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And we're baaahck!
Mar. 1st, 2005 08:42 pmK and I got back from New Zealand Sunday morning at 1 am; K's luggage got back yesterday afternoon. Much, much fun was had; you'll all be subjected to a slideshow sometime soon, I'm sure. (Warning! Trip slideshows are tremendously more dangerous than they used to be, what with these newfangled 1 Gb chips that store thousands of photos.)
Best things about New Zealand:
* It's a freaking beautiful country innit, mate?
* It contains the best children's playgrounds K or I have ever seen.
* Aussie jokes. Here's my favorite: a Kiwi and an Aussie are walking down a road when they see a sheep with its head stuck in a fence. The Kiwi goes up to the sheep, says "I'll go first", drops his pants, and does his business. When he's finished, he says, "Your turn, mate", at which point the Aussie goes up next to the sheep, drops his pants, and sticks his head in the fence.
* Outdoor activities up the proverbial wazoo. During the trip we: whitewater rafted (down the river Andurin's stunt double, no less), jet skied, jet boated, hiked, fished, kayaked, swam, and snorkeled (last three K only). We witnessed, but did not: bungee jump, reverse bungee jump (in which the victim is catapulted straight up first), river board (= whitewater rafting - raft + boogie board), para-sail, or zorb.
* Fiords. They are worth pining over.
Worst things about New Zealand:
* Sandflies. As the native Maori say, the gods created the sandfly so that people wouldn't just stand around staring at the beautiful scenary all day long. Worse, not a single place we stayed in NZ had screens over the windows.
* The food. To be fair, the meals we had in major cities (Auckland and Wellington) weren't bad, but as for the rest of the country, let's just say that it was settled predominantly by the British. I think I had toasted sandwiches for lunch five days in a row at one point.
* The place names, of which there were three categories: The Blindingly Obvious (North/South Island, Fiordland), The Named after an Important Brit (Queenstown, Mt. Cook, Wellington), or Maori. There is nothing wrong with the Maori place names, except that (1) either Maori or the standard transliteration of such uses a smaller alphabet than a befuddled tourist might like, leading to our reoccurring "Are we spending the night in Te Papawaitkuta or Te Papawatkura?" dilemma and (2) many of the Maori place names, such as Rotorua for example, sound an awful lot like something Scooby Doo might say.
* $20 per person exit fee. It's not so much the amount as the concept (which previously I had thought was confined to two bit despotisms like China) and the bureaucratic please stand in these two lines here way it was collected.
Best things about New Zealand:
* It's a freaking beautiful country innit, mate?
* It contains the best children's playgrounds K or I have ever seen.
* Aussie jokes. Here's my favorite: a Kiwi and an Aussie are walking down a road when they see a sheep with its head stuck in a fence. The Kiwi goes up to the sheep, says "I'll go first", drops his pants, and does his business. When he's finished, he says, "Your turn, mate", at which point the Aussie goes up next to the sheep, drops his pants, and sticks his head in the fence.
* Outdoor activities up the proverbial wazoo. During the trip we: whitewater rafted (down the river Andurin's stunt double, no less), jet skied, jet boated, hiked, fished, kayaked, swam, and snorkeled (last three K only). We witnessed, but did not: bungee jump, reverse bungee jump (in which the victim is catapulted straight up first), river board (= whitewater rafting - raft + boogie board), para-sail, or zorb.
* Fiords. They are worth pining over.
Worst things about New Zealand:
* Sandflies. As the native Maori say, the gods created the sandfly so that people wouldn't just stand around staring at the beautiful scenary all day long. Worse, not a single place we stayed in NZ had screens over the windows.
* The food. To be fair, the meals we had in major cities (Auckland and Wellington) weren't bad, but as for the rest of the country, let's just say that it was settled predominantly by the British. I think I had toasted sandwiches for lunch five days in a row at one point.
* The place names, of which there were three categories: The Blindingly Obvious (North/South Island, Fiordland), The Named after an Important Brit (Queenstown, Mt. Cook, Wellington), or Maori. There is nothing wrong with the Maori place names, except that (1) either Maori or the standard transliteration of such uses a smaller alphabet than a befuddled tourist might like, leading to our reoccurring "Are we spending the night in Te Papawaitkuta or Te Papawatkura?" dilemma and (2) many of the Maori place names, such as Rotorua for example, sound an awful lot like something Scooby Doo might say.
* $20 per person exit fee. It's not so much the amount as the concept (which previously I had thought was confined to two bit despotisms like China) and the bureaucratic please stand in these two lines here way it was collected.
