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MILFORD SOUND

Who Dat Nation! Who'd of thunk?

Welcome to WWW - Wilderness Wally's World - A place where one can read a story about Americana or discover information on the many people and places of interest in beautiful New Zealand.

Margo sends:
Just a note in case you haven't seen it, Cream Soda in cans, made by A&W Root Beer, is now in New Zealand.

New Zealand police in pursuit of a 100-kilogram boar found their role reversed when the pig started chasing them.
Officers were called to round up a dark-coloured boar posing a traffic hazard on a semi-rural road near Timaru on the South Island. But the two officers had to call for backup when the pig began playfully pursuing one of them around their patrol vehicle. (Playfully?)

Sergeant Greg Sutherland, a former pig farmer, went to assist along with Animal Control. The pig's owner could not be located, but a noose was used to control the animal.

"When I got there, with equipment ready to dispose of it if necessary, the pig was standing in the grass at arm's length to the Animal Control officer," Sergeant Sutherland told The New Zealand Herald. "I thought, well, we can't shoot it, really.

"So I was rolling around in the grass for a while. I up-ended it on the hind legs and sat on it, and we tried to hog-tie it, which was unsuccessful because [with] its little fat leg, the rope kept slipping off him."

Sergeant Sutherland says after 20 minutes of "continuous squealing", the boar was tied up and heaved into the back of a ute. "Two of us sat on it while we drove it to the pound," he said. "We could have destroyed it, but we decided it was too nice a pig to do that to the owner."
Timaru District Council told AAP the pig had been claimed.
"I wonder who claimed it and what they're going to do with it?"

Wackos alive and well in California!
A free parking spot is one of life's little perks. At a time when the price of everything seems to be going up, free parking is something they can still hang onto.
But in California, environmentalists say all that free parking comes at too high a cost- in greenhouse gas emissions. Environmentalists say if people drove less, there would be an environmental benefit.
With the support of green groups, the state senate passed a plan offering cities and counties financial incentives to slash the number of free parking spaces on the street and in government-owned lots, and to reduce the number of free spaces businesses are required to provide. Good Grief!

Click here to read more at Wally's Front Porch - Don't mess with this flight attendant!

Click Here for Pot Luck - Stray dog hired as security guard ... food and board.

Lord, please keep Your arm around my shoulders and Your hand over my mouth.

Expatify.com (A website self-described as "Inspiring Expatriatism") has put together a list of the top 10 most suitable countries for American Expatriates:
10. Costa Rica
9. South Africa
8. Mexico
7. Spain
6. Brazil
5. Italy
4. Australia
3. Czech Republic
2. Thailand
1. Argentina

Is it just me or does the selection of South Africa seem a little confusing? South Africa over other countries like ... say ... New Zealand!

South Africa where the US Department of State says: "CRIME: Although the vast majority of visitors complete their travels in South Africa without incident, visitors should be aware that criminal activity, often violent, occurs routinely. Notwithstanding government anti-crime efforts, violent crimes such as armed robbery, carjacking, mugging, "smash and grab" attacks on vehicles, and other incidents are regularly reported by visitors and resident Americans."

It is an interesting list to be sure. Half way down I started to wonder, "How did they come up with this?" Then they answered:
Here's how we determined the list:
First off, we considered how receptive the locals were to Americans– is the local culture open to American values? Are they welcoming to yanks? Next, we looked at how popular the destination was for Americans who have already expatriated. Are there plenty of homegrowns who you can meet and befriend? Is there already a thriving community from the U.S. there? We also considered how easy it is to get around speaking only english, and also looked at similarities between the local culture and America. Do local customs overlap with American ones? Lastly, we considered certain practical necessities, such as how easy it would be for Americans to find jobs there, and whether the location was affordable (this is how we eliminated places like the UK, France, or Japan from the list– too expensive, despite doing well at all the other categories!). We also admit to a heavy dose of subjectivity involved in the rankings.
Link here to the expatify.com website

For the latest security information, Americans travelling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs website, where the current Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts, as well as the Worldwide Caution, can be found.

US bashing alive and well:
Tim Wilson is the Television New Zealand news reporter assigned to report on the things of import that happen in the United States. It is only appropriate because he, like most media talking heads in New Zealand, loves to tear the country down, can't speak more than two sentences without some sort of insult and confines his reports to anything negative about the US or its people.

For instance, in reporting on the upcoming visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he said; "... Even though the US is broke and in decline, it has markets New Zealand wants."

The New Zealand Herald's weekend edition saw an item by John Roughan a Weekend Herald columnist and another big fish in a small pond. The headline read; "World safer if we discard Bush demons." Yes, he is still bashing Bush ... only now it is the reason the US has taken its eyes off the 'terrorism' ball.

All this is pretty typical of the media reporting we experience but it has been this way for a long time now. Of course, as is the case of all mainstream media in any country, this is the only view many New Zealanders get of the US and it's people.

8 Feb 2010 - Tonight, TVNZ (Television New Zealand) aired an item on the replenishing of Scott Base, New Zealand's permanent base in Antarctica.
The item reported how an ice breaker was needed to break a passage for a supply ship to land at McMurdo Base. It told of the window of opportunity for the one supply of the year and the turn-around time of eight days to unload supplies and load goods being shipped off the ice.

They also explained how Scott base had run out of a few supplies in the last few weeks and how the re-supply was so timely.

Neither the words United States nor American were mentioned in the entire piece.
Why should it be, you ask?

Well, You see, the ice breaker was a United States Coast Guard ship, the re-supply vessel was operated by the U.S. Military Sealift Command and McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation.

It seems to me that TVNZ, as usual, had to do a whole lot of small minded editing to leave out all of those facts and not recognise the US for any part of the re-supply of the Kiwi base. Of course it is typical and I would have been more than surprised if it had been an honest report. You see it happens too often to be unintentional.

So there you have it, yet another example of a local version of 'fair and balanced' reporting.

Click on 'Miscellaneous' in the Table of Contents to expand and find US Contacts In New Zealand and other items.

Click to view some of our photos of New Zealand As usual, a work in progress.

Come back often, have fun, keep in touch...
Mr and Mrs W-W