New Zealand bound...

[Paul H]

You're much better off bringing your film with you, in your carry on baggage. A few passes (or more) will not harm it. (When living & working in Europe, I used to always pack a little Minox 35GT, usually loaded with ISO400 colour neg. Sometime that camera would have done 10 or more return trips with the same film loaded, and I never experienced any x-ray damage).

Make sure you declare anything and everything, especially for the quarantine declaration.

As mentioned, get some decent, high SPF sunscreen. Oh, and insect repellant for the South Island.

(BTW, technically it is illegal to kill sandflies when you are in a National Park )

So, how long do you have? The length of time you have will largely dictate your route.

[Steve M Hostetter]

create a diversion

[Paul Ewins]

Terry, we went there in June last year for a couple of weeks and did a lot of travelling. NZ is deceptively large, especially the South Island which is sparsely populated. I was surprised to be doing the same sort "drive for hours between towns" driving that is normal in Australia. Don't try and pack too much in or you won't have time to stop for the interesting things that pop up unexpectedly. We planned to spend time at the glaciers, but didn't have time to stop at some of the braided rivers which would have been much better photographic subjects.

I can second the cheap hire car recommendation. I can't remember whether it was Ace or not, but we had a 10 year old Toyota Corolla that did the job and cost a half to a third what the major companies would charge for a new one. Do be prepared to spend a lot of time behind camper vans (RVs) as the South Island appears to be where they go to breed.

I had a terrible time finding decent camera shops and forget about processing. There may be some in Auckland, the only place we didn't get a real good look at, but Christchurch and Wellington had nothing in the way of LF and roll film was pretty much the same. Unless you can get a solid recommendation from a local you will have to take it in with you and bring it home again.

[r.e.]

Couple of questions -

Has anyone experienced what the routine is with the
customs folks on clearing expensive photo gear on
entering the country? I certainly plan on bringing
everything home with me, but do I somehow need to
prove that to the customs folks?

You have this backwards. The issue is bringing the camera gear back to the U.S. If it is expensive stuff, register the gear with U.S. customs before you leave.

Re your other questions...

Speak directly with Air New Zealand about what you can take as carry-on. No doubt, that info is on their website.

Definitely go to the South Island, and in particular the west coast. Also, there is a lot to be said for taking a small plane from Queenstown through the mountain ranges. It is one way to get to Milford, and well worth it.

It's hard to respond to your query for suggestions about where to go/what to see without knowing more about your interests. Are you interested in New Zealand wine, fly fishing, etc? There are some great lodges in New Zealand, but whether they make sense depends a lot on your budget.

If you are into fishing, and not an old fogie, the Trout Bum Diaries DVD about New Zealand might be worth a look before you go: http://www.aegmedia.com/

Cheers.

[Paul H]

...

I had a terrible time finding decent camera shops and forget about processing. There may be some in Auckland, the only place we didn't get a real good look at, but Christchurch and Wellington had nothing in the way of LF and roll film was pretty much the same. Unless you can get a solid recommendation from a local you will have to take it in with you and bring it home again.

For processing, use either Wellington Photographic Supplies (Vivian Street) or Imagelab (Wigan Street). Imagelab handle all the regional E6 processing (even my 9x12cm stuff, which did cause them some head-scratching since I forgot to label them as such...). WPS also have a decent stock of 35mm and 120 film, and a limited stock of Large Format film. The staff at WPS are friendly and knowledgeable, including some LF shooters. Imagelab aslo carries MF film.

In Christchurch, try Photo & Video.

[bobc]

Hey Terry,

I, too, travel between the US and NZ, living part of the year in each country. I just arrived back in the US two days ago... Thankfully, I just missed the sub zero temps but more are on the way, ugh!

A lot of good info has been given already, let me just add a few things that I've experienced:

r.e. has it right that if you want to register your equipment, it would be with US customs. I did this the first time I brought a lot of camera stuff out of the US. I just listed all the big ticket items and serial #'s on a piece of paper and had the US customs folks stamp and sign it acknowledging that I was bringing it out of the US. I haven't done this a second time and have traveled quite a bit around the world and the customs folks all seem pretty non-plussed about seeing a lot of photo gear.

I used to be worried about the horror stories I've read online about film going thru X-ray machines but I've never had an issue and even in 3rd world countries, I've just let it go thru. I'll only worry and try to have it hand inspected if it's going to be passing thru a lot of machines. Some of my film has gone thru 11 machines with half of those being after it was exposed with no ill effects. None of it was high speed film tho.

You could ship it which would still be cheaper than buying it there as it is super expensive. A rough estimate of cost is $5 per pound for shipping. Ship USPS, or DHL (They're still on solid ground for Int'l shipping, last I heard), avoid UPS. I don't try to pull fast ones on TSA or customs, etc. except when filling out the customs form for the package: I'll list the contents as less than $400 NZD. Otherwise, you have to pay GST which is 12.5%. I justify this since it's film that I am going to use and it will leave the country. It is not like a good that I am going to sell in NZ afterwards.

If you get in a jam and need film, in Christchurch, Photo & Video carries a limited range of 4x5.

You could have your film processed in NZ and there is a great shop in Christchurch but again, it's super expensive.

As for your tripod carry on, that may be iffy. I've always put mine in check-in. The Air NZ website statement seems like they may not let you. I have been called on the 15 carry on weight limit, too. You could call Air NZ as someone else mentioned but unless you had something in writing to show the ticketing and gate agents, they would be making their own call regardless of what someone else in Air NZ told you.

As for declaring stuff, when you get on the plane, you'll see from the declaration form what NZ customs is truly worried about. Namely, illegal stuff and bringing exotic agricultural products in. To this end, make sure that there is no US dirt on your tripod or hiking shoes and any hiking gear that you have. Scrub them really well! You'll notice that they really aren't interested in your camera gear unless there's a chance of soil contamination.

As for places to go, it is an individual calling. Most people do find the mountains, glaciers, etc. of the South Island more spectacular than the environmental offerings of the North Island. If people are you're thing, there are more Maori folks on the North Island. Also as mentioned, it may be a lot of driving for just two weeks. I've never done a detailed comparison but it seems like NZ is the equivalent distance of New England to the Carolina's. The thing is, the places you'll want to be are on narrow, windy back roads. It takes a chunk of time to get from place to place. So, even tho it doesn't look far, it takes time to travel from place.

As for other stuff: I went thru a whole tube of sunscreen in the last two weeks and still got burned! The sun in Summer in the Southern Hemisphere is much, much stronger than here in in the Northern Hemisphere.

To deal with jet lag what works for me is to go to sleep within a couple hours after eating dinner on the plane. I'm assuming you're catching the 7PM out of SFO... Use Benedryl (sp?) or something from your doctor to knock yourself out. If you can get 8 hours of sleep during that flight, you'll do well the next day. It works in your favor since you'll leave SFO in the evening and get in AKL at 5AM. You'll feel rested but a little off just as if it was any other day of the week and you got a good night's sleep but were up early the next day. Since the flight is long, follow the usual air travel advice and avoid coffee, tea and alcohol and drink tons so that you stay hydrated.

Cheers,
-bob

[Terry Hayden]

Bob,

Thanks for the updated advice - it all sounds good.

I figured a way to carry on my readyloads as a "personal item"

Our local REI store had some neat padded nylon laptop bags that
just happen to be the perfect dimension for readyloads. I can fit
60 to 70 sheets in it. Since N.Z. air specifically shows a non-bulging
laptop bag as an acceptable personal item I should be good there.

I bought a largish hard side suitcase for the tripod and sundries. We
are each ( my wife and I ) allowed two 50 lb suitcases. We will actually
only use one each and have this tripod suitcase for sundries ( chochkies
and such purchased there ) on the return trip.

Thanks for the dirt tip - it's pretty clean, but I'll wipe it ( and our sneakers)
down.

If time allows I will probably ask for hand inspection of the film - but
if it's at all tight I am resigned to having it go through the carry on
x-ray machine.

I already hit my doc up for some sleeping pills. Given that I keep
hydrated and don't wind up with DVT I had figured on following your
plan exactly ( yes, that is our flight out of SFO).

I know I'm way overbooking our time trying to hit both islands. I 've been
using a web site to estimate travel times to get a reality check.

Speaking of which - we will be staying in motels. Most advice I've gotten is
that, at this time of year, we can't count on just showing up and getting
rooms in popular places. Any thoughts on how far ahead we need to book?

Thanks again to all for the advice & help - it's been great!


Terry
www.terryhayden.com