> The show runs for four days and consists of about a squillion tents and stands

I love that word. "Squillion." I need to remember it. And use it.

> I also watched two bald guys spraypainted orange from head to toe and wearing orange overalls, who were the mascots of a chainsaw company, playing spraypainted orange guitars and singing "That's Amore" in extremely good two-part harmony. This was one of the ten weirdest things I have ever seen in my life.

Whenever I get to New Zealand, I MUST see that. I can't believe it's not listed in tourist brochures all over the world. Then again, I guess that would ruin it.

> Then I went for a five-minute helicopter ride to see the area and the river from above, which rocked as much as all things to do with helicopters rock. Which is A LOT.

Five minutes? I think it would take me that long just to figure out the seatbelt and then figure out what on earth I was looking at, compared to my normal view of the world around me.

> On the way back, I went via the town of Te Aroha, because there were some thermal springs there which I hadn't been to before.

There was a place like that near where I grew up, although the last time I was there was before I can remember. (And now I've consulted Google: http://www.stewartmineralsprings.com/ )

Ok, I'm done commenting now. One of my main reasons for posting was to tell you how amazing that all sounded. With your way of putting words together, I could really almost see it all; it made me want to vacation to New Zealand!

Ell"Settling for a few days in San Diego"myruh