Thoughts from NZ

12 on the blink
What could be worse than-being in a land of majestic scenery and not having a camera? Being in such a place with a camera that keeps displaying a "Please turn the camera off and on again". Aargh. So I turned the good camera with the 12 times optical zoom off, and on, and off, and on. And then I put it away, wondering what the next camera I bought would be like – and really, shouldn’t a camera last more than 2 years … and then, after we got to the hotel, I turned the camera back on and it was working again and all was right with the world. (Note to self: remember to change memory cards often just in case.)

The road less travelled (we wished)
We drove from Queenstown to Wanaka today - a trip of just over 100km - unless you take the high road aka the road over the Crown Range. In retrospect (a time which didn't take long to arrive – in fact, less than a minute) I don't mind admitting that taking that road was a huge mistake. On the map, it was the road I'd suggested we take - a minor road but not a goat (or sheep) track. What I hadn’t realized that it took over 50km off the trip by going up and over the range – and the first 5km of that was on a very steep, very windy road, with traffic coming both ways, and no guard rails on the downhill side. Very hairy, very scary – and even though it was majestic views from the top – so traumatized were we that we didn’t stop; we just wanted it over with as quickly as possible.

NZ adds
New Zealand television is slightly different from our standard fare in Australia – well, maybe not the programming so much but definitely the advertising. They just had an ad on for Viagra. I’m not sure if it was on cable television or free-to-air, but it’s something I’ve never seen in Australia. There’s also another difference – Guy Fawkes Night is to be celebrated on Monday – and according to another ad that’s been on a couple of times already this evening, you can buy fireworks to let off in celebration (legally!).