my views of New Zealand

8/31/2010

8/29/2010

For home-sick Americans in NZ

I came across this website (I think it was on another expat blog) that imports real American stuff to NZ.

It's called Martha's Backyard and, if you email them, they will send you a list of what they have to offer!

If you live in Auckland, you can stop by the shop.

I think I have found a new favorite website!

Martha's Backyard

8/25/2010

Trivia time

This is what the internet says about NZ....

The old Government Building in Wellington is the largest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere.

NZ is the home of the only alpine parrot in the world, the Kea.

It is said, but can’t be proven, that Richard William Pearse took flight almost 2 years before the Wright Brothers.

Tongariro National Park was the first in NZ to be established as a National Park in 1887.

The longest wharf in the southern hemisphere was open in 1929 at Tolaga Bay. It is 1.3km long.

New Zealand was the first country to have a government department for tourism. In 1901, the Department of Tourists and Health Resorts was established.

About 80% of all NZ flora occurs only nowhere else in the world.

New Zealand has more golf courses, Scottish Pipe bands, boats, cafes , sheep, cows, punk rock bands, Olympic gold medals, bookstores and cars per capita than any other country.

Bungee jumping, milking machines, herd ear tags, blokarting, zorbing, tranquilizer dart gun, propellerless jet boat, hay lift, Zamboni-like machine, water sprinkler, advanced air compressor and air conditioner, child-proof bottles, hairpin with the crinkle on the side, totaliser machine used for racing and sports betting, self-sealing paint lid and velcro were all first invented in NZ—or at least, so they say.

Curio Bay in Southland has one of the world’s largest petrified forests.

The heaviest and only flightless parrot in the world, the Kakapo, resides in NZ.

The pavlova, a meringue dessert, was invented here and named after the ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

Waikoropupu Springs near the town of Nelson, is home to the ‘dancing sand’. The springs hasve the clearest freshwater in the world and discharge 14,000liters per second—enough to fill 40 bathtubs—per second.

The world’s smallest marine dolphin, The Hector’s Dolphin, is only found in NZ waters, as is the Hooker’s sea lion, the world’s rarest sea lion.

Turangawaewae House was built in 1919 in Nguanawahai as the Maori Parliament building, but was never used as such.

Less than 5% of NZ’s population is human.

8/23/2010

I admit it....I'm a snob

As most of you know, I have a photoblog and I loooooove taking pictures. At times, I am amazed at the colors and textures and such on other folks photos and I gaze in wonder at them--until I find out that it's not their prowess at photography or their super-duper great cameras that make the photos so cool, it's some program they have used to enhance their work.

Now, even though I am a purist of sorts, I'm not at all adverse to these things. I just can't justify the money for something that I would rarely use.

And all that leads to my confession of being a snob.

Each time that I read about a new 'something' that someone is thrilled about on their gizmo (be it a phone or ipad), I check my old faithful program and, sure enough, I find something that I could use as comparable.

That program is a free download called photoscape.

As I recall, it was probably the very first free program that I downloaded and it seems to work well with my limited technical vocabulary. Having learned some of the phrases and terms that are used in such programs, subsequent downloads were still beyond my older-than-dirt mentality and I alway go back to my old faithful photoscape.

I don't do a lot of fidgeting with my photos, but I know that I could if I wanted to.

And I think that makes me a snob.....

Here are some pics that I had some fun with on photoscape