Sgin, sgin, everywhere a sgin - Oz and NZ edition

Beside my love of license plates, you might know of my love of entertaining signs. I especially love signs with bad English translations, but the following signs come from two English speaking countries - Australia and New Zealand.

It's been a while since I've included photos, so hopefully this will make the blog look more exciting again.

First up, we have this food stand outside the Sydney Opera House. I took this picture for two reasons: 1) it features two of Karen's absolute favorite foods and 2) these foods don't particularly go together.



Next up is a very Australian sign we saw on Fraser Island. Nothing amusing about it, but definitely not a sign you usually come across.



Well, I guess that's it for Australia. Now New Zealand is where I really hit the goldmine.

I now realize that we didn't actually post that many pictures from New Zealand. I think it's because we were staying in the van and so weren't spending the nights in towns with internet cafes. And then after New Zealand we went to Tahiti and Easter Island for about a week and internet access on the islands is slow, hard to find and expensive. So New Zealand got left behind.

First up are pictures from Dunedin on the South Island. Dunedin is a very quaint college town. It features the steepest street in the world. Every year they do a race up the hill and back down. There have also been a few people who have done it on a unicycle and via other strange methods.







Now the first of the funny signs. In case you were wondering, Tuesay comes between Monay and Wednesay.



If you ever find yourself in Te Anau, New Zealand, just make sure you don't go down the Wong Way!



This upside down sign was supposed to be impressive, but frankly the lake wasn't the best one we saw.



The Fat Duck is one of the most expensive and highly rated restaurants in the UK. However, this one in Te Anau wasn't on the same level. This duck seems to have pancake batter all over his wing. Poor thing.



In Queenstown, I liked this sign for Cemetery Road (No Exit). Clever.



Queenstown gets a lot of foreign tourists. And obviously there are sometimes cultural differences. Good thing there are signs to ease the transition for foreigners.





Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world. Only when I was looking at these pictures this month did I realize that Karen and I managed to mix up the sexes for the head shots.





And speaking of bungee (although these pics have nothing to do with signs), you can do the big gorge jump.

First, take the cable car out to the middle of the gorge.



Then look down (or not).



And then head out to the ledge, and jump!



On the west coast of the South Island, there are two major glaciers, the Fox Glacier and the Franz Joseph Glacier.



Watch out, Karen! There's a glacier behind you!



Actually, up close, you can see the glacier melting (you might be able to see the water dripping off in the picture). And during high melt periods or after heavy rains, there can be flooding. As the ice melts, ice balls and rocks of various sizes also come tumbling off the face.



Now you might be wondering about my poor spelling in the post title. In the US, there used to be a commercial for Snickers candy bars showing workers having a long day. Two of the commercials featured guys who messed up some painting jobs - one featured a street painter who managed to spell "STOP" on the ground as "SOTP" and another guy painting an American football end zone who was supposed to paint "CHIEFS" but wound up painting "CHEFS".

Anyway, in Hokitika, we went to a restaurant where we ate outside. In the back, there was a little work area where they were painting a new sign for the restaurant. Or, I guess I should say "restu...".





The next day we were driving past this scenic lookout. I guess the scenic lookouts in New Zealand have to market themselves well.



Finally, on our last day in New Zealand we were in Christchurch and Karen and I were hungry. Karen was very excited when she spotted this "bread shop" across the road. Needless to say, she was a bit disappointed after crossing the street only to discover there was no food on offer at the "bead shop".