I'm back home!
Discussion
It's been a busy month! As you may recall I had my first trip to NZ and saw as much as I could in the time available.
The trip was roughly: London/Seoul/Auckland/Russell/Pahia/Kerikeri/Cape Reinga/Christchurch/Timaru/Twizel/Mt.Cook/Oamaru/Dunedin/Invercargill/Stewart Island/Ulva Island/Queenstown/Wanaka/Fox Glacier (where the mints come from)/Franz Josef Glacier/Christchurch/Wellington/Masterton/Napier/Taupo/Rotorua/Auckland and back. And breathe...
So I thought you'd be interested in a tourist's impressions of NZ...
First, it's amazing to travel half way round the world, spend most of your time in 'foregn' cultures (we flew Korean) and then emerge into a country that's almost like home.
A land of contrasts. Parts like Switzerland (only warmer), parts like the US plains, parts like England. Parts with native vegetation and parts with sheep. Kilometers are short but there are a lot of them.
An amazing light - a clear light and skies that reach the horizon intact without haze. A sun that burns more easily than expected. Blue skies and even bluer waters. I have thousands of photos which will emerge slowly on the Photo forum...
Traffic - not much of course outside the towns but Kiwi drivers defo go faster than we do. Over here few things overtake me; in NZ I was about the slowest car on the road (but then I might have been looking at the view a bit!). Everybody tonks along at 100+kph, whilst here you'd get a numpty doing 60 and holding everyone up.
Cars - you like tuned up and lowered riceburners. Dunedin seems to have a bit of a lowering/loud exhaust scene. I see you even have a 'Boy Racer' Act! I stumbled across many cars heading south for the Vero Rally and wished I had the TVR there to join in. Might turn a few heads in town too! Are there any Griffs in NZ?
Roads - quite an adventure; far more hilly and twisty than we have here - and of course there's the unsealed bits too (I recall Tinui - Alfredton, especially as I was low on fuel and there aren't many garages!)
People - unbelievably friendly. Makes you realise how reserved the English can be. Plenty of amiable banter on the Kiwi/Pom angle - but let's not forget you're all English really, you just haven't been back for a while
Prices - mostly 30% lower than UK although I understand earnings are lower as well, so maybe not much difference. Your petrol is cheap for us - we pay over $2 a litre in the UK.
Regrettably I see the beginning of an anti-speed campaign; as you generally get what we've had, this is sure to get worse. 'Lose your confidence and survive' said the poster, or something. Hmm. However I did manage to wind my Nissan Pulsar 1.5 Auto up to an indicated 160kmh briefly
Oddities: most buildings single storey, corrugated tin roofs, wobbly electrical plugs that stick out at all angles, no overflows on baths/WBs, no central heating. Pipes that stick up from roofs magically increase water pressure. Fish and chips and muffins everywhere!
A country that's totally geared to tourism. You just wander into an i-Site and they fix everything up for you.
News - ours is mostly politics, yours is mostly about local accidents and disasters. Fires seemed to follow me everywhere! You have a socialist government, so watch out. I see NZ taxes rising, and more rules and regs just like here. Vote them out while you can.
Weather - goes past very fast, except in the south west where it just rains. I suspect Mount Cook is a scam and doesn't really exist.
And I wonder why we abandoned you in the 1970's and signed up for Europe, a place we have nothing in common with and causes nothing but trouble and expense. I would like to remove Spain and put NZ in its place, so I can get there more easily.
Arrived back at Heathrow and it seemed like a foreign country; men in bedsheets, women covered up in black. NZ is refreshngly free from foreigners trying to blow me up and generally causing grief. Suddenly just getting a few miles from A to B is very slow and very expensive. Where will it end? Suddenly NZ seems like where the true England went.
The trip was roughly: London/Seoul/Auckland/Russell/Pahia/Kerikeri/Cape Reinga/Christchurch/Timaru/Twizel/Mt.Cook/Oamaru/Dunedin/Invercargill/Stewart Island/Ulva Island/Queenstown/Wanaka/Fox Glacier (where the mints come from)/Franz Josef Glacier/Christchurch/Wellington/Masterton/Napier/Taupo/Rotorua/Auckland and back. And breathe...
So I thought you'd be interested in a tourist's impressions of NZ...
First, it's amazing to travel half way round the world, spend most of your time in 'foregn' cultures (we flew Korean) and then emerge into a country that's almost like home.
A land of contrasts. Parts like Switzerland (only warmer), parts like the US plains, parts like England. Parts with native vegetation and parts with sheep. Kilometers are short but there are a lot of them.
An amazing light - a clear light and skies that reach the horizon intact without haze. A sun that burns more easily than expected. Blue skies and even bluer waters. I have thousands of photos which will emerge slowly on the Photo forum...
Traffic - not much of course outside the towns but Kiwi drivers defo go faster than we do. Over here few things overtake me; in NZ I was about the slowest car on the road (but then I might have been looking at the view a bit!). Everybody tonks along at 100+kph, whilst here you'd get a numpty doing 60 and holding everyone up.
Cars - you like tuned up and lowered riceburners. Dunedin seems to have a bit of a lowering/loud exhaust scene. I see you even have a 'Boy Racer' Act! I stumbled across many cars heading south for the Vero Rally and wished I had the TVR there to join in. Might turn a few heads in town too! Are there any Griffs in NZ?
Roads - quite an adventure; far more hilly and twisty than we have here - and of course there's the unsealed bits too (I recall Tinui - Alfredton, especially as I was low on fuel and there aren't many garages!)
People - unbelievably friendly. Makes you realise how reserved the English can be. Plenty of amiable banter on the Kiwi/Pom angle - but let's not forget you're all English really, you just haven't been back for a while
Prices - mostly 30% lower than UK although I understand earnings are lower as well, so maybe not much difference. Your petrol is cheap for us - we pay over $2 a litre in the UK.
Regrettably I see the beginning of an anti-speed campaign; as you generally get what we've had, this is sure to get worse. 'Lose your confidence and survive' said the poster, or something. Hmm. However I did manage to wind my Nissan Pulsar 1.5 Auto up to an indicated 160kmh briefly
Oddities: most buildings single storey, corrugated tin roofs, wobbly electrical plugs that stick out at all angles, no overflows on baths/WBs, no central heating. Pipes that stick up from roofs magically increase water pressure. Fish and chips and muffins everywhere!
A country that's totally geared to tourism. You just wander into an i-Site and they fix everything up for you.
News - ours is mostly politics, yours is mostly about local accidents and disasters. Fires seemed to follow me everywhere! You have a socialist government, so watch out. I see NZ taxes rising, and more rules and regs just like here. Vote them out while you can.
Weather - goes past very fast, except in the south west where it just rains. I suspect Mount Cook is a scam and doesn't really exist.
And I wonder why we abandoned you in the 1970's and signed up for Europe, a place we have nothing in common with and causes nothing but trouble and expense. I would like to remove Spain and put NZ in its place, so I can get there more easily.
Arrived back at Heathrow and it seemed like a foreign country; men in bedsheets, women covered up in black. NZ is refreshngly free from foreigners trying to blow me up and generally causing grief. Suddenly just getting a few miles from A to B is very slow and very expensive. Where will it end? Suddenly NZ seems like where the true England went.
Great post Simpo!
Glad you enjoyed it over here. Our nanny pseudo-Blairite state is 'ahead' of the UK in some respects and behind in others but we're on the same sad slope down. I also noticed the 'lose your confidence and survive' signs on a recent road trip and wondered what idiot thought that up. Overconfidence can be a problem, but surely being a confident driver is a good thing???!!!
It's not a bad life here though, and though there's lots I miss about the UK (TVRs and other exotica all around, airfield track days, premiership football, driving in France, short breaks in Europe, earning £s) I reckon it's a pretty fine corner of the world to call home and I'd welcome as many brits as we can get. Incidentally, it's a lot easier to emigrate here than most brits realise - something to think about?
Don
The pic... somewhere around Lake Ohau? Look forward to seeing more of them!
>> Edited by Ffirg 005 on Wednesday 25th January 21:21
Glad you enjoyed it over here. Our nanny pseudo-Blairite state is 'ahead' of the UK in some respects and behind in others but we're on the same sad slope down. I also noticed the 'lose your confidence and survive' signs on a recent road trip and wondered what idiot thought that up. Overconfidence can be a problem, but surely being a confident driver is a good thing???!!!
It's not a bad life here though, and though there's lots I miss about the UK (TVRs and other exotica all around, airfield track days, premiership football, driving in France, short breaks in Europe, earning £s) I reckon it's a pretty fine corner of the world to call home and I'd welcome as many brits as we can get. Incidentally, it's a lot easier to emigrate here than most brits realise - something to think about?
Don
The pic... somewhere around Lake Ohau? Look forward to seeing more of them!
>> Edited by Ffirg 005 on Wednesday 25th January 21:21
Great post!
Agree with the political sentiments... don't worry... I'm doubting you'd find ONE person on the NZ boards who voted for the current administration.... caertainly none that would admit to it anyway..... The current administration have had it easy... plundering the place and vote-buying themselves a government off the profits of a global/regional boom.... now that gravy train is leaving the station and they'll be left high and dry at the next election and won't see the halls of office for the next 20 years or more! Sadly I might not be able to stick it out here that long...
Agree with the political sentiments... don't worry... I'm doubting you'd find ONE person on the NZ boards who voted for the current administration.... caertainly none that would admit to it anyway..... The current administration have had it easy... plundering the place and vote-buying themselves a government off the profits of a global/regional boom.... now that gravy train is leaving the station and they'll be left high and dry at the next election and won't see the halls of office for the next 20 years or more! Sadly I might not be able to stick it out here that long...
simpo two said:
This is about as nice as I can make a Pulsar look 
Name the location and win a prize!
Shit I would like to paint this except with my car in the frame, not saying the Pulsar dosent do it for me or anything
Would make a cool artwork. Graham post that pic you did using that painting of the esprit.....waits in anticipation 
kylie said:Sorry Kylie, I can't because :
. . . Graham post that pic you did using that painting of the esprit.....waits in anticipation
a) It's at work
b) I've got no way to host it
c) It was a fairly poor effort to begin with
d) Something strange is happening on PH right now
e) I'm scared of infringing the original artists copyright
f) All of the above
BTW - I've been meaning to ask everyone their views on whether prints on canvas of digital photos (of one's own car) are acceptable, or tacky ??
Kiwi XTR2 said:
. . . Graham post that pic you did using that painting of the esprit.....waits in anticipation
a) It's at work
b) I've got no way to host it
c) It was a fairly poor effort to begin with
d) Something strange is happening on PH right now
e) I'm scared of infringing the original artists copyright
f) All of the above
BTW - I've been meaning to ask everyone their views on whether prints on canvas of digital photos (of one's own car) are acceptable, or tacky ??
I guess I'd say it depends whether the car is poster-worthy or not (because it basically is a poster). eg, your XTR2 would probably look fine, but my legacy? not so much...
Kiwi XTR2 said:
. . . Graham post that pic you did using that painting of the esprit.....waits in anticipation
e) I'm scared of infringing the original artists copyright
Yeah cause ill sue the pants off ya!!!
Oh well perhaps I just need to get my act together and put paint to canvas of this shot.
kylie said:
I'm scared of infringing the original artists copyright
Yeah cause ill sue the pants off ya!!!
Oh well perhaps I just need to get my act together and put paint to canvas of this shot.
But then you're copying *my* work
Or you could just pop down and paint the real thing...?
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