Perhaps your blue hair scared the other tourists away.
Mar 29, 2012
Barry Brooks
Hobbit Homes- coming from Canvey your used to that (Dutch cottages) Looks like your still having fun. ;-)
Mar 29, 2012
Ryan Edwards
With my nose Roger not with my food! Lol
Mar 28, 2012
Roger
You blocked the toilet? What in heaven's name have you been eating?
Mar 28, 2012
Roger
The caption for that photo should be "Fancy a duck?"
Mar 28, 2012
Ryan Edwards
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 ;-)
Mar 27, 2012
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
Mar 27, 2012
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!
Mar 27, 2012
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.
Mar 27, 2012
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...
Mar 27, 2012
Roger
Apparently it was the habit of the people in that region to name new towns after prominent figures in British India at the time. I have no idea why...
Mar 27, 2012
Roger
Hell's bells, how did I miss THOSE?!?! BTW, have you seen any kiwi birds yet? TRIVIA CORNER: There is a slightly odd connection between where you are and Trafalgar Square, in that Havelock is named after Major General Sir Henry Havelock who helped crush the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and in honour of whom a statue stands on one of the four plinths around Nelson's Column. There should be a Lucknow Street in Havelock - it's named after the besieged Indian town Havelock's forces relieved in 1857.
Mar 26, 2012
