[Moorf]

Ok, weird request, where can we go to experience an earthquake / tremor (and when I say "experience" I don't mean in a Dante's Peak sort of way :laugh ) - hubby is strangely keen to experience the earth move... well.... I'm saying nothing!!! :uhoh

[Raeven]

ROFL, Moorf!!

I'd say head to NZ!!! Failing that, head to California. The thing is, you really don't feel them at all unless you're right on top of them and they're over 4.5 or so. Since our "big one" last December, we've had literally hundreds of aftershocks here -- 63 earthquakes nearby in just the past week, for example -- and I have felt none of them. These are all around 2.5 or less. I've lived here 20 years, and I've only felt a very few.

When you're in NZ, you're almost sure to feel some, so just proceed with your plans, and your husband will indeed experience earth movement.. Hopefully on a minor scale before a major one!!

All the best, Rae

[Moorf]

LOL - he was wondering where in NZ would be the best place to feel the earth move - I said I had heard Manchester Street in Christchurch would probably suffice :laugh :laugh :laugh

[Raeven]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! I'd say you're exactly right!!! :laugh :laugh :laugh

Rae

[Diny]

Failing that he could try the K-Hapi road in Auckland (but it'll cost him). :laugh

Diny

[veronica]

get him to Te Papa museum in Wellington, they have an earthquake simulator.

[coastcat]

Okay, try this... Stand on a bridge with your husband. Just as a lorry approaches, give your hubby a quick, sharp shove. (no, not towards the road!)

The sensation you're trying to achieve is (1) jolt, then (2) rumble.

[Moorf]

LMAO you guys!

Great tip re the earthquake simulator..... :nice1

[richsadams]

Hi Moorf and All :cool

Having grown up in California, I can attest to the fact that there's nothing like being in an earthquake! I kind of get a kick out of them as long as they aren't too big. Maybe it's a "guy" thing! :laugh Unfortunately I went through the 7.2 in San Francisco in '89 and knew a couple of people that lost their lives, so they can be pretty bad. :(

We've been through a swarm of them since we've been here...5.4 was the biggest. They all happened in a five day period in July. My wife's from the mid-west and her knuckles were a bit white! :eek The locals said they hadn't felt one in about three years, so they don't happen that often I guess. But with all of the volcanic activity they are to be expected. They do get your attention...mother nature at her best!

Here's an excellent website with all of the NZ earthquake statistics you could hope for...plus up-to-the-minute reports!

http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/earthquakes/index.html

How does he like floods? There are plenty of those here too. Pestilence...does he like pestilence? Wait till he gets visited by a weta bug in the middle of a picnic! Kidding. (They only come out at night!) ;)

[Moorf]

:laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh Thanks for that Rich (good site too!). Thank GOD weta bug thingies come out at night.. that's a huge relief... is it true they bite??? And PLEASE tell me they don't fly :uhoh

Personally I love storms... get many of those?!!

If not, I'll have to get someone from the UK to send me one over....

:laugh

[kamus]

wota is a weta bug?

I've seen vague references to them, all which seem to barely conceal some element of fear and terror. My wife more or less ruled out Oz as a potential destination due to poisonous spiders so I guess we should know what these things are.

TIA

Dave

[Radders]

I saw this awful film not long ago about an american family that went to nz to feel an earthquake/or a volcano explode. They stayed in a backpackers on the side of a volcano. Needless to say the volcano blew, and they all had to save one another.
It was really quite terrible, god knows why I sat through the thing!

[Diny]

A weta is a vile creature. If you can imagine a cross between a cockroach and a grass hopper - odd description but that's as close as I can get.

They mainly come out at night but don't relax too much ..... you do get an occasional day visitor.

Yes, they bite - well more of a nip actually. But they don't jump out at you and attack !!!!! It'll leave you alone unless you torment it. They can be up to about 3 inches long (or bigger) and are enough to put the fear of the devil in you. That's if you're 'bugphobic' like I am.

We have a weta in a paperweight - it makes people act with 'car crash' mentality ..... they don't want to look at it but they just have to !!!!!!

If I knew how to put pics on the forum I'd be able to show you for real what one looks like.

Diny

[Moorf]

Hmm, weta - they look worse than they are.... not poisonous as far a I am aware - we too ruled out Oz due to their insect life etc!!

Are these weta's going to be flying around at night i.e. should we ensure we have bug screens.. where are they most prolific? North or South Island ...

Eeek

[bbq]

search on google for weta, click IMAGES at the top of the page and you get a good idea what they look like

enjoy

alex ;)

[Moorf]

OH

[Moorf]

MY

[Moorf]

GOD

:eek :eek :eek :eek

Cancel my flights!

[bbq]

Moorf

Exactly my reaction, YUK!! :no :no

[Douglas]

Must admit to never having seen one of these creatures in the wild in real life - so I wouldn't worry too much. ;)

You'll see (and hear) plenty of ciccadas in the summertime over most of the country though.

[Moorf]

Love the sound of ciccadas in the summer evenings.... makes a bottle of red slide down even easier :nice1

[art]

To save some the trouble of googling for weta images...

http://www.kcc.org.nz/animals/weta/_mahoenui.jpg

[kamus]

With those varmints sharing the country with you, I think one ought to be well stocked with many bottles of the red stuff! :eek

Pray that my wife never sees this thread as if she does we'll be Canadian in no time! :?

-Dave

[kamus]

Miss Weta, they're ready for your close-up!

http://www.noah.co.nz/Gallery/images/reptiles_and_insects/Weta-6639-1.jpg

[Raeven]

We have potato bugs here, aka Jerusalem Crickets. They're as creepy as any weta:

http://www.potatobugs.com/

(I have no idea how to post pictures, so this will have to do.)

Aren't they awful?

Wetas don't scare me!!!

Rae

[kamus]

Hey Raeven

It's easy to post pics: Just hit the "img" button at the top of the "post a reply box", paste in your URL for the image and hit the "close tags" button at the top and you're golden!

-Dave

[Raeven]

<face in paws>

God, I'm stupid!!! Thank you, Dave!!!

However, I'm hopeless... I couldn't get it to work. :wah

Rae

[kamus]

BTW Moorf,

I think I know now....

[kamus]

how you racked up all those....

[kamus]

...posts! :nice1

cunning!


-Dave

[richsadams]

Hi All :D

Sorry to get everyone so excited. We have yet to see a weta around our house. Saw a little display up in Coromandel...tree cut away with a pane of glass so you could see a family of weta's. Pretty ugly but the fellow there said they weren't aggressive and mostly harmless. Just creepy looking. No one we've met has said we should worry about them. You might see them in the bush I suppose, but haven't heard of any around the towns or cities.

There is, however, another real pest...sand flies! They hang out by the lakes in...of all places...the sand. Annoying little creatures that do bite and leave a mark like a mosquito...itches just as much too. And like mosquitoes, you never know they're there until you start getting itchy. My wife's ankles were attacked a while back and she still has tiny red marks to prove it. Nasty little buggers. :?

Other than that, some flies and an occasional mosquito (they love me!) we haven't been bothered by bugs so far. Window screens are just about unheard of here and most windows are constructed to open in such a way that you really couldn't put one on if you tried. So if you were thinking about opening a screen business, might want to opt for buggy whips instead. :laugh

There are plenty of pest control companies too. They'll spray around your house (and appaently up in the eves to keep skeeters away) for a small fee each month or two.

Believe me, there are much worse places for bugs than New Zealand! :clap

[kamus]

Raeven, no-one could accuse you of being stupid!

Computers are finicky things and the people that apparently know how to use them have just made all the possible mistakes there are to make already!

The problem with your link was probably due to your using a link to a web page rather than link to a specific image.

i.e you posted http://www.potatobugs.com/ but the link to the image on that page was actually http://www.potatobugs.com/images/pbug3.jpg

In preview, if you used the "img" tag as I mentioned in my other post, it would look like this:

{img}http://www.potatobugs.com/images/pbug3.jpg{/img}

...except I've substituted curly brackets for the required straight brackets so you can see the formatting in this post.

The way I got the image url (in Explorer) was to hold my mouse down on the image until the popup menu appeared and I chose "display image in new window". The window popped up and I copied the URL.

Your browser probably has a very similar, if not identical functionality.

Hope this helps! ;)

-Dave

[Carol]

awwww...Wetas are LOVELY!!!!!!!!!


They even had them as pets at my son's kindergarten.

Yes they nip a bit........not too much though!


Watch out for them in your shoes........ ;)

[Raeven]

Hi, Dave,

You're very kind. I had an apparent full hard drive failure on my laptop last night, completely unannounced and unexpected... am now tapping away at my DH's desktop unit... aarrrgghhh!!! I will again attempt to upload my potato bug image. I was pretty sure the scenario you describe was the problem, but I couldn't find the actual image name on the potato bug website and lost patience with it all. Then with the dying laptop, I was unable to try again. Thanks for the very detailed instructions -- I'm sure I can accomplish it now!

Carol, you made my toes curl, thinking of wetas in my shoes!! I do agree they are lovely (in their own ghastly insect way, of course), but I'd prefer them out in their natural habitat and not in my house. Thanks for a wonderfully shivery moment, though!!

All the best, Rae

http://www.potatobugs.com/images/pbug3.jpg

Ooohhhh, look at that!!!

[Diny]

Ahhhhhhh - they're quite stumpy really aren't they?

Look at his little head.

What a vile creature - yet in a cute kind of way.

Diny

[jesselyn]

BTW Moorf,

I think I know now....
how you racked up all those....
...posts! :nice1

cunning!


:eek

[jesselyn]

:clap woohoo! :clap

told you dave - you are smart! :mrgreen: :P ;)

jes :angel

ps. nice description: cunning! :laugh

[jesselyn]

while i was trying to imitate helen, i was thinking about another C :roll: umm i like cunning better :oops:

[kamus]

Jess- LOL!

(look-I got another post out of this message-at this rate I'll be a future NZ guru in no time!) :hopeso

[Timbo]

Hey Kamus. I just googled up "weta" and the first thing it listed was a radio station in.....Washington DC

[jesselyn]

Jess- LOL!

(look-I got another post out of this message-at this rate I'll be a future NZ guru in no time!) :hopeso

:yes :clap :hopeso :nice1

[kamus]

Hey Kamus. I just googled up "weta" and the first thing it listed was a radio station in.....Washington DC

I've actually done some music for WETA- obviously, they don't have a clue about the "alternate" meaning of their call letters. I'm not about to tell them ;) .
I wonder if they would experience an upsurge in NZ expat viewership if they changed it?

-Dave

[Annierobrigado]

yup, dave, they will.

weta weta (eew :eek )

annie