A group of typical Aussie sailors.
Mischievous devils.....Yaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhh...
Over the years southern hemisphere tricksters have offered the Sydney Harbour Bridge for sale, now it seems that an Australian sailor’s bid to sell New Zealand has come unstuck.
Advertising on eBay Australia, with a starting price of just one cent, online interest was keen for for the nation of four million, with a similar number of sheep and a few reasonable sailors, and the price rose quickly to $A3,000 with a total of 22 bids before eBay stopped the real estate auction this week.
Sorry, we are not for sale today. Come back next week with a better offer and a bottle of tequila. The maybe, just maybe we'll talk.
'Clearly New Zealand is not for sale,' eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler told the New Zealand Press Association, adding that 22 bids had been made before the company acted.
'There are the occasional quirky items put up,' he added. 'We have a look at them and if they are OK we leave them. But if it is something that can't be sold, we take them off.'
Kiwis started heading for the hills when they thought that their country was about to be sold to the Outback Steakhouse Restaurant Group. A spokesman for the Outback said, "It's only a rumor. However we are interested in expanding our menu to include lamb and mutton dishes."
The Australian eBay seller, who has not been identified, gave away his sailing background and perhaps a little bitterness that Australia is no longer in the forefront in the America's Cup when when he advertised NZ as having the ‘dodgiest America's Cup win ever ... and very ordinary weather’.
Did the bidders' smell a rat, as they bid for the Land of the Long White Cloud?
Well as one one eBay regular commented, 'The freight terms were Pick Up Only, so not so. If they had quoted an airfreight cost, that would have been indicated it was definitely a sham.'