Posts by Brent Jackson
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If the maximum possible fine is $100,000, it could be cheaper to just broadcast the ads from NZ. It'd cost at least half that much to fly the production crew to France, and you'll probably end up in court anyway...
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It'll be interesting to see how those people using SUVs for the school run assuage their guilt ...
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Congratulations. Great to hear that things are working out for you all.
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Well said, James & Giovanni.
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I also find it unbelievable that the media has such a fascination with Paris Hilton, and any other american star that comes before the courts. Our media is so lazy that they are incapable of applying a decent New Zealand filter to the predominantly American newsfeeds that they reproduce here as news.
Sure some of them may be worth mentioning for those that are interested, but lead stories, or front page news, I think not.
I wish there was a decent source of news in NZ, instead of the entertainment masquerading as news that we currently have.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Can you imagine a major New Zealand exporting sector having its most important market closed down while a foreign regulator keeps its counsel? Yikes.
What ? Like exporting apples to Australia ?
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Hi,
The Youth Hostel we stayed at that organised our Westman Island flight was Fljotsdalur (see YHI Fljotsdalur, Iceland).
I'm sure that if you gave them a call, they could tell you whether it was still possible. The airfield we took off from was about 30km south of there (so quite a drive from Reykjavik).The Hostel is an old farmhouse with turf on the roof and was very cosy - had to watch your head on the beams. A great place to stay.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Hi,
I have been to Iceland, and the pizza was probably the cheapest thing on the menu !
We went there for 10 days in 1993. We have been warned of the huge prices, and took instant meals and canned food with us, so we got away with eating out only every second night. (Tip: if packing juice concentrate put them into a plastic bag so that if one of them bursts, then you do not have a orange-juice-flavoured sleeping bag). The restaurant menus are interesting, with a wide variety of fish, and seabirds, such as puffin and gulliemot. Couldn't bring myself to try the specialty though, Hakarl - Shark buried in sand for 6 months to ferment and sort-of cook slowly in the heat of its own decomposition.
We actually happened upon some hunters - er gatherers, er ... catchers of puffins on one of our beach walks - to the hexagonal stones I think. They have a net slung between two poles about 4m long, and as the puffins launch themselves off the cliff above, swooping to gain airspeed, they flick up the poles to catch the puffins in the net. A quick twist of the wrist and another puffin body joins the pile next to them. Puffins are much smaller than they look in books - less than a foot tall.
Ooops. A little off topic there. Supermarket shopping was interesting, with every fruit & vegetable labelled with country of origin - quite a few from African countries when we were there. (Though when I say supermarket, they were more like a largish grocery store than a supermarket, per se). But supermarket food was expensive as well. (If you stay at B&B's eat large breakfasts !).
Highlights of our stay (anti-clockwise circuit of the island in a rental car) :
- Swim in the waste-heat hot pools of a power plant
- visiting a large waterfall with a natural stone bridge across it only to find that it had collapsed a couple of weeks earlier
- aforementioned puffin catchers and hexagonal rocks
- girl at a school-converted-to-hostel-school (cheaper accommodation when schools have their summer holidays) just down the road from the most geothermally active place in Iceland, who said "You're from Auckland ?!? That's that crazy place where they built a city on top of 60 volcanoes !". (I'd never thought of it like that before).
- picnicking on a peninsula-like bluff over a gorge with a large waterfall pouring into it.
- Gullfoss, the largest waterfall in Europe - impressive !
- Seeing a 4m high tree (believe me - after a week of not seeing any trees taller than 1m - a big tree is a majestic thing).
- discussing farming at the inland Youth Hostel, to be told that the farm next door ran 13 head of sheep. "What, 13 hundred ?". "No. 13." Government subsidies made it possible.
- discussing what to do for our last day in the country (at the same Youth Hostel), and considering driving to Reykjavik and taking a ferry out to the Westman Islands. Hosteller overhearing, says that a farmer down the road flies people there in his plane. Organised ! Took off from a paddock in a cessna and landed in a quarter of the international runway on Vestmannyar island, walked up steaming lava to the top of the volcano that partially destroyed the town (a few half buried- burnt out houses were still present). Landing on the way back in a stiff cross breeze was the softest small plane landing I have ever experienced - that farmer was a superb pilot !Don't know how much time you have, but 9 days is really the minimum for a drive around the island (including a couple of long driving days). Never used public transport because we were told it was fairly minimal, which is why we paid huge amounts for a rental car - gave us great flexibility - and a fright or two - they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Hope this helps - if there is anything in particular you want to know, just ask.
Oh, and welcome back Jolisa - BusyTot's exploits have been sorely missed.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Election fraud in Venezuela...
That's as bad as the stuff that goes on in USA elections !
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Well said Graham.
I'm with andin on this one.
Cheers,
Brent.