I'll be gone for a while

[Antrax]

Nothing dramatic, we're just going on honeymoon in New Zealand and I'll have little to no internet access for a month. Behave while I'm gone, or something.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[wordcross]

Say hi to Tally for us (Also, excellent choice for a honeymoon!)
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Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

[Chaz]

Well, boo and yay!

(Can't wait for it to be me.)
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The enemy's base is down.

[MatthewV]

You should have just swapped places with the newly hitched Amb!

Hy is really just looking forward to implementing the Like button while you are away.

[Chaz]

Heh. If I hadn't taken it down, it would probably still be up.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Tally*]

Cool! Completely understandable if meetups aren't on your agenda this trip but if you're going to be anywhere in the lower north island area, give us a holler. Plus I'm pretty sure amb is an expert on the most romantic spots in the Manawatu.

[Antrax]

Cool. We're spending the first 2.5 weeks in the southern, so depending on how it goes, there'll be plenty of time if needed
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Amb]

Wow, and to think im on honey moon right now out of NZ.

Yes, I can advise on plenty of places to go and things to do. Just let me know what North Island locations you will be in. I'm not so good on the South Island, as I have only been there the once. (Actually going there in a few weeks to drive around parts I havent seen)

Be careful in Christchurch. A lot of quakes lately.

PS: If you are in the south islands, do one of the Sounds. Doesn't matter which. I have gone to the picton sounds on my one trip, and nothing I have seen here in Australia comes close to it's beauty. And the other Sounds sound just as good.

[Tal*]

[MatthewV]

Five medium sized earthquakes is much better than one really large one. I hope all is well.

I been through larger earthquakes but nothing that caused damage.

[Tal*]

It depends on a multitude of things.. today's earthquake in Christchurch is smaller than their 7.1 "big one" in August, but way more deadly and devastating.. it's only a 6.3 but it's 100x as awful.

[MatthewV]

Seismic waves and natural frequencies can be strange like that.

[Amb*]

Earthquake was much shallower thats why. Watching the TV, very very bad. Antrax: Please check in

[Tal*]

Antrax safe & well in Dunedin

[Chaz]

[Zag]

Thanks for the update, Tally. It's good to hear all is well.

[Amb]

Well really, all isnt well. Earthquake proof buildings aren't, and anyone anywhere in a sky scraper should seriously reconsider the intelligence of buildings that high. There are no earthquake safe places on earth. Admittedly NZ is a much higher risk.

[Antrax]

I'm back. Sorry for not contacting you guys, but my schedule was so amazingly packed. New Zealand was great, I could easily do another month and not repeat anything I'd done before. The shuttle from Picton took forever (2 hour delay, unexplained without a word of apology. Uncommon in NZ, as far as I can tell) so we only arrived at Wellington around 10 pm, spent a couple of days there, then it was Taupo & Rotorua (so much fun! and we barely scraped the surface) and onward to Auckland, 2 days and fly out. Between having the GPS crap out on us (my bad, I should backed up the SD card), wanting to spend more time in Queenstown than was originally planned and discovering Hamilton to be actually a nice enough place to burn most of a day in (we originally planned it as a pit stop en route to Auckland -- but then we saw an ad for a Dr. Seuss exhibition and one thing led to another), there was just not enough time. Even in Auckland I mostly saw the inside of shopping malls as we raced to buy all the gifts we needed to bring back. Luckily there was a great comic book shop in Onehunga between the malls that I managed to detour through
All in all it was great fun, but to properly see everything and meet GLers I'd probably have to do a much longer trip, a-la my 2003 adventure. However, I just can't take that long of a break, at least until 2014. Also, the inability to find a good burger would've done me in. No offense, your food is mostly great, but nobody has absolutely any clue how to make a hamburger. Cool toppings though
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Talitha]

Glad you had a good trip! How was the South Island BTW? Did you see much of it?
And seriously, what's wrong with our burgers? I didn't know it was possible to make them wrong, heh.
In Rotorua 2010 our fearless groza did the zorb - did you do the zorb??

[Antrax]

Of course I did the Zorb, it was so much fun we immediately went for a second round.
The south island was also great. Our full itinerary was:
Get to Auckland extremely jetlagged, fall asleep at 2 pm. Spend a day around auckland, fly to Invercargill the day following. Find out Invercargill sucks and fly to Stewart Island. Do the Rakiura track in 2 days instead of 3, die, fly back to Invercargill. Drive to Dunedin, spend time with the parents (4 or 5 days, not 100% sure), win local poker tournament. From Dunedin to Te Anau, which is just a springboard to get to Milford Sound. Be late for your cruise due to Kiwis not believing in roads have more than one lane, still manage due to Kiwi service being generally great, take in the sights. Now drive all the way back and off to Queenstown. Find out Queenstown is awesome, spend 4 days there cramming as much as possible (don't forget the 134m Nevis bungee!), then regretfully leave and go see Franz Josef. Walk around on the glacier, do some easy tracks on the Routeburn then it's off to Westport. Westport blows so backtrack a bit to a tiny place called Charleston to see some glow worms (finally - we couldn't fit the ones in Dunedin), then off to Picton, ferry delayed forever, and from there you know. Overall we were two weeks and a half in the southern island, and again could've stayed for a lot more. I actually pushed for extending Queenstown even longer, it was just such a great place. Rotorua was also really nice except for the constant smell of farts. I honestly don't know what Captain Cook or whoever founded it thought to himself.

The full list of extreme activities is:
- Nevis Bungee
- Nevis Swing
- Jetboat
- Rafting
- Riverboarding (in which we failed epically. Nowhere near the level of fitness required )
- Ziplining
- Something called "freefall extreme" where basically you wear a loose suit and are blown upwards by a giant fan
- Shweeb (google it)
- Zorb
- Rock n' Ropes, which was basically a bunch of circus-style athletics and a swing that was surprisingly fun.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Antrax]

Oh, about hamburgers, there's some expertise involved. First of all, you need to choose the type and ratios of the meats involved. You definitely want to grind some fat in there, and choosing a good ratio of fat to meat based on what you're grinding is an art in itself. Then there's the issue of having patties that are more than 100g in weight. I couldn't see those anywhere in New Zealand. When your patties are so small, they're usually rather thin, so it's nearly impossible not to overcook. Larger patties allow the meat inside to be cooked to something under medium well, which some people prefer. Lastly, there's the matter of seasoning the meat by grinding spices into it. Overall the level of products in New Zealand is very high. Not only the oysters and mussels, though that's a given, but even things like eggs are much better, probably because you have enough room to raise animals decently. So any meal that involves a lot of raw food is instantly a success - but burgers don't qualify (stone grills do, and once I found out about it we ate in such places constantly).

[edit]
And since this is gradually turning more into a "general impressions" thread, the most amazing thing there was that the average Kiwi is not homo economicus. Early on in Auckland we went to buy a local SIM card. We went into a branch of Vodaphone, told them what we needed, and they promptly said "well, if you're staying only a month, you'll want to try our competitors, they have much better deals for that", then showed us where to find the nearest branch of one of their competitors. This isn't even a very extreme example. People there just don't try to maximize their profit. It cuts both ways, but mostly it's awesome and very helpful to stupid tourists like us.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Tally*]

I really want to go to Stewart Island & Milford Sound. I've never been south of Queenstown so it's possible you've now seen more of NZ than I have.

[Antrax]

And finally, pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/marishapol/NZshow?authkey=Gv1sRgCP3IzZrO4eP-Dw&feat=email#
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!