Good morning. Just popping in for the day.

Hi BBers.

Most of you don't know me, but I've been watching you all since day one. You've been putting on quite the show in here.

I do know Casper very well, and Kerryn from their previous lives pre-BB.

I'm looking forward to chatting with all of you for the day, and helping out with any tasks if necessary. But most of all I'm going to enjoy my day off from moderating the Games Forum and general Modsquad business.

So, it's 8:30am, Thursday here (Auckland, New Zealand) and I'm about to leave for work. So I'll be back in about 30 minutes...

See ya then.
Jon-Paul.

 

Oh sure. Yeah. Okay. Hi. MMMMKAY. Oog. Hae fun. What?
_jOBO

 

Well, look at that!

Welcome to our palace.

 

I'll have some of what Jobo is having.

 

But without the poison, I reckon?

 

Oh, and thanks everyone for spending your hard earned points on allowing me to visit for a day.

I appreciate it!

Right, now I'm gonna be late for work. See you in 30 minutes.

 

Well, we invited you because I know you well and you know what's going on here, one; two, you helped promote our MM which was fun; three, you're around around the same time as Kerryn, so she's got a buddy who knows about rugby.

Five: the toilet. Go clean it.

 

Welcome to our humble little corner of the intraweb Jon-Paul!

 

Toilet. Done.

[image=http://www.chemfaxproducts.com/images/disinfectant_spray.jpg]

Hi Tom! Oh. Please call me JP. No-one calls me Jon-Paul unless I'm in trouble.

Not just the Rugby, Casper, Kerryn and I can also discuss the League and the cricket.

 

Well, you were in trouble until you got the toilet clean.

Good to have you JP!

 

Hi JP! I'm looking forward to getting to know you better.

 

Hi Meg. What do you want to know?

What I look like, what I do, where I live, my family.. that sort of thing?

 

Hi!!!! Okay, I'm normal again.... I'm not-so lightheaded anymore Welcome!
_jOBO

 

JP! Hey!

Right, what do you want first, the Tri-Nations glory, the Warriors surprise win or the cricket team going down this summer?

 

Warriors surprise win? They're gonna be top of the table when the Bulldogs are booted out for cheating!

Cricket - sounds like you Aussies aren't even going to try and take the ICC One Day Trophy off us.

Rugby. YEah. We have the tri-nations, but it's the lack of lifting the Bledesloe Cup off you that really smarts round here.

 

I'll just say "we wuz robbed."

Have you been following the cricket world cup fiasco? Looks like a lot of players are standing firm about their sponsorship contracts. I hope they figure something out becuase we are going to be victorious again!

So tell me, what's Auckland really like?

 

Regarding the Bledisloe, I'll just say "we wuz robbed."

This cricket thing looks like a nightmare. I do hope they sort it out soon.

And Auckland's just like Sydney on a smaller scale. Same vibe. Same traffic. Same weather.

But it's home & I love it. It has some pretty cool features. It's built on a field of volcanoes. There's about 50 Auckland's built on - they're not mountains. One Tree Hill is probably the most famous, due to the U2 song of the same name.

Unfortunately the One Tree was removed a couple of years back and the council still haven't planted any replacement.

[image=http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mauro/Images/onetreehill.jpg] [image=http://elena.aut.ac.nz/homepages/staff/Phil-Robbins/NoneTreeHill.jpg]
Before After

I live on this little peninsula which only exists due to the two volcanoes pushing land up. Auckland's biggest volcano, Rangitoto is that huge island in the background.

[image=http://www.devonport.co.nz/newtitle.jpg]

From 1 October I'll be down at the beach (5 minutes walk from home) looking out towards Rangitoto and watching the America's Cup racing.

[image=http://www.pacificcoast.co.nz/images/auckland/auckland.jpg] [image=http://www.devonport.co.nz/chelten.jpg] [image=http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/sailing/02/15/cup.spt/story.oneworld.jpg]

So Auckland's your typical city, but you're always 10 minutes from a beach, and 30 from a forest. So it's easy to get away from the city vibe if you want to.

Being placed on an isthmus between two oceans causes some pretty crap weather though. It's pretty wet here.

[image=http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/09/religious.freedom/new.zealand.auckland.lg.jpg]

 

Tell me whatever you feel comfortable with, JP. Just the basic bio stats, I guess.

 

Will do Meg. Right after lunch - just popping out for 10 mins.

There's a gift for you in the Lounge, by the way...

 

Awwww! Thank you, I'll go check it out.

 

And Auckland's just like Sydney on a smaller scale. Same vibe. Same traffic. Same weather.

That sounds nice. I have this "condition" where I visit a city I've always wanted to go to and I immediately fall in love with it and want to move there.

I want to go to Auckland (and Wellington!).

 

Cities are cities the worldover Kerryn (yes, with the odd exception!).

What I mean to say if you do visit new Zealand, it's the places away from the cities that are the most incredible.

Have you watched that Lord of the Rings web-feature made by our tourist board to entice LOTR fans to NZ?

It's pretty cool. www.purenz.com/ - look for the "home of middle earth" feature.

 

Oh yeah, you showed me that. That was beautiful.

When we were kids, we were always told New-Zealand was the land that was the farthest from Holland. In kindergarten, one kid named Draupadi moved to N-Z with her parents.

Still, I'm going to visit it next year.

 

> Still, I'm going to visit it next year.

We're preparing for it already.

 

Nah, we've got the Pure NZ ad over here with the Crowded House track Don't Dream it's Over in the background though.

I've got family over there somewhere.