kiwichild

Wellington is a windy city (comparable to Chicago I have heard) but on the plus side: the locals are very friendly

North of Wellington the weather gets better. But that said you can have good weather around most coastal cities. Colder climate is usually identified with more inland and southern places.

Watt Dabney

Got your PM, will PM you back soon, let them talk!!!!

Will let you know how we get on with this PDF downloadable manual. Ians boss has bought it on his ebay account so Ian won't get it till tonight. I think his boss is coming over on Friday night to see if they can fix it. Just an excuse to drink beer and talk shit in the garage if you ask me. We have just bought over 2 more bikes from the Uk. A Ducati Mike Hailwood Rep and a Ducati 900 Dhama. The Hailwood is in 1 piece although in need of a total restoration and the Dhama is in bits and broken. My stepdad gifted them both to Ian we just had to pay to get them here. I delt with all the paperwork, and all I can say is never again. Customs were the rudest, most unhelpful downright obstuctive, jobsworth bunch of pricks I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and thats an understatement!
Still it should keep Ian quiet for sometime in the garage, apart from all the new toys he reckons he needs to do the restorations, new bike bench etc etc.
We also bought over a Greeves purchased by a friend of ours from a friend of my stepdads. He is taking it to Pukekhoe and it is going to be in the parade lap, he is very excited

Anyways got to go, will PM you soon Alan.

Paula

southerner

Today it must be Dunedin - its absolutely stunning.

deedee

Couldn't possibly be, what with Dunedins reputation for weather Besides, its scorchio here on the Costa del Cintral

Don

I hope my blooming tenants are watering the rhodos

JWW

Christchurch is the sunniest main centre in the country. Followed by Auckland believe it or not.

On an unrelated subject, anyone know of any reasonable b&b's around Twizel? I've got some serious fishing to do over the next day or so in the Tekapo canals and Lake Benmore.

southerner

Yeah - I wasted my Easter in your parts. Saturday was nice, but the rest was a washout.

Fitted in a nice bikeride out to Moke lake, and almost carried on to Moonlight - stunning country that.

TheArmChairDetective

Whereabouts in the UK did you live please mike.
Was it Portsmouth by anychance?

binman

But How Pleasant Is The Sunshine?
In high summer, the sunshine in New Zealand is really strong. You'll burn more easily here in New Zealand than anywhere in the Mediterranean.

For our scientifically minded readers, there are three reasons why the sun in the Southern Hemisphere is so strong.

There is less ozone here to block the UV rays that cause sunburn.

Earth's orbit takes it closer to the sun during the southern summer than during the northern summer.

There is less pollution in the southern-hemisphere to block the UV rays.

The sun's burning strength is measured by the UV index. The highest possible UV index at sea-level is about 20. This can occur at midday in equatorial regions. Any reading higher than 10 is extreme in terms of skin-damage.

The UV Index in the Mediterranean in high-summer reaches 9 or 10.

The people in Florida are fried on a just a few days each summer when the index reaches 12.

In New Zealand the summer index often exceeds 12. In the far North, 14 is reached - risky even for people with naturally brown skin.

Daily predictions of New Zealand's UV levels are available from NIWA. NIWA's site is particularly useful because you can also find out what the sun's strength will be at different times of the day.

Unless you're keen to look like toasted lobster, you need to take precautions. If you arrive in summer, you'll notice that a surprising number of New Zealanders look like they're taking none - most people don't wear hats. Many New Zealanders are very slack about sun precautions so it's not surprising that there are high skin cancer rates here.

In fact, New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world with almost 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year!! Thankfully most of these cases are not serious, but the reality is that about 200 New Zealanders die each year of skin cancer.

If you're worried about skin-cancer you can have your skin checked by skin-scans or mole-maps; you will see lots of newspaper-ads in New Zealand for this type of check-up.

The common message is slip, slop, slap and wrap:

Slip on a shirt.

Slop on the sun cream.

Slap on a hat.

Wrap around sunglasses.

And there's a lot of sense in that.


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southerner

My mate's cousin died a couple of weeks ago from skin cancer. He was mid 20s!

Anyone tried this mole mapping I keep seeing advertised?

Don

The sun in Dunedin burned me after about 15 minutes on cloudy days in summer, and I am an all-year-round tan kind of guy with plenty of outdoor activity plus skiing in winter and usually a break to the tropics when SAD sets in, all of which tend to keep the melanomine levels in my skin topped up giving me some built in protection.

Even with factor 30 SPF I was burning after about 40 minutes in sunshine.

I was most worried about our little kids.

Now, this isn't exactly a HUGE issue (just stay out of direct sun rays or cover up) but at least here in Europe I can be out all day (minus a couple of 1-3 pm hours) in the sun without getting burned.

Which now I have acquired a swimming pool will come in useful

kiwijetpilot

Guess you must have your own personal hole in the ozone layer then.

I spent the summer outside, and I certainly never got even a hint of redness on cloudy days. I did get slightly roasted on one of the hottest days of the summer, but that was sitting outside watching the World Jousting Champs for hours on end.

I got similarly roasted sitting by the pool in Toulouse a few years back.

Me, I'd rather wear some protection and not have to live in the polluted atmosphere of Europe. I used to fly around Europe every day, and - with the exception of the higher alpine airports - you could clearly see where the clear sky stopped and all the yellow crap began. We even noticed more erosion on our turbine blades (due to the acids in the atmosphere) than you get in other parts of the world. That pollution is often a worse health risk than exposure to the sun is.

Yes, we do have strong sun here, but it is a matter of swings and roundabouts...

deedee

i'm with Don on this, i get fried far more here than the UK or anywhere i've been in Europe or even India.I have ended up having to wear a hat nearly all the time here in Central Otago.The blisters on the tops of my ears when i first came here convinced me.
Whilst your on the subject of pollution, when you fly into Christchurch the smog and pollution over the city is probably the worst next to LA!Its quite simply thick as pea soup.

southerner

Yeah, p**ses me off really that each summer its the antarctic and NZ that get the ozone hole, while in general its the crap being poured into the northern hemisphere atmosphere that causes all the damage!

I'm a lot more careful in NZ with the sun than I was in Europe, but still have been caught out more times than I care to remember.

At a slight tangent to this thread, has anyone noticed the last couple of weeks (as the nights have cooled) the night skies are absolutely fabulous. We'll be getting the odd frost fairly soon, which for me is fine as we get stunning clear blue skies as well.

deedee

Yeah, the skies have been amazing, with the southern lights this last month too.Add to that no light pollution it makes sitting outside with a drink in the dark looking towards space quite hypnotic.Wonderful!