1 comments about Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History.

1. an excellent book that integrates the art, culture and ethos of the indigenous cultures of australia with the relevant dreamtime stories, illustrations and photographs.

1 comments about The Xenophobe's Guide to the Aussies.

1. Extremely disappointing.

   I was hoping for a book that would cast a new light on `The Aussie', perhaps giving a humurous slant on the characteristics of the modern Australian. Instead, we simply get a regurgitation of the well worn cartoon cliched image of `The Ocker Aussie', which has been written about elsewhere a million times before (ie Lives life in the Pub, has loads of mates, no respect for authority etc etc). As anyone who lives in Australia knows, these attributes belong more to myth than reality.

   Unfortunately, this book simply restates the stereotypical image that most foreigners already have of Australians, rather than focusing on the less well known quirks and foibles that most other Xenophobe guides manage to capture.

No comments about Reading the Country.

No comments about North Island (Mobil New Zealand Guides).

5 comments about Culture Shock! Australia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! Australia).

1. An American friend, five years in Australia, lent me her 1999 version of this book. I've been here two years, from England, so I found it interesting. I agree that it has been inconsistently updated, and the Australia of 1991 seems to have been different in many ways to the Australia of 2004. Also, life in Perth must be different to that in Brisbane, where I live, 2,700 miles away. For a start, they play Australian football (and soccer) whereas Rugby League is the main game here.

   It would be highly surprising if the author's views/perceptions and mine tallied 100%, but in fact they do quite a lot. I was interested, for example, in her correct perception of sport being a good conversation topic, not least at dinner parties. Coming from a somewhat bourgeois part of the south of England, I found that a most refreshing change.

   One problem the book has is that it sets out to be amusing (successfully) and serious: on tax for example. For the serious side, some of the drier books on living and working in Australia, or emigrating here, are better.

   Finally, I found myself liking the author and her style. She comes across as pleasant and with a light touch.




2. This book does contain some interesting information on Australian culture, and on what makes Aussies tick. But I found the writing style to be particularly annoying; even painful. The Australia book available within the "Culture Smart" series, while offering less detail than this book, is far easier on the eyes and mind.



3. "Culture Shock! Australia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette" by Ilsa Sharp is a guidebook to living in Australia. This book is not a travel guide, but rather a guide to the people and culture of the country. The main audience for this would be someone who intends to spend a lot of time in Australia, but it can also help business travelers, and even tourists.
   
   I know someone who just moved to Australia from Asia, and from what I have been able to determine, this guide appears to be fairly accurate. I am looking forward to my visit there, which should also give me a better idea on just how accurate it is. Be sure to get the latest edition, as it was updated in 2005 and it is clear from my reading that there were substantial updates.
   
   The author, Ilsa Sharp, migrated to Western Australia, and that personal experience clearly was a big asset to her in putting this book together. I did sense a bit of a bias towards Western Australia in her examples. To be fair, I was more interested in Eastern Australia, and so the bias may have been in my reading as well. In either case, she certainly does try to cover most of the country, and if I were to pick the one area where there was the least amount of information it would be Tasmania.
   
   The book is broken down into 10 sections. These include a quick introduction, followed by basic information. Next is a discussion of the people, the society, and moving there. It then gets to some more specific areas such as food, entertainment, slang, and business. It then finishes with an A to Z section covering many basic facts about the country, some key figures both historical and modern, and it even has a short culture quiz.
   
   As someone from the United States, this book is probably not as useful to me as it would be to someone coming from a much different culture. Not to say that Australia is just like the United States, but clearly the two are much closer than people from other countries from Asia and the Middle East. Even so, I think the book was fairly useful in understanding some of the societal differences between the two countries. This is one book that is easy to recommend.



4. First off, it's difficult writing any book that generalizes about a country and culture so hats off to the author for trying. The info is probably more relevant to someone going to Western Australia 5-10yrs ago. I moved from Vancouver, Canada to Sydney, Australia to live and find the info mostly outdated. Some of the cultural conflicts such as misunderstanding what it means to be invited for tea are more applicable to the older generation. Sydney is a fast paced city of 4million. The younger generation, under 40, are very similar to people in Canada/US/UK. If you're coming from a Western english speaking nation, I don't believe this book is going to be your assimilation bible. If you're coming from a non-Western culture, I think you'll be better off reading Australian newspapers and watching Hollywood movies. You'll get along fine in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - never been to Westcoast but I assume Perth or any other modern Australian city will be the same.



5. I have not recieved the book at all
   
   regards
   Bhaskar Poojary

No comments about Adventures in Nature New Zealand.

No comments about Lonely Planet Healthy Travel: Australia, Nz & the Pacific (Lonely Planet Healthy Travel Guides Austraila, New Zealand and the Pacific).

5 comments about Lonely Planet Cycling New Zealand (Lonely Planet Cycling Guides).

1. The book is really good and well worth the money.New Zealand is a wonder to cycle thru, like Yosmite Valley on a nation scale. But be fore warned! Amazingly, the New Zealand roads are anti-cycle,and you put yourself there at your own risk. 99% of the roads are single lane on each side, they are very skinny lanes. Designed for small cars. Full sized transport semis use these roads with a clearance of inches on each side of their lane. .The roads twist and wind like mountain roads do. There are very few straight stretches of road as you may see in the US. There are no bike lanes,few passing lanes, and no emergency lanes,you are in the path with traffic. Kiwis know their roads and consistently drive fast, 100-120kmph. The problem you are going to have over and over is cycling thru all this beauty in the same lane as cars and trucks...they barrel around a blind curve at 65mph only to find you in front of their windshield going 15mph and no safety margin for anyone. On my recent trip there, I can't tell you how many times I saw this scenario played out and how many near misses I witnessed. Local drivers, particularly commercial tdrivers have real contempt for cyclists. Get the book and dream, but I think I'd look into renting a convertible and live to cycle another day.



2. First off, you should by the Pedaller's Paradise instead of Lonely Planet. It can be found for about 12 NZD in New Zealand (but is also available through Amazon for a bit more if you can't wait).
   
   Dangerous - The profiles (ie. graphical descriptions of hills) shown in the Lonely Planet Guide are drastically over-simplified. On a good day, this is only just very annoying. On a bad day, it could mean being out in the cold wondering just how many more hills are before the next stop. It is obvious that the writers did not use bicycles to research the routes. Nor did they use GPS or any other precise means of measuring elevation. They were very lazy about how they threw this guide together, and it will get you into trouble. Avoid it!
   
   Buy the Pedallar's Paradise instead - it is a fraction the size, half the cost, and packed with useful information.



3. Just finished a 9-day tour of New Zealand's Northland, using the route recommended by this LP guidebook.
   
   Like the rest of the LP series, this book has a wealth of useful information on both the trips and how to prepare for them.
   
   The best part of the book is the information design:
   
   - Narratives are brief, important items are called out or bolded, and sections are kept small, making things easy to find in a hurry. Contrast this with other guidebooks that present you with a wall of text to hunt through for a phone number.
   
   - Maps are very clear, showing the route, landmarks along the way, optional side trips, and nothing else to clutter the view. Cue sheets make it easy to find the next waypoint or climb. Much better than the handdrawn sketches in Bruce Ringer's book.
   
   - The elevation charts, while not as accurate as those in Pedaller's Paradise, seemed good enough to me, and easier to understand at a glance.
   
   The book, though published in 2000, is still reasonably up to date. A few businesses and prices had changed, but nothing drastic.
   
   I bought both this book and Bruce Ringer's New Zealand By Bike, and after reading both cover to cover, I took the LP book by itself and found it indispensible during the trip.



4. I bet if the people who rated this book highly were polled as to what year they utilized its guidance there would be a direct correlation to how close they were to the release of this only edition...hint hint Lonely Planet editors...UPDATE THIS BOOK!
   
   I don't know where to begin but who in the world rides loops when they are bicycle touring. While I admit that the Southern Alps loop was pretty cool I couldn't overlook the out of date information and sometimes inaccurate terrain profiles in this book. I quicky learned not to rely too heavily on this book and transitioned over to the, much lighter, Pedaller's Paradise. That wafer thin book of goodness in conjunction with the NZ AA maps (which are free to anyone who has an Autoclub memmbership) were much more informative and enjoyable. I am not sure if Amazon carries that book but you can easily search for "pedaller's paradise."
   
   Lastly, I took a Lonely Planet New Zealand guide book as well and found that not worth its brick-like weight in my pannier. I found the New Zealand Tourist Information centers and the people who staff them much more informative and much more fun to engage. The first thing I usually did when rolling into towns was to b-line directly for the Tourist Information.
   
   One more thing...if you like to mountain bike as well pick up the Kennett Brother's book, Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides, by searching for "kennett bros classic."



5. I've bicycle toured solo in Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and New Zealand. I've yet to see a cycling guide to a country that is worth taking along, and this book is worse than most, because of the "loop" configuration of the rides, and the confusing maps (look hard to see which way is north!). In my travel journal, I made a reference to the "nearly useless" LP Cycling Guide.
   
   My recommendation for any country is to take a look at the general information overview in any cycling guide, make notes of any peculiarities of that country (ie, NZ requires all cyclists to wear a helmet. You cannot leave the airport on your bike until you've purchased a helmet at the airport shop), then buy the GENERAL (not cycling-specific) tourist guide that suits your style. I used the Rough Guide New Zealand (best maps and budget accommodation info; I don't camp), after rejecting the Lonely Planet guide. In Europe the best has consistently been Let's Go, with Rick Steves' being an excellent series for inside information (even though his hand-drawn maps are mediocre, his inside info is excellent.)
   
   Buy maps when you get there. You'll find great maps ("Kiwi Maps"(?) spiral-bound booklet) in service stations in the countries you go to. When you can look them over in the country they were made for, you'll find they're cheaper, and you can then assess exactly what suits you. You can generally go to Tourist Information in the airport for good information on where to go first, then buy a map when you're situated.
   
   I had high hopes for this guide when I lugged it along, but after a couple of outdated references to gravel roads (that didn't materialize), and weird warnings about dangerous roads (that weren't) I gave up on it early on. Kiwis are the friendliest ("toot-toot") drivers I've come across, the roads are better than most in the U.S., and get up and go--it's a dream for scenery, and if you've never travelled abroad, there is NO culture shock (It's got a strong Colorado vibe)!

1 comments about Getting a Job in New Zealand: Find Well-Paid Work and a Great New Lifestyle (How to).

1. I bought this book recently together with the author's other book, Living and Working in New Zealand. Plenty of pages were spent on immigration procedures which are readily available from the internet and are more up to date. The author has too much British bias and, I suspect, this book was intended only for potential immigrants from UK who also might not find anything useful. Having read a lot of books on the subject,I do not recommend this book to anyone.

No comments about Wheelchair Down Under.