#far north nz

[stonewoodnithin]

https://stonewood.co.nz/our-franchisees/auckland-north-shore/ We build across New Zealand. Contact your local Stonewood Homes Auckland North Shore team and take the first step to build your new home or visit our showhome.

#terraced houses #house and land packages hamilton #wellington builders #builders auckland #homes and land packages #auckland builders #builders hamilton #tauranga builders #builders nelson #builders west auckland #builders in hamilton nz #hamilton builders nz #builders wellington #far north builders #builders queenstown

[possessivesuffix]

Crossposting from Twxttxr: some interesting news about ongoing research by colleagues, from a workshop "Diversification of Uralic" just this Thursday and Friday

Do the Permic languages have loanwords from Old Norse? e.g. ONo. ár ~ Komi & Udmurt ar 'year'. This would've been sensible during the brief time when Norsemen originally from Sweden were in charge of trade along the Volga and settling in inner Russia, forming the Rus' (later Slavicized, but as we know from Byzantine sources they remained Norse for centuries) — and also the Norwegians too were known to conduct exploration + trade along the Barents Sea at the time, our oldest written reports of "Bjarmia" come from them after all.

Do the Finnic languages have loanwords already from Pre-Proto-Germanic into Pre-Proto-Finnic? My first reply would've been "yes surely", this has been discussed for half a century and there's dozens of etymologies out by now. Turns out though that there's still a lot of room for skepticism if we try to assemble a big picture. Most of these could be (and have been proposed by other analyses) to be proper Germanic after all, or from some non-Germanic kind of Indo-European, or even incorrect. There is unambiguous evidence I think at least of loans lacking *ā > *ō, but that's already though to be one of the latest common Germanic innovations, perhaps barely post-PG. [Follow-up question: do we even know where Pre-Proto-Germanic was spoken? might not have been anywhere convenient for contacts with Pre-Proto-Finnic.] — A few similar problems also in the less discussed supposed layer of Proto-Balto-Slavic or pre-BSl. loans, but by areal considerations it seems obvious to me there must've been Uralic/IE contact somewhere in the Russian forest belt for ages already, even if it might not have left enough evidence to clearly distinguish from things like pre-Indo-Iranian loans.

Do the Samic languages have loanwords that are not from any historically attested branch of Scandinavian, but some sort of a lost variety entirely? This could be an explanation for an unexpected sound correspondence *j → *ć in many loans; it might also explain some loans that look surprizingly archaic, e.g. lacking any reflection of Siever's Law. One example showing both is indeed *Tāńćə 'Norse', from some sort of a *Danji- variant of Proto-Germanic *Daniz.

Several new hypotheses on the history of of sibilants in Ugric, adding to the growing tally of evidence that traditionally reconstructed *s > *θ and *ś > *s "in Proto-Ugric" are actually later developments. A paper supposed to be coming out soon!

No linguistic evidence so far, but a 1670 travelogue by de La Martinière appears to still report seemingly pre-Uralic populations along the Barents Sea coast — and even on Novaya Zemlya, traditionally thought to have been uninhabited (as reported by other early modern explorers) before some Tundra Nenets briefly settled there in mid 19th century. Apparently there's been no real archeological investigation, but also at least two stone labyrinths are known as signs that humans still must've at least visited there sometime in the past. [By current knowledge, labyrinths from Sweden and Finland have mostly been built in late medieval and early modern times though, so they don't suggest especial antiquity either. Could the ones on NZ in fact have been left behind by some of these historical Northwest European expeditions?]

Various discussion also on the development of Samoyedic. Nothing particularly all-new (maybe on Nganasan, more on that in a PhD thesis to appear later this year though), but a few main results include 1. clear recognition that there is no "North Samoyedic" group (as has been suspected for several years now), 2. confirmation that there is regardless a narrower Nenets–Enets group, and 3. some development of a model where all three of Nenets, Enets and Nganasan may have moved to the tundra zone independently from further down south (as is certainly the case for Northern Selkup, the most recent northern expansion of Samoyedic speakers).

#historical linguistics #loanwords #language contact #archeology #ethnohistory #uralic #finnic #samic #permic #samoyedic #germanic

[olympain]

A strange, strange morning at the Taskmaster NZ house Stewart Sowman-Lund gains access to the north Auckland mansion where the TVNZ comedy gameshow is filmed and uncovers the secrets the cameras don’t see.

After four years, the Taskmaster house is a cast member in its own right. The mysterious and ever-evolving setting for the TVNZ comedy show is ostensibly just a house north of Auckland. But for fans of Taskmaster, it’s a memorial to the show itself. Hey look, there are the rafters that David Correos climbed into, in what was probably a health and safety breach. There’s the bar where Leigh Hart attempted to use a leaf blower to make a cocktail. And I think that’s where Urzila Carlson drank a lot of scotch while playing hopscotch?

Returning tonight, season four of Taskmaster NZ sees five new famous faces vying to win a gold bust of Jeremy Wells’ head: Dai Henwood, Mel Bracewell, Ray O’Leary, Karen O’Leary and Sieni Leo’o Olo (aka Bubbah). You’d probably expect that after three seasons, the incoming cast of comedians would be well-versed on how Taskmaster works. But as I found out on a visit to the Taskmaster set back in March, that might not be the case.

It’s a few weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle when I pull up outside the Taskmaster house and am greeted by Paul Williams. In the world of the show, Williams is the Taskmaster’s assistant, a meek and slightly awkward character whose entire purpose is to do whatever it is the Taskmaster, Jeremy Wells, demands. Largely, that means guiding the contestants through the absurd challenges they find written in wax-sealed envelopes. “They all really like me,” Williams says sarcastically of his relationship with the contestants. “I don’t annoy them at all.” (Karen O’Leary later describes Williams to me as “a bit of a dick”, though reluctantly admits that he could be helpful during some tasks.).

In real life, Williams doesn’t seem that far removed from the character he plays on the show, leading me to question whether he’s still in character while showing me around the Taskmaster house. We start our tour upstairs in the study, this season made over with dark green paint and jungle-like vines hanging from the rafters. Behind the desk hangs a Rene Magritte-esque painting of Jeremy Wells with a long bird’s beak. 

The bookshelves have also been packed with an assortment of loosely-themed objects, including a cheetah, a pair of binoculars and a globe. Books about travel and exploration are stacked up too. To the side of the study, just out of shot from the cameras, Williams points out a curtain that conceals an assortment of extra props, like a spare print of the Wells bird painting made “in case the comedians damage the one on the wall”. Given this is Taskmaster, you really do need to prepare for everything.

The study leads through to a small bedroom that Williams, with the awkwardness of a teenage boy apologising for not cleaning up, admits is his. Occasionally he sleeps over in the Taskmaster house so as to avoid an early morning commute to set. Piled up in a drawer next to the bed are artefacts from previous Taskmaster seasons that should really be collected and donated to some sort of Taskmaster museum. The pile includes draft lyrics from a Guy Montgomery musical task in season two and a piece of paper with some frantic scrawling that could only belong to David Correos.

Downstairs, we stop at a washing machine. I’m not sure it’s meant to be part of the tour until Williams grabs out a solitary pair of sodden black socks, which he proceeds to carry around with him until remembering they need to dry.

We head out towards the dock, a small wharf that overlooks a swampy green pond, and the setting for a number of water-based tasks. It’s a surprising distance from the main house and along the way, Williams points out several iconic locations from the show. There’s a life-sized lion sculpture, replacing the cow featured in previous seasons (“the cow’s on loan, I think,” says Williams). We pop into the shed and see the fish poster made internationally famous by Rose Matafeo on Taskmaster UK stuck to the inside of the door. There’s the bathtub used for the infuriating final task of season three: “Relocate the water in this bath to that bath”. We pass through the “enchanted forest” and I’m uncomfortably reminded of Paul Ego’s sex witch. 

All the while, Williams is carrying his all-important iPad (and the socks) which reminds me of a question I’ve always had for the Taskmaster assistant, one that has perplexed Reddit for years. “Can you tell me once and for all if the iPad actually controls anything, or if it’s just a prop?” I ask Williams, who looks at me coyly: “I cannot disclose the secrets of the iPad.”

Later, after Williams has been called back for some filming, I’m standing in a gazebo on the back lawn about to watch a team task involving Dai Henwood, Karen O’Leary and Bubbah. They’ve been instructed to weave their way, blindfolded, through a maze. I’m told the task should only take about 10 minutes, but nearly an hour later we’re still standing there watching the trio of comics flounder as they try to complete it. There’s talk of breaking early for lunch, but the contestants are determined to finish the task no matter how long it takes. A crew member tells me that quite often the team tasks don’t make it to air, but this one definitely will. Why? Because “the other team [Mel Bracewell and Ray O’Leary] did it on their first go”. 

It’s part of the joy of Taskmaster that being really bad at a task is often as impressive as being really good at it. For Wells as Taskmaster, that means his job is often determining whether to give points to the best contestant – or the funniest. Bubbah tells me she’d never even heard of the show before being cast, let alone how it works, and that means her performance in the season hasn’t been tampered by any thought of actually winning points. “It was like halfway in when Paul was like ‘what do you think the Taskmaster’s gonna say’? I was like ‘Who the fuck is the Taskmaster’?” she says. “Obviously I have not been thinking about how he’s going to react.” 

Henwood also went in largely blind, though at least he actually knew what the show was. He was originally set to appear in season one of Taskmaster NZ, but ultimately had to wait another three years before being cast. “I went ‘I don’t want to watch it’ because I didn’t want to be influenced’. I purposefully kept myself in the dark and now I’m going to binge watch the old ones and go ‘I should have prepped for this’,” he laughs. Karen O’Leary was perhaps the most prepared – but she was hardly a diehard Taskmaster fan. She’d watched snippets from previous seasons and admits to trying to appeal to Wells’s ego in her performance. “I think he’s someone who is quite pedantic… My aim is to try and find my own exception to what the tasks are by mucking with how they have been worded,” she says. “I’m sure Jeremy will understand, but time will tell.” 

#taskmaster nz #taskmaster #paul williams #jeremy wells #mel bracewell #ray o'leary #dai henwood #karen o'leary #bubbah #guy montgomery #david correos

[the-reclawmation-studio]

Welcome to The Reclawmation Studio!

I'm Sparrow, an artist based in the Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. Mostly I will be posting about my tanning and taxidermy work. The animals I work with are all invasive species killed for pest control.

My etsy store:

Thanks to etsy seller fees, all of my products can be purchased for a lower price via PayPal or a direct bank transfer through any NZ bank. Please message me if you are interested!

I am now taking commissions! Message me for more details. However, please keep in mind that unfortunately I cannot ship organic products outside of Aotearoa!

Massive credit to @flayote for being my biggest inspiration, and to @is-the-fox-video-cute for sparking my interest in taxidermy in the first place!

#taxidermy #new zealand #aotearoa #small business #etsyseller #etsy #tanning #vulture culture #tannery

[rainbowcrowley]

hellooo love 🥰 where would you want to live if you could live anywhere in the world?

hiii jane <3 thanks for the question!

damn tho that's a TOUGH one. i spent the last hour thinking about it and i'm still not 100% sure tbh. on the one side i'm already living in my fave city, and i really enjoy living here bit on the other hand... the world is soo big and has soo many cool places to live in! i love biiiig cities that never sleep with loads of stuff to explore. so i guess? london? new york? berlin? but also aotearoa/nz bc who wouldn't want to live in middle earth? but i ALSO love the sea.. and i grew up in northern germany so it was never far away - a little house by the baltic or north sea would be nice, too... grmbl that's what i meant by this question being though! if i had to pick one of those examples right now tho i'd pick london bc i've just been there, and i miss it :(

ask me a thing you want to know about me!

#ask games #answered #foolishlovers

[sound-of-light]

State Of The Author :: July 2022 - May 2023

I swear I didn't forget about this (I know, I've said that before). Fact of the matter is that when I don't get a lot of writing done, I don't post about my progress. And I definitely did not get as much writing done over the last 10 months as I would have liked. But I did write. Works In Progress

The Luckiest: a chapter and a half finished, and 8,903 words written - new total word count 22,796.

The Broken Country: this is a short story I'm writing for submission to an Australian/NZ neurodivergent speculative fiction anthology next month (for once in my life being autistic is good for something) - I'd really hoped to have a lot more written by now, but uni and not being able to come up with a title got in the way. It was inspired by the Carrington Event of 1859, which was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. Its probable cause was a coronal mass ejection colliding with the atmosphere, and it was powerful enough to cause worldwide auroras and to bring down telegraph networks in Europe and North America. I figure that if something similar happened nowadays, seeing as how dependent we are on technology, it would be far more catastrophic. It might even bring about the apocalypse. So far I have 776 words out of a planned 6,000.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Camp is coming up next month, and I'm tossing up between working on The Luckiest and a new story based on my anthology submission. I'll probably flip a coin. Aiming to write 10,000 words.

#state of the author

[linane-art]

Hi folks,

Just a super quick update to say that New Zealand is absolutely stunning and I'm having a blast (though I am having slight pangs for home). So far I have been sort of touring the country, staying about a week in each place, and doing some housestays, i.e. I volunteer a couple of hours of my time to help with whatever my host needs doing around the house/garden in exchange for accomodation and food. Most of the properties and locations I have been staying at are out of this world - the sort of places I'd never normally be able to set my foot in. New Zealand's people's kindness truly is off the scale!

So yes! It's all incredible! I couldn't have gone about exploring NZ in a better way if I tried and I plan to continue on to South Island in the same manner (so far stayed in the North, I'm in Coromandel just now). ❤️

But I have a quick question: does anyone know of any good Fili/Kili fics that have been turned into podfics please? Your own or somebody else's? If so, could you please send me a link?

Just now I'm spending my days in this stunning valley, weeding among a beautiful landscapes and I was thinking yesterday that I'd kill to be able to listen to some quality FiKi fanfiction while I do it! Hands down some of the best days of my life - I haven't felt this much like myself in months if not years - and so my soul returns to its default setting and craves some FiKi. But like, on the go 😅

Otherwise how is everyone doing? Everything okay?

I'm sorry to say that I have very little time for social media these days (I thought this might happen) - I seem to be too busy living the life and I don't always have the WiFi. So updating @lillys-adventures or Instagram is just, ah, not happening right now, sorry.

But I'll check this post and I do try to stay on top of my messages, so let me know!

Look after yourselves, my pals! Love you all and miss you ❤️

[algds]

tagged by @alisoun for this book thing!

last read: percy jackson and the lightning thief. my girlfriend loves pj and it has a special place in her heart, having never interacted with any pj media apart from seeing the second movie (?) i promised i would at least read the first book before the new show comes out in december. i read all of it in february except for the last 12 pages and then didnt finish it until last week. it was a great time and as someone who enjoys seeing reinterpretations of old stories i think it was really creative taking these old myths and retelling them in a completely different context.

reading now: poor people with money by dominic hoey. reccomended by both my mum and gfs mum for a long time but told them i had to finish pj first, i read the entire thing in one sitting this morning. i really loved it so much. set in auckland and the far north of nz, two places i grew up in. nothing like reading a novel which namedrops the primary school you went to in the first chapter. the author and main charcter are dyslexic so its written in a way which is so accessible with zero pretense which i always appreciate in art as well. perfectly captures the experience of living in new zealand, the attention to detail is insane and i hope to one day have observational skills like his. i read this at the absolutely perfect time, will have to reread again to fully grasp some things.

up next: six of crows by leigh bardugo. fantasy heist novel. watched the netflix show which combined this and another series set in the same universe, thought this story seemed far more interesting so im excited to see what it has in store. will do the sequel after that.

also looking forward to reading a "human geography" textbook, the next PJ, and maybe some other random recs from mum.

i tag whoever feels like it!

[stonewoodnithin]

Why more Kiwi families choose to build a Stonewood Home - we are the best value home builder in NZ. We support you through every stage of the build journey. https://stonewood.co.nz/building-with-us/the-building-journey/

#tauranga builders #builders nelson #builders west auckland #builders in hamilton nz #home and land packages hamilton #builders wellington #far north builders #builders queenstown #builders hamilton #auckland builders #house and land packages hamilton #hamilton home builders #new style homes #houses for sale timaru

[drhoz]

#1931 - Cordyline australis - Cabbage Tree

AKA tī kōuka or cabbage-palm. Originally Dracaena australis, when it was described by Georg Forster in 1786, after Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected some in 1769.

Another of Aotearoa’s most iconic plants. The binomial refers to the shape of the rhizomes - club-like - and the southern distribution. The common name name is likely down to Georg Forster again, writing in his Voyage round the World (1777) who discusses the edibility of the central shoot in comparison to the ‘true cabbage palm’ - probably the cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) of Florida.

It’s certainly edible - not only do a wide variety of New Zealand native fauna love the stuff, the Māori cultivated it for the rhizomes and growing shoots. The meter-long leaves were also collected for the very strong fibres they contained, which were used as rope and as protective capes and legwear when travelling anywhere Matagouri and Spaniard Grass grows. You’ll recall those from earlier posts - protective legwear is strongly recommended.

The Cordylines of NZ were probably derived from an influx of tropical plants some 15 million years ago, and promptly diversified. They certainly thrive in cool climates much better than similar-looking plants - they’re now grown as far north as Scotland, and one common name in use in the UK is Torquay Palm. 

A healthy Cabbage Tree can be as tall as 20m, but there’s not many of those left. That’s partly down to land clearance, Rural Decline where a lone Cabbage Palm that was lucky enough to be left behind by land clearance is slowly killed by livestock and rabbits, and Sudden Decline caused by the bacterium Phytoplasma australiense, which may be spread from tree to tree by the introduced passionvine hopper from Australia.

#cordyline #cabbage tree #new zealand plant #asparagaceae #torquay palm

[gil-galadhwen]

Get To Know Me!✨️

I was tagged by @myfavouritelunatic ❤️ Thank you, lovely! 😘

Part One

Are you named after anyone:

My mum was inspired to name me after The Days of Our Lives character Dr Laura Horton! 😂

When was the last time you cried:

A few nights ago playing Dragon Age: Origins. It was Jowan's fault 😩 IYKYK...

Do you have kids:

No, thank you...

Do you use sarcasm a lot:

No, I apparently don't (asked my husband to be sure!😅)

What's the first thing you notice about people:

IRL - their height. Online - their avatar👀

What's your eye colour:

Hazel

Scary movies or happy endings:

Happy endings! I'm here for the wholesome content, always 💗

Any special talents:

Honestly, I don't think so!😂

Where were you born:

North Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 but I grew up in NZ🇳🇿

What are your hobbies:

Reading, writing, making zines, playing video games, crafts (sometimes, I'm pretty slack at finishing things though!) Travel, ballet, bike riding...

Have any pets:

Sadly, no😞

What sports do you play/have you played:

I'm not particularly sporty. I'm more of a ballet and yoga person in the hope they will fix my bad posture and clumsiness! 😄

How tall are you:

5'4

Favourite subject in school:

Hated school but if I had to pick - English and drama

Dream job:

Writer✨️

Part Two

First ship:

God, I can't remember that far back you guys! 🤣

Three ships: Haladriel/Saurondriel, Merthur, Jurdan

Last (current) song:

A Place To Lie by Art School Girlfriend

Last movie:

I heard it was the 25th anniversary of one of my favourite films Ever After, so I gave it a rewatch ❤️

Currently reading:

I'm listening to the Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher audiobook (EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS SERIES IT'S EPIC!)

And I'm reading The Stolen Heir by my fave, the Queen of Faerie Holly Black🖤

Currently watching:

The Interview with the Vampire tv series⚰️

Currently consuming:

Wine. I know it's Sunday night but it's what I deserve 😳🤣

Currently craving:

I really wish my book was done. I've been lamenting that the first draft took 2 years and the next 18 months, and it's still not done. Just feel like I'm not good at writing, but if you're reading this and you're a writer or creator of things, you probably understand that feeling and know it will pass soon! We're gonna get it done!🤝

No pressure tags: @karmabansheenz @caitlinlidae @immortallaughter @thesolarangel @bananaphanta @hazelmaines @haladriel @emarasmoak

#get to know me #personal

[the-reclawmation-studio]

Pair of Eastern Rosellas preening each other.$500 plus postage within NZ

These birds were part of the same flock, and were shot for pest control in the Far North.

#rosella. #vulture culture #taxidermy #aotearoa

[aroaessidhe]

Hi Laya :) I was wondering if I could ask you for some book recs for some NZ YA to look for when I'm in Aotearoa next month. anything set in NZ would be wonderful and I'd love to try a few Māori authors. and I know you live on the North Island but if you know any good bookshops worth a visit in Christchurch or Dunedin, I'd love to hear about them ^.^ hope you're well!

Hey!

Honestly I'm not super familiar with a large chunk of NZ YA because I think a lot of what I see is by white authors and/or not queer so it's often not what I'd most like to read - and also the YA skews more to what an intl audience would consider MG. And then some I have read I just don't like lmao. so I don't know how helpful this is.......but the first things that come to mind, from Māori or Pasifika authors:

Flight of the Fantail by Steph Matuku (she has a few other MG ish ones)

Whiti Hereaka has some YA as well, it's been quite a few years since I read them

Na Viro by Gina Cole I think is adult but I've seen it sorted as YA a couple times and it feels YA-ish?

Charlie Tangaroa & The Creature From The Sea by T K Roxborough is def more on the MG end, I enjoyed it tho!

Dawn Raid by Pauline Smith - haven't read this but keep meaning to, possibly MG-ish

------

Some other places to browse that might be helpful?

-Anything from Huia Publishers is great, though it's mostly MG or Adult (....almost everything I mentioned above is from Huia)

-hookedonbooksnz is a NZ YA review site (reviews by teens) - I think the site is down atm? but I linked the twitter

-the sapling for news & reviews of childrens books, it's just starting up again from a year's hiatus

-the SJV awards has a youth novel category (there's a longlist at the top of each winners page, & 2021, 2022, annoying to navigate but includes indie/selfpub also)

-also checking out the NZCYA winners and nominees is a good place to look! (having said that I'm struggling to find anywhere that has all the longlists)

--------

Some of my fav slightly older (like some from when I was a kid haha - and they're all pakeha as far as I know) authors are Elizabeth Knox (esp Dreamhunter), Karen Healey (The Shattering, When We Wake) Fleur Beale (esp Juno of Taris), Maurice Gee (esp Salt and Halfmen of O), Brian Falkner (esp Tomorrow Code) - you might already know about them on account of them being around for ages and idk how all of them aged, but I loved them a lot! All are set or partially set here

-----

Bookstores:

I am originally from the south island (and am here currently)! I know of Scorpio Books in chch that's been around a long time! There's definitely a bunch more but I don't know anything more than you can find out by googling, I don't tend to go to bookstores when I've been there recently unfortunately haha

#a lot of words for not mentioning that many books LMAO but hopefully it's a little helpful #i guess i know of a lot more adult nz books now actually?? #if you want any adult sff recs #ask

[charlesandmartine]

An Epilogue for Australia 2023

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

An excerpt from:

My Country

By Dorothea Mackellar

We made all the arrangements for this trip last summer which seems ages ago now and it troubled us whether we had packed enough into the itinerary, if we were really just repeating too much, and if the destinations were to be interesting enough. We ought not to have worried because none of that was so. It turned out that the balance was almost perfect. Lovely to see Jill again and stay in her amazing apartment in Balgowlah which we like enormously. The cruise to NZ was really enjoyable, seeing both the south Island where we haven't been before and revisiting the north Island, especially Napier. We were particularly pleased to visit Christchurch which we loved and the Sounds were stunning. We felt so fortunate that we completed this cruise when we did because soon after Cyclone Gabrielle came across flooding areas in the north and of course our condolences go out to those people.

The second part of the trip I think changed the way we view this wonderful country, that is our journey to woop woop, pronounced wup wup ie the middle of nowhere and beyond. We broke ourselves in gently before getting to the outback by first calling into some amazing beaches and then heading due west. The outback is a different Australia entirely; the accent is different, harder, broader. Some live in such remote places that there's no apparent reason for the place to be there at all. The couple who ran the cattle station could, with binoculars, see their neighbours. The girl in the bottle shop in Roma dreamed of the day she might go to Bondi Beach! Outbackers do not go to cities which are most likely unaffordable, and city dwellers don't go to the outback apart perhaps from Uluru, called Ayers Rock in pre decimal days. There are at least three levels of society in this amazing country, City, Outback and First Nation. We absolutely loved the outback; we loved the simplicity, the isolation, the one street, the bar where it goes quiet when you walk in, the friendliness, the pleasure they get when outsiders visit their town, the nothingness, the 'I went to Brisbane once, I didn't like it ' comment, the 'if we need to go shopping we drive 2 hours to Charleville', the big huge skies, the massive sunsets, the red dirt, the space, the long long straight empty roads, drive for 280km and not see a single building, community that appears to actually work, we loved it all that's all nearly 5000kms of it in Mr Avis's SUV.

We learned stuff. Staying on the cattle station we saw how hard life could be with not enough help, the danger of moving heavy cattle around, the changing climate, the financial loss that results from drought, the difference rain can make, the condition of the grass therefore life for the cattle or not. Having witnessed the cows being sent to market was a salutary moment for a meat eater versus vegetarian or at least non beefeater.

The rains had returned to the east of Australia with the red dirt turning green. This meant more food for animals such as kangaroos which meant they were not so evident in human occupied land. They talk of El Nino and the effects it has on the climate, La Nina is it's opposite number and it would appear there's a transition. We saw the vast coal mining operations in Newcastle and Blackwater and are both disturbed by this but also understand the economic arguments that allow it's continuance.

We learned more about Australian dinosaurs, crocodiles and how to kill one if necessary, cattle handling obviously, Australian politics and how similar they are to ours, societal problems like interest rate levels, inflation, long hospital waiting lists for hip replacements, shortage of doctors, superannuation, staff shortages in general, mortgage rates, high cost of energy, shortages, scrutiny over COVID handling, proposed Submarine purchases from AUKUS and the list goes on and on and we rub our eyes to see if we are at home or abroad!

The outback is such a fascinating place of great extremes. It breeds a tough and resilient kind of person constantly battling against an environment that views humans as an itch that needs to be scratched, a boil that needs lancing and moreover eradicated. Nature wiped out the dinosaurs of Winton millions of years ago and it does its best now to get rid of their modern day replacements. It does this by seven years of immense drought followed by fire terrifyingly tearing across the tinder dry land and scrub killing and destroying anything in its path. Then come the rains with such intensity the waters rebound, fill the creeks and the vast floodplains drowning animals small and large that inevitably get caught up in it. And then comes the cyclone that blows away structures and trees that dare to challenge it. Nevertheless the communities are tough and stubborn and rebuild because this is a great land. If you want precious stones mounted in precious metals, it is to be found here. If it can be eaten, drunk or cooked with, it is here. If it is needed to generate heat or power then it can be found here. If it is a rare mineral and it is to be found in the periodic table, it can most likely be found in Australia somewhere. If you want to make batteries for new generation electric vehicles, the lithium can be found there. If you want to increase your chances of being bitten, poisoned or eaten to death then Australia has it in droves. It is not the home of Shakespeare; no play contains the words G'day Mate, or own any work entitled Two Gentlemen from Woop Woop, but they try. They are both a young country with no history beyond 200 years and yet they have the combined history's of its many nationalities. They also have the fascinating and hidden history of the indigenous peoples going back 60,000 years! They have European Art which is developing more now into something of their own. More encouraging is that indigenous works are beginning to be appreciated now as works of art in their own right and not as they previously were merely as objects of interest.

This is a marvellous country unsurpassed anywhere else on the globe and deserves to be explored and appreciated for the incredible experiences it so readily offers

Perhaps one of the last images we will recall might be at Sydney Airport:

'Repack or pay' screamed the fierce looking Australian woman behind the Malaysia Airlines check-in desk at the overweight Indian family presenting equally overweight luggage. She could do well in a banshee yelling competition. They were escorted to a quiet spot where silver changed hands.

We have so enjoyed our time here with the variety of things we have done. We went to the SOH three times on this trip and were blown away by each performance, each different from the previous in different ways. We took a very fond look back at Sydney Harbour as we walked away from it last night, the place we really love and of course Manly, not wanting to leave it, but it's au revoir not goodbye, we are simply going to be absent for a while and we shall be back.

[smidge-j]

Jet lag season 5 episode 1

My thoughts as someone who lives in new zealand

Pronunciation of Maori names could use some work. Cape Reinga sounded bad, but Awanui and Kaitaia sounded alright.

They described PAK'nSAVE as a nz version of Costco. I don't know if that's right, I've never been inside a Costco, but sure. PAK'nSAVE is one of the three major supermarkets in nz.

The sandwich sounds nice. But the way they Ben and Adam were talking about Tasty Cheese makes it sound like. Do other countries not have Tasty Cheese?

I haven't been that far north yet, the furthest north I've been is Orewa, just past Auckland, but when they get further south to places I've been, I can point and say "I've been there!"

It will be interesting when the teams get to Wellington, to cross the Cook Strait. I wonder if they've prebooked ferry tickets, or if they're just going to show up and hope to get on, because that could lead to some delays.

Also, they said they're going to lookout point, the southernmost point of the south Island. It's not, slope point is further south, but bluff and lookout point are a lot easier to get to if you're using the state highways, slope point is a bit out of the way (and also a lot less interesting to finish a series like this)

I love the added game mechanics of the curses and the roadblocks. I'm sure this will be a very exciting season to watch

#jet lag spoilers #also i love adam and bens 'gotta drive on the left or we die' bit

[lewishamilfton]

Hi bae 4 ur sweet asks: this emoji 🦋 and this one 💖 and this one 🌾

TY ILYYYYY

🦋 where is your favorite place on Earth? - probably the far north of nz.... where its u and the ocean. most peaceful place ever and the stars are insane

💖 if you could hug anyone right now who would it be? - my mum ;___; curse u covid...

🌾 what foods would you bring on a perfect picnic? - honestly rn im craving like. sushi. so it would b a sushi picnic w endless cold brew

#i want to go OUTSIDEEEEE #asks