I lived there three years. My wife and I got married there. Honeymooned there. Had our first home there. Our daughter was born there. First cat and first dog there. We were both heavily involved in the community, me as PR man for the US Antarctic Program ("I saw you on TV!" "Yeah, and lucky you didn't freeze up.") and my wife as a Field Inspector for the RSCPA ("Thank you for saving us at the Battle of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal!" "Uh...you're welcome, I guess," followed by "Honey, what are the battles of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal?" Me: "Ooh. Uh, those are long stories." Finally, we made history there: our Doberman Pinscher, Leah the Wonder Dog, was the first to fly direct from the US to New Zealand. She promptly became a national scandal for her cropped ears. My wife took angry phone calls at the RSPCA: "There's a Doberman Pinscher with cropped ears running around Hagley Park with a large brown dog and a couple/man leading them! Do something!" My wife realized that was Leah and our adopted New Zealand farm dog, Emma the Blunder Dog, having fun in the park. My wife would say, "Righty-Ho, I'll check into it," look down at Leah, who she often took to work, and say, "Are you causing trouble again?" Leah would look up with a "Who, me?" expression. The issue had a hilarious resolution.
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to visit NZ one day. Exceptional trout fishing and hunting opportunities for red stag. Hope future governments are more amenable to freedom. Ha!
Not a hunter in any way…I loved Willowbank Nature Park in Christchurch, where a deer walked up to the patio where we were having lunch, “chooks” — their word for chickens — scrounged for discarded human food, and biology majors feeding Kiwis in the Kiwi House and enjoying being able to say, “No, it’s not your turn” to the national symbol.
We also enjoyed Arthur’s Pass, a great drive. Once there, keas — Alpine Parrots — stood around and demanded bird chow. They sometimes ate windshield wipers.
The nation has 47 million sheep and 4 million people. You can start a stampede by hitting the horn as you pass them by. They often cause traffic jams.
They also get transported on massive tractor trailers, and sometimes fall off. Out goes the RSCPA to rescue those that fell. One such rescue was “Fraggle,” who was my buddy. He lived in a nice RSPCA paddock with other sheep.
Fraggle had FOUR horns. Two up, two down.
Every time he saw me, he trotted over. I gave him RSPCA sheep chow. I wanted to take him home with us.
During our honeymoon, my wife fed sheep at a B&B in Kaipoura, which had a seal colony.
We stayed in 2017 at a B&B in Dunedin which had an American Shetland Pony, sheep, geese, and chickens. There we took our daughter to a seal, albatross, and penguin colony. She was about to do the spring term of her junior year of college at University of Canterbury. As she was born in New Zealand, she paid the dirt-cheap domestic rate.
She majored in computer science and minored in climbing rocks.
Honesty in an airline is refreshing, isn’t it. You were absolutely right when you stated that although they are first to announce this, they won’t be the last. Change always starts at the edge.
I expect better from a nation that has four kinds of recycling home programs.
New Zealand went bonkers during COVID. They'll need to rebuild trust big time...
I lived there three years. My wife and I got married there. Honeymooned there. Had our first home there. Our daughter was born there. First cat and first dog there. We were both heavily involved in the community, me as PR man for the US Antarctic Program ("I saw you on TV!" "Yeah, and lucky you didn't freeze up.") and my wife as a Field Inspector for the RSCPA ("Thank you for saving us at the Battle of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal!" "Uh...you're welcome, I guess," followed by "Honey, what are the battles of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal?" Me: "Ooh. Uh, those are long stories." Finally, we made history there: our Doberman Pinscher, Leah the Wonder Dog, was the first to fly direct from the US to New Zealand. She promptly became a national scandal for her cropped ears. My wife took angry phone calls at the RSPCA: "There's a Doberman Pinscher with cropped ears running around Hagley Park with a large brown dog and a couple/man leading them! Do something!" My wife realized that was Leah and our adopted New Zealand farm dog, Emma the Blunder Dog, having fun in the park. My wife would say, "Righty-Ho, I'll check into it," look down at Leah, who she often took to work, and say, "Are you causing trouble again?" Leah would look up with a "Who, me?" expression. The issue had a hilarious resolution.
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to visit NZ one day. Exceptional trout fishing and hunting opportunities for red stag. Hope future governments are more amenable to freedom. Ha!
Not a hunter in any way…I loved Willowbank Nature Park in Christchurch, where a deer walked up to the patio where we were having lunch, “chooks” — their word for chickens — scrounged for discarded human food, and biology majors feeding Kiwis in the Kiwi House and enjoying being able to say, “No, it’s not your turn” to the national symbol.
We also enjoyed Arthur’s Pass, a great drive. Once there, keas — Alpine Parrots — stood around and demanded bird chow. They sometimes ate windshield wipers.
The nation has 47 million sheep and 4 million people. You can start a stampede by hitting the horn as you pass them by. They often cause traffic jams.
They also get transported on massive tractor trailers, and sometimes fall off. Out goes the RSCPA to rescue those that fell. One such rescue was “Fraggle,” who was my buddy. He lived in a nice RSPCA paddock with other sheep.
Fraggle had FOUR horns. Two up, two down.
Every time he saw me, he trotted over. I gave him RSPCA sheep chow. I wanted to take him home with us.
During our honeymoon, my wife fed sheep at a B&B in Kaipoura, which had a seal colony.
We stayed in 2017 at a B&B in Dunedin which had an American Shetland Pony, sheep, geese, and chickens. There we took our daughter to a seal, albatross, and penguin colony. She was about to do the spring term of her junior year of college at University of Canterbury. As she was born in New Zealand, she paid the dirt-cheap domestic rate.
She majored in computer science and minored in climbing rocks.
Here we are feeding an Emu. It was very Emusing.
Very cool! I'll keep this in mind if I ever visit.
We must have sold a few of those sheep as there’s only 25M. Dairy is our biggest export earner and dwarfs the sheep meat industry.
It was 46 million when I was there in 1998.
I’m told that tourism, based on many things, is surpassing sheep as New Zealand’s leading source of economic income now.
A big draw are the sights used to shoot the “Lord of the Rings” movies. Not surprising. New Zealand IS “Middle Earth.”
Honesty in an airline is refreshing, isn’t it. You were absolutely right when you stated that although they are first to announce this, they won’t be the last. Change always starts at the edge.
Correct. You will never have electric-powered planes. Not efficient and will put travel at a standstill. Ha!
And fourth in world for most rockets launched.
We already have electric planes flying in New Zealand.