DescentBB

I can choose between: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, or the UK. Anyone have any experience in any of these places? I'm having a hard time deciding where to go. I've been reading books on each, but books aren't as insightful as personal experiences.

I'd take NZ or australia myself. Mainly because they are two places i have wanted to vacation at....

Go to NZ - I live there, it's a great place. Plus it's where Lord of the Rings was filmed . Go to Ireland if you want to get yourself blown to smithereens

NZ for the nicest climate, AU to get away and see some really different things and UK if I'd want to stay closer to civilization.. No personal experience w/ any of those places tho Where are you living now ?

I can see it now...

"Welcome to New Zealand: The Place where The Lord of the Rings was Filmed"

I live in Texas. I'm graduating in May, and would just like to see a different part of the world for awhile. I would prefer a place with alot of people my own age, which I'm sure you'll find everywhere, but also would like a place with a great nightlife, and alot of things nearby to keep things interesting. I like the UK or Ireland because I will hopefully have a chance to travel and has easy access to Europe. I also like Australia/New Zealand for the gorgeous scenery, Great Barrier Reef, and it just seems like the Aussies konw how to have a helluva time.

So do the New Zealanders - all the big cities are OK as far as nightlife goes, as far as I know.

BTW, Red_Baron and RedBaron are the same person (me, I think). Long story, to do with forgotten passwords. Sorry.

Where in NZ to you live RB?

Auckland

I have been to Ireland. Great people and better beer. That gets my vote.

BigSlideHimself wrote:...I like the UK or Ireland because I will hopefully have a chance to travel and has easy access to Europe....

That would be my deciding factor right there. In the time it takes one to travel across Texas you could see a dozen european countries!

Europe

Australia/New Zealand.

My thesis is that you can only do so much traveling in your lifetime. New Zealand and Australia should be done while you're young, since what they offer is outdoor adventure. Europe you can do when you're older, maybe with a wife, because it's more about culture there.

BTW I've been to NZ, Oz, and England. I'm going to Ireland in May. My favorite place so far has been New Zealand.

Very interesting Genghis, I will certainly take that to heart.

I personally think going to Australia would be awesomely cool. The UK would be pretty neat.

I also heard Canada is a nice place too.

Genghis wrote:My thesis is that you can only do so much traveling in your lifetime. New Zealand and Australia should be done while you're young, since what they offer is outdoor adventure. Europe you can do when you're older, maybe with a wife, because it's more about culture there.

BTW I've been to NZ, Oz, and England. I'm going to Ireland in May. My favorite place so far has been New Zealand.

yea, but did you ever ride around on a stinky a$$ elephant in the jungle eating grub worms? I think not!

STRESSTEST wrote:yea, but did you ever ride around on a stinky a$$ elephant in the jungle eating grub worms? I think not!

No, but I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

I'd go to the UK just for the fact I know it's 4 to 1 women to men ration

Genghis wrote:

STRESSTEST wrote:yea, but did you ever ride around on a stinky a$$ elephant in the jungle eating grub worms? I think not!

No, but I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Man, you are over qualified then. My bad.

Ireland. Guinness, very warm people (a nightlife that continues through the day) and access to Europe. In that order.

....and Guinness.


.......and a tad more Guinness foor ye way hoome.

........if ye be stayin the nite ya'd need a tot 'afore ye bed ya self down ya would.

I'm in Christchurch, NZ - and it's a very nice place to live. However, NZ is one of the most boring places in the world, it must be said. The "Adventure" thing is limited to Queenstown (Where I lived for 12 years teaching skiing and paragliding!) and a few isolated places.

NZ and Canada featured heavily in the book "Journeys to all the safe places". We have no dangerous animals, only two poisonous spiders, but plenty of pretty birdies found nowhere else.

As to Aussie "for lots of different things to see" - well you couldn't be more wrong. Aussie *does* have different places, but you have to drive for 4 days to get between them. Aussie is mostly old, flat and boring, except for maybe that big rock of theirs, and the barrier reef. Nothing against aussie - it's just that it's so friking big - like the USA.

NZ is the only place in the world where in the space of less than 200 km you can got from subtropical rain forest, to one of the worlds largest and least roaded mountain ranges, to a desert, to farm land to alluvial plain, to sea.

Everything in NZ is the proverbial stone's throw.

We have a tiny population, just 4 million in the same land area as California, and over 3 million of them live in the North Island.

Just a couple of factoids for ya: NZ has more microprocessors per head of population than any other country in the world, and we eat more bananas than anyone else too - and by a considerable margin! Weird huh?

The economy is very bouyant here now, and we have the highest interest rates in the developed world. Employment is at record high levels. You won't have trouble finding a job here! You might however, have trouble getting a work visa unless you have a job to come to.

Good luck wherever you decide to go - and if you come to NZ then you must come visit!

I'd go to Gambia. Thats where Michael Faye ended his African trancept journy. Love to just stay where ocean meets jungle and get to know the primordial part of my brainstem better. But then I'm just a little bit different.
Oh and Costa Rica to see the Monteverde Forest.

mobi's advice about australia is true. it's an island, but also a continent - it's really big.
i live in Brisbane, it's the subtropics so everything's green and rainforrests are everywhere. but travel west and you'll find inner australia is like what you see on mad max , personally i have a spiritual love for that kindof landscape.

AU and NZ people are prettymuch the same, but the landscapes are incredibly different. so we visit eachother's countrys to try to kill ourselves in ways we can't at home .

personally, if i had the choice YOU had there (but Australia was replaced with USA, since i already live in australia) i'd choose Ireland for the craik, but UK for it's slight-more-nearyness-to-the-greater-Europe. bah, Ireland isn't that far off UK, i'd personally go Ireland. but this is of course me, i'm sure you see all these places with a different light of novelty.

I'd post a pro-UK essay, but I'm too tired at the moment I'll just say it's very nice over here and the stuff about it raining all the time is a myth

Very interesting Mobius, thanks for the post.

This is one homebody who votes to stay home.

Top Gun wrote:This is one homebody who votes to stay home.

A couple of years ago, I would have said the same thing (home for me right now is a medium-sized city in the central U.S.), but my wife and I are starting to "itch" for someplace different. For family's sake, we're not planning on going to another country, but we definitely need a change of scenery.

BigSlide, I've never visited any of those countries, but my younger brother has been to New Zealand, and his experience was pretty positive.