The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

First there was an entire Russian vacation colony in the North of Goa, highlighted by 'Big D's' restaurant and hotel featuring a statue of Lenin out front.



Then there was the Russian food in Phuket, not to mention my dive trip that had 10 Russian divers out of the 15 of us...

And now, in New Zealand, I haven't seen any Russians yet, I don't think (there was one guy in Tongariro that had kind of a Russian-sounding accent, but I wasn't sure) - beach spots celarly seem to be the preferred vacation destination, but instead I run into a perfectly good, Soviet-built Lada Niva, which had somehow managed to get exported to New Zealand of all places!



In fact, this was the 2nd one I've seen here. There's generally an unusual collection of cars in New Zealand - mostly it's the normal small Japanese and European models, but you see more than a fair share of classic 70's American muscle cars, truly antique cars from the 30's/40's, lots of original mini's, and now Soviet-build Lada's!

It seemed appropriate that when I signed the visitor book at the hut, where we spent the night on Mt Cook, I listed Moscow, Russia as my home.