Ho-Ho

Post # 5

Happy Trails..
Sunday Oct 28 NZ time

I'm a Cliff Notes type tourist.
In the most exotic place on earth.. I'm good with a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus ride.. Run the cycle, listen to and even learn from the tour narration.. If something looks interesting hop off for 20 minutes and hop on the next bus... Ho-Ho they call it..

We took the Ho-Ho today in Dunedin NZ

No Ho-Ho in Akaroa, yesterday
 
  For me..touring is like the Father Guido Sarducci "fiva minuta university"
.. I intensely experience 5 minutes or so of touristy things and snap a pic or two while passing by ..why waste time ...that's all I'll likely remember by the time I get home..

  There's close to a terrabyte of photos on the pc external drive of exotic places I've been. Most of which, if I ever looked at them, probably would be unrecognizable to me...except for their grouping in a labelled file.

  But.. There are travel memory bits that last. Manoujkumar our Auckland Uber pilot provided one. The knowledge pursuit on happy countries is making for enjoyable visits...

  Yesterday on the Taurango NZ cruise stop, we toured the town a bit...learned some history, found the big tree, got the prices of homes, and where to shop and eat.. While riding the Pepi Toot.. (Pepe = baby)

After the Pepe Ho-Ho ride we walked back to a beach we passd by and found the perfect roisting bench facing one of the most delightful, awsome pacific vistas.. Water, sand, blue sky, puffy clouds, jutting rocks, greenery all painted on natures canvass..by the sea..it was so delightful it gave me goose bumps and a big smile...love it.
   So I whipped out my LA Times crossword puzzle and my pen..(travel companions)  and proceeded to climb the stairway to nirvana...a memorable spot..

I'm not a notoriously happy guy.. Maybe that's what's driving my quest to find the happy pixie dust in the smiliest countries around the world...
 But...
    ...puzzleing in nature's magnificently textured, idyllic, water view locales seems to be my happy drug of choice.. way cheaper and more memorable than Ho-Ho-ing...even without pictures on the ex-drive.

   Way back on Monday,  our Ho-Ho bus tour of Auckland included a  ferry ride over to Devonport, NZ right across the bay from Auckland.
Auckland is interesting.. Got lots of pictures for the files and a few stories to tell.
One of them includes Saul.

  Saul is Lithuanian. He is a thirty something guy who has spent some work years after his Lithuanian schooling in the UK and Sydney, landing with his wife last year in Devonport.  He commutes on the ferry regularly as his work office is in downtown Auckland, a short bike ride from the ferry.
I sat next to him and sparked a conversation about my happiness tour.. He chimed in..

  The ferry is fast, convenient, comfortable and inexpensive. 
Big cities in happy countries invest in good transit systems to help real people move around. Granted..not as conveniently as an oligarch's jet, helicopter or limo ride.. But it often works great for the less-than-millionaire budget.

It always makes me mad when we shortchange, under fund, and cheapen our way around transit in CT.  We have a crappy system.. Other nations actually make it better because it's for the people. 

Sydney had a magnificant transit system. Nice new comfortable trains, busses and ferries... Commuting in CT rarely makes me happy...So far I've enjoyed every commuter trip in the happy countries.

  Saul is a Civil Engineer who works on transit structure design.  His skills are easily transplantable.  The physics of design are universal.. The code books from different countries are minimally different and easy to pick up.

Auckland/Devonport is Saul's favorite location so far.. He makes a decent enough living to live near the city.  Housing costs are sky high.. Health care is important to him and he ranks NZ health care as tops for his experiences.  Saul is a citizen of the world. And he is in pursuit of the best place to land.. That's real freedom. And he has a top list of things he wants where he lives... pay, health care, safety, security, ease of transit etc....and he says he's almost there in Devonport/Auckland.
..his beef..Auckland is not the most bicycle friendly city...oh well...
   As we went over the list.. He, like so many other happy country-ists I've met..failed to grasp why Americans don't have those basic needs filled..we are after all, a "great again" country....

Great again.. obviously has a different translation in happy lands...smh

   When I sat next to Saul on the ferry my first question was do you live here.. He said "Yes but I'm from Lithuania."  I chimed in and said to Saul " I'm half Lithuanian, other half Irish. Been to Ireland 5 times and planning to visit Vilnius.. soon, it's on my list." 
   When we arrived at Devonport, Saul gave me his card.. "Feel free to contact me about your happy country writing...and more importantly,  make sure you contact me when you've booked your Vilnius trip.
I'll fill you in on details."

Lithuania is not at all high on the happiest countries list.. And probably easy for Saul to leave for better life options..
But.. this is the question that continues to nag me on this tour..
  ..Move to a happy country ..or..
Being back the happy country play book (and the magic pixie dust) and try to help instruct America on how to climb out of the dreary, dark, sad hole we are in?

Not much posting as I enjoy not hearing about big, sad, dreary news from the hole...

3 days at sea coming up
.then Hobart Tazmania...

Go Sox!!