One of my favourite images of New Zealand is the NOAA Image of Ruapehu Ash Plume. The plume looks like it goes directly over my parents' home.
Parachute music distributes most of the christian music in New Zealand, and organises the huge Parachute Music Festival each year in Jan/Feb. They have a good online store with free shipping within NZ.
For 3-5 day weather forecasts for New Zealand, check one of these:
Or for the ultimate in weather detail direct from the online weather stations, try this NZ Weather Stations On-line site.The Carter Observatory is the National Observatory of New Zealand and has interesting information about the night sky from a New Zealand perspective.
I've done a fair bit of cycle touring around New Zealand. It's almost the ideal country for it. The Cycling Advocates Network website has lots of information and links about cycling in NZ. There are several commercial bicycle tours available now. While on the topic of cycling, here are some references to cycle accident statistics. Cycling is less dangerous than driving a car? Here are some interesting crash statistics with pictures. Another cycling site shows relative production, world-wide, of bicycles and automobiles, plus safety, advocacy, news and editorials, bicycle commuting, a how-to area, and a library of research and position papers.
A handy collection of free bike clipart for all occasions. Cycling guru Sheldon Brown's website is a mine of useful technical and other info related to bikes of all kinds.
Colin McCahon is one of NZ's best known 20th century painters.
TV is sometimes entertaining. New Zealand TV1, TV2 and MTV programme information is available online. Does anyone know an online source for the other stations?
Two New Zealand "cool site pages" are WAMMo and SODA (Site Of The Day Award).
A New Zealand fuzzy web search engine.
Binary Brothers Ltd -- a good source of NZ WWW information.
Try The Pantry Shop in Tauranga for fine preserves, chutneys, chocolates etc.
To find good movies, check the Internet Movie Database. Or visit Each Movie, and enter your favourites. It'll pick some more that you should like.
Do you want to find lyrics for your favourite song? Or find out what it is called by singing the tune into the computer? All these and more at the New Zealand Digital Library!
The Salary Calculator will give you a rough cost-of-living comparison between different cities around the world. Also see the UK Accomodation search engine.
The Dollar Stretcher Problem Solving centre has lots of budgeting tips, plus a weekly online newsletter.
The Nine Planets is an excellent overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information.
Surfing the Net with Kids contains educational websites suitable for children. A very broad range of subject matter, well organized and regularly updated. See also, Hoagies' Gifted Education Page. [From TCC 8.36.3]
Carl Goldman's book "Soul & Silicon: Spirits in a High-Tech World" (Rising Star Press) explores the spiritual mix in Silicon Valley, where most high-tech professionals are young and driven chiefly by their careers. He cites a pastor as saying "God's priorities are God, community, spouse, children, vocation. In that order. In Silicon Valley, we turn it exactly around." Spirituality here tends to mean "How do I find myself?" rather than "How can I make this a better place?" Churches do see a high quality of soul-seeking, though, because the search is personal and voluntary rather than part of a default religion. [Ken Laws TCC, 7.86]
A NZ index of christian software/midi files from 'Serious Developments'.
The Virtual Museum of Computing offers hyperlinks and exhibits about the history of computing. See also Computers: From the Past to the Present.
Virtual Tours offers over 300 tours of places worldwide.