Bargains are Waiting for You

Traveling to the world’s most expensive cities

Published June 05, 2012

FoxNews.com

Oslo is, on average, almost 40 percent higher than in New York City. Lunch can be upwards of $45 and a movie ticket is over $18. (Hotels.com)

The average pint of beer in Copenhagen will cost upward of $7, while the average local train ticket costs nearly $4. (Hotels.com)
Continued below:

Download a no obligation, free sample of any or all these

great reads from Amazon or Smashwords

In Stockholm you can expect to pay more than $4 for a dozen eggs and more than $15 for a movie ticket. (Hotels.com)

Geneva has a very high per capita income. A beer at a bar can cost you almost $10. (Hotels.com)

Worried about spending too much on vacation? Then you might want to think twice before visiting these five cities that will have you digging deep into your wallet, according to a report from UBS Wealth Management Research.

Oslo, Zurich, Geneva, Copenhagen and Stockholm have for years consistently ranked among the world's most expensive cities.  

While the hefty price of traveling these cities may make you want to avoid these places, there are ways to cut costs while checking out the sites. To save money when confronted with steep restaurant prices, try thinking outside the box when deciding where to eat, for example. Instead of seeking restaurant recommendations from your hotel concierge, Bill Miller, CEO of CheapoAir.com recommends talking with locals to find the best bargains. Similarly, he advises frugal travelers to purchase food from the local grocery store, instead of eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/06/05/traveling-to-worlds-most-expensive-cities/#ixzz1wxoRYo00

Peter’s Comments
Why would anyone want to spend big dollars vacationing in northern Europe when for a fraction of the cost they can have a wonderful time downunder in beautiful New Zealand?

Mount Cook, South Island

Americans, for example, can visit the beaches and fruit groves of Florida, the lakes of Minnesota, the hills and forests of New England, the mountains and skifields of Colorado, the farmlands of Kentucky, the sights of Yellowstone and the deserts and casinos of Nevada, all within an area the same size as the state of California. Furthermore, the population of New Zealand is only one-eighth the population of California.

Paihia, Bay of Islands, North Island

In spite of New Zealand’s remoteness from the world’s population centers, it has a large and modern tourism industry with excellent hotels and motor-coach tours and guides without equal anywhere in the world.

Free overnight motor-home parking in many areas

Tourists can choose self-drive hire and motels or backpacker hostels to save even more hard-earned cash. But if you are planning to self-drive, remember that New Zealand drives on the left side of the road. Roads connecting tourist centers and the main cities are excellent.

Main Street, Arrowtown, South Island

Air New Zealand and other airlines have daily flights from the West Coast direct to Auckland with very competitive fares. Talk to your travel agent today and come to my part of the South Pacific where it is clean, green, friendly and within your budget.

FICTION ADDICTION

World famous but not in New Zealand

By Bronwyn Sell

9:30 AM Tuesday Jun 5, 2012, NZ Herald

One of the most prolific and successful New Zealand novelists ever was a Christchurch-born minister's wife called Essie Summers. She sold close to 20 million books in 105 countries, published in 25 languages.

But if you're not in her target market you probably haven't heard of her. The same goes for a dozen or so other successful New Zealand authors who've bypassed our tiny local publishing market and headed straight out into the world.

They're genre writers who've hit the right niche with the right stories at the right time - the ones who have us all berating ourselves: "Oh why didn't I think 10 years ago to write vampire romances/boy wizard adventures/Christchurch crime thrillers ... "

Summers was a pioneer among these local word exporters. When she died in 1998, aged 86, she'd written more than 50 novels for Mills and Boon and was known as New Zealand's Queen of Romance.

So who are some of these blazingly successful New Zealand authors you've (probably) never heard of?

Paul Cleave

It sounds like an unlikely recipe for success: a series of serial-killer thrillers set in ... Christchurch. But, hey, whatever works. And it's definitely working for Cantabrian Paul Cleave. His first book, The Cleaner, which he wrote in his mid-twenties, sold more than a quarter of a million copies in its first year and was the number one bestselling crime novel on Amazon in Germany in 2007, for starters. He's now published in France, Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, the UK and the USA - but until recently his books weren't even on the shelves in Christchurch. His fifth novel, Collecting Cooper (Penguin), came out this week - and should be very easy to find in New Zealand bookstores. Read an excerpt here.

Nalini Singh

A former student of Mt Roskill Grammar, Nalini Singh started writing paranormal romance shortly before Stephanie Meyer published her firstTwilight novel and Charlaine Harris sold the television rights to her Southern Vampire series (renamed True Blood for the telly). The genre took off, and Singh has repeatedly ridden the wave to the New York Times bestseller lists, with stories of love between shapeshifters, psychics, angels, vampire hunters and, occasionally, regular old humans. Like Cleave, Singh was a publishing success overseas long before her work started appearing in mainstream bookshops in New Zealand. These days her books are translated into about a dozen languages, including French, Thai, Indonesian, Hungarian and Japanese. Her latest book, Tangle of Need, will get a mainstream release here on June 12 (Hachette).

Stacy Gregg

While working as a fashion journalist, Aucklander Stacy Gregg got it into her head to write a book for pre-teens about a horse-mad Auckland girl and her friends. She sent it off to Harper Collins in London, and it was rejected. Five years later, an editor rang back to say they'd changed their minds. She's since sold more than a million copies of her 17 pony club books, in two series - Pony Club Secrets, and the more grown-up Pony Club Rivals. Both have been optioned for TV and film.

Daphne Clair and Robyn Donald

The rightful heirs to Essie Summers, this Northland pair have each written more than 70 romance novels for international markets. They've also, jointly, written the book about romance writing, Writing the Romantic Novel. Donald's latest book, Stepping out of the Shadows, is released this month by Harlequin. (Incidentally, if you fancy yourself as the next Essie Summers, Romance Writers of New Zealand is inviting budding romance writers to apply for the Sandra Hyde Memorial Scholarship, which will get you into the association's three-day August conference in Auckland for free. Applications close on Friday. Click herefor details.)

Juliet Marillier

Dunedin-born Juliet Marillier published her first fantasy novel at age 50, after emigrating to Australia. It was published in Australia, the US and the UK, translated into several languages, and won a sought-after American Library Association award. She gave up her day job in the public service in 2003 and now has more than a dozen books to her name, both adult and YA, which combine historical fiction, folkloric fantasy, romance and family drama. She is even a member of the druid order OBOD (The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids).

Sheryl Jordan

Hawera-born Sheryl Jordan is what you might call persistent. Her first published novel, Rocco, was the 13th she'd written. Since then more than a dozen of her fantasy books for children and young adults have been published in New Zealand, as well as Australia, the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Denmark. She's also written and/or illustrated a pile of children's picture books.

Peter’s Comment

The above list is by no means complete. There are several current New Zealand Mills & Boon writers who make a good living from their romance writing.

There is also little known locally Richard Webster who has written and published over 100 titles, almost exclusively overseas. Retired broadcaster Gordon Dryden has sold 11 million copies of his educational books in China alone.

The list appears to focus only on books from traditional publishers of print books and seems to ignore the fact that there is a whole new publishing world out there – the EBook industry.

EBook authors, many overlooked by traditional publishers, are taking their books to the world without leaving home and are earning good money doing it. They can upload their manuscripts to Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, Oceanbooks (New Zealand) and other EBook publishers free of charge and receive up to 80% of the retail price as royalties.

This new publishing order is reducing print book publishers to the level of horse-drawn carriage builders at the start of the twentieth century. More important, it is giving readers prices, mobility and convenience unimaginable a short time ago. As former British Prime Minister Harold McMillan once said, “The people have never had it so good.”

These EBooks have already sold more copies than the original print copies

Amazon or Smashwords

Asker Trilogy Review by: Jennifer Petrofsky on Oct. 24, 2012 :
Wow! This was such a great story. And I truly did not expect it to end the way it did. What a surprise! I strongly urge people to read Nathaniel's Bloodline, Murder at Wairere and A Twist of Fate. You will not be disappointed. Peter Blakeborough did a wonderful job on all three books. Thank you!

Blogger Blakeborough Married

Surprise Wedding Bells at Country Music

Hauraki Country Music Club members and members of the public attending a country music day in Ngatea, New Zealand, recently were in for a surprise when two members, Winifred Webb and Peter Blakeborough were married on the stage part way through the program. Members were expecting to hear country music entertainer Graeme McCardle. 

Winifred Webb in the audience
 before getting hitched

Peter Blakeborough as MC
early in the program 

Invited wedding guests were seated in a separate reserved area in case someone let slip that something special was about to happen. Guest artist, Graeme McCardle from Helensville, had completed his first three numbers when the curtains were drawn and a solo artist played in front of the curtain while the stage was quickly reset.

The abandoned bride

The groom walking onto the stage at gunpoint

The secret was so well kept that when the ceremony got under way some members thought it was just an act. It certainly looked like an act when the bride, dressed in country attire, stood alone and forlorn on the stage. The groom had failed to show up and had to be rounded up by a gun toting Sheriff Geoffrey. Eventually, Peter walked onto the stage with his arms raised followed by the sheriff and agreed to go through with the marriage.

Marriage celebrant, John Sanford, had a gun pulled on him (a smaller gun than the sheriff’s) just to make sure that he conducted the ceremony to the groom’s satisfaction. The vows and rings were exchanged and the register signed in short order and the bride and groom’s cowboy hats fell to the floor when they kissed.

Peter then sang, tongue in cheek, Put Another Log on the Fire backed by Ian Colhoun on the keyboard and Graeme McCardle on the guitar, while Win made suitable expressions of surprise and mock distaste before heading for the stage door arm-in-arm with her witness.

The ceremony ended with the cutting of the cake while Graeme McCardle sang a tribute to the happy couple.

The happy bride

She's not sure what to do with
the cake knife

           The happy couple

Graeme McCardle dedicating a
song to Win and Peter

The First Green Party

Political Party Marks 40 Year Milestone

By Isaac Davison

3:00 PM Wednesday May 30, 2012

Green Party co-leaders Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons in 2005. Photo / File

The world's first green political party will this week mark the anniversary of a movement which altered New Zealand's political landscape 40 years ago.

On May 30, 1972, politics student and former journalist Tony Brunt held a meeting at the Victoria University Students' Union, where he railed against mindless economic growth and called for a party with values-based and environmentally conscious policies.

That evening, the Values Party was formed. Though green movements were beginning to spring up overseas, including in Australia, Values was the world's first green party to run at a national level.

On Friday, former Values members will gather to remember the world-leading creation of the party. The Values Party is also the subject of a new book by columnist and conservation advocate Claire Browning, Beyond Today: a values story.

Mr Brunt told the Herald that the party's members were quickly written off as "idealistic extremists" by the ruling National Party.

"A lot of what I said in 1972 seems really simplistic and naive in retrospect - talking about zero population growth, zero economic growth, technology control."

But he believed history had proved most of their environmental concerns right: "There's also the whiff about it, looking back, of backing the right horse, of getting on board modernity's biggest bandwagon when it was just the size of a skateboard," Mr Brunt said.

The party captured 5.3 per cent of the vote in its first general election in 1972, but gained no seats under the First Past the Post system.

Despite being at the heart of the anti-nuclear movement, homosexual law reform and the campaign for MMP, it never made it into the Beehive, and folded in the late 1980s.

Peter’s Comment

The party lived on in the Green Party and entered Parliament for the first time in 1999 led by Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald.

I was a National Party candidate when the Values Party was launched in 1972. Several years later I joined the Values Party for a short time.

Tony Brunt and later leader Reg Clough were sincere crusaders but they lacked a pragmatic enough approach to capture a controlling share of the electorate.

In 1972 the country was ticking along quite nicely, even with a tired government that had been in power for 12 years. The people were not ready for zero population growth and zero economic growth. How do you tell someone that they should not have a new house, another car or start a new business that would offer new jobs?

The answer to that is that you can’t tell that to the voters. They want something for their vote and they know that zero policies are just as outrageous as the Social Credit policies of the time. Both parties were bound to fail sooner or later.

For the last four years New Zealand has been in recession with population and economic activity barely growing. The Values Party advocated something far worse than that. They wanted a permanent recession with all indicators firmly on zero.

More Email Bigotry

THIS HAPPENED IN LONDON From John Harrison MBE I liked this, because it actually is a True story that wisely debates an extremely twisted concept that even Islam has failed to note.  See what you think - fear factors aside.  We all gotta find a way to get along on this globe. With Muslims establishing their own schools, one wonders how their kids will acquire our values and be able to successfully integrate into our society. This incident happened in London. The Uncomfortable Definition of an Infidel.... FACT:  Islam is the fastest growing religion in the UK Last month I attended my annual training session for maintaining my security clearance in the prison service. There was a presentation by three speakers from the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who explained their beliefs. I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say about the basics of  Islam, complete with video. After the presentations, question time.  I directed my question to the Imam and asked:  'Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of Islam have declared a Holy War against the infidels of the world and, that by killing an infidel, (which is a command to all Muslims) they are assured of a place in heaven.  If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?' There was no disagreement with my statement and, without hesitation he replied, 'Non-believers!' I responded, 'So let me make sure I have this straight.  All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not a follower of Allah, so they can have a place in heaven. Is that correct?' The expression on his face changed from one of authority to that of a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the biscuit tin.' He sheepishly replied, 'Yes.' I then stated, 'Well, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope Benedict commanding all Catholics to kill Muslims, or the Archbishop of Canterbury  ordering all Protestants to do the same in order to guarantee them a place in heaven!' The Imam was speechless! I continued, 'I also have a problem with being your 'friend' when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me! Let me ask you a question. Would you rather have your Allah, who tells you to kill me in order for you to go to heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because He will take me to heaven and He wants you to be there with me?' You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam remained speechless. Needless to say, the organizers of the Diversification seminar were not happy with this way of  exposing the truth about the Muslims' beliefs. Within twenty years, ie. 2031, there will be enough Muslim voters in the UK to elect a government of their choice, complete with Sharia law. Everyone in the WORLD. should be required to read this, but with the current political paralysis, tolerant justice system, liberal media and P.C...madness, there is no way this will be widely publicised. Please pass this on to all your e-mail contacts. John Harrison MBE. MIDSc  Peter’s Comments I’ve travelled in a couple of Islamic countries and no-one tried to kill me. So when I read this I immediately suspected that it was just another urban legend with no basis in fact. I Googled John Harrison MBE MIDSc and the only thing I found was this circulating email. I did, however, find two John Harrisons with MBEs but both are deceased, one since 1690 so it couldn’t have been either of them. John Harrison MBE MIDSc is a fraudster or an extreme racist. If you really have to forward his email please remove all previous addresses to beat possible scammers and spammers. And remember, it's the lies and hatred of people like John Harrison that start wars that kill millions of innocent people.

The Future is Here

Dreamliner Plane Arrives in New Zealand

NZ Herald 29 May 2012 Grant Bradley

Plane enthusiasts flocked to vantage points around Auckland Airport today for a glimpse of the first passenger-carrying Boeing 787 Dreamliner to land here.

The 787 touched down soon after 3pm after a flight from Sydney as it neared the end of its six month "Dream Tour" which has taken the aircraft to around 40 destinations.

The plane had around 35 Boeing staffers, representatives from customer airline, Air New Zealand, and journalists aboard.

Boeing says the interest from the public has been enormous wherever the high tech aircraft, made largely of carbon fibre, has landed. Plane spotters blocked motorways in Santiago, Chile when the plane put down there and in Istanbul, Turkey it was mobbed by spectators on the runway apron.

"It's like being a rock star," said one staffer. "Except they're interested in the plane, not us," she said.

The plane that arrived in Auckland today is an eight-series aircraft capable of holding about 250 passengers. Air New Zealand has 10 of the larger nine-series on order, due for delivery in mid-2014.

They promise 20 per cent greater fuel efficiency and lower maintenance costs but the programme is running about three years behind schedule.

The airline has voiced its frustration at the delay and its programme director Kerry Reeves was aboard today's flight.

He said from what he experienced of passenger comfort in the demonstrator aircraft, the wait could be worth it.

"The openness of the cabin with its bigger windows and decor gives it a sense of freshness."

* Grant Bradley travelled on the Dreamliner courtesy of Boeing and Air New Zealand.

Peter’s Comment

In the late 1950s the introduction of the jet age with the Boeing 707 brought air travel within the reach of millions of ordinary people.

When the Boeing 787 Dreamliner goes into service it will represent the greatest step up and forward since the 707. Millions more people will then be able to fly.

Air travel today is the most cost effective and environmentally friendly means of transport ever created and that is why so many people are able to fly wherever their dreams or business take them.  Bring it on, Boeing.

GLOBAL WARMING

Antarctic ice melting from warm water

7:36 AM Thursday Apr 26, 2012 NZ Herald

Antarctica's massive ice shelves are shrinking because they are being eaten away from below by warm water, a new study finds. That suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting.

The western chunk of Antarctica is losing 7 metres of its floating ice sheet each year. Until now, scientists were not exactly sure how it was happening and whether or how man-made global warming might be a factor. The answer, according to a study published in the journal Nature, is that climate change plays an indirect role - but one that has larger repercussions than if Antarctic ice merely were melting from warmer air.

Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey, said research using an ice-gazing NASA satellite showed that warmer air alone could not explain what was happening to Antarctica. A more detailed examination found a chain of events that explained the shrinking ice shelves.

Twenty ice shelves showed signs that they were melting from warm water below. Changes in wind currents pushed that relatively warmer water closer to and beneath the floating ice shelves. The wind change probably is caused by a combination of factors, including natural weather variation, the ozone hole and man-made greenhouse gases, Pritchard said in a phone interview.

As the floating ice shelves melt and thin, that in turn triggers snow and ice on land glaciers to slide down to the floating shelves and eventually into the sea, causing sea level rise, Pritchard said. Thicker floating ice shelves usually keep much of the land snow and ice from shedding to sea, but that is not happening now.

That whole process causes larger and faster sea level rise than simply warmer air melting snow on land-locked glaciers, Pritchard said.

To download a no obligation, free sample
of this great read, click here

"It means the ice sheets are highly sensitive to relatively subtle changes in climate through the effects of the wind," he said.

What's happening in Antarctica "may have already triggered a period of unstable glacier retreat," the study concludes. If the entire Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, which would take many decades if not centuries, scientists have estimated it would lift global sea levels by about 3 metres.

NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, an expert in Earth's ice systems who was not involved in the research, said Pritchard's study "makes an important advance" and provides crucial information about how Antarctica will contribute to global sea level rise.

Another outside expert, Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the paper will change the way scientists think about melt in Antarctica. Seeing more warm water encircling the continent, he worries that with "a further push from the wind" newer areas could start shrinking.

Peter’s Comment

So now we have another point of view which leads us to believe that the melting of the polar ice caps is not just hot air.

The polar ice caps weigh trillions of tons and, like a moving ship weighing thousands of tons, it takes a long time and a great deal of space to turn them around. The polar ice caps may have been melting since the last warm age in the fifteenth century when there was almost no industrial activity to blame.

Furthermore, sea-levels and coastlines have been changing, not just throughout recorded history, but even before man walked the planet. Sea-levels have changed not just by three metres, but by thousands of metres and even whole continents have come and gone and will continue to come and go without any assistance from man.

Anyone who cannot accept this basic principle should then accept that the dinosaurs must have been very industrious creatures during their time on earth.