Kim, Kim..are you OK?

Yeah. I didn't even know about 'till Fri morning.

Thing about NZ is that tremours are pretty common so energy is dissapated regularly and a big one is unlikely. This one was quite big but no major damage.

I'll give Kim a bell later today.
 
That's what you get for living on a volcano in the middle of the ocean.

Seriously, hope everything is fine over there.
 
Yeah, all is OK.
Spend the night checking out the hospital lifts as they shut down.

Pretty big earthquake, 6.8 on the Richter Scale.
Thing is, it went on for quite a while, maybe 30 seconds or so. Gives you far too much time to think....

Not much damage in Napier but Wairoa, Mahia and Gisborne got shaken to bits.
Quite a bit of property damage, but nothing real serious.

In 1931 Napier got complete flattened by a big Earthquake (8.2 I think) and the whole town was rebuild to much better standards and since there has only been superficial damage.

Whereas Gisborne has quite a few older buildings, which have not build to good EQ standards, hence the extra damage.

My wife was in Gisborne at the time, staying at the waterfront, and she said it was a hell of shake up there. And they were very worried about a Tsunami coming, so there was a bit of panic to get to higher ground.

Certainly lets you know who is in charge (not me).....


Kim
 
Kewl, good to hear mate.

'kin beautiful volcano in the middle of the ocean if you don't mind Barkeater :)

A happy Gas Gas and and a Hebo new year to you all!
 
Should be a good GG year, I'm about to press the button for a new 07/08. Just can't make my mind up what size, 250 or 300.

Start training for the RUT100 !

Kim
 
Yep. I've seen your landscape, never been there, but I've seen.
It is beautiful. Usually beautiful things are dangerous.
Land of Hobbits and Burt Munro! Can't get much nicer, or different from the Minnesota - North Dakota border where I live. (which looks a lot like Antarctica right now.)

Oh, and the way I eat over the holidays, it will be a happy "gas gas".:rolleyes:

Kim, go for the 300!
 
The cool thing about here in Hawkes Bay, is that you can be surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon (and do a bike hoon on the way).
Very temperate weather, only a few frosts a year and seldom over 30C (86F).

Pretty low rainfall and the hunting/fishing is also pretty awesome within 1 or 2hrs drive.

Actually works get in the way of a good life (a lot).:D

Bike riding is also pretty good, but you need to know where to go. Actually I must start to post some pic's.

BTW, I was born in Denmark, so I do know a bit about snotty weather.

Merry Xmas and all.

Kim
 
Actually, I have lived a few different places in the world and I reckon NZ in general is pretty hard to beat.
Though, because its quite small with only about 4million people spread out over 1800km or so, it can be quite hard to earn a decent buck.
But the trade off is easy living and outdoor activities galore all year around.

K
 
NZ is generally the same climate as the state of Oregon in USA. It's at the 45th parallel North, NZ is 45 South. If you had a house in both places, you could just skip winter all together, just spend the warm season in both places. OR you could just go to Costa Rica permanently. It rarely drops below 70 degrees F. It's green, hilly, beautiful. Although, if you've never actually seen a snake, CR has some real doozies! Not to mention a species of giant spider that'll make you scream like a girl, guaranteed!
 
Not to mention a species of giant spider that'll make you scream like a girl, guaranteed!

Hah! As an ex-Saffer (South African) I laugh at giant spiders! SA has a nasty looking thing called a baboon spider, basically a tarantula, the biggest I've seen was about the size of a medium sized dinner plate. Baboon spiders will give a nasty bite but aren't poisonous. The also have something called a rain spider which is a little smaller than a baboon spider but is harmless. These have a nasty habit of coming indoors. It's not nice to wake up in the morning and find yourself staring at one of these. However they are harmless. Worst bugger was something called a button spider. AKA black widow. The highest concentration of black widows in the world was about 30 k's from where I lived in a place called Philadelphia.

Snakes! Nasty things. Mambas (black & green, both in Natal, ask Dingo about them), cobras (many species) and my own favourite, puff adders. I've ridden over a puff adder or two in my time.

Over to our friends across the ditch who will, no doubt, regale with tales of man eating spiders and snakes so poisonous that just looking at them can kill you.

Tell you the truth I hate spiders and would probably run away, a gibbering wreck, if I set eyes on that Costa Rican bugger. :eek:
 
I may be going to Costa Rica next spring. How would it be for 2 kids (6 and 9 yr old boys) as far as overall safety/security is concerned? I would be in a time share condo on the beach somewhere (my sister-in-law's), not sure of the town.

A friend of my brother's went, and a guy in his group got stung in the balls with a scorpion!:eek: He hung his suit out to dry and didn't check before he pulled it on! Luckly it was not a real bad species of scorpion.
 
In my opinion, Costa Rica is as safe as any other place. Certainly politically. There are no worries about the Federal Police harassing you because you're a foreigner. Of course, there are bad guys just like any other place, so you don't want to be a fool. If you're staying at some sort of resort, the kids will not only be quite safe, but probably isolated from the true culture. It's a pretty poor country, and if you venture out of San Jose and experience local dining, you'll find inexpensive, yet tasty meals, that are mostly based on beans and rice, and often a hunk of meat, probably chicken. The local Fruit will blow your mind, as in any tropical place.

And, fortunately, you probably won't be lucky enough to see that goliath tarantula.

Bonus, you're Gas Gas 250 is a viable streetbike in CR. for that matter, so is an RM 250. You'll probably lose count if you try to see how many Yamaha Serows you can spot.

Also, you can go to Volcan Irazu on a tour, and see both coasts at once from the top. It's the tallest peak in CR.
 
I've been to Cabo in Baja, around the Caribean, Truk Lagoon in the south Pacific, and all over Russia. My wife has been all over the world on business, so we know a bit about travel common sense. I enjoy getting to know the locals, learning the culture, and the food. This would be the first time for the kids out of a highly developed area with $$ like, say the Cayman Islands we did last year. We are an adventure vacation family and do not sit on the beach every day. I'd like to include the kids as long as its OK to travel around to the various activities and not worry about being robbed or carjacked like what seems to be happening in Mexico lately. Of course I'd do some riding there. I'll get the name/address of the condo and let you know exactly where Iwe would be staying.
 
I think you'll have a blast. The whole country is beautiful. If your kids enjoy the jungle, beauty, animals, food, you'll have fun. The Northern part is dryer, and there isn't much of a population base. There is much to see and do, and there is lot's of Eco tourism sprouting everywhere. There are jungle tours, volcano tours, you name it. The roads are kind of beat up when you leave the areas with any money or tourism. In fact, the road to Irazu is pretty ugly, but there's worse.
 
Boy, we have really gone off topic on this one. We should think about a GG.org gathering of some type. Find out where most people who want to do it live, and do a reasonably central location, as long as there's killer riding that is. We could do several awesome locations along the west coast of U.S.

I can put together a tour of some awesome riding in Oregon. I can even arrange to feed us all. You can check out dirtbikeoregon.com for a sample of some of it.
 
Like the Husaberg Force rides. They get together in one location (US and Europe for those too poor to travel that far) and shoot the poop and ride for a while.
 
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