lunachick

LOL!



Prepare to go skiing in Queenstown in Sept. Bring warm clothes.

Sauron

It's hard telling you guys apart.

A kiwi accent sounds like wilted Australian to me. Maybe it's the temperate climate and rain forests; they affect your accent as well.

There are about a dozen (at least) distinct American accents that I can pick out. I'm sure that there's probably twice as many accents as that in our country; but the lines muddle really quickly for me. I can tell a person from Maine apart from a person from Massachusetts - even though they were settled by the same linguistic group, originally (Maine used to be part of Massachusetts).

But I can't always tell someone from Georgia from someone from Tennessee or the Carolinas.

mongrel

Not all of Australia is like that. Tasmania is a lush, green, mountainous place, with large areas of temperate rainforest and a mostly cool-mild climate. Ever see "Walking with Dinosaurs"? I believe much of the footage for the series was filmed in various parts of Tasmania(obviously without the dinosaurs...)- that might give you an idea of what many parts are like here.

You forgot the world's most poisonous jellyfish(box jellyfish).

But none of these things present much of a problem in daily life.

Snakes are usually quite timid- I think it's only around mating season they can be aggressive. I've seen more than my fair share of them, too(out in the bush), but never had any problems. They do their best to stay out of our way.

They're quite common in the suburbs, like where I live, but nests are easy to get rid of. They can be aggressive, but their sting's not really any worse than that of a yellowjacket's(it didn't feel any worse to me, anyway). The inchman(another ant- so named because of it's size, althought they can, very occasionally, be up to around 2 inches long) is worth watching out for, too. These ants have been known to kill(4 deaths since around 1990 in Tasmania- 3 known to have been caused by jackjumper stings, and one either an inchman or a jackjumper sting), but that's only because of a rare severe allergic reaction. For the vast majority of people in day to day life, they're no more than a slight inconvenience, which can be fixed with a size nine...

echidna

Hint : they're the ones walking around the clifftops with the velcro gloves.

Hayden

Hey - if your sheep weren't so ugly, you'd be doing it too!

HR

echidna

I'm a bit lost with this ant discussion though. I assume a jack jumper is what we call a jumping jack ? But a yellowjacket I haven't heard of. How do they compare with a bullant ? Nasty buggers once made my entire foot numb with just 3 bites, they're the worst I know of.

Hayden

It's a wasp, isn't it?

lunachick

I think they may have played the Montreaux (?) Jazz festival in Switzerland a few years back.

kwigibo

Don't worry about the wildlife in Australia, just don't go swimming where you shouldn't. You wouldn't believe how many tourists drown in my home town every year.

echidna

Can someone please make a very profound political statement so this thread doesn't get moved. Thanks.