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Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand
Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand
Larry2006-05-27 03:23:16
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So
while the reservations line in Australia was open 24hrs, the operator
couldn't find a suitable number for me to reach them from New Zealand. The
only non-"13" number listed for Ansett was for air cargo, so in the end, I
decided to drop it and just forget the whole thing until the following
morning. It just wasn't worth it.
After giving up on Ansett, I sat down to watch a little TV in the lounge.
Richard (the owner) was hooked on a British soap, so I watched a bit of
that, but I was more interested in the TV TEXT system used in New Zealand.
It's the same system I saw in use in the UK, and it's something that would
be great to have here in America. Basically, with just the press of a
button, you can pull up a text menu of just about any subject you can
imagine on your television set, from tomorrow's weather, to the top news
stories, to whose birthday it is today -- all menu-driven, and transmitted
along with the picture. I'm not sure if such a system is compatible with
NTSC (the American TV standard), as the only places I've seen this in use
are the U.K. and New Zealand (both of which use the PAL TV system), but this
is one case where American TV technology definitely lags behind that of
other countries. I'd love to see TV TEXT in the U.S.
MILFORD SOUND
Milford Sound is an area on the South Island famous for fiords (fjords)
that every tourist visiting New Zealand seems to have on his itinerary, and
I was no exception. I left early the next morning to take the famous drive
from Te Anau to Milford Sound. While the drive isn't actually that long
(119km each way), it's slow, winding, and scenic, and I wanted to make sure
I left early enough to have time to stop along
...
See photographs from:
Australia Gallery
,
New Zealand Gallery
