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Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Larry
2006-05-27 03:23:16

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its population. Ford, Holden (what GM goes by in Australia),
and even Mitsubishi (among others, I'm sure), make or assemble cars in
Australia. In fact, for Mitsubishi's top-end car, the Diamante, all models
to be sold outside Japan (throughout the world) are assembled in Australia.
Air-bags seem not to be required yet by law. The large, expensive Ford
Falcon had an airbag (driver's side only) but many of the other cars I
rented had no airbags at all.
One interesting story I heard on the news was that there are so many
instances of cars hitting wildlife on the roads (especially in the outback)
that Holden (GM) uses a robotic "kangaroo" (called "robo-roo") to test their
cars with. Hitting wildlife on the roads is especially bad at night, as
well as at dusk and dawn. All along the highway (especially the Stuart
Highway, which is central Australia's main north-south route), you see road
kill every few minutes, with the vultures and birds pecking away at it.
The Stuart Highway is one lane in each direction. This is more than
enough though, since you can see for miles ahead. To supply the outback,
there are lots of "road trains" on the road -- giant, long trucks that have
3 (and sometimes 4!) trailers. Along the Highway, there were lots of little
mini "tornados" -- small dust-storm funnels that were always popping up off
the side of the road, or in front of you. Always too small and weak to do
any damage, they made quite an interesting sight.
On my trip, I rented a variety of different cars. For the Northern
Territory/Stuart Highway trip, I rented the Ford Falcon (and later exchanged
it for the smaller Nissan Pulsar). In New Zealand, I had a Honda Accord for
the North Island, and a Holden (GM) Vectra for the South Island. Then, in
Tasmania, I had a small Suzuki Baleno (which looked and felt like a sedan
...

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