h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, what exactly is the curse of the antipodes?

I haven't met an antipodean in ages.

Haven't stalked you fully yet , but have noticed that you're not keen on NZ tourism. but I wanna go! I do have some old friends over there you know, does that make it alright?

Also wanna retire there,although it's likely that that's some way off.

erm, hi, I'm Mikerhike

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Hi Mikerhike


Some might say I'm the curse of the antipodes

And I have considered changing my tagline to say "kea ~ the curse of the antipodes"

But at the moment it refers to the fact that to have live convos on h2 I have to be here at bloody inconvenient times. Like now as a matter of fact - it's 12.33am. All the good stuff happens while I'm asleep or while I'm propping my eyes open with matchsticks and can't drag myself away.


You can visit NZ without being a tourist. Or you can come as a tourist but not contribute so much to turning NZ into a themepark or exclusive holiday resort. Depends on what you want from the trip, and how you do it

Out of curiousity, what makes you want to come here, both visiting and retiring?

RAR!

You're probably asleep by now. BTW I'm usually around 8 hours later than now.

It's just that everyone I've ever met from there has been, well, great. I think the country is a beautiful place, I think there's a bit more sense in the way it's run than here, and for retirement, here I'll be skint, there I might get by (assuming no great shifts in exchange rates).

It was never on my list, but just from the folks I've met, I started to think, yeah actually, maybe that's the place.

I guess that's the same kind of feeling that's drawn me to other places too

Well, I *should be asleep by now, but I'm not


Where do you live now?

You can see the dilemma. The things that attract people to here are the things that are getting ruined by too many people coming here and wanting a piece of it.

There's been alot of English buying rural lifestyle blocks here - it's easy to do because the land was so cheap and the exchange rate so good. But in the last 6 or 7 years those rural blocks have risen so much in value that kiwis that would buy them can no longer afford to. Not that it's all the English's fault but part of the problem has come from people benefitting so much from the exchange rate that they offer way more than the market value to ensure they get what they want.

And the 'tourism' towns are now mostly out of the price range of ordinary kiwis. These are places that have been traditional holiday spots for us.

The more tourist visitors we get the more development is needed so that places that were once peaceful are not anymore, there is a push to build more roads into national parks (that is solely a result of tourism), and we are having to dam more rivers to generate more power as the need for tourism infrastructure increases (tourism is our main income now).


I love it here, deeply. And I totally get why people want to live here, and visit. I've worked in tourism (well partly) and I enjoyed the interest that travellers bring so I'm not being xenophobic about this. But I hate how quickly things here are being changed for the worse.

My main hope is that peak oil will diminish tourism significantly

Sorry, nipped out for a while.

I can see the dilemma, we have it a bit in Scotland - where I am now. Property is mad in the UK, and I think we'll start to see a scary new trend (in fact we're already seeing it). The people who can buy things do so, pushing up the prices so the rest of us can't.

The 70s/80s brought us the Ugly American tourist, the 80s/90s brought the Ugly Japanese tourist, now we're getting the Ugly British tourist, buying property all over the world.

The thinking is that you might as well buy a five bedroom spanish villa with a view over the sea as a 3 bedroom standard house near London.

It's spreading.

We had Rock Ness here over the weekend. 25,000 dance music fans descended on a village near the loch. On the news tonight, It'll be back next year, only bigger.

IT"S LOCH NESS! It's supposed to be wild, cold and desolate and alone!

Was that the first year they held it? How big is the village normally? Where's a decent when you need one? (a raver eating <monster in this case ).

I could have a rant about young people today... but I won't


So, my turn now - what's the wa?

Dores, population 269.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/5098924.stm

Or am I just a spoilsport? I just like it over that way for its tranquility. Which is hard to find.

The wa- harmony. The force of harmony connecting all individuals and communities together. Simple.

Right, off to unpack and eat

"Harder, Faster, Louder" says it all really

I like tranquility too. The thing that seems to not be well understood is how easily it is to loose it, and that it's doubly hard to get it back once lost.

Maybe I'm getting old () but I have to wonder why people want to take such a big noisy show to such a quiet small place. Although there is a power in such places and maybe it's that that people are wanting.


>>The force of harmony connecting all individuals and communities together<<

Wa as harmony... I did a quick google and see it is a Japanese concept. Do you feel like saying more about it? I'm slowly learning some traditional chinese medicine, some western taoism etc. I'm not very familiar with Japanese traditional culture though (or modern culture for that matter, although that is more visible in the West).