We keep planning to take a break from doing our holiday write up but yet again it was only days before we were contacted by some of our usual recipients asking when we were starting so it looks like we will have to carry on. These travelogues are written as we go. They started as a regular series of lighthearted Emails sent out as "News from The Antipodes" where the text was written on a palmtop and copied into the emails with little polishing and only a superficial spell check. This year they were partly written on our new XDA Executive palmtop and partly on a laptop running Linux for security on the move. We were slow starting and the first one went out as an email but then on we repeated the approach we have used for the last couple of years and uplifted them as we went to our web site and limited the emails to a summary.
We keep adding pictures as we go, mainly from the new Canon A720 IS which replaces Pauline's Canon A75 Camera which has already taken over 20,000 pictures. We also try to reuse the best previous pictures from film and stills from Peter's digital video camera. All the pictures on the pages provide details of where they were taken and as we get to paces where we can get fast and free internet access they will have larger images uploaded so if you hover over them and they will clickable to open a larger version in a new pop-up Window. There are about 220 new pictures, many covering the highlight of the trip - Warbirds over Wanaka 2008. I have broken with tradition and put a few sample pictures from Warbirds over Wanaka on the introductory page.
All the pictures on the pages provide details of where they were taken if you hover the cursor over them and they can all be clicked to open a larger version in a popup window. The popup windows are reused and then closed up when you leave the page so you do not need to close them. Our digital pictures (from 2004) are in two resolutions and the initial size depends on your screen size. You can chose the small size if you have a slow internet connection or want to restrict data flow on a mobile connection. Click here for high detail popup images and click here for lower resolution images. You can also toggle the resolution by double-clicking an image but it may take an extra click to display the picture in the new size on some browsers. With some systems you may be asked to if you wish to allow popup windows as a protection against adverts.
More
The Popups for pictures on www.pcurtis.com and www.uniquelynz.com work well with reasonably recent versions of most of the mainstream browsers, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera. That is all the browsers with more than 2% market share. There are however various factors such as security suites which can cause problems. The page More about Popups covers ways of getting the best from my pages on most systems as well as providing some additional backgrond.
Another factor to be considered is that many of the pages have a lot of detail. The first time you visit them they can be slow to load unless you have broadband, even with the small pictures. You should have text in seconds but the last pictures may take a while to fill in and it is best to wait before clicking on the popups - you may have to refresh some browsers to get the last icons filled in if you interrupt them too early.
After each visit we also try to extract more from the chronological organisation and consolidate the content into specific pages. Some background pages which may be of interest are:
New Zealand Wines, Wineries and Vineyard Restaurants - brings together our favourite vineyards to visit. Selection is not solely the on the quality of the wine but is biased towards those with good vineyard restaurants, magnificent scenery and a friendly and helpful approach.
New Zealand Goldmining - Introduction to Goldmining Techniques and Travels in various Goldfields.
Kauri, both logging and the gathering and use of it's gum forms another unique part of New Zealand history worthy of investigation.
Active Thermal Areas - New Zealand is also an area which is very active geologically and has a number of fascinating thermal areas, predominantly North Island.
Maori Culture and Heritage - One can not fully understand and appreciate New Zealand without gaining some understanding of the Maori Culture and Heritage and the interactions with the first settlers and their way of life.
Sailing in New Zealand - An Introduction to Sailing in New Zealand with an index to our own sailing in the Hauraki Gulf, The Bay of Islands and the Coastal Passage between them and on up to Whangaroa Harbour.
New Zealand Books - We have built up a library of books on New Zealand during our visits and have initiated a catalogue. Our books cover many topics from Sailing and Fishing through the Goldfields and Art Deco to Maori Culture.
Interesting Web Sites: We have found a number of useful Web sites on New Zealand that you may want to have a look at.
