New Zealand holiday, the War Against Swine

[tcpip]

The holiday with caseopaya to The South Island of New Zealand was, as usual, full of landscapes of sublime beauty and fuelled by a bottle of cognac (courvoisier v.s.o.p.) and chocolate (ferro rocher).

OK, this is a long post but with a mere paragraph per day and pretty pictures I promise it's worth spending a few minutes reading.



The journey over was marred by guy in his mid-fourties with the behaviour of five year-old (that is, childish not child-like). Foley Towers proved to be a pleasant, serene and slightly spartan place to stay, although the 6" mosquito was an interesting addition.

Following day was the east coast journey to Timaru. Passed through Ashburton and visited a delightful second-hand bookstore in the old post office. Otherwise a fairly dull town. At Timaru discovered there was a rather substantial fair, and decided to play in the rather impressive maze. There are two purposes to mazes. One is to engage discover how to get out and the other is end up in isolated dead-ends with a very close friend. We did both ;-)

Third day of the journey was further down to the coat to the beautiful town of Oamaru, where many of the old buildings were made from a limestone that was soft enough to saw, yet hardened on exposure to the air. A mason's delight, obviously. The local art gallery had an excellent exhibition with the imaginative use of brassieres as part of a fundraiser for breastcancer.

By early evening we made it to Dunedin, which is still my favourite place on the planet. Went to see Marie Antoinette at the Rialto, a cinema which is horrendously garish on the outside and very nice inside. The sountrack was full of post-punk favourites (Gang of Four, The Cure, Siouxie and The Banshees), but it couldn't prevent the story an episode of pomp and psychodrama as real history was occuring. Not recommended. Avoided the terrible free concert at the Octagon for New Year's Eve and instead sought beautiful views over the harbour.

On the morning of the following day travelled along the bottom of The South Island through the Catlin's National Park. Visited the Matai and Horsehoe waterfalls, the deep south port-town of Bluff (with its famous signpost) and the delightfully kitsch paua shell museaum.

By late afternoon arrived at Invercargill, and stayed at the charming Gerrard's Hotel (especially liked the Art Noveau features). Took opportunities to visit Henry, the 126 year old tuatara, a thoroughly weird "living dinosaur", with a third eye, and the beautiful Queen's Park gardens.

Next leg of the journey was the the southern route to Lake Manupouri and Te Anua, both right on the edge of Fiordlord, the sort of place which Douglas Adams once described as the sort of place that makes one want to engage in sponaneous applause to the beauty of nature. In Te Anua we took to the lake and visited the glow worm caves, which was rather like astronomy on acid.

The following day's journey was to Queenstown which included a visit to their excellent bird sanctuary. Highlights include the black stilt (the world's rarest stilt), the Chatman Island duck (the rarest duck) and a Maori cultural event with audience participation - doing the "hokey-pokey" in Maori! Following morning watched Ata Whenua, which as very pretty but some (scientific) narrative would be nice!

The next day was a flying visit to Aoraki (or Mount Cook in Pakeha), past Twizel (good lunch stop) and Lake Tekapo to stop off at the little townsh of Fairlie. Nothing terribly exciting there, except for the charming visit of a hedgehog to the spacious garden of our motel.

From Farlie it was returning to ChCh via the scenic route past Peel Forst and Mt Hutt rather than back through Ashburton and stopping at the Colombo Street Lodge (where one gets an entire apartment to stay in). Next day it was a journey through the Banks Penisula to the former French colony town of Akaroa, whose history is much more exciting than the town itself.

On the way back to ChCh I had the bright idea of taking the scenic route over the peninsula mountains. Turned out the road was semi-sealed at best and as the fuel-guage starting blinking red concern started to set in. Making it across the peninsula we were struck however by the lack of petrol stations in on the coastal towns. By some miracle we made it all the way to Lyttleton, a petroleum port with a population of over 3,000 - only be told that they don't have a petrol station either! With a car that apparently can run on the smell of an oily rag we managed to make it through their lenghty tunnel (that would have been a fine place to break down) to a station on the outskirts of ChCh.

Final day was a visit to Orana Wildlife Park, where caseopaya fed and pet a giraffe (among others), before dropping off the car. The sting in that tail was that the windscreen was chipped by a rock from an incoming vehicle on the way to Akaroa. Total cost? $155 NZD. Ezy Rentals? Not recommended.



On the way back I jotted in my dairy plans for the coming year on a day-by-day basis. Must make sure this is not interrupted by interesting job offers (for the next few months at least). Return home was to investigate the destruction of our cheap couch by the two grumpy rabbits. Lots of love to severina_242 for checking on our pets during our absence and warning us of impending lagamorph devastation.

Amusing gaming news occured whilst I was on holiday. Apparently because hedgehog39 (really hedgehogs are much nicer than that) didn't like being painted into a corner over the importance of theory to role-playing games, he appealed to a chap who calls himself RPGPundit who has declared war on "The Swine" (i.e., people who think theory is important) with yours truly as the assigned first victim. Already however, it is evident that the attack has faltered. Why? Because good theory produces good systems which helps gamers to become better players.

Comments

[discordia13.livejournal.com]

Ah, I haven't seen a flame like that for many years. Most entertaining.
For the record I'm in the camp that Red/Blue D&D sucked majorly.

Traveler, & Runequest were and probably are still my all time favorite systems. We were in the 11-13 year old category at the time.
The rules were honestly too difficult, so we did a way with a lot of them. I think Blakes Seven and Dr Who were on telly at the time, and that was a far bigger influence in getting me into roleplaying.

[soporificfrog.livejournal.com]

Jealousy consumes me.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

RPGPundit who has declared war on "The Swine"

...after checking out that post, I think some people REALLY need to switch off the internet once in a while and go outside to get some perspective. I enjoy arguing about gaming philosophy as much as the next geek, but the day I get that self-important about it, I hope my friends will give my ego the lancing it deserves.

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

Interesting debate you flared up there, old chap!

Do you read Uncle Bear?

I get a lot of my RPG news from there these days.

I must admit to preferring rules lite or ultralite, but thats just me. These days I don't care how the characters are generated, but the "better" the stats the better your character description better be. (Started a GURPS Supers campaign where the players were told "I don't care how many points you use, just make it consistent" which raised some shackles)

I must admit theory bores me, but thats my choice. I just want to game, and the system really shouldn't get in the way.

I think that a good GM with a crappy system is FAR superior to a crappy GM with a good system. I have played in both and the "Human" touch is worth ANY amount of rulebooks.

I have also noticed most of the top GMs I have played with tended to be fast n loose with rules, so the system tended to be more transparent. Rules for rules sake slows down the storytelling too much for my tastes, but that is my "style" and I try and attract players and GMs who are also interested in the storytelling aspects over rules.

Your comments on us losing the younger players to MMORPGs and the like was dead on though. If I was gaming with a younger crowd I'd use a rules light or ultralight system to emphasise the R in RPG.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Oh Lev, you have the best flamewars. I'm gonna be in Melbourne some time this year, if you're around I'd like to meet up with you for a coffee or something - then I can engage you in a stupid argument, solely for the pleasure of having you rip it to pieces in person.

That pundit guy is a joke. He 'argues' like a teenager with an attitude problem. That whole 'swine' thing too, such a transparent gimmick. I do wish that the world was separated into two groups, those who thought I was cool and awesome; and Swine. It would make things so much easier.

I'm now living with a roleplayer. I've had friends who are into RP but never had a chance to give it a go. I'm trying to organise a game with my flatmate and another friend, possibly based in the Shadowrun world. Do you have any hints and tips for a noob looking to start his first game?

Throwing coins towards the well

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I'm far too tired to suss out the ins and outs of our little RPG skirmish, but I did skim read it.

Lev, you ignorant slut:

'Es pegged you, laddie!

D&D is as popular as it is because it appeals to all ages, young and older, because it is a GAME, and FUN.

Funny thing is, I was thinking along similar lines with his original post which appeared to forget that: Gaming, IME, is supposed to be fun.


(Then I read your "red box is 20 years old" line and felt old) cause I had the old basic set. And, were I playing today it would probably use AD&D2nd or 3E rules.)

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pictures. Lovely scenery. someday I'll get over to NZ...!

[ser-pounce.livejournal.com]

Ah, how that brings back memories. We were also in Dunedin for New Years last year and we also avoided the concert :)

Your post makes me want to go back there. We have so many more towns we need to visit!

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

Nice... We were down there just about a year ago now, good to see the photos. Wish the ferry wasn't so darned expensive, would love to pop down to the Catlin's more often.

System doesn't matter much

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think system isn't very important. It's fantasy. Stuff happens. It's not necessarily realistic. Nobody cares. GM fudges where necessary.

Totally crap systems can make for a fun game, so long as the purpose is fun, just like a B-grade movie can be fun, so long as the purpose isn't the study of cinematic excellence.

However, more importantly, the whole question is irrelevant to me and I can't see why there are flame wars over it. I'm much more into board gaming these days, so let me shift to a similar situation in that realm: You get together with some people and split into two groups. Group A just picks up a game from the pile and plays it, while Group B spends 40 mins discussing which game is best and then finally picks one and plays that. You appear to be the Group B type, arguing that the system is terribly important. You are arguing against some people who appear to be the Group A type, who claim that it's best to just play and enjoy. But so what? There is no right and wrong there.

[fwuffydragon.livejournal.com]

We also went to NZ in December - I'll let you know when I put some pics up!