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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

Lord of the Rings was filmed the-

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/l/lotr1.html

Those should keep you busy for a while working out how much computer
enhancement was used.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.


We went last year, fantastic country particularly South Island. Milford
sound was the highlight for me and the road tunnel on route a feat of
engineering.

The mount St. John University Observatory is a worthwhile diversion if you
are in that area.

Mike

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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November
or just maybe sooner - next February.

This place is a "must see". http://www.internalfire.com/ Not quite in NZ
though but a must see nonetheless. ;-)

Tim

On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:51:16 +0100, 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.

MOTAT up in Auckland (www.motat.org.nz),
ECMOT over in Gisborne (www.ecmot.org.nz),
The steam museum at Tokomaru (www.tokomarusteam.com),
Southward car museum at Paraparaumu (www.thecarmuseum.co.nz),
Wrights Hill fortress in Karori (www.whfrs.org.nz)

There was an interesting tram.trolleybus museum somewhere, too - I think
it was at Foxton.

I did restoration work at Wrights Hill for a while - fascinating place,
but they're not open to the public very often so plan your visit around
that :-)

There's also the old power station up at Palmerston North, but I lost
touch with the people who used to look after it (and possibly still do),
and they never did have a big web presence - try he http://
http://www.newzealand.com/int/plan/b...lectric-power-
station-inc-3106775 but failing that the "old hands" at Wrights Hill are
probably still in touch and could arrange you a visit.

Museums in NZ were very casual I found - expect personal tours at many of
them, wandering around stuff "off the beaten track", sitting down for a
cuppa or ten with the owners etc. :-)

(Regarding LOTR, I seem to remember they did a lot of the stuff to do
with the Ents close to where I was living, but I was overseas at the time
and missed it. I did get to wander around Weta Digital's machine room
once though, which was a rather vast and impressive pile 'o SGI machines
- I suppose they're all on PCs these days)

cheers

Jules

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.


I forgot to mention one highlight of North island. The aircraft museum at
Tuaranga is fantastic, we even had a flight there in a Bell helicopter that
was used in filming the MASH series. There are a few photos of our trip at
http://share.ovi.com/album/Muddymike.NewZealan if anyone is interested.
including the Bell helicopter.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10730?sort=2

Mike

On Oct 28, 11:51*am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

It's a very long flight.
Consider planning some stopovers on the way.
Bali, Singapore, Hongkong, Delhi, Kuala Lumpar, Los Angeles. Hawaii/
Pacific islands, Panama Costa Rica
All possible because it's almost exactly the antipodes.
Different airlines have different possibilities.

You might find a Round The World ticket cheaper. ie carry right on and
circle the globe. Going Eastward is usually cheaper because of the
jetstream.
You can stopover one place going and another on the way back.
Third world countries are really cheap to stsy in,you can fix
everything by email/internet.

NZ is a good place to hire a car + they drive on the left.

On Oct 28, 11:51*am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

Another thought. They run trips to Antarctica from NZ.
Heh Heh. Take your toolbag, I heasr there's a lot of damge needs
fixing!

In article ,
Bob Minchin wrote:

... I'd welcome
suggestions of 'must see' locations for an
engineer/scientist/woodbutcher like myself and like most readers of this NG.

Well *obviously* you need to visit MattyF and check out his projects! A
master-DIYer.

John

On Oct 28, 11:51*am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

Your best plan is to get the Lonely Planet travel book. Lots of good
info there. There's nothing worse than finding out you missed
something really interesting by a couple of miles when you get back.
It is mostly written by travellers to the places and is updated often.
I have written a few pages myself. (Not NZ. but Bolivia and Peru)

All about places to see, hotels, buses, prices and ripoffs etc. I
have about twenty of them.

Another John wrote:
In article ,
Bob Minchin wrote:

... I'd welcome
suggestions of 'must see' locations for an
engineer/scientist/woodbutcher like myself and like most readers of
this NG.

Well *obviously* you need to visit MattyF and check out his projects!
A master-DIYer.

You beat me to it:-)


--
Adam

Bob Minchin :
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November
or just maybe sooner - next February.

Are you interesting in hiking ("tramping" as they call it there)? I can
vouch for the Tongariro Crossing, Queen Charlotte Walkway, and Milford
Track. Queenstown is great for all sorts of activities.

I wouldn't bother with the famous glass floor at the top of the
skyscraper in Auckland. The glass was so dirty when we visited you could
hardly see through it. Nor with the glaciers on S Island - if you've
been to a glacier anywhere else, it was probably more impressive.

The vineyard lunches are a great tradition.

You can see brief plans for our four-week holiday in 2003 he
http://thedowerhouse.com/hols/nz.html

--
Mike Barnes

John Williamson wrote:
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next
November or just maybe sooner - next February.

Lord of the Rings was filmed the-

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/l/lotr1.html

Those should keep you busy for a while working out how much computer
enhancement was used.

But the orcs were real weren't they? Or is that just in Yorkshire?

--
Adam

"harry" wrote in message
...
On Oct 28, 11:51 am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

Your best plan is to get the Lonely Planet travel book. Lots of good
info there. There's nothing worse than finding out you missed
something really interesting by a couple of miles when you get back.
It is mostly written by travellers to the places and is updated often.
I have written a few pages myself. (Not NZ. but Bolivia and Peru)


Or go to the travel agents and use the plans in the relevant brochures.
Alternatively if you send me an email, I will send you our holiday plan.
The Art Deco week in Napier is fun.

In message , Michael Chare
writes


"harry" wrote in message
...
On Oct 28, 11:51 am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

Your best plan is to get the Lonely Planet travel book. Lots of good
info there. There's nothing worse than finding out you missed
something really interesting by a couple of miles when you get back.
It is mostly written by travellers to the places and is updated often.
I have written a few pages myself. (Not NZ. but Bolivia and Peru)


Or go to the travel agents and use the plans in the relevant brochures.
Alternatively if you send me an email, I will send you our holiday plan.
The Art Deco week in Napier is fun.

There's always the lonely planet guide online or in paperback


--
geoff

On 28/10/2011 11:51 p.m., 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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.


NZ hasn't much of interest in the engineering/scientific line, the
attractions are more to do with nature - mountains, rivers, lakes,
beaches, trees, birds, fish... There are a couple of exceptions, of
course. If you are in Wellington, it's worth going to the Te Papa
Museum just to see the Britten motorcycle.

On Oct 28, 11:51*am, 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.

Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.

TIA

Bob

If you're up for it, NZ is the one of the world's premier gliding
places. Several world distance/hieght records are/were held there.
They have been trying to get the world height record, theoretically
achievable due to the South Polar Vortex.
But you can get a ride. Conditions are very predictble so it should
be a good experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omarama#Gliding

NZ hasn't much of interest in the engineering/scientific line, the
attractions are more to do with nature - mountains, rivers, lakes,
beaches, trees, birds, fish... There are a couple of exceptions, of
course. If you are in Wellington, it's worth going to the Te Papa Museum
just to see the Britten motorcycle.

Depends perhaps on how high-brow the engineering/science needs to be? I
thought some of the bungee jumping platforms were quite interesting from an
an engineering viewpoint (sic) - eg the Nevis Highwire. I also found that
Zorbing demonstrated beautifully several aspects of the laws of motion. But
then I suspect that, counter-intuitively, my brow lowered as my hair receded



--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November or
just maybe sooner - next February.


How long do you plan to stay?
Any idea of the split between N & S island?
We were there for four and a half months over last UK winter, so saw quite a
lot.

Fascinating place on the Otago Plain, S. Island (people called Hates IIRC)
where they are preserving an engineering works where loads of cool stuff was
invented, and which you still see in use. e.g. wire strainer for wire
fencing.

Some nice railways - one out of Dunedin up into the central uplands, one at
Kawakawa up in the Bay of Islands.

Barry Bricknell artist's railway in Coromandel Town is a must see - loads of
engineering there!

HokiTikli on S. Island (west) for stone and wood carving. Also Rotorua.

For the scenincs there is Russel in Bay of Islands, Golden Bay at the top of
S.Island, Akaroa near Christchurch. We did an overnight trip on Doubtful
Sound instead of Milford Sound - wedding anniversary and a wonderful place
:-)

If you like wine, set aside a day for a wine tasting tour at the Marlborough
vineyards around Blenheim. Blenheim itself is a pit but the wineries are
superb.

Just a quick note - with a bit more time no doubt the memories will flow.

Cheers

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

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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

David WE Roberts wrote:

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
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.


Suggestions please (polite or at least humourous naturally!)

Weblinks to events too would be good. visit is possible next November
or just maybe sooner - next February.


How long do you plan to stay?
Any idea of the split between N & S island?
We were there for four and a half months over last UK winter, so saw
quite a lot.

Fascinating place on the Otago Plain, S. Island (people called Hates
IIRC) where they are preserving an engineering works where loads of cool
stuff was invented, and which you still see in use. e.g. wire strainer
for wire fencing.

Some nice railways - one out of Dunedin up into the central uplands, one
at Kawakawa up in the Bay of Islands.

Barry Bricknell artist's railway in Coromandel Town is a must see -
loads of engineering there!

HokiTikli on S. Island (west) for stone and wood carving. Also Rotorua.

For the scenincs there is Russel in Bay of Islands, Golden Bay at the
top of S.Island, Akaroa near Christchurch. We did an overnight trip on
Doubtful Sound instead of Milford Sound - wedding anniversary and a
wonderful place :-)

If you like wine, set aside a day for a wine tasting tour at the
Marlborough vineyards around Blenheim. Blenheim itself is a pit but the
wineries are superb.

Just a quick note - with a bit more time no doubt the memories will flow.

Cheers

Dave R
Thanks David & everyone else who has replied.
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. The North/south island
timing split is completely flexible.
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.

Bob Minchin :
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. The North/south island
timing split is completely flexible.
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.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think. Best to arrive in
Auckland and leave from Christchurch or vice-versa. If Christchurch
still exists. :-(

--
Mike Barnes

Mike Barnes wrote:
..

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?
TIA

Bob

A couple of corrections in case he is led astray:


Barry Bricknell artist's railway in Coromandel Town is a must see -
loads of engineering there!

Barry Brickell
http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz...ll_pottery.cfm

HokiTikli on S. Island (west) for stone and wood carving.

Hokitika

Bob Minchin :
Mike Barnes wrote:
.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?

Roads are generally poor and distances great. Internal flights are
expensive. I didn't use the railways but from what I recall they were
few and far between, and rather slow. Our friends in Wellington had
lived there for nearly ten years and had managed to see less of the
country than we did.

You mentioned cheap motels and the good news is that every one we stayed
in had cooking facilities and a communal laundry, which we found very
useful.

--
Mike Barnes

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.

"Mike Barnes" wrote in message
...
Bob Minchin :
Mike Barnes wrote:
.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?

Roads are generally poor and distances great. Internal flights are
expensive. I didn't use the railways but from what I recall they were
few and far between, and rather slow.

Our experience was the opposite. Ok few of the roads are motorways but they
carry so little traffic that driving is a pleasure. We loved dawdling along
at 30-40 MPH knowing that we were not delaying anyone.

Your idea of just booking hotels for arrival nights is a good one. Make sure
you book hotels with an airport transfer bus, then take that back to the
airport next day to pick up the hire car.

South island is best accessed in and out via Christchurch. The alpine train
over to Greymouth is well worth the ride. You can then pick up a hire car at
Greymouth and return it to Christchurch as we did. This all assumes
Christchurch is still as accommodating as it was, we were there between
earthquakes and although lot of the city was damaged then it was "business
as usual".

As for the Auckland sky tower see.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10727?sort=2
They do clean the glass!

Mike

Huge wrote:
On 2011-10-30, Dave 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.

LA? A city the size of Belgium, filled with traffic jams, where even the air
has a suntan. Not my idea of a nice place.

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it
is better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast
compare to SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and
headout to SF only returning to LA airport.

Bob

Mike Barnes wrote:
Bob :
Mike Barnes wrote:
.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?

Roads are generally poor and distances great. Internal flights are
expensive. I didn't use the railways but from what I recall they were
few and far between, and rather slow. Our friends in Wellington had
lived there for nearly ten years and had managed to see less of the
country than we did.

You mentioned cheap motels and the good news is that every one we stayed
in had cooking facilities and a communal laundry, which we found very
useful.

Thanks Mike
We actually like travelling on back roads and I've already got NZ maps
loaded onto the tomtom ready to explore.

Bob

Mike Barnes :
Bob Minchin :
Mike Barnes wrote:
.

Internal travel is more difficult than you'd think.


Could you expand on that comment please Mike?

Roads are generally poor and distances great. Internal flights are
expensive. I didn't use the railways but from what I recall they were
few and far between, and rather slow. Our friends in Wellington had
lived there for nearly ten years and had managed to see less of the
country than we did.

You mentioned cheap motels and the good news is that every one we stayed
in had cooking facilities and a communal laundry, which we found very
useful.

[following up my own posting]

Talking of roads there's an interesting rule in NZ, or at least there
was when I last drove there, I can't speak for nowadays.

They drive on the left (mostly). Good. But...

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.

The other things to bear in mind that standards of driving are generally
poor, drink-driving is a popular pastime, and (amazingly) it's not an
offence to drive without insurance.

The good news is there's not much traffic in the sticks.

I now see there's a useful web page...

http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_New_Zealand

--
Mike Barnes

Bob Minchin wrote:
[snip]

We actually like travelling on back roads and I've already got NZ maps
loaded onto the tomtom ready to explore.

Just to cheer you up, several of my family are now stranded in NZ as a
consequence of the QANTAS strike/lockout.

On 30/10/2011 11:01, Bob Minchin wrote:
Huge wrote:
On 2011-10-30, Dave 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.

LA? A city the size of Belgium, filled with traffic jams, where even
the air
has a suntan. Not my idea of a nice place.

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it
is better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast compare
to SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and headout to SF
only returning to LA airport.

Bob
You should add a mini-detour to Yosemite ... maybe even spend night or
two there. I found the Submarine in SF surprisingly interesting to
wander around.

MuddyMike :
As for the Auckland sky tower see.
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...e.10727?sort=2
They do clean the glass!

So that's what it looks like! :-)

Seriously, though, that looks like a lift shaft. The glass floor I
remember looked down the outside of the building to the road. No doubt
they do clean it from time to time but from what I recall the problem
was mainly scratching and that would require polishing out or
replacement, neither of them cheap options I'd have thought. I guess we
just went at a bad time.

--
Mike Barnes

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
Huge wrote:
On 2011-10-30, Dave 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.

LA? A city the size of Belgium, filled with traffic jams, where even the
air
has a suntan. Not my idea of a nice place.

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it is
better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast compare to
SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and headout to SF only
returning to LA airport.


Not so keen on central LA - looked a bit of a pit when we were there.
We flew in and out of LA for our six week RV tour of the West Coast as the
last leg of our world tour.
[London - Singapore - Port Douglas (N. of Cairns) - Sydney (wonderful
place) - Christchurch (after the big one but before the even bigger one) -
driving round NZ and camping - Auckland - Hawaii (Oahu and Big Island) -
LA (six week RV expedition) - London ]
We spent our last few days at Long Beach which is a bit out of town, but a
very relaxing place to stay.
Public transport seemed very good, as well.
So I would suggest that as a potentially better option then central LA if
you are stopping for a week.

Cheers

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

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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

On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:57:14 -0000, Huge wrote:

On 2011-10-30, NoSpam wrote:
On 30/10/2011 11:01, Bob Minchin wrote:
Huge wrote:
On 2011-10-30, Dave 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.

LA? A city the size of Belgium, filled with traffic jams, where even
the air
has a suntan. Not my idea of a nice place.

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it
is better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast
compare
to SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and headout to
SF
only returning to LA airport.

Bob
You should add a mini-detour to Yosemite ... maybe even spend night or
two there.

Hear, hear. Cracking place.

Literally.

--
Rod

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
Huge wrote:
On 2011-10-30, Dave 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.

LA? A city the size of Belgium, filled with traffic jams, where even the
air
has a suntan. Not my idea of a nice place.

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it is
better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast compare to
SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and headout to SF only
returning to LA airport.


Oh, and given the choice between SF and LA I would go for SF every time.
Lovely place, loads of good restaurants (the Stinking Rose if you like
garlic!) and you can walk everywhere, the tram system is fun and the tram
museum a must see where you can see all the inner workings of the cables
which pull the trams.
I agree that LA is better suited to be a hub from NZ - you may even have to
take an internal flight to get easily to SF.
However SF to UK is straightforward.

If I was flying into and out of LA and had a week I would get out of town
fast and go and see Death Valley and Grand Canyon.
Vegas is accessible for those who like that sort of thing.
However if you are going November or February (nice times to see NZ) you may
have problems getting into Yosemite, for instance.
Unless you hire a 4x4 for the ski scene?
We were in the US from late March to early May and a lot of the mountain
areas were still closed due to snow.
We wanted to see Yellowstone but it was still snowed up.
Much of Yosemite also.
We spend much of the latter part of our trip in San Diego which we loved.

Cheers

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

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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

"Gib Bogle" wrote in message
...
A couple of corrections in case he is led astray:


Barry Bricknell artist's railway in Coromandel Town is a must see -
loads of engineering there!

Barry Brickell
http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz...ll_pottery.cfm

HokiTikli on S. Island (west) for stone and wood carving.

Hokitika

Fair cop - I do have major word blindness over NZ names :-)

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

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
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
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.


We stopped off at Honk Kong for 3 nights, then flew into Brisbane a spent a
week driving down to Sydney (worst experience of the whole trip was trying
to return a hire car to a Sydney city depot) before flying on to
Christchurch, looped around South island by train and car for 10 days, flew
on to Wellington drove across North island for 8 days, flew on to Fiji from
Auckland for 4 days then just one night on the coast outside Los Angles
where we have been before.

So you can indeed fly on from a different airport, or you can if you fly
business class :-)

Mike

On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:01:50 +0000, Bob Minchin wrote:

The reason for choosing LA was that it seems from web searches that it
is better connected for direct flights to NZ from the west coast
compare to SF. So we would fly in and out of LA, pick up a car and
headout to SF only returning to LA airport.

IIRC I flew into LAX from HNL then down to SFO, the return to LHR was
similar just used LAX as a stepping stone. The leg from HNL might
have been direct to SFO.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Huge wrote:

On 2011-10-30, David WE Roberts wrote:

Unless you hire a 4x4 for the ski scene?

IME, rental 4x4s have their 4WD locked out.

Also the hire companies have terms in the contract forbidding off-road
use. I had "quite a time" with Avis in Rome about the condition of one
of their cars when I took it back after a number of landslides in
Central Italy. We'd driven down roads where mud had washed across the
carriageway and in places was forming mounds a couple of feet high. When
we got to the rental office the car was spattered in mud and looked as
if it had been off-roaded for many weeks. Which is what they tried to
argue.

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.