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Location Date New Zealand 
1333234800 Victoria 1332288000 Queensland 1331856000 Northern Territory 1331424000 New South Wales 1330905600 -
Location Date Auckland 1333234800 Waitomo Caves 1333062000 Rotorua 1332975600 Havelock North 1332889200 Napier
1332802800 Wellington 1332633600 Marahau 1332460800
Damn my health! Full on flu gave me a second wretched nights sleep, or lack of. Most frustrating. Anyway John, one of the hosts kindly gave me a lift into the nearby town of Rotorua so I could arrange my bus for thursday, I then spent the rest of the day in Napier, including seeing my first Kiwi, which was bigger than I thought it would be, am tempted to bring one home for Ginger and Hattie. While the art deco buildings in Napier are pretty, because the locals were so scared of another earthquake after the terrible one of the 1930's they built only low rise, so even Canvey Island has a couple of examples that compare favourably! Perhaps visiting sprawling cities in Australia then comparing that with small towns in New Zealand is a little unfair but I do get the impression that generally they are a bit behind the times here...was has surprised me is how American New Zealand is and how English Australia is whereas I thought it would be the other way around.
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Roger It's long been a standing joke that New Zealand is like Britain in the 1950s (it is said by rival newspaper editors that that's why Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, loves the country!). When Peter Jackson made his brilliant comic gorefest Brain Dead in New Zealand in 1992, he was able to set it in the 1950s even on a shoestring budget because he didn't have to do an awful lot of work to make street scenes look forty years behind the times...
Roger Hullo, another British India connection, this time the town you're in is named after Sir Charles Napier, conqueror of the Sindh Province (now part of Pakistan) in 1842. There's a suburb called Meeanee, named after one of the battles Napier won when conquering Sindh. It's an education, this.
Roger "...the locals were so scared of another earthquake after the terrible one of the 1930's they built only low rise, so even Canvey Island has a couple of examples that compare favourably!" You may scoff! But at least they've made efforts to protect themselves against recurring disaster, whereas I bet Canvey Islanders have failed to construct all their new buildings on stilts, thus leaving themselves vulnerable in the event of another deluge like the Great Flood of '53!
Roger Check this out! The Waterbird (or Aquaskipper): http://www.waterbird.co.nz/the-waterbird.html It's a manually-powered hydrofoil, I just watched a youtube video and it looks like great fun - and you can hire them in Auckland! http://www.waterbird.co.nz/bookings.html Here's a youtube video of it in action in NZ! http://youtu.be/0CCbbM8FSFU
ryanedwards Hi roger, well I guess that's true if Britain ever had American Hicksville style towns (which I don't think it had) Looking at the history between NZ, US and UK at the Wellington museum it was made clear that after we practically went bust after WW2, NZ got very cosy with US which probably explains the resemblance particularly in building styles. Interesting about the naming. It's true I don't think stilts have made it onto Canvey Island. Waterbird looks fun but given I can't swim (!) think I shall have to give that one a miss ;-)
Roger I didn't know you can't swim! Yes, better give that one a miss, I wouldn't want to have encouraged you to try something that ends up drowning you...