The Amazing Race

There I was, walking around the Sky Tower area, when I guy comes up to me and says:

He: "Hi there!"
Me: "Hello!"
He: "Do you speak any other language apart from English?"
Me: "Yes, I do."
He: "Let me explain to you what we are doing. Do you know The Amazing Race TV show¹?"
Me: "Yep, I think so."
He: "Oh, good! We are one of the contestants of that show. Or at least, we are trying to be... So, this is one of the games that we have to play. We need to find people that can speak another language and ask them to say anything in that language to that lady there."
Me: "Oh, is that so? I don't think that's a good idea..."
He: "Oh, come on! You just need to say anything in your native language to that woman over there. It won't take more than 3 seconds!"
Me: "Humm, ok then. But do I have to give you any personal information, like my passport number or my address?"
He: "No! You just have to say a sentence in your native language. That's it!"
Me: "Ok , I'll do it then."
He: "Cool! Thank you!! Let's go there then. Where are you from?"
Me: "Brazil."
He: "Oh, really? Which part? São Paulo?"
Me: "That's right!"
He: "I know São Paulo. I've never been there though. Oh, here we are..."
Lady: "So, say something in your language."
Me: "O que você quer que eu fale?"
Lady: "Wow! I didn't understand a word! But that's enough, thank you very much!"
Me: "Is that it? LOL!"
Lady: "Lol! Yes! That's it!"
Me: "Cool. Just for you to know, I said "What do you want me to say?" in Portuguese."
Everybody: "LOL!"
He: "Oh, here, take this. It's kind of a prize for you to have helped us."
Me: "Wow! Thanks a lot!"
He: "You are welcome!"
Me: "Humm, I'm liking this you know... Listen, can I say something else so I can win more things?"
Everybody: "LOL!!!"

And that's the kind of people you meet while walking around Auckland! =P 

Here are the "prizes" I got:

And here are the people. Take a look at them carefully. Maybe two of them will be famous in the Amazing Race! =P

## Links ##

1) http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/

Britomart Transport Centre

For those of you who asked me to upload more videos about Auckland, here it is! =)

Telecom, Vodafone and 2-Degrees - Which one should you choose?

There are 3 main telecom companies in New Zealand: Vodafone, Telecom and 2-Degrees.

There is no golden rule to make the decision on which one you should choose. However, I'm going to share with you the little knowledge I have about those companies so far

1. Text message

A piece of advice: stay away from "casual rates for text" plans. In fact, stay away from any "casual rates for something". They usually cost an arm and a leg (and maybe a kidney). You need to buy the packages the companies offer you instead, otherwise the texts will be TOO expensive! For instance, by Telecom, a single text message costs you NZ$ 0.20 each in the "casual rates" plan. However, you can buy a NZ$ 6.00 package and get 150 text messages (that is NZ$ 0.04 per text message). The only downturn is that the messages expire 30 days later, whether you use them or not! Yet, I think it is worth it. If you happen to use more than the 150 messages available, they will start to charge you the standard "casual rates" again (NZ$ 0.20 for each extra message), so pay attention to your text message "balance"!

Nonetheless, I still find NZ$ 0.04 per text message a rip-off. 2-Degrees, for instance, has a plan of 2500 text messages for NZ$ 10.00¹, which gives you a rate of NZ 0.004 / message.
However, unless you really send about 80 messages a day (2500/30 = 83) I don't think it is worth to buy this plan. You'd be better off sticking with the first one that charges you NZ$ 6.00 (which gives you 5 text messages per day). Again, it all depends on how often you send text messages.



2. 3G network

It is also worth mention that, if you are going to use the 3G network, then it is nice to take a look at Vodafone. They offer you 10MB of data for free every day. After that they charge you NZ$ 1.00 per MB exceeded (which is another rip-off). Telecom has the same plan, except that they charge you NZ$ 1.00 for the first 10MB!!! O__O Stay away from Telecom if you are on a prepaid plan and need to use some 3G.



3. Voice

And last, but not least, there is the voice plans. Honestly, I don't think any of them are worth it. You should just have some credit in order to be able to receive calls and that's it! If you need to make calls, use Skype instead. It's way cheaper. Of course you have the inconvenience that you have to be connect to the Internet, but I still think it is much more worth it.

So, what conclusion can we get from all this? I advise you to stay away from Telecom. Use Vodafone or 2-Degrees instead. To be honest, there might be some cases where Telecom is the best one to choose, however, I didn't find one single situation where that is the case. Everything I looked up (always with a prepaid plan in mind) was more expensive in Telecom. Keep in mind, however, that these are only my first impressions. They might change along my stay in New Zealand. I'll let you guys know if they do!


By the way, here goes some cell phone related vocabulary that might help you:

• To top up: to buy credits for your cell phone.

• Airtime: time during which a cellular phone is in use, including calls made and received (I'm not sure if this definition en globe text messages as well...)

• Stay Key: key called "estrela" in Portuguese.

• Hash key: key called "jogo da velha", "hash" or "cruz" in Portuguese

• Landline: any phone that is not a mobile one (we call it "telefone fixo" in Portuguese)

Hope you found this post useful! If you have any tip and would like to add more information to this post, feel free to do so in the comments!



## Links & Resources ##

1) http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/prepay/pricing/value-packs/text-pack

New York City??

No! Just Queen Street!! =D

Plug adapter

On my second day here in New Zealand I went look for an adapter. First store I tried, was a big Warehouse in 3-Kings, called Bunnings¹.

There was an universal adapter there, but it cost NZ$ 10.00 !!! I found that too much for a simple adapter and decided to go to another store. Sure enough, just about 1 block from there, I found what New Zealanders call a "two-dollar shopping" store. And guess what, I found the EXACT SAME adapter for NZ$ 2.00 !!!!! =D Such a huge difference... The moral of the story is: always check a 2 dollar shopping first! They are all over Auckland.

Here is the adapter I bought:

It easily fits in the new Brazilian standard, as well as the old ones, as shown bellow:

Hope you like it! ;)

PS: Oh, I almost forgot, the voltage here at New Zealand is 230V, so, pay attention to see if your electronics won't burn out as soon as they are plugged in!


## Links ##

1) http://www.bunnings.co.nz

Video of the week - V

Breathtaking time-lapse!

Link to the original video on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/23237102

Quote of the week - VII

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe