Everything you want to see - and more

There are hundreds of thousands of webcams available for viewing on the internet, covering every topic you could think of. Here are a few places to get you started.

Some lists of webcam indexes are aimed more at those fans of "adult entertainment", so be wary when randomly searching for new cameras.

* Panama Canal - one of the most popular webcam sites on the net, strangely compelling viewing of ships passing through the Panama Canal.

* www.surf.co.nz - New Zealand's most popular webcam site, say the men behind this, Aucklanders Keith Redman and Andrew Larkin. Has live pics of surf beaches around New Zealand, along with weather reports and surfing news.

* Earthcam - good fun. Some dead links, but otherwise reputable. Under the heading "Personal" is a good link to Beer Lover Cam - some American beer lovers who have put a motion-detecting camera inside their beer fridge.

* Camcentral - rated all ages, lots of webcams with pandas, lions and other animals. Also provided a great link to Princess, which takes you to pictures from webcams placed on the bridges of luxury cruise liners plying the Caribbean.

* www.webcam.co.nz - webcams around New Zealand, mostly pretty boring shots of beaches.

* Leonard's Worlds - suitable for children.

* Webcamsearch - suitable for the young, but a lot of boring webcams looking out over motorways. One link connects to Loch Ness Monster, where the public can keep a look out for the Loch Ness Monster, by means of an underwater webcam.

* Whakapapa - see what the skifields on Mt Ruapehu are looking like.

* www.html.orcon.net.nz/webcam.html - a good list of webcams around New Zealand, from the Sky Tower to South Island skifields

* Webcam-watcher - Software developed in New Zealand that allows you to watch multiple cameras at once, with them updating as something new happens.

* Kiwinewz Snow Cam - Pictures from the heart of New Zealand tourism: Queenstown. Includes updated pictures from AJ Hackett's bungy jumping operation.

* Webcam Index - An index of NZ webcam sites. One (Dotco) has live pictures of the beautiful Wakatipu basin.

* Avonside Girls' High School - The front gate of Avonside Girls' High School in Christchurch. Not the world's most exciting webcam, but does come with the stern warning: "Attention: This is not a pornographic webcam. You sick individuals referred to this page from pornographic web sites are out of luck." You tell 'em girls!

* Paremata Webcam - an image of a roundabout in Paremata, a suburb just north of Wellington - boring.

* Sickpuppy Webcam - some Melbourne computer buff with pictures of his friends and even his car. A rather odd fellow all round.

* Jail cam - this from the crime fighting brainwave of Arizona cop Joe Arpaio, a virtual tour of his jail via webcam. Supposedly this will scare viewers away from a life of crime..