only tried in one, and if we'd had the cables, and software, we'd have had success - but we
didn't. ;^(

Internet cafes were in most big towns and a few smmaller ones.

Someone else mentioned places that will burn from camera (or direct from cards) to CD - these are
everywhere, and have the added bonus of freeing up your camera's card for more shots - and you'll
want to take lots - NZ is beautiful.

Tony F www.thefathippy.com

Thanks to all who responded for the quality feedback. My camera uses compact flash memory and I already have a CF reader with USB connector, so that part's taken care of. Burning a CD once in a while and sending it home is an excellent idea (and one I hadn't thought of), so all I need to do is locate a charger or adapter that will allow me to charge my Nikon's batteries using the NZ power plug. Now that I know what's required I'm sure I can find something on the Internet that will work.
Thanks again,
Dave Swarthout

 

[dswarthout]

Originally posted by davef
***
I know Internet for general emailing is available everywhere but are cafes that offer upload capability available, common, rare?
***

My bet is "rare". My son says, "Starbucks are planning on putting infared capability in their shop in Christchurch". He thinks that maybe if you talk nicely to the provider you could install the software on the computer you are hiring.

If you want to provide some more details of what is involved I could make a few phone calls.

***
Here in the US we use a two-bladed plug that is, well, ubiquitous but I've seen other plugs for travel in Europe that look nothing like the U.S. standard one. Can anyone help?
***

Well, not "ubiquitous enough"! NZ and Australia use a rather unusual 3 pin plug. Also, we are 240 Volts and 50 Hz which might make a difference.

Cheers
davef

Sorry, I should have said "unbiquitous here." <g> Other posters have given me enough advice to know what to buy -- it turns out my charger will run on 240v 50 HZ so I only need an adapter to mate the two dissimilar plug configurations. Should I buy the three prong grounded adapter or will a two-prong ungrounded work. My charger doesn't care, so it's question of which type of outlet is more commonly found in NZ, grounded or not.
Again, thanks,
Dave Swarthout
Homer, Alaska

 

[Theo Bekkers]

"dswarthout" wrote
> davef wrote:

> > Well, not "ubiquitous enough"! NZ and Australia use a rather
unusual 3
> > pin plug. Also, we are 240 Volts and 50 Hz which might make a difference.

> Sorry, I should have said "unbiquitous here." <g> Other posters have given me enough advice to
> know what to buy -- it turns out my
charger
> will run on 240v 50 HZ so I only need an adapter to mate the two dissimilar plug configurations.
> Should I buy the three prong
grounded
> adapter or will a two-prong ungrounded work. My charger doesn't
care, so
> it's question of which type of outlet is more commonly found in NZ, grounded or not.

http://www.accesscomms.com.au/powerplug.htm

All sockets are three pin but and two pin plugs (without earth) will plug in to any three pin
socket. Also used in Fiji.

Theo

 

[Dorre]

Theo Bekkers <[email protected]> wrote:
: "dswarthout" wrote
:> davef wrote:
: http://www.accesscomms.com.au/powerplug.htm All sockets are three pin but and two pin plugs
: (without earth) will plug in to any three pin socket. Also used in Fiji.

Another possibility worth considering if visiting several different countries it to get something
that plugs into shaver sockets. These are common in most hotel/motels use the same plug in the US,
UK, Europe and Australasia. They can even be set to the required voltage.

Dorre