"Can you drive up Mt Cook?" and other questions.
 

The Christchurch i-SITE has compiled a list of questions asked by tourists in the last year. These include:

> If I start walking in the afternoon, will I be in Dunedin by dinner time?

> What is the currency of the North Island?

>Is there anyone here who can speak English?

>Can I do the dolphin swimming even if I can't swim?

> How far is it to the mainland?

> Does NZ have any ATMs?

> Where can I see koalas here?

> Can I have a map of Australia?

> Can you drive up Mt Cook in a standard car? And how long is the drive up?

And from the Nelson i-SITE, "Can you tell me what time the rain will stop?"

Very funny Kiwi-Rob! I think there are rather more of these kinds of questions about Australia at the moment with the ultra cheap airfares!

It makes you wonder how much preliminary research some people do.

Well, I'm sorry but I think wanting to drive right up Mt. Cook is perfectly reasonable!
It's also a little known fact that the sheep of New Zealand wiped out the NZ koala population quite some time ago and really you can't blame people for not knowing that!!

Yeah, Stormbird. But that was only because the sheep, well known for their voracious sexual appetite, wanted to have it off with the koalas. The koalas, with their typical Australian reserve (? -- Yeah, right!), didn't want anything to do with these foreign interlopers (or, probably more likely, couldn't muster the energy), and the sheep (most of which came from England and had inferiority complexes) didn't appreciate having their amorous advances rebuffed and got a bit aggressive.
Rob.

So well explained Rob - you are absolutely right about the koalas not being able to muster the energy and of course those sheep definitely had inferiority complexes.

Ah to be a Kiwi!

Yair, well us Koalas couldn't understand youse sheep, maaite!
Thinkin' we'd be a bit friendly like, bein' newbies 'n all, we 'ad a barbie & aksed Trevor ter bring a few maites. We sez ter come casual & BYO some grog in yer esky. But then youse reckon you'll bring yer "chilly bins" & wear yer "jangles". Well! Yer might "jangle" or yer might "dangle", but youse're a bit too upfront for us shy Koala sheilas. Jeeezzuz maaite, we just aksed 'how many were comin' & yer keep sayin "sucks"! And wanted us to go ter yer "Batches" Wot sort of shacka chicks do youse think we are? No wunda we swum 'ome. Bloody long way, it was too!

See question 3 above.

"It makes you wonder how much preliminary research some people do."

This forum stands as graphic and sometimes surreal testimony to how much, I'm afraid, Rob. But the entertainment value is beyond price.

I'm sure most visitors would happily accept the imported brushtail possum as a substitute for koalas. You can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough to make a nice little earner.

You could rename the possums Drop Bears, building on the success of renaming the Chinese gooseberry the Kiwi fruit.

"Can you drive up Mt Cook", kiwirob, here on the other side of the Tasman have had them ask if they can drive to the Great Barrier Reef. And "where do you catch the train from Cairns to Auckland?" Or, when asked if they'd like to catch an Aboriginal cultural experience, say "oh, no, we saw that in New Zealand".

Let's not forget about Lamington National Park, where lamingtons grow on trees.

Yum, how long will it take me to drive to the lamington trees from Brisbane?

Excellent post
"It makes you wonder how much preliminary research some people do."
Makes me wonder if some people should be allowed passports!

This is a wonderful resource. I'll bet this is where I'll be able to get the answer to a couple of questions that I've been pondering for quite some time ...

Those cute little kiwi birds and the penguins -- which ones taste like chicken?

Do the kangaroos on the North Island bite?

Thank you for your help. ;-)

Songdoc,

I can help with the first one - they all taste like chicken! Even the famous North Island kangaroos.

Bokhara - that was histerickal.

Rob,
"It makes you wonder how much preliminary research some people do"..... and Crellston's wondering about the issuance of passports = listening to some clients I wonder how they even got a drivers license!

I once did a trip for a guy going to Puerto Vallarta for a week. He came back and told me he really enjoyed Perta Vilara (and he said this over and over again). How can you still not be able to pronounce the name of a place after you've stayed there a week?! Clients who went to Europe and complained that the food "was different than at home". Another complained about the fact that it pretty much rained for about 15 minutes every day on Kauai (how did they think it stayed so lush?).

There's a list with questions from cruise ship passengers, such as:

What time's the Midnight Buffet?

Does the crew sleep onboard?

Does the ship generate its own electricity? (noo, they just have a really really long extension cord from Miami).

Sadly, I'm sure all these and more have been asked!

Melodie

One of my favourites was the lady who got confused on a LAX-SYD flight when the Qantas FA told her that due to crossing the IDL they'd be arriving Wednesday morning, despite having left Monday night. "Don't you HAVE Tuedays in Australia?" the poor passenger blurted out.

(Well, this time zone stuff always confuses me too....)

And the old dear off a cruise ship which arrived in Sydney in January, sweatingly asking a waitress "Honey, is it always this hot in winter here?"

I think my favourite this year is,
"I hear they don't take US bills in Australian stores."

And it might have been you, Bokhara2, who helpfully pointed out that we'd certainly consider doing so just as soon as US stores started reciprocating.

I did try that for a joke in a US post office - the staff were quite intriggued by their different colours as well as sizes, and made from a polymer material.

One of my bugbears in the States is thinking I'm rich because my wallet is fat - but on closer examination with nothing but $1 bills - and much the same story with coins, there being no $2, and very rarely $1 coins, but a lot of pennies and nickels. In Australia I've often found my fob pocket containing as much as $20 in coins, a nice surprise.

Neil. I'll give Aussie currency much more credibility once you get the size of your $1 and $2 coins reversed.

Vis-a-vis the size of the US notes, given that tney are all the same, the comment made elsewhere recently that, in movies, someone can reach into their wallet in darkness, pull out a note without looking at it, and hand it to the taxi driver AND IT IS ALWAYS THE RIGHT AMOUNT TO COVER THE EXACT FARE AND TIP is worthy of note.

kiwi_rob, now I think of it, I don't recall anyone being given change for anything in a movie. Everybody must get tipped but by wildly varying amounts.