He's back...from Oz & NZ that is.

[Maven]

Just returned from 3 1/2 wks. in Australia & New Zealand today (2:30AM, EST) and am experiencing a bit of jet lag. The trip was outstanding and the people unfailingly friendly and helpful. To you Ozzies & Kiwis on the board: Thanks for making us feel right at home. We enjoyed every minute of it, even the cricket matches.

Other than touring Cairns, Adelaide, Kangaroo Is. & Sydney and Christchurch, Fox Glacier (climbed it), Milburn Sound, Queenstown, Lake Tekapu and Wellington, I made it a point to try as many beer brands in both nations as often (for the sake of accuracy!) as I could. At the risk of provoking an international incident, I won't reveal my favorite, but will say a certain boutique brewery in Queenstown produced a very nice product.

[Jetwrench]

Welcome back. Bet it was fun. I would LOVE to make a trip like that. JETWRENCH

[Maven]

Jetwrench, It was indeed fun and almost indescribably beautiful. However, packing for a 25 day trip with varied weather conditions (hot & dry, cool & damp) and still not exceed the airline-imposed weight limit was a real challenge. Once I download and edit my pics, I try to post some here. Thanks for the welcome home!

[JeffinNZ]

HOW RUDE!

You passed through Christchurch and didn't look me up!

Pleased you enjoyed the visit. Sorry the NZ weather was cold. Summer is on it's way.

[Bigjohn]

HOW RUDE!

You passed through Christchurch and didn't look me up!

Pleased you enjoyed the visit. Sorry the NZ weather was cold. Summer is on it's way.

Yep! And Adelaide is in my neck of the woods.

Certainly hope you enjoyed your visit and remember, Come again, soon!

John.

[Maven]

Jeff & Bigjohn, I wish I could have stopped by for a visit, but alas, was unable to. Besides scheduling constraints, we were traveling with another couple on the NZ leg of the trip and visiting wasn't an option.

Jeff: I have a few nice pics of the trams in Christchurch & some of the roses in the botanical garden that I may post.

Bigjohn: We spent New Year's Eve in Adelaide, literally, as our hotel was directly across from Victoria Square. We thoroughly enjoyed the music and the fireworks.

Sorry for being rude!

[Bigjohn]

Maven
Glad to hear that you enjoyed you stay. I understand all about time constraints on travel and I am sure Jeff's comment was a bit "tongue in cheek".

When travelling, I find it best to have no fix plans and be prepared to sleep rough if need be. You get to see a lot of things the normal tourists don't.

But if you make it down this way again.......

John.

[JeffinNZ]

Yes, definitely tongue in cheek. :drinks:

More than happy to show folk around. Had a guy from the muzzleloader forum who lives in Alaska through last year and took he and his wife for a drive round the hills.

It's being at the bottom of the world you know. Hell, we're pleased to see ANYONE! :-D

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Next trip you'll have to do the north states; much, much, more friendly up here:Fire:
Visitors, both shooters, non-shooters and exchange students have been fantastic ambassadors for their respective country and are always welcome at our campfire:drinks:

[Buckshot]

...........Hey Paul, welcome back. For some reason I thought you'd be gone till the end of the month? I mean, not that we're not all glad you're home ............ ain't that right boys? :-)

By all means, please do post your photo's!!!!!!

.................Buckshot

[Maven]

Rick, et al, Thanks for the welcome home! As for the photos, which are large files on my 'puter (in the My Pictures section), I don't know how to resize them for posting on a website such as this. I.e., I can send them via e-mail, which automatically resizes them, but how to do otherwise has somehow escaped me. I suppose I can duplicate and save them as low resolution files via Photoshop, but that gets old real fast if there are >2 pix to monkey with.

Plug for free downloadable photo editing program: If you want/need one of these and don't want to purchase one of the Adobe or Corel programs or deal with their complexity, do a Google search for Picasa (with & without the "p" in caps.).* It is a FREE, Google-owned downloadable photo editing program that is easier to use than Photoshop and quite effective. E.g., it allows you to quickly bring up details on black locomotives (What a surprise!) photographed against a light background (snow) with either a slider or "quick fix" option. Did I also mention that it's free?

*Unless theirs a newer version, it isn't compatible with Macs.

[Scrounger]

I don't understand; If you have Picasa, why can't it downsize your photos? Your Email program automatically downsizes your photos, right? Send them to someone and have him send them back to you. Then save the photo from the Email, (Right click on photo, choose 'Save as'. Your computer may tell you that you already have that photo; if so, choose the 'Overwrite' option it offers and the photo now on your hard drive will be downsized as you want it.

[Maven]

Scrounger, Thanks for the tips! However, I don't use Picasa, but Photoshop Elements, V. 4 (can handle RAW files as can Picasa), but that's not the problem, nor is resizing, in theory. Either program allows that, but I saved ~50 pix as super high qual. JPEGs in max. resolution mode and resizing doesn't reduce the pixel count enough to transmit them. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and re-open the originals (I don't want to overwrite them.), resize and then save them as low[er] resolution files in order to post them here. This is a royal PITA, but I'll try it. Let me also say that some 'puter stuff is hardly intuitive or easy, and the "instructions" might as well be written in Sanskrit for all the clarity they bring. Once again, thanks for your help!

[floodgate]

Maven:

Why not sign onto Photobucket (very cheap, and very efficient) and post your "albums" there; then you just cut-&-paste the url(?) here and we can go look at them. Many of us like the RR stuff, too.

Doug