I love getting these emails every little while. They get and keep me excited for when I get the time next year to get down there! Keep it up!

T Lewco Winnipeg
Canada

KiwiNewZ

New Zealand News Zine

The independent News Zine for the modern ecotraveller.

Once again the deep south gets a rollicking from a bit of snow and we scurry to fill the wood stacks ..... or the coal sacks. Bluff Oysters are out in force with anti binge warnings and bonamia muddying the waters. Don't let that put you off. Get stuck in!

And Queenstown is building for an Easter of epic proportions. Warbirds over Wanaka lead the way with a very classy show and this year a hurricane and three Polikarpov bi-planes ...... oooohhhh. Up the Cardrona valley we have the Race for the Sky, Jaguars and VW's meet for classic car collections in Queenstown and fat tyre freaks ( that's mountain bikers ) saddle up for the AJ Hackett Fat Tyre Festival.

Evan " bring me a bluff oyster " Bloomfield

++ In this issue

Real oysters are back on the menu, we have winners galore, Nelson displays art on your sleeve , trade me online kiwi classifieds, Gold Rush race to the sky, Coronal Mass Ejections and last months headlines.

== Real Oysters

Oh and you better believe it. The Bluff oyster season started March 5 with about 15 boats heading our from Bluff harbour early in the morning in to 2.5m swells and 45 km/h westerlies in the wild Foveaux Strait. What was relatively unusual was that the season actually started when it opened ... a combination of strikes and or bad weather usually combine to delay the first deliverance for some weeks.

So anyway once the boats had dredged their stuff and filled their sacks the openers took over. Starting at 5am a team of openers working at local oyster mogul "Barnes Oysters" opened 3 847 dozen oysters ...... that's 46 161. The average expert opener takes about 4 seconds and Mr Barne's is worried the art of oyster opening is dying ... he has only got one new opener start up this year ..." the average age of oyster openers is rising and there aren't many younger ones coming on".

And then it was major Tim Shadbolt's turn. Part of the annual celebrations involve rushing the oysters North so off Tim flew on the 7am flight with 240 dozen Bluff Oysters heading for the Mt Wellington Big Fresh store in Auckland. He obviously enjoyed this Mayoral duty claiming several of the delicacies were consumed in the pursuit of "quality control".

So if you are in Invercargill and want some oysters head to the Barnes Factory Shop, take your own pottle and a dozen of the finest Bluff Oysters will cost $10.50. It seems the further you travel North the more expensive they get, but then I guess that's fair :-)

Heck you could even come down and check out the Bluff Oyster and Southland Seafood Festival on April 16. Oysters ( of course ), oyster sack fashion parade, oyster cook - off, oyster eating races .... I guess there may even be some oysterssssssssssss.

__________________________________

++ Thanks to our sponsors - The Riverton Rock Guesthouse

Restored historic hotel in the sleepy fishing village of Riverton.

The Riverton Rock is a restored historic hotel that provides a perfect base from which to explore the South coast of New Zealand. Our themed double rooms include The Scarlet Bath Room featuring a large Victorian bath and the Fireside Forest with a stately open fire. Relax in the comfortable lounge with wood burner or try one of the excellent Riverton restaurants.

Visit The Riverton Rock website.
_________________________________________

<=Back to the top

++ Winners Galore

Well we are doing it again. Giving away some classic New Zealand prizes to our eager entrants.

First off we have Vicky Muggeridge who won the Nevis Highwire Bungy competition. Yes vicky guessed correctly that the Nevis Highwire is 134 m high so now she gets to throw herself all 134 of those metres. Here's what Vicky said when she found out she was the winner;

"I am bouncing off the ceiling at the moment. I cant believe I have won. Im 47 years old and am a Trainee Chef at the Wairarapa Community Polytech. I live in Carterton. I have semester break in April, so could possibly come and do the jump then. I have done Taupo Bungy quite a bit and it has been a dream to do the Nevis Highwire Bungy. Thank you so very much."

Cool. Come on down Vicky.

Not only that and what many may consider to be the grand prize was won by Richard Simmons of Christchurch. Richard told his mate Darrell about the Nevis Highwire competition, Darrell entered and before Richard knew what was happening he won two nights in a luxury lake front Queenstown apartment!!!!!

Do you want the chance to win with KiwiNewZ? Click here.

<=Back to the top

++ Art on Your Sleeve

This is what they say .......

"The Nelson region has long been a haven for world famous artists and performers, who express their creativity in a multitude of ways. It is also the home of the world acclaimed Montana Wearable Art Awards Show. Imagine the body as a hanger, the base on which you can hang sculpture, painting, robotics, engineering, fabric concepts without the dictates of fashion or business."

"The Montana New Zealand Wearable Art Awards takes art off the wall to adorn the body in wildly wonderful ways and presents these works as a moving exhibition on-stage. The 2000 Awards are themed 'Celebrating the Art of the New Millennium' and the designers have been given total freedom to create garments that portray individual hopes, dreams fantasies and fears as we commence our journeys into the new millennium."

Wow, I can't add to that. Nor can I say that I have ever been their but with out doubt a primary event on ones New Zealand social calendar.

<=Back to the top

++ You Trade and Trade Me

As many of you will know one of the things I do with my spare time is run several Web Cams in and around Queenstown. What you don't know! Get on out and see the view from my office then.

Each one of these webcams requires a computer, video camera and a few other bits and pieces so I am always on the lookout for a good bargain. Well who isn't?

Buying and selling. It's a game we seem to play all our lives. Heartache, anguish . Exhilaration and profit. Garage sale or newspaper add.

About two years ago I first dipped my toes in the water of online buying and selling. My first purchase was a Muttons Bird CD from CDStar. Good CD too. Then I bought an old TV tuner through the newsgroup nz.wanted.

Hearing of online auctions I tried a few of the big overseas sites but quickly got swamped with masses of information. New Zealand sites were just starting to come online but I quickly settled on TradeMe as my preference. An intuitive interface, lots of people buying and selling stuff in New Zealand, place an add or run an auction.

Ohhh and did I mention it's free. Don't you love that? :-)

So I thought an acid test. I have 3 Dialogic voice cards which I have been trying to sell for about 3 years. I've tried everything and spent a bit at the same time. Heck ..... I bet you don't even know what a Dialogic card is! Imagine trying to sell one ...... So I ran an auction on TradeMe. About 5 minutes to enter the information and then I waited in anticipation. Blow me down if a day later I don't get an email informing me that we had a bid.

Over the next few days we reached the reserve and that was it. You beauttty ..... Once the auction was completed TradeMe sent both the chap who wanted one of these things and myself an email on how to get in contact and we arranged delivery and payment directly.

Too easy. And too fun. Since then I have bought computers, a hi 8 camera and put in a few bids on other bits and pieces.

If you want to run your own auction, or just check out the current action, then click on the link below and head on over;

Yes we do receive a small payment from TradeMe if you click on this link but rest assured, I've given it a good test drive! You could even just think of it as a click of support for our New Zealand News Zine :-)

<=Back to the top

++ Race to the Sky

When motor racing legends both local and international start streaming through town you know the Queenstown Gold Rush Race to the Sky must be just around the corner. And they have been streaming. Bobby Unser, Rod Millen, Possum Bourne ... all come to scope the field and check out the 15km access road up to the Waiorau Snow Farm on the Pizza Range.

And of course Monster Tajima.

There are some reports coming through that he is bringing a twin engine car.

One engine for the front wheels and one for the back!

The Gold Rush is happening over Easter with practice on Friday 21 April, qualifying on the Saturday then the big event on Sunday.

If you are planning to visit Queenstown over Easter and haven't sorted your accommodation no worries. Campervan and Tent sites are available at the Hillclimb venue, Cardrona. The cost is $10 per adult (under 14 years free), per night. Facilities include toilets, showers, food hall, licensed area but sorry no power sites.

Hey it ain't the Ritz but then it's pretty hard to get any closer to the action! To register click here.

For more information on the Gold Rush head over to the official site or check out our KiwiNewZ Gold Cam page.

<=Back to the top

_________________________________________

Coronal Mass Ejections?
_________________________________________

The year 2000, it is believed, will see the highest degree of sunspot activity for the current solar cycle. Astronomers say that activity on the Sun's surface is increasing as it builds to a crescendo later this year, reaching the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. The result may be geomagnetic storms that disrupt power grids, radio broadcasts, and satellites, as well as unusually vibrant displays of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis (the Northern and Southern Lights).

A Coronal Mass Ejection ( CME ) releases up to 100 billion kg of super-hot gas into space at up to 1000 km/second. Solar flares and CME's are currently the biggest "explosions" in our Solar System, roughly approaching the power of one billion hydrogen bombs. The last solar maximum was in 1989 and two have just erupted following two intense solar flares.

Adelaide University physicist Dr Roger Clay described last month's solar storm as an "interplanetary shock wave of ionised gas and magnetic fields"....

Yeeha.

Dr Clay said the solar storm on 18 February 2000 did not cause as much damage as some had feared, but it was likely to be the first of many such explosions in the next two to three years ..... then at 6am on 7 April a NASA warning satellite 1.4 million km from Earth detected another significant ejection of solar plasma! And this one could continue for 24 to 36 hours.

Hold on to yer hatttttsssssss!

OR .. if you would like to get up close and honest you could join Craig Beere and myself on April 14, 2000 for a trip to Stewart Island! Under a stadium of stars to attempt to view the Aurora Australis.

Did you know that the maoris name for Stewart Island "Rakiura" is translated as "Land of the Glowing Skys". Long summer evenings in the summer and the Aurora of winter.

The Maori name for the local Kiwi is Tokoeka or "Weka with a walking stick".

Got to love that stuff.

So what are you doing on the 14th of April?

<=Back to the top

== Tell a friend

Go ON. Spread the word about KiwiNewZ and our New Zealand News Zine! Seriously, tell a friend, print off an issue, pass it around, email it across. If it weren't for you, who'd be reading this? Help me spread the word about Aotearoa.

== Back Issues

Last month we talked about;

Easter is looming with Warbirds over Wanaka 2000 and the Queenstown Gold Rush, the Coast to Coast - a Judkins legend, traffic waves while you sit in the rush hour, Friedrich Hundertwasser and his fab toilets, Queeners - bungy capital of the world, great airfares to New Zealand from USA, Queenstown to Sydney direct flights kick in and Queenstown events roll on.

Click here to go to our News Zine Home Page.

<=Back to the top

== That's all folks

Thanks for joining us and see ya next month. Remember we live on feedback, suggestions, requests, comments etc. We try to answer every one personally. Just email us.

This NewsZine is assembled from our own observations and reports from others and while every effort is made to get it right we can not attest to the accuracy or otherwise. Happy tripping. If you like what you read please forward this on to your friends ( reduce, re use, re cycle ). If you are reading someone else's and you like what we offer, please subscribe! It's easy and free. Just click here.

== Contact Information

Evan and Jane Bloomfield
Queenstown
AOTEAROA
fx +64 3 442 8342
E-mail: evan@KiwiNewZ.com