New Zealand
 

I'm outa here!See you bitches in a couple weeks!

Have fun and send pix.

Thanks! Will do.

Holy cow! For real?

/envy

For reals. Lil' Griffs semester just ended, so I'm going to go tour with her and bring her home... or seek asylum. ;)

Have fun!

Damn - Take pics!!! Oh, and go find some shrooms ;)

This "Griff" character might be smarter than the average bear.

New Zealand is one of the few countries I would like to visit. But, I will never leave this country, for any reason.

"Ooh, look, an American. Get him!!!"

Still a little jelly, though...

ftfy

Wow! That's almost like being in Australia! Kia ora from over here, or as we like to say, G'day mate!

2000 miles, so...

Hello to the Underhills and Bagginses for me, if you please.

In this one case, the journey is probably not going to be as good as the destination. That's a long long plane ride. And you don't drink. You have my sympathy, envy, sympathy on this trip. Have a blast, brother.

And no cheating at fantasy football because you're in the future.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...efe75c2ee3.jpg


Ugh estimated flight time 18h 11m

I wonder if it's a direct flight from Newark or New York. Might have to fly to Australia then hop to New Zealand?

Griff will fit right in.

You know what I always think about when it comes to shark attacks? How much that saltwater would make the wounds sting...

Take your Polaroid glasses. It will look like a little white light at the bottom of the shroom. Not that I know about such things.

tarheel

[emoji2] that made me laugh. I feel the same. Lots of things to see here that I haven't seen. I can turn on the flat screen and in half a day visit four or five countries. If they build a bridge or tunnel to Scotland I might go. I won't be in a plane again. In my day we just had hijackers.

tarheel

Does any of this coincide with your plane touching down?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world

That's a pretty hard landing.

Griff, check in please.

Gollum tantrum? Collapse of Middle Earth? Peter Jackson special effects?

PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!

Well, maybe it happened anyway.

But they can't do that to Americans, we'll sue!

Hope we don't have to.

I told ya.

Those pesky Kiwis are willing to destroy their entire island just to kill one Merkin.

:p:

I do hope everyone is ok.

If he's in Auckland he will be fine. The earthquake was further south, but quite bad. If he was flying to Wellington then there'd be something to worry about although we have friends and family there and most people are fine, but it was enough to split roads and cause massive land slides and several Tsunami waves although they were only 2 metres (6 feet), so not as bad as they could have been.

Where was his daughter going to school?

I've no idea, but the above map says he was flying to Auckland, so that's the best thing if it's true. If he traveled to either Wellington or Christchurch, they may have difficulty getting around on the eastern side of the country.

That was LJ guessing to approximate mileage and flying time.

He's posting on FB. He's fine. Earthquake missed him.

...because he was the epicenter..... :p:

Don't tell him about the game. It's best he not know.

The wife and I have done the trip from LA to Melbourne and it is a long haul but luckily we were in the upper cabin of a 747 in B-class so it wasn't too bad. Would love to go back and might get the chance next year with my wife's big Rio Tinto project.

Griff, nonetheless, check in when you can. :)

Yeah. I want to taunt you about the game

You can imagine how violent the quake was that tore up the ground and stranded these cattle on a grassy island.

These cows were apparently rescued by a couple of farmers with shovels. It would have been worth it to see them down safely. There's a few thousand dollars worth of beef there.

Yes, they were moved to another farm, so they're safe and sound... and tasty. :yum:

No! Get off the road train tracks, go back to bed.http://cellar.org/2012/nono.gif

♪ ♫ I whip my train back an forth
I whip my train back an forth ♪ ♫

this is not the masturbation thread.

At least it wasn't.....

Having computer sync problem iphone to pc will update I hope! Frontier sucks as well.

Toad Hall
 

On the way to Abel Tasman, I spotted something familiar, so I snapped a pic on the way back.

Earthquake!
 

So we didn't feel a thing. We left Wellington and flew to Queenstown before the earthquake. We saw some minor road and building damage in our travels but never felt a tremor.

Later in the trip we saw the USS Sampson which was in NZ for the 75th anniversary of their navy but was diverted for earthquake relief. She was the first US boat to visit since the banning of nukes from New Zealand.

Milford Sound
 

Milford Sound was the most spectacular place on the itinerary. We had a guided kayak paddle of about 3hours.

Ben Lomond, the one in NZed
 

Lil' G and I hiked Ben Lomond forgoing the lift at the bottom it became an all day affair.

Politics
 

So NZ doesn't seem terribly enamored of our recent political choice making. We stayed at the Jugglers Rest in Picton. The dude sleeping in the next room was doing a one man show in the town's funky little theatre. It was hilarious and a little painful.

Glad you two are safe and sound. :thumb:

Food!
 

NZ has a great coffee culture. Wellington has excellent foods from around the planet like any decent mid-sized city I guess.

Thanks Bruce!

Attachment 58591

I was trying to work out what those colorful things hanging on the porch were...Derp.

Juggler's Rest, so Ima assume juggling batons.

Yeah, I'm hip like that.:cool:

That was a cool place. Major herb garden out back, juggling stuff everywhere. He had had a run of German tourists so was glad to speak English to someone.

Outstanding! So jealous.

Thanks brother. It was too much to process all at once. I still have to return for a LOTR tour and the mountain biking.

Very cool.

Very good, want Moar.

Well, I only took like 400 pics...

Nice!

I enjoyed the food in NZ, and found that there was quite a variety.
Did you see any deer farms, surrounded by super tall fences?

Yeah, there was one operation that was really impressive. They had red deer, cattle, and sheep grazing on rotation the grass looked so lush. I'm not sure I was able to get that in a frame... but I'll look.

Weta Workshop
 

I saw a number of Weta Workshop items around Wellington. Lil' Griff took a tour there during the semester. Smaug and the eagle(s) are in the airport. The soldiers are from a major WWI installation at Te Papa. They take their First World War seriously in NZ. There are monuments to the fallen everywhere you look. http://wetaworkshop.com/projects/ The scale of their work is amazing. Look at the website for a better idea of size.

Wow, that WETA Workshop is amazing.

Really great. What a great thing for you to get to have done with your daughter.

(I didn't note the juggler's rest name at first, either and I thought it was really nice that the place you were staying provided bowling pins. )