Pom in New Zealand

[Andyp]

Hi All,

Some fo you may have seen my post on WargamerAu, but Dave Grant suggested that I also post here.

My name is Andy Potter (AndyP on the warhammer forum, if you visit there) and as part of an early mid-life crisis, I've quit my job and, together with my wife, will be heading off to see the world. The bulk of the first part of the trip will be two months in New Zealand, pretty much all of February and March.

I'd love to meet up with some gamers during our travels in NZ. Is the Auckland club open to random foreigners dropping by?

Andy

[Derick]

Definitely, we take em in all shapes and sizes.
We have a few people that drop by unscheduled, and they usually end up getting a game.

A lot of the players have their own tables and terrain at home too.
Put out a post and see what comes in

[Lezle]

Gidday,

"Newe," is this Sheep (ewe) relayted?

Jvft pop on in and thou fhalt findeth a game as Derick fayeth. And it fhall bee goode.

Lezle

[Hunter_Flood]

Gidday,

"Newe," is this Sheep (ewe) relayted?

Jvft pop on in and thou fhalt findeth a game as Derick fayeth. And it fhall bee goode.

Lezle

Dude, you really need a new keyboard.

[Robbie]

Agreed

[Big D]

Heh, and I need new contact lenses, as I read the post title as "Porn in...."

[daemion]

youpom? or redpom? maybe pomhub huh big d?

[Solarian]

youpom? or redpom? maybe pomhub huh big d?

Haha daemion, maybe not everone gets that

[Andyp]

Gidday,

"Newe," is this Sheep (ewe) relayted?

Oops     Sorry about the typo. I guess lesson one in introducing oneself to a community is not to spell their country's name incorrectly. Title fixed.

In my defence, I come from what is probably the most heavily sheep-populated part of England, so I feel your pain when it comes to sheep jokes.

We're currently weighing up how much baggage we want to bring and it's looking like we'll do down the 'travelling light' route, so I won't be bringing any armies across with me. I guess I'll have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Game-wise, at home I pretty much only play WFB nowadays, but I'm happy to play whatever's going. Beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Andy

[wouster7]

There can be a loan of armies without a problem.

Wood Elves
Brets
Warriors
Lizards (needs a Slaan & terradons)

Theres also a two day tournament in March you might want to ciut your teeth on too "Equinox'.

[Derick]

Gidday,

"Newe," is this Sheep (ewe) relayted?

Oops     Sorry about the typo. I guess lesson one in introducing oneself to a community is not to spell their country's name incorrectly. Title fixed.

In my defence, I come from what is probably the most heavily sheep-populated part of England, so I feel your pain when it comes to sheep jokes.

<snip>

We tend to think of pommie land as the olde worlde
And you probably guessed we also enjoy laughing at ourselves too

To be a little more helpful...
The club is located in Freeman's Bay, close to the Auckland CBD, just a 20min walk to the West.
Check out Google maps: Freemans Bay Community Centre, Hepburn street

With that in mind, where ever you end up, accommodation-wise, it shouldn't be too hard to get there.

[Carl]

@Lezle

Kudos, sir.

[Lezle]

Why thank yov, Carl; a fellow Scolar.

[Andyp]

The Plan (so far)

Hi all, the wife and I are starting to flesh out our NZ travelling plans and thought that we would share some of our thoughts in order to get feedback and advice. So far we’re trying to get an idea for the first month (Feb) with only very rough ideas of what we want to do after that. It’s looking like we’re going to split our time between North and South islands pretty evenly, with a month in each.  Any comments and suchlike gratefully accepted, there are also a few specific questions we have.


Rough Timescales:

1st February: Arrive Auckland Airport
Week 1: Auckland, Whangarei and the Peninsular
Week 2: Cromandel Peninsular, maybe Rotorua area too
Fluffycon!
Week 3: Mid-North Island. Heard that Napier is nice but will probably travel around a lot.
Week 4: Wellington to coincide with the Arts and Fringe festivals.

Weeks 5-8: South Island stuff to be decided
28th March: Fly out of Christchurch



As you can see, it’s all pretty vague. But that’s deliberate as we’re keen to just let ourselves go-with-the-flow and see what happens and where the winds take us. Part of the point of doing this trip is to get away from being stressed out about deadlines and schedules and bull crap like that. If people want to meet up for a game, let me know and I’m sure that the schedule can be flexed to make it happen.



Transport

For transportation we’re currently leaning towards buying a car when we arrive in Auckland and selling it in Christchurch. Dave Grant suggested Ellerslie car fair – anywhere else I should check out?

Question: Any tips on somewhere specific to sell the car in Christchurch? I understand the in-Auckland, out-Christchurch route is popular with travellers. Does this mean that there’s a net migration of old cars southwards in NZ?

Question: Upon buying and selling a car are there registration requirements that have to be done? In the UK we need to provide an address for the government licensing agency. Is a similar sort of thing required in NZ?




Accommodation

We’re looking at a mixture of camping and backpacker hostels. We’ll buy a tent and equipment when we arrive. The guide book recommends checking out motorcamps as they’ll be a cheap place to stay but also provide laundry and shower facilities. Does this sound like a sensible idea?




Communication

Question: Is it easy to get hold of pay-as-you-go type sim cards for mobile phones? So I can just slot a new card into my  present phone, rather than pay international rates.

I’m assuming that there are cafes and suchlike with wifi everywhere.


Cheers,

Andy P

[Hausdorff space]

Some quick pieces of advice on the little things I might know enough about to comment

Rough Timescales:

1st February: Arrive Auckland Airport
Week 1: Auckland, Whangarei and the Peninsular
Week 2: Cromandel Peninsular, maybe Rotorua area too
Fluffycon!
Week 3: Mid-North Island. Heard that Napier is nice but will probably travel around a lot.
Week 4: Wellington to coincide with the Arts and Fringe festivals.

I wouldn't waste time in Auckland when you first get here, get a car and go straight up north ... and get up past Whangarei to the beaches and islands closer to the top; you'll have time to work your way back and to then get tired of Auckland either side of Fluffycon.
Coromandel is definitely worth going through, but don't stress too much about getting to Rotorua as it's on the way to the mid-north island in week 3. I don't know what the areas are like at that time of year, but for week 3 I'd consider starting centred around Taupo, heading out towards Napier and Hasting, and then cruising down to Wellington along the coast.

Accommodation

We’re looking at a mixture of camping and backpacker hostels. We’ll buy a tent and equipment when we arrive. The guide book recommends checking out motorcamps as they’ll be a cheap place to stay but also provide laundry and shower facilities. Does this sound like a sensible idea?

Plenty Sensible.
I'd look at joining Top 10 http://www.top10.co.nz/
They have tons of parks throughout the country, with 'guaranteed' quality, and discounts.

Communication

Question: Is it easy to get hold of pay-as-you-go type sim cards for mobile phones? So I can just slot a new card into my  present phone, rather than pay international rates.

I’m assuming that there are cafes and suchlike with wifi everywhere.

Changing to a pre-pay sim will be no problem at all ... you can pick them up anywhere.
... WiFi will probably not be as everywhere as you might like.

[Hausdorff space]

Also: Gore.

[Weasel-Fierce]

Also: Gore.

*wipes away tears of laughter*

Thanks for posting, haven't seen this in years! The funniest part was the backlash from the people of Gore. "We don't want to be associated with the gays!"

Classic!

[warpmaster]

Hey Andy

If your looking for clubs in the south island to vist on your stay i would suggest you checkout the  Southisland Wargamming forum

http://forum.nzwargamer.net/index.php?sid=d20aaaa27d6c6e6e629df078b8b2fd20

[Ry.S]

If you do make it up north in the Bay of islands I have a gaming table and some army's if you want a bash!

[Big D]

Also: Gore.

And of course, that clip leads us to this piece of NZ-AWESUM!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=195zuHUgpbo&feature=related

[Weasel-Fierce]

Also: Gore.

And of course, that clip leads us to this piece of NZ-AWESUM!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=195zuHUgpbo&feature=related

That's aged better than expected for a local hair metal act. The drummer is awesome.

[kittenslayer]

Misleading thread title

[Raymond]

On the mobile if you intend to pick up a sim card get your phone unlocked in the UK before leaving. NZ mobiles aren't locked, so it would be a lot harder to get it done over here.

[Hunter_Flood]

Misleading thread title

Why? What were you expecting?

[kittenslayer]

Misleading thread title

Why? What were you expecting?

[Andyp]

Hi All,

Only a few days left at work, even though I won't be in NZ for another 6 weeks, it feels like the countdown has really started!

Something occurred to me the other day. Do you guys get ripped-off as much as the Aussies when it comes to GW prices? As a thanks for your hospitality, advice and (hopefully) somebody lending me an army for Fluffycon, I'd be happy to pick up some minis from a big well known UK reseller when I'm there next month and bring them over. Obviously I can't bring over tons of stuff but if there are any specific things you're after let me know by PM.

Cheers,

Andy

[warpmaster]

Something occurred to me the other day. Do you guys get ripped-off as much as the Aussies when it comes to GW prices?

Yea mate we do,but worse.I get all my stuff from the Warstore or Ebay stores now but its still not as cheap as Maelstrom or wayland

[daemion]

maaaate! thats awsum. im sure some of the boys will hook up and get u to bring something over. basically get the pound price of gw stuff and times by 3. thats what we pay in pacific pesos. it should be pound times 2.

sniff. and they banned maelstrom from selling to us.

[Andyp]

Hi Guys,

Just a reminder of my offer above. I'll be at Maelstrom this weekend, so if you are interested, you don't have long.

Andy
(has got exactly two weeks to sort everything out before he sets off - PANIC!)

[meaty nosebleeds]

heya andy
if you are heading down waikato ways, and are into LOTR, or anything like that in general, a stop you should consider is the hobbiton movie set tours.  it's been redone for the hobbit movie, and they're leaving it that way too (which is epic).  it is well worth it (coming from a local who can actually see part of the set from the farm she lives on).