An accepted cost of international travel is insurance yet, as regular travellers will be aware, most of the time, this is wasted money.

Do bear these points in mind as the end of COVID nears and international travel again beckons.

Invariably, the reason people buy travel insurance is to ensure peace of mind but, usually, if it comes to it, your travel insurer will do everything in their power to avoid covering the cost of your travel mishap.

Regarding figures, by the time your travel agent has covered all aspects of travel insurance – flight, possessions, accommodation, business, transit, health/injury – you are likely looking at a cost of up to $200.

Travel insurance is not cheap and – as documented in an earlier publication – personally, at that time having been on three international trips thus paid over $500 in insurance fees, when I did attempt to make a claim on a lost/stolen/long-story/look-it-up-if-you’re-that-into-it – tim-walkers-vietnam-supplement – rather expensive piece of jewellery, I had the claim basically laughed off, with the shitheads at Covermore Insurance pointing out that, in the small print, it is clearly stated that their policy covers a maximum of $500 for personal loss, anyway.

More recently, I was stranded in Southeast Asia while a Coronavirus pandemic flourished around the world; first my return flight worth $1700 was cancelled then, after paying for a backup flight – twice – that too, was cancelled. As that money was not returned to me by the cancelling companies (now upwards of $4000), when another flight did come up, simply, I had no money left to pay for it.

I wasn’t worried, I knew I was covered, I knew I’d get that money back eventually; like a sucker, I had again taken out full travel insurance.

Yeah, covered, nice one; turns out the only group of people who ‘covered’ me in that predicament was my adoptive Vietnamese family (I would later discover that, again in the small print, travel insurance providers stipulate that they will ‘not cover flight disruptions resulting from epidemics or other widespread illness’), my glorious Vietnamese family actually donated the cash to get me home.

In essence, over the years having invested somewhere close to $700 in the sham that is travel insurance, even after having a couple of potential claims, travel insurance has given me nothing.

No, sorry, that’s not right, of course, it has afforded me that fabled ‘peace of mind’ that travellers so desire; though hollow as a traveller’s peace of mind may be when that ‘peace’ is provided by a travel insurance company, it seems, we will pay a lot for it.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Ian Shearer

Photography by Wusta Thyme

Problem is there are people in New Zealand who, despite having insufficient ability/resources to raise children, they go ahead and procreate anyway.

Often, they don’t stop at one or two either, sometimes they just keep on making babies and then, as if that’s not enough, then they get a big dog, too.

They can barely look after themselves, yet they somehow see fit to propagate a continually expanding, increasingly demanding, family.

I don’t have children. I’m sure I could have had, if I had chosen it, but I didn’t. I could appreciate that, for the past twenty-or-so years, I was not in a viable position to raise children. Therefore, I do not have any children, or a big dog.

The follow-on problem with unfit parents raising their big families, is that the new generation brought into this unfit situation are more likely to make the same mistakes as their parents, later in their lives, thus repeating the cycle.

That right there, that is a hypothetical example of how an area (of New Zealand) becomes impoverished.

Then once that district has become impoverished, with all its unfit parents, its neglected children, and its big dogs, because of this repeating cycle, this (hypothetical) area is destined to remain, or become increasingly, impoverished.

These neglected children, raised by their unfit parents, they will likely seek firmer authority, they will likely find it amid some form of gang culture, they will likely be turned to illicit drug-taking and other crimes, and their lives will be effectively over.

Why would anyone bring children into a family that is unfit to take care of them?

You’re basically killing them before they even get started.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Betty Kilwell

Photography by Arn Fitter

Internet, along with the regular appearance of new social media sites, is breeding a generation of, what we cool kids know as, ‘haters’.

Negativity, criticism, even anger, sometimes personal, usually unwarranted, always unsolicited, usually unwanted, always unneeded, disgusting, pointless, unnecessary, repugnant; oh, when the bitter loser takes the seat behind the security of their QWERTY board, you’d better believe, this bitter loser becomes empowered.

Insecure and friendless, gutless and weak this loser may be but, through their inability to feel good about themselves, they will attempt to bring down others to their own pathetic level in a cowardly display of spitefulness – ‘I don’t feel good about myself therefore why should anyone be able to feel good about themself?’ – picking flaws, insulting, mocking, ridiculing, denigrating for no reason other than to boost their own misguided sense of esteem.

Currently big on the Political Correctness front, racism, acceptance, tolerance, fat-shaming…

What about dickheadedness – being a dick online?

…Why don’t we get real, stop making a big thing of shit that doesn’t matter and start focusing on important issues such as parenting; knowing where your kids are, knowing what they’re doing, knowing their friends, knowing you have brought them up to be good people and, importantly, knowing that their online usage is safe, productive and not hurtful.

If your kid is someone who goes online and – seeing a post from somebody perhaps trying to boost their self-confidence, risking their vulnerability, opening-up, courageously displaying a new side of themself that they desperately hope people will like so that they can stop hiding from the world and finally feel good about life – leaves a negative comment in the hope of knocking down that somebody who they maybe perceive as having more confidence than they do thus who they feel are implicitly attacking their own pretentious sense of bravado, fair to say, you are failing as a parent.

Mental Health is one of the biggest issues of our time and, particularly among our youth, social media plays a significant role in the stability of this.

Online disparagement, insults, pointless negativity, is ruining our society – both online and real time.

Why are some people compelled to become cruel once they’re online?

Online activity is a responsibility; take it seriously, don’t abuse it.

Why can’t we be supportive of each other?

If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it online.

Don’t be a dick.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Anh Lyne

Photography by Ut Birst

Typically, summertime is warmer than wintertime.

Generally, one will wear less clothing during summertime than wintertime.

Occasionally, in the South of New Zealand summertime can feel like wintertime.

Realistically, during these cooler summer days one would be foolish for dressing in their traditional ‘Kiwi summertime’ garb.

Unbelievably though, there are people who do it.

The other day, in Canterbury, the weather went from two days of mid-thirty temperatures to just high teens the next.

Overnight the weather had turned comparatively cold.

Despite this, as though ‘summertime’ in the New Zealand South demands a particular dress sense, out and about I was seeing T-shirts, singlets, jandals (also a great many goose-pimples) and the like.

It was not a warm day yet, these ostensibly staunch (but maybe just uninformed or maybe senseless) Kiwis were determined to embrace this New Zealand ‘summertime’.

Thing is, given the geography of our country, New Zealand is prone to sudden and dramatic changes in weather yet the people, oh the people, we are so damned determined or demanding or resilient or principled or stoic, spiteful, scornful, pissy or something, that most of us cannot tolerate the idea that during our summertime, we should ever have to wear anything less (more) than our favoured Kiwi summertime ensemble.

When it comes to ‘cutting off our noses to spite our faces’, for most of us Kiwis, it’s a culture thing.

Sure, they were cold but, you’d better believe, they were embracing their Kiwi summertime.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by K Y Summer

Photography by Orphan Cold