Internet experience

We have had quite a wide range of experiences getting connected.

Jan. 10 – Auckland – Kiosk in hotel lobby. Paid $10NZ for 1 hour. Were able to check and send email.

Jan. 11 – Auckland – In room broadband with standard connection included. We were so encouraged that this would be the norm. Wrong!

Jan. 12 – Coromandel – Not available.

Jan. 13 – Rotorua – Dataport in room, but you need a dial up provider, which we don’t have.

Jan. 14 – Rotorua – Found out that they had a wireless hotspot and got connected, but didn’t have much success. Found out that you had to be in the lobby. $10NZ/hour.

Jan. 15 – Napier – The hotel keeper rented us a wireless card for $10NZ, preconfigured for their own network that we could use until we checked out.

Jan. 16 – near Wellington – Dataport as on Jan. 13.

Jan. 17 & 18 – Wellington – Wireless hotspot that we had to use in the lobby. $10NZ/hr.

Jan. 19 – Blenheim – In room with standard cable. $10NZ per megabyte.

Jan. 20 – Nelson – Hotel keeper provided a modem for $10/hr. It connected to the laptop with a standard cable, but its only connection to the wall was by the power cord.

Jan. 21 – Westport – Dataport in room, but no use to us. Hotel keeper let us plug into his broadband service from the lobby and charged us $1 for the half hour or less that we spent.

Jan. 22 – Hokitika - Dataport again.

I wonder how many variations we will end up with by the time we are done.