New Zealand: Places to live S/D

http://nelsonnz.com/

Latitudinally, isn't Dunedin roughly equivalent to somewhere like La Rochelle in the northern hemisphere as opposed to the vibrant cultural centre and tourist honeypot that is Hull?

you should move to wellington. though dunedin is cool also (no jobs there however). wellington has jobs-a-plenty (if you care and have a few skills); the 'music scene' is varied and the guitar side of things is coming alive again (approaching what it was in early-mid 90s, which was good); rents are pretty cheap; you can walk everywhere; the sun shines heaps and it's fuckin hot at the right times of the year and cold - but not too too cold (dunedin) at the right times; there's a lovely southseas breeze that blows in and helps keep things clean; there are 3-4 big second hand record dealers (that's a lot for a town this size); the girls are very cute and very varied in their cutenss; there's two universities and an art school; the girls put out; there are loads of galleries that you can go to openings at and get free vino; peter jackson lives here (if you give a shit - that was a bit of absolutely positively wellington promo); you can get girls at openings; parliament is here; there are bars for every mood; you can get cheap cheap asian food and fuckin good breakfasts at the city's best cafe 'fidels'; there are great tattoo studios; the coffee is the best i've tasted in my life; on the music front again, there's also a big 'electronica' scene; all the scenes are easy to penetrate; it's really nz's cultural centre, people are sometimes heard to say.

people try to say that wellington is *like* new york and i spose at quite a big stretch it may be. but the bagels here are molested and you can't get kosher salami - maybe one isn'y supposed to...

and reasons for coming to nz: the nz dollar is getting stronger; we're not gonna jump into the war for oil; the creative class will take over in the next 15 years - despite the fact that the universities push management and commerce as the future; we look like we are finally going to lose that fuckin america's cup; you can get the dole if you say you're an artist and then they leave you alone. (not that i recommend that - having, as i do, to pay for all my dole mates' beers and concert tickets and having to see them depressed and living off fish and chips and stag beer ($1 a can))

but i still wanna and can't wait to leave!

you've got to be kidding me! here I am in london with only ONE handful of dust LP and several Cds by the dead C when i could have so much more.

well i 'll take CDs (heh) but I think a lot of handful of dust is on vinyl (?)

Steven Wells described Oxford as a "posho hell-hole" - could that be because he's from Swindon I wonder...

anyway post coffee will add more.

i have things to say about dunedin.

(lucylurex i wrote to you once and you neva wrote back! - i imagine you work at the university library???)

all the poets are here or in auckland, if yu really MUST have them. you can have coffee sitting next to kim hill here or see her at moore wilsons and check out her groceries.

lucylurex - you posted a very memorable thing about carrie brownstein once.

But that's part of the appeal! As is the net access and the great beer.

hahahaha, that's like saying Ned mentioned his fondness for My Bloody Valentine once!!

But I did mention it once! I then mentioned it some more, is all.

di : I use twee, somewhat inaccurately, to indicate retro, to indicate rock'n'roll. Which may not apply. DDDD was used for weight, not precision. Also, note the not-idle choice of motherfuckers. Why tell the truth when you can set up a cheap binary (in other people's misery)?

clare : Wellington unbearable for, well, see the R*chard R*eve poem "Absolutely Positively Jakarta". Or, anti-feral* in a rigid "black turtleneck", death-by-tasteful sense - smugness of certainty, a place where everyone knows yr face. Suffocation.
& re : the poetry scene (n*ck asc*ft - rogue haitches ahem), my darling, in Dunedin it is certainly not spoken word & freejazz beatnik leftovers - although we gladly claim D*vid Eggl*ton - perhaps post-Continuum era Curnow; David Howard leaching South, etc. Or perhaps - hhehehehheh1101101 - it was Brasch & Baxter when the moa still traipsed down George Street for a quick pint @ the Robbie.

* haha I like Golden Bay because that's where I'm from! Descended from sturdy farming stock! Upright colonists all! How dare you call me feral! (BEX 2 THRED).

but wellington is, i think, more beautiful....the compactness and the resemblance one can argue it bears to nagasaki. my friend who lives in dunners says that wellingtonians are cooler!

Wellington is great. Palmerston North is flat and in the middle of nowhere. Napier is a treasure and full of nice wine. Gisborne is warm and sandy and poverty stricken. Auckland is ok. The rest of the North Island is full of cows, farmers and occasional volcanoes. This includes Taranaki, if that is where it's at I don't know what it is (this may be true)

Since I recently moved to Wellington after two years in Dunedin I should have something decent to say but I'm struggling...I agree w/ lots o' Hamish's post... the record stores are crap in Wellington, they're I think slightly better in Chch (and AKL, but never mind that). The "breeze" in Wellington is an incessent fucking GALE that may drive one INSANE. I am not looking forward to the winter here, though I have a fireplace in my bedroom - Dunedin houses are insanely under insulated therefore you can barely do anything in the "winter" (it snowed in November when I first moved there!) except stay in bed. It has that smalltown good/bad thing of you getting to know people more easily but then if you don't like them or whatever you probably will not get to avoid them (or you or someone you know will be living with them). However at least they are less likely to be a poet than in Wellington (sorry ess kay, doesn't refer to you - there's a fair bit of crapulous poetry chalked on the streets here).

now this is a drawback if anything, I mean I think he's a wonderful interesting great person but it's not like you can just bowl up and talk to him abt the Dead C or Harry Pussy or whatever if y're not shy, because he is a BUSY BUSY man! And what would you want to go to a cafe for? to read a magazine I guess. But you could just go to the library and then you wouldn't have to wastew your money on those horrible drinks!

Month Avg. High Avg. Low

Jan 66°F 50°F 58°F )

Feb 66°F 50°F 58°F

Mar 63°F 48°F 56°F

Apr 59°F 45°F 52°F

May 53°F 41°F 47°F

Jun 49°F 39°F 44°F

Jul 48°F 37°F 42°F

Aug 51°F 38°F 44°F

Sep 55°F 41°F 48°F

Oct 59°F 42°F 50°F

Nov 62°F 45°F 54°F

Dec 65°F 48°F 56°F

Clare I think Spectra was referring to CUNT (Clare's Un Natural Twin). Yes I know that everyone else in the English speaking world considers `unnatural' to be one word but who wants to be in CUT? We are gradually getting used to the constant gale of your lovely city.

the gales are fine here in wgtn, but the circadas (sp?) are very annoying and kept me awake the other hot, still night.

please explain your CUNT remark fully, haloist...

Yeah rush hour in Nelson is a real killer, lookout spaghetti junction part 2.

Its not the air tempreture that is the real problem in Dunedin its the wind chill from the constant southerly that blows straight off antarctica. At Carisbrook a few years back half the Queensland footy team went off at half time with a bad case of hypothermia, its fucking freezing no two ways.

Auckland - 5th best city in the world apparently, I like it anyway

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/02/zurich.topspot.reut/

I did. Bruce is quite friendly.

I'm scratching my head but I cannot think of one single way in which Auckland is like London, except that there are vast numbers of New Zealanders in both places.