Hacienda Motor Lodge Palmerston North

... season (until January) and made my way to Palmerston North.

Palmerston North is a mid-sized New Zealand town, which provided a non-touristic view into New Zealand. I stayed at a cool motel, rooms complete with La-Z-Boy recliners and hot tubs – all for the princely sum of £40. Bargain. The motel was close to important amenities such as takeaways, liquor stores and of course the essential strip club! Nearly everyone in the town was talking about the ...

... and Mitsubishis. If anyone can explain the attraction of driving a car about a town for hours on end without actually going anywhere then please let me know because I JUST DON'T GET IT! And why spend lots of money making your car lightweight and faster when you still have to stick to the speed limit! I mean in this place they could only accelerate for 2 seconds before they hit the next traffic lights! What's the point???? So they drove about until about 3 in the ...

... The colonization and settlement of Arctic regions have been largely due to such developments in mining, oil, gold, and gas; along with the hunting of whales and sea otters for their fur. However, the most extreme and frightening issue that has plagued the circumpolar north is that of global warming. Yes it is true, due to environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, Arctic Haze, and ...

... Wicked. After texting Shannon, Debi grabs her knitting and her crosswords. The minute we clear the sound and enter Cook Strait-after about an hour-the seas turn on us, becoming "moderate: and our ferry begins to rock and roll a bit. Debi warns me there are 'pukers" outside the Kaitaki Plus Lounge. An official announcement warns us to take care when moving through passageway doors as the wind and sea conditions may cause the heavy doors to slam on our various body parts and cause ...

... qu'une partie des chefs maoris a signe en 1840, reconnaissant la souverainete de la couronne britannique mais ou les maoris restent les "gardiens de la terre", autrement dit les proprietaires de la terre et des ressources du pays. Aujourd'hui donc, au programme... rien, et demain, direction le nord pour aller voir le Tongariro national parc, siege des volcans rendus celebres par "Le Seigneur des Anneaux" : le Mordor !! A+++ !! Jay

... with loads of chickens, rabbits, ducks and a few sheep. She is planning on building an Earthship house in the near future but is waiting for planning permission at the moment. We stayed in her caravan, which was a bit too close to the chickens as we got rudely woken every morning at about 5am! Did some thistle grubbing, cut down some massive weeds that had basically become trees, fed the chooks, mended and painted a little ...

... mood anyway as the agency rang me in the afternoon to say that the guy Clive from Transpower was trying to get everything signed off from his manager so that they could hire me on a contract basis. In the evening, we went to a party at Jen's flat - one of the other flats in the same block as Jill & Paul. Each couple had cooked a course of food and brought wine to accompany the food. All the food was delicious ...

... their town'. Gotta love the quirkiness of NZ. The place naming was not the only quirky thing about the place. The LP lists one of the main attractions of the town as a wind farm. Seriously. Also: Owlcatraz. We never quite figured out what this was; the flyers we saw were all very enigmatic. It has something to do with owls, and is very expensive - tours are $65 - but other than that, who knows? Enlightenment would be appreciated!

... in the region, utilising the immense power of the water that is held in Lake Taupo. Aratiatia Dam is the first in the chain after the lake and is actually the smallest of the dams. It is opened three times a day and gives a brief 30 minute surge of water into the river beyond - enough so that a local jet boating company can ride the rapids during that half hour spell. We stood on a bridge over the dam and watched it erupt - letting millions of gallons of water gush into ...

... ideas for the design. It is larger than would be expected for a town of 70,000 plus since the living room arrangement uses more space. Each subject area has U-shaped sub-areas called living rooms, with study space and appropriate design. I found it confusing, but it could be gotten used to. There is a lot of artwork and bright colors, but the shelving is again in industrial gray. The library seemed quite noisy to me. They loan 1.5 million items per year ...