Hi folks
> Heh...what got me most about New Zealand was the apparent lack of any
> traffic rules whatsoever. I got in a honking match with a bus on a
> mountain road once and had to back all the way down the mountain with
> the bus inching forward like it was going to nudge me right off a cliff
> if I didn't hurry up. I also noticed that there were no air traffic
> controllers when I was there and the pilots would just improvise
> landings. Landing in Wellington once we made three approaches before
> smacking the ground nice and hard on the third. I commented on it to
> the pilot as I was leaving the plane and he said, "Well, you knew we'd
> landed!" I found him in the hotel bar later that night and he was
> laughing about it again. I'm glad somebody enjoyed the flight. ;-)
>
> - -Rob
It is always interesting to get the impressions of ones' country given by a
visitor who sees the place and the behaviour of the people, with new eyes
unaccustomed (conditioned) by experience.
For the benefit of those who might arrive by air, may I assure them that our
airports do indeed have air traffic controllers, but in some wind conditions at
some airports, the landing process is a highly skilled process involving the
real pilots in the cockpit who may well decide to abort that particular landing
run and go around for another try. Wellington is not known locally as "Windy
City" for no reason :-)
As for the bus driver, I am sure all places have their share of a**hole
drivers. I
encountered one such on a one-lane road-rail bridge south of Hokitika on my
South Westland safari that I posted photos of in Dec 2001. Any traffic
already on that bridge is supposed to have right of way. I was already half
way across when a large (non-articulated) truck decided to proceed across in
the opposing direction. I suppose I could have just got out of my little Toyota
Starlet SUV and got my OM out, but I suspect the jerk would have just
bulldozed my car into the roadway anyway. I reversed all the way back.
Brian
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|