“Mrs Wolfe”. Dunno where that came from, Bronze. 
Thanks for th’ dinner tonight, my good friend. 
Glad to see he got you home in one peice Wolfy. And thankyou for your expert tuition tonight. IF this appears in front of your eyes, you’ll know you finally got thru’ to me. See ya in Avondale.
Hey hey! Well I’ve spent the last couple of years in Darwin but NZ will always be home to me, particularly the Central South Island. There is so much to see there.
You know, you can see mountains all over the world, beaches litter the Australian coastline, many continents contain vast deserts, rain forests cover the Amazon, but I don’t know that there are many places where you can go for a drive for 4-5 hours and go from nice (though cold) beaches, through some very green English style pastures and rolling hills, into arid moonscape desert regions, past magnificent glacier fed lakes, up into impressive snow covered mountains, through tight winding mountain passes to thick, mist shrouded, rain forest and finish up at another beautiful beach. This is a place where a fairly short drive seperates areas that get 6-7 metres of rainfall per year (that’s wetter than Darwin, if Darwin had it’s wet season all year round) to places that sufer from drought.
Variety in beauty is New Zealand’s strength and when I’m 70 I hope to be able to retire there and bask in it. In the mean time, I go where life takes me.
Now, I wait for the end of A Current Affair so I can cheer on my favourite country as it takes on my second favourite country in the Cricket World Cup. GO KIWIS!
At present NZ are doing alright, latest score has Australia on 48/4 after 14 overs.
Oh, and it’s a shame that we didn’t seem to be able to put up a fair and graceful fight for the America’s Cup. I hope that NZ will distance itself from the auld mug (rather than investing it’s identity in it) and that maybe it will go back to Auckland some time and be treated with the reverence it deserves, ie significantly less than it gets at present.
Skogcat, your kind comments about NZ are much appreciated.
What about Tazzy? I Luv Tazzie with a passion. I’ve never lived there, just spent a little time looking around a few years back and I really loved the place. It reminded me of NZ 20 years ago
when things were more easy going than they are now. If I ever win Lotto that’s where I’m heading, might even take Ice Wolf for a ride in the plane too!
There’s nothing wrong with Shona Laing, she’s great. I just wouldn’t single her out as something special about NZ. Though I’d understand the choice of Dave Dobbyn a lot more, for example, I probably still would’ve said “Huh???”.
As for “Quiet Earth”, it had great potential as an idea, but was executed in a disappointingly depressing way. They were all miserable buggers in that movie. Probably the book was the same, though.
I know little about it, except that when ever I see Tasmania on a travel show, I think it’s a segment on NZ.
Oh, and also everyone’s related down there
My cousin lives in NZ, and I have to say I’m terribly jealous. I’ve wanted to go to there ever since I was a little girl. Maybe one day when I win the lottery.
Wow, so much nice things said about New Zealand. And no-one’s mentioned:
[ul]
[li]the nuclear free policy[/li][li]the All Blacks[/li][li]the basketball team[/li][/ul]
Hey, I’m an Aussie. Like I’m going to mention the All Blacks? 
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by kiwiboy *
**Wow, so much nice things said about New Zealand. And no-one’s mentioned:
[ul]
[li]the nuclear free policy[/ul] **[/li][/QUOTE]
I was actually thinking about that when I said :
And TLD, if you love NZ that much, you might put aside a few hours to watch a movie made there.
Aahhh… heh. Yeah. Will do.
I’m amazed New Zealand still has a nuclear-free policy.
It came from the time when the left-of-centre Labour Party reacted to stuff like Mururoa. Among the ministers were former student radicals, the vociferous protestor mob. The policy’s survived that political party swinging over the right so far, it was hard to tell the difference between them and the National Party (the conservatives).
Then we had much of the 1990s under National, who were very keen to do deals with the United States and accommodate as much as they could – yet the nuclear-free policy remained.
Amazing. Maybe they’ve forgotten it’s still there?
Ssshhhhhh …
Hey, I’m an Aussie. Like I’m going to mention the Tall Blacks?
But, as a Kiwi, guys, I will mention th’ Silver Ferns. 
OK. Viva Kiwis! 
Whoa!! A zombie thread. Its been a perennial wish of mine to find one and by hokey the Gods have smiled.
And soon, maybe even tomorrow, NZ will have the Americas Cup to place on the dusty shelf with all the others.
Dang - it is spring, the daffodils are everywhere and the lambs are gamboling about the lush green paddocks. The world has become a pleasant place once again.
Except for the squid rings I had at a buffet dinner in Christchurch, I loved everything about my visits to New Zealand.
Shame about the Ottawa couple who were killed in an avalanche there recently.
Sorry about that, the squid rings probably came from Australia and I suggest you try oysters next time.