Somebody photoshop in that Lord Helmet shot of Rick Moranis... We drove that poor scooter all the way up Coronet Peak, to a ski field where they run mountain bike trails in the summer. Nothing says "sexy" like a gigantic fucking open-face helmet.

That looks great. My parents loved it when they went last year.

Incidentally, sorry that I missed you in GA before you left. I was in Ohio.

Ah ha. Yeah, we struck out across the board, pretty much. No Derris time, neither.

I'll leave you all alone now, but here's the scenery from the sheep ranch at dusk. If I ever get my 35mm back, I'll have better shots. The digital was just the point-n-shoot camera.

Aside from all teh activity, it looks like a right beautiful place to 'drink in' the surroundings.

Where in OH and on purpose?

Is the girl from there or something?

Akron/Kent

the girl's college roomie was getting married.

wasn't bad at all.

Queenstown is awesome

24 hour drinking

You missed Great Lakes Brewing Company, even though you don't drink, the food is OUTSTANDING. Next time...

question for splates, is Speight's pronounced "spates" or "speggits", 'cause this retarded kiwi i met thought it was the latter. It sounds kinda retarded.

spates

what kind of mouthbreather pronounces it speggits?

"Spates, mate!"

Auckland looked cool, Splates, but do you just live up there for the jobs? Because south island... c'mon. That whole place was just amazing. Not that the north island is shit, but jesus.

Oh and talk me out of moving there, please.

something about that picture of the goat "put" me in nz. the other pics remind me a lot of iceland.

I'm uploading more to Flickr, but got interrupted. Had to drive in to school to fax in a "yall fucked up and lost my luggage goddammit" form to Delta. Boy, this is a treat to fill out.

Not ONE of the descriptions for our bag #'s actually fit our bags. They gave us someone else's tag numbers at the gates.

I will never see my shit again.

IME, they turn it up later, after you've replaced everything (and then refuse to reimburse you).

Nice pics, but holy crap are those glaciers smaller than when I was there nine years ago. I actually got my pics out to check. Global warming bites.

There were signs on the roads to both glaciers, about a mile up the road from each saying "This is where the glacier was in 1780" -something. They said they're growing now, though, due to all the snowfall in the last 5 years or so.

Just two more, from Okarito, the town of 50 people and 50 million sandflies. This is the launch site into the saltwater lagoons, where we kayaked for a few hours. If you looooove birds, it's exciting I guess. If you love portaging over sandy, muddy flats, too.



[img][375:500]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8439/dscn3606bwlt1.jpg[/img]

I'm putting the rest up on Flickr.

Fantastic stuff. I'm envious.

North island has jobs, mustacheless women, etc

but seriously i guess north island is beautiful too in a different way. Since new zealand is a such a long thin country the terrain completely changes as you move north or south

i mean, theres native forest covered hill ranges with waterfalls and all kinds of shit in not even five minutes from my house, black sand surfing beaches like this are about a 20minute drive west from me

[img][650:488]http://www.cypherpunks.to/~peter/photos/Bethells_Beach_05.jpg[/img]

and then theres white sand beaches for swimming cross town to the north
even skiing is only about 4 hours away

i've never met an angry kiwi. Wtf is with that? They're all so nice.

wait im an asshole all the time

like 80% of my comments on this board are negative

yeah but you're not a real person i don't think. No one here is.

Maybe, maybe not...maybe fuck yourself.

Fix that link Splates. I wanna see that shit.

google image if this one doesnt show up, search 'bethells', 'piha', 'anawhata', or 'muriwai' for black sand beaches


[img][650:488]http://www.oipaz.net/IMG/NZ_MuriwaiBeach.jpg[/img]

those are the wild, not built up black sand surf beaches

then theres white sand beaches closer to built up areas - Takapuna, Mission Bay,

the island in the background is Rangitoto (dormant volcano)