On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:21:20 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

and (amazingly) it's not an
offence to drive without insurance.

There's a no-fault, Government backed, insurance scheme, iirc. It
provides basic 3rd party cover for anyone who just takes to the road.

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:21:20 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

and (amazingly) it's not an
offence to drive without insurance.

There's a no-fault, Government backed, insurance scheme, iirc. It
provides basic 3rd party cover for anyone who just takes to the road.

Which is why you see teenagers at the car auctions buying souped up Subarus.
I presume they are firm supporters of Darwin in NZ ;-)

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Oct 30, 9:31*am, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:24:43 +0100, Bob Minchin wrote:
We expect to be away from home for possibly a month with 1 week in San
Francisco/LA at one end of the trip or other.

SF is nice, not so sure about LA.

We plan to book a couple of nights hotel wherever landfall is (Auckland
or Christchurch) into order to recover from the journey and then pick up
a car. From then follow our noses staying in basic motels for about 3
weeks.

That's the way to do it or use public transport (donno what PT is
like in NZ though).Do some homework before hand so you can get an
idea of how long it will take you to get between places and search
out the places you would like to see. Nothing worse than finding out
about a "must see place" 24 hrs before your flight out...

Some one mentioned "round the world" tickets. Be careful of the
restrictions. IIRC you have to keep going in the same direction all
the time, no back tracking, so flying into Bali means you've missed
Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and possibly Beijing... I don't think
you can do overland sections either, you have to fly out from the
airport you flew into. So no landing in Bangkok exploring Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore overland then flying out of Singapore.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Yes true with RTW tickets. Eastwards is quicker and cheaper due to the
jetstream helping the flight along.
You can do "open jaw" flights. ie fly to one place, return from
another. I have done a few. Dunno if that applies on RTW tickets.

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:51:16 +0100, Bob Minchin
wrote:

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

You could turn up and gawp at the house "Outrageous Fortune" was
filmed at, just like thousands of others have done. Beats me why they
used a real house, belonging to real people as a TV set - some folk
even steal the driveway fittings, from what I've read.
Fortunately, I have absolutely no idea what 'Outrageous Fortune' is or
was - I watch very little TV so there is no risk that I will be doing that.

Bob

On Oct 31, 12:21 am, Mike Barnes wrote:

Say you're driving along a road and you want to turn left into a minor
road. Another car coming the other way wants to turn right into the same
road. In this country you'd just carry on but in NZ you're expected to
stop and let him turn first.

That law is due to change to something sensible in about March 2012.

On Oct 31, 5:30 am, Grimly Curmudgeon
wrote:
On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:21:20 +0000, Mike Barnes

wrote:
and (amazingly) it's not an
offence to drive without insurance.

There's a no-fault, Government backed, insurance scheme, iirc. It
provides basic 3rd party cover for anyone who just takes to the road.

Vehicle damage is not covered automatically so you should have 3rd
party cover, whcih is cheap ($100 per year for me)
NZ's ACC scheme provides no-fault personal injury cover.
So if you injure somebody they cannot sue you, and if you are injured
you will possibly be paid medical costs.
However the person at fault may be prosecuted if reckless or
deliberate.

On 30/10/2011 10:31 p.m., Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:24:43 +0100, Bob Minchin wrote:

That's the way to do it or use public transport (donno what PT is
like in NZ though).

PT in NZ is not good, the result of low population density and high car
ownership.

On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:30:31 -0700 (PDT), Matty F
wrote:

There's a no-fault, Government backed, insurance scheme, iirc. It
provides basic 3rd party cover for anyone who just takes to the road.

Vehicle damage is not covered automatically so you should have 3rd
party cover, whcih is cheap ($100 per year for me)
NZ's ACC scheme provides no-fault personal injury cover.
So if you injure somebody they cannot sue you, and if you are injured
you will possibly be paid medical costs.
However the person at fault may be prosecuted if reckless or
deliberate.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I knew a bit but not the details.

On Oct 28, 11:51 pm, Bob Minchin
wrote:
SWMBO & I are planning a trip to NZ sometime next year and in an attempt
to balance out her choice of scenic locations to visit, I'd welcome
suggestions of 'must see' locations for an
engineer/scientist/woodbutcher like myself and like most readers of this NG.

If you have time to go north of Auckland, the Kauri Museum at
Matakohe, Northland is worth a visit. The Kauri being the most
wonderful timber, except that most of it was cut down.
http://www.kauri-museum.com/

The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland is quite
large and has two sites connected by free electric trams.
On the main site is an original 1877 steam powered beam engine that
runs occasionally. It has a 16.3 tonne, 6.25m diameter flywheel and
7.3m beam. It uses huge amounts of coal!

There are electric trams from NZ and Australia. The 1891 steam tram
may be ready after its overhaul by the time of your visit. Volunteer
days are Sunday and Tuesday and they would be happy to show you
around.
The trams are powered by a bank of mercury arc rectifiers which are on
display.

In the Telecommunications section are examples of the oldest telegraph
and telephones and radios.

On the other site there is the new Aviation Display Hall for planes,
and there's steam trains and tanks that run around once a month.
http://www.motat.org.nz/

Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World is in Auckland and is interesting
from an engineering point of view. It's probably the first or one of
the first underwater aquariums that has a curved Perspex roof over a
moving platform. It's built inside the old sewage reservoir for
Auckland! There is a replica of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s
Antarctic hut of 1911. There's an 80-strong colony of King and Gentoo
penguins on the snow and swimming underwater. And sharks, stingrays
and seahorses etc.
http://kellytarltons.co.nz/

The Tawhiti Museum in Hawera is extremely well presented:
http://www.tawhitimuseum.co.nz/

Much of Christchurch has been demolished by earthquakes so check for
recent information there.

The scenery in the South Island is great. At least go to Queenstown.
The Earnslaw is a large steam powered ship on the lake there. Well
worth a trip. Also maybe a jet boat trip up the Dart or Rees river.
The Kingston Flyer is a steam train that has recently changed hands,
and reopened two days ago
http://www.kingstonflyer.co.nz/

Next to Lake Manapouri is an underground powerhouse.
After disembarking at West Arm, you travel down a 2.1km spiral tunnel
through solid rock with a gradient of 1 in 10 to the powerhouse buried
deep within the mountain.
http://www.fiordlandnz.com/media/page.aspx?UID=64