Why not Oz?

The first pic doesn't open properly for me. I can only see the first couple of centimetres. :'(

Snakes are one good reason for not going to Oz and I've heard stories from expat friends who've encountered them in unexpected places inside their homes, like inside a linen bin. Imagine reaching into a load of laundry and putting your hand on something like that.

Have you tried Photobucket for uploading pics?

I'm defo going to stick to NZ after seeing that bad boy!!! euch...they freak me out!

Thanks MB - I think I've managed to set up a photobucket album... Give this one a whirl:

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/kokopeli88/

I'm sure I saw pictures posted within posts on this forum, but can't figure out how to do it :icon_question:

Eeeeerrrrrrrr! ?I think I preferred the pics when they were small and didn't open properly for me. ?Blah! ?I hate snakes. ? ?

Anyway, to post photos on here go to Photos n Things at the bottom of the forum index page. ?On a sticky at the top is the thread for the link to upload your pics. ?It's very simple (must be cos I've done it many times). ?You have to have [i m g] and [/i m g] (close up the spaces though) either side of the link to your pics, but the link Taffy's put on here does it all for you.

Hope that means we'll get some more pics from you. ? ?;) ?We did have a thread somewhere of members' photos of themselves. ?We've had quite a few new members since then so would be good if they posted pics of themselves. ?

Ohhhhh! :icon_confused:

I think Taffy should run a tutorial because it's just not happening for me.

The story behind the snake is that my friend in northern Queensland has lost about a dozen hens over the past year, but couldn't work out why. He locks them in a shed at night and hasn't found any signs that anyone (or anything) had been breaking in (or out).

Then he found this python one morning when he went to let the chooks out. Apparently, the snake was too fat to move, having swallowed his prize 'double yoker'. The chap in the photo is the local snake charmer who came and took the beastie out into the bush. He told my mate that he'd taken it a 2 or 3 kilometres away from the house, but the guys in his local pub are running a sweepstake on when it will come back for another chook!

If you think that's bad, two fellas were eaten by a salt water croc in the local river last year! :icon_eek:

I think Oz suffers from the same kind of problems as France,,

They are lovely places and we'd all LOVE to visit..
there's just too many french people there ..(or aussies in the case of australia..)

plus Australia is too hot and there are too many things that want to bite you or sting you.. (and thats just the aussies..)

I visited Oz in March/May and it wasn't so bad. I was thouroughly put off before going though (due to my own fears, and jokes from Kiwis)

I was in a big city (Melbourne) so that may have helped with all of the 'creepy crawlies'.....also it's a pretty metropolitan place, so those 'auckers' (ya know, those outrageous Ozzies) that people may be afraid of weren't commonplace.

One of my BIG concerns about Australia (and the major reason I didn't want to go there) was their tendancy to not be open to other cultures. They generally like Americans, so I wouldn't have much to worry about, however I still don't like/condone that view of other cultures. I talked to huge amounts of foreigners while I was there (in Melbourne) and they didn't feel shunned, ignored, etc. One person's (a POM of African descent) biggest complaint was that her students called her American (and she definitely sounds like a POM)....but that's a pretty small thing on the racism/culturalism scale.

The heat isn't all that bad in Melbourne either.

The same goes for Perth and Adelaide (Adelaide also has the lowest 'inmate' genealogy).

Now, take this with a grain of salt...as I'm a Floridian. We have plenty of creepy crawlies in Florida, plenty of rednecks/hicks when outside of the cities, other cultures can be looked down on, and summers average from 34-38 (94+ F for the Americans that haven't delved into metric yet ;) )


Basically what I'm saying is: sure, Oz is a scary place. But there definitely are places that are liveable and where people are open to others of different cultures.


I can't believe I just defended Australia!!! ;D But if there is one thing I've learned (as an American) since moving overseas, it's that sometimes your perceptions may be a little slanted and you may see things in a different light after visiting.

For instance, I found out that there are more than 300 million normal/civilised people in the world (compared to 5.7 billion strange savages that dwell strange areas of the earth....i.e. the rest of the world)......Ok, I already knew that before coming over. But I didn't know there weren't kangaroos in New Zealand :-[

Random thought that's somewhat related.....

Sister cities of NZ and Oz

Auckland and Sydney - both have harbour's, bridges over the harbour's, are sprawled out, and have horrible transport (Sydney is about 3 times bigger than Yuckland....oops, Auckland)

Wellington and Melbourne - both are very cultured, have good shopping....cough, from what I've heard (though it seemed better in Melbourne), have electric trams (bus trams in Welly, trams on tracks in Melbourne), excellent public transport. Wellington is said to be a little (10 times smaller) Melbourne.

Christchurch and Adelaide - both are very 'English' cities, have a river flowing through them (like the Thames), have tons of gardens/parks, and are generally more 'quiet' cities than others of a similiar size. (note: Chch's public transport is the best I've seen. $3 return to anywhere in the city, the buses are on time, the drivers are friendly, etc)

P.S. Go the Crusaders!!!

Well, I'm back from a week in the Brisbane area and very, very glad to be back in New Zealand. :)

We travelled up north to the Sunshine Coast, visited the Glass Mountains (just a few weird knobbles of hill protruding from the flat landscape), Underwater World (pleasant enough for a couple of hours), and Australia Zoo. Australia Zoo was a disappointment ... it was like entering Steve Irwin's own personal zoological garden with photos of him and his family scattered about, short films about him, and we even sat through a 25min session of his 8 year old daughter dancing and singing before seeing the 'famous' crocodile show. He was in the audience watching his daughter and ignored everyone else.

We travelled south to the Gold Coast, looked around the area, visited SeaWorld and MovieWorld - two brilliant theme parks, two-day passes area good idea for anyone with kids.

We all did not like this area of Australia as much as the others we had seen (Perth, Adelaide and Sydney) but the weather was a nice and warm 22/23 degrees and probably because of that there were a lot of NZers there for the winter school holiday break. We stayed in motels and did a bit of supermarket shopping and found the range of foodstuffs greater than that in NZ, however the prices were not that different. From the amount of shops and shopping malls, I would say the shopping culture seems to be just as important here as in the UK. People seem to be less friendly and more cautious than in NZ ... maybe because the tv news seems to indicate a society with a bit more criminal activity. What was really noticeable was how most people adhered to the speed limit on the roads, even though there was a lot of (acceptable here) undertaking on motorways.

Maybe it was the time of year, but there were few insects to be seen. Three or four geckos were scurrying around the motel, a koala was dead by the roadside, and we saw a carpet snake curled up in the roof rafters at the toilet block at a Glass Mountain lookout. ;D

Pleasant enough break, but it was so nice to be back here. For us, NZ definitely has the edge.

:)