What are the 7 things you'd list as wonders? Things that are wondrous, famous, unique or just plain useful. For mine, in no particular order:

Tim Shadbolt
Bluff oysters
Invercargill Licensing Trust
Water tower
Sting netball team (now Steel)
Ranfurly shield
Stadium Southland complex
Zero Fees scheme

Greymouth

The fancy public toilets. Quote Mayor Tony Kokshoorn: "It's our Taj Mahal".

Greymouth

The fancy public toilets. Quote Mayor Tony Kokshoorn: "It's our Taj Mahal".

:lol: fail.

Northampton
Shoe industry
Northampton Castle
Iron Age Settlements
Crick of DNA fame
Alan Moore
Althorp House
Feral British Chav Youths.

I can't think of any.

I can't think of any.

I can!

Nelson

The Cathedral (it's position and the beautiful gardens).
Being the centre of NZ.
Sunshine & Weather.
Golden Bay.
Arts and Crafts Culture.
Sir Ernest Rutherford - one of the greatest Scientists in the whole wide World and Universe ;) :)
Lovely boutique wineries and places to eat.

AUCKLAND
in no order
1. Rangitoto
2. Waitakere Ranges
3. Having 50 Volcanoes in one city
4. AK Museum and domain
5. Islands of the Gulf
6. Countless amazing city and ocean beaches
7. My house

I'd have thought the Sky Tower too

^^
Could swap that for LX's house :lol:.
I would also add Auckland's ethnic and cultural diversity. It's one of the great things about living there.

Certainly can't call Nelson miltucultural.

Anyway.

The Cathedral-I can agree with you there but it's more of a tourist attraction than than a functional religious building.

Being the centre of New Zealand-I don't really see the merits of this.

Sunshine and Weather-Yes I can agree with that one as well.

Golden Bay-Care to say why? It's a hole.

Arts & Crafts culture- Most of those people who run those small galleries are complete aresholes anyway and we lost the WOW show to Wellington so there isn't really anything left.

Sir Ernest Rutherford-He is the son of Wakefield and was only educated in Nelson.

Eateries and wineries- Only good if you have a zillion dollars in your wallet.

Sorry if this looks like nitpicking but it's just looking at it from al local point of view, it really isn't that exciting to be honest.

^the Invercargill water tower certainly isn't a functioning water tower but still a worthy landmark, same with that cathedral. I think all that stuff is worth mentioning. Sucks about the WoW though, that would have been a big one

Some look out the window and see the beautiful view, others just see a dirty window.

Anyways, Sydney in no particular order:
1. Mrs Macquaries Chair, stunning quiet part of the gardens which holds great memories for me. Overlooks Ft Dennison, another magical place.
2. Victoria St, Darlinghurst. My old 'hood- excellent community feel. Thanks Juanita Nielsen and the BLF.
3. Cronulla Sharks, Penrith Pamfas. Nothing wrong with bogans.
4. Ethnic ghettos where a whitey doesnt feel safe; Punchbowl, Lakemba, Cabramatta, Bankstown etc etc etc.
5. Northern Beaches, Another world up there.
6. The Hawkesbury River, Ku Ring Gai. Another world up there.
7. Notorious places like The Gap, The Wall, The Block, The Rocks.

I could probably do like 100.

As for my adopted hometown:
1. Scarborough Walk to Taylors Mistake. Try not to jump off!
2. Hagley Park. Looks amazing in any season.
3. High Street and the Lanes. Squint your eyes and you could think you are in Bohemian Central.
4. Norwester winds in mid December. Dry, gusty hot summer nights when its still light at 10pm and the plane switch flight paths.
5. Beaches with no one on them. South Shore to Waikuku, maybe 10 people and 5 dogs.
6. Mona Vale, Riccarton House, Elmwood Park, Millbrook Reserve, the Groynes. All those out of the way places that you overlook and never go to when you live here.
7. The Cathedral and the Basilica. Stunning buildings in their own right.

What I most love about Chch, wonders and not:

* New Brighton beach, and pier.
* The Port Hills - for sitting on and driving. Them being yellow post-Summer. (I wish they were yellow all year round. It looks cool, 'cause it's weird for NZ.)
* Hagley Park/Botanic Gardens.
* The flowers in bloom in spring/summer, and the smell.
* The leaves all over the ground in Autumn.
* The fresh taste of the night air - if on a leafy street/in the park.
* Cathedral square, and the near-deserted CBD in general, after 12AM, Sunday to ~Wednesday. It's magical - especially with the lights under the river bridges.
Those are the first 7 which came to me.
* Sexy young men, everywhere you look. Our Maorified Asians are extra hot.
* No attempts made to hide sex shops/strip clubs/brothels in a red light district - makes the city look kinky.
* Canoeing on the Avon.
* Mt Cavendish Gondola.
* Big, grand avenues, of the likes not seen elsewhere in NZ. Lots of room to stretch your wheels if you like driving.
* The one way system with synchronised lights.
(I used to hate it until I learned they're not just one way streets: they're a way to traverse a right angle through the CBD without stopping if you're on-to-it - but sometimes it's hard to turn a corner in time. The synchronisation is broken on the North-East corner.)
* The view of the ocean from that walk up the tip of Scarborough. It's surreal.
* The carrot cake at the Buddhist centre vegetarian cafe - but they don't regularly have it anymore.
* A curvy two-lane city road with no separator is designated a motorway (Southern). Many are reluctant to go the speed limit on it! It's slightly exhilarating if going slightly faster. If travelling East at night, the view of the lights on the Port Hills is nice.
* Funny people: Radio Ron, the banjo guy, the occasionally-swearing (I think) kinda scary religious preacher, the bearded guy in Riccarton who wears a tartan or camo skirt (not a kilt, a skirt) with army boots, multiple unicyclists with a straight face that says "nothing strange about this at all".
* Healthy-looking people, outside, enjoying themselves - even in winter, often with cute dogs. Lots of street performers too.
* The view from the car park on top of Westfield Riccarton.
* Around a 1.3km stretch, Riccarton road has 62 different places to get something to eat without having to enter a mall (but outside of mall counted), or 82 places with the whole mall included. If you're lucky, you can live in a suburban house, with a yard and trees, in the middle of that (I do, in a dingey student-type flat). And just a 35 minute walk to the CBD also (through the park). Some people in the suburban corners of the CBD live in proper houses with more within reach. Here you can get both urban and suburban things that aren't supposed to come together.

I think Chch is a place for people who measure their lot in tangibles, rather than craving an aura of hipness/funkyness/bohemianness. Also nature lovers who want a city life too.


Things that make me wonder in Chch:

"No dogs on the beach during the summer months of daylight savings." What does that mean? Summer is entirely enclosed within daylight savings, is it not? Why do they even mention daylight savings?

Why the public have not revolted against the ludicrously arseholish standard of parking enforcement. They're an embarrassment to the city, and humanity in general. Stop reading now unless you share my hatred of them.


I parked my car facing the wrong way outside my house one day - on a suburban street for which there is never any shortage of on-street parking. I only intended to be there five minutes as I was taking off again - in the direction I was facing (it's easier and safer that way), realised I was gonna be a bit longer so I went out to move the car after a few minutes and saw an officer writing me $400 worth of tickets: $200 for "no evidence of inspection" and $200 for "did use motor vehicle". There was no reasoning with him, and it didn't matter that I had gone to move the car right then and there, as he was telling me off as soon as I got out there.

That's not about public safety or keeping order, it's using rules for revenue gathering, plain and simple. Parking enforcement should NOT have the power to fine you for no warrant two times what a cop could at a checkpoint.

Some of you car-haters will think I got what I deserved, but not everyone is able to keep their car warranted at all times - sometimes life gets in the way. Decent cops understand that even.

Hey, that's not seven...