Two years ago on Steemit, post payouts were a total lottery - most of mine earned a big fat zero, but once in a while I'd hit the jackpot and make hundreds of dollars.
So that is why many of us were putting long hours into doing huge posts back then. I'm not sure exactly how many hours I spent on this one, but quite a few I'd say. It did pay $46.81, and that was without bots!
At the time I was a bit disappointed because I'd just raked in 10x that for another very similar post, and was hoping to at least break $100 for this one.
https://steemit.com/travel/@sift666/the-south-island-of-new-zealand
These days I usually don't put that much effort into preparing such big posts, because I'm lazy, greedy, and burned out, but right now a lot of people seem to be bleating about how crap the returns are (and admittedly they are pretty bad at the moment) so I'm reposting this because NZ could always do with a bit of extra tourism publicity.
Yesterday I found this post to show someone, and then I started thinking "holy shit that was a great post, it's a pity my best posts like that have all pretty much disappeared, why not post it again?"
The South Island of New Zealand
sift666 (65) in travel • 2 years ago
One of the world’s most beautiful places.
Despite living in Wellington, the nearest city in the world to the South Island, I’ve only actually been there on ten occasions.
Catching the ferry for the three hour journey across the Cook Strait almost feels like going to another country. But 87 people have swum across the Cook Strait from Wellington to the South Island. The record holder is Casey Glover who swam the Strait in 4 hours 37 minutes in 2008.
http://www.cookstraitswim.org.nz/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/364994/Cook-Strait-swimming-record-smashed
And if we walk down to the beach, from our house here in Wellington, we can see the South Island sitting there on the horizon right in front of us.
The South Island has so many amazing places to visit, it’s hard to know where to start. A lot of visitors seem to start by flying into Christchurch (NZ’s third largest city) – it’s a very flat city with an English feel, and there are even people taking boat rides in the park.
Unfortunately Christchurch was hit hard by two earthquakes in 2011 and many famous landmarks like the Christchurch cathedral were demolished.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2011_Christchurch_earthquake
Here is a photo I took of the cathedral before all the destruction happened:
Queenstown is another very popular place to visit – it really is spectacular and has a lot going on.
Mitre Peak is another popular destination – it looks amazing, and you can go on a boat trip and watch real dolphins (rather than Steemit ones) playing in the wake of the boat.
There are also many other less touristy but still great places to see. My favourite South Island city is Dunedin. Like Wellington, it’s built around a compact harbour, and like Wellington, it freaks people out because of its weather reputation. (Wellington is said to be windy, and Dunedin cold.)
Unlike Wellington, Dunedin has huge areas that are not covered in houses and buildings.
It’s New Zealand’s most historic city, with a strong Scottish influence.
Baldwin Street Dunedin is officially the steepest street in the world
http://www.viralnova.com/steepest-street-in-the-world/
Dunedin even has its own castle.
On the West Coast is another amazing place to visit called Punakaiki
It has Pancake Rock formations and Blowholes!
Dunedin and Punakaiki are about as far apart as it’s possible to get in the South Island, but something they share is a sense of spectacular isolation. I know a lot of overseas visitors feel that way about the whole of NZ, but to an inhabitant of Wellington who feels like he lives in the big smoke, the South Island feels like the end of the earth.
The coast near Dunedin
The coast near Punakaiki
The South Island is a lot bigger than it looks on a map, and a full trip all the way round is not something that can be done properly in just a week. It’s also has a lot more sights than I can show in one post, so I’ll just stick to these highlights for now, and will later cover some of the other amazing views in another post.
Here is very cool map of New Zealand by Vlad Gerasimov
from http://vladstudio.deviantart.com/art/New-Zealand-Map-117565087
www.frot.co.nz
@frot is an intrepid explorer who once fell into the Wellington harbour and thought it was really cold. He later decided against a career in marathon swimming and instead became a crypto-currency investor.
In between swimming with penguins and covering his naked body in Vaseline, he likes to eat sugar free puddings and is currently developing a new website portal to rival Steemit called http://www.frot.co.nz
Apart from the map, these photos were all taken by @frot
(Lake Wakatipu near Queenstown - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wakatipu )
yeah i remember that post - i flagged it i think
You would! - You think your name is Bernie don't you?
yep i wanna be Bernie
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/bernie-sanders-first-day-56afafbb5f9b58b7d01bd98a.jpg)
This is a curation bot for TeamNZ. Please join our AUS/NZ community on Discord.
Why join discord room? Here are 10 reasons why.<
For any inquiries/issues about the bot please contact @cryptonik.
Posted using Partiko Android
I AM OFFENDED
I must admit I don't know much about NZ other than it is at the far end of the world. Where the flat earth ends.
Think size of UK or Japan with 4 million rather than 100 million people, and 3 hours flight to the nearest country - Australia.
So very scenic, but also in some ways quite developed. Most people live in the north island, and people from overseas get a shock how expensive the houses are - the average house price in Auckland is NZ$1.1 million! (about US$900 000)
This is Wellington harbour
And climate most like South Australia/Tasmania or southern South America
Is the south Island less populated because it's more mountainous ? Any gold in them mountains?
It's bigger and colder, but the deep south is actually quite wealthy because the farming is lucrative and the houses are a quarter of the price.
If I was telling someone how to get ahead in NZ I'd say move to Invercargill (but it's flat and boring) or Dunedin (very cool - like a smaller Wellington).
But nearly half the NZ pop live in Auckland - I hate the place, NZ's version of LA, and everyone has a million $ mortgage
It looks OK in a photo - but the reality is motorways and suburbs - it goes for ever
Gold was a thing in the 1800's but the gold mining industry is small potatoes now - even big mines like this one in the Coromandel I took a photo of in 2010 are not significant to the NZ economy - that's Australia's thing
On the map Invercargill looks like it's at the ends of the earth. NZ definitely has natural beauty.NZ is like America was before it was overrun by the European hoard.
.Invercargill
See what you mean by being flat.
Almost 8 million people living just on long island NY. Where I live. Island is only about 110 miles long and 20 miles wide. But still a lot of rural areas on the eastern end.
Cool pic - I've never seen Invercargill from the air.
It seems much bigger when you are in it
You must look at our low population in amazement - but we always compare ourselves to Australia, the sixth largest country by land area but with only 24 million people and think that we are like Japan compared to them
Wellington is hilly and compact with a lot of computer geeks!
This is the view out our window that I'm looking at now (Well not quite because this was taken at sunrise and it's 3pm now) We can't see the south island from our window because there are a couple of hills in the way, but if we walk down to the beach, there it is.
I grew up and worked in NYC but prefer the country side. Moved to the suburbs years ago and commuted 1 1/2 to 2 yours to the filthy city.
You have a great view up high. Looks like you are on a mountain side.
If you swung to the right you must get a fantastic view of the ocean. Cheers ...NYC depends where..
Congratulations @frot! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPYou are like a fat lickety dog - happy but getting a bit over eager...
Congratulations @frot! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @frot! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @frot! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @frot! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP