davetapson

Here's a strange bad, given that folk seem to be looking for that: The lack of beasts of all sizes. You drop a crumb in Africa, there's competition between ants, flies, birds, a lizard and whatever over it. Probably the ants (and crumb) get eaten by the bird. Here you drop a crumb, a week later it's still there. I try and spend some time in the bush here. It's flippn impenetrable. And compared to Africa, empty. There are a couple of birds, of about 4 species, and aside from one of a couple of variety of deer, and possums, and occasionally wallabies, nothing. It's like all the ecological niches are empty. In Africa at sunset, you get a set of evening sounds - guinea fowl and pheasants all putting themselves to bed etc, here - nothing. Just gets dark. It's kind of like being in primordial forest waiting for dinosaurs to evolve.

Pretty much the same for me. I cycled because there wasn't much else that I wanted to do that was within reach. Here there is so much to do on your doorstep you have to ration out your time over the things you want to do. And to commit all of your time to one sport is to miss out on all the other stuff. And the problem with cycling, like properly playing golf, is that it is time consuming.

Pretty much the same for me. I cycled because there wasn't much else that I wanted to do that was within reach. Here there is so much to do on your doorstep you have to ration out your time over the things you want to do. And to commit all of your time to one sport is to miss out on all the other stuff. And the problem with cycling, like properly playing golf, is that it is time consuming.

Because population size has everything to do with it? Oh, ok, gotcha.

So I see today that Tourism comprises 5 - 6% of NZ GDP. I had expected it to be more. Explains why the wheels didn't indeed fall off when the borders closed.

And if you should not receive your rego in the post because you've moved house and maybe there was a mixup somewhere, you can go to AA or PostShop or some other places, fill in a MR6 form, pay $4.11, and get a duplicate. Takes about 10 mins. Edit: $4.11 is for 'printing'. Just how expensive is printing a piece of card 5cm x 10cm or so. See, I'm beginning to whinge like a native now...

Can choose rego period from one month longer.

Register the car online. Once a year WOF - I just get cars WOFed and serviced at the same time. Have not yet done sufficient mileage in a year to need a service before a WOF. 6 monthly WOF if the car is older than 2000. Get a mail once a year to tell you rego is due, pay online, arrives in the post.

Dang! On a very much smaller and within my budget scale - a guy across the road from us had his red Jeep Cherokee for sale for $2.5k. Being newly arrived, it was about what I could afford as a second car, but it had some pin-hole rust in a door that stayed my hand - but I was considering it. Next thing I see it's been sold in Trademe - with front end damage where he'd chucked it into the bush somehow! $1 starting bid I think Was on for one day and went for $300!! I think he was too embarrassed to have it in there any longer... Speaking of Christchurch, Tony Alexander's comment after talking up Auckland (it's where everyone comes) and down Wellington (sewerage and water infrastructure breaking down, hopefully not too close to each other): "There is however another element in play for which I still remain extremely uncertain about timewise but could be closer to happening than obvious at first glance. Christchurch is getting better. Challenges remain for sure with the image of the CBD. But restoration of the Cathedral is advancing, the motorway system (I think) is done, and feedback in this month’s Business Survey reveals some firming business demand for leases in the CBD. As put to me recently on a visit there, a lot of the premises which businesses moved into in the suburbs following the 2011 earthquake are due for renovating. Many occupants are deciding it is easier to hop into a new location back in the city rather than work around or seek out an upgraded place still in their post-earthquake location. " So @patches, you better buy your possie there pronto...

Havelock North is actually where we would end up - just didn't know anyone knew of it! It is a nice little dorpie. One thing I find is that after the Hauraki Gulf, the coast around that area is pretty bleak. Edit: dunno if anyone has ridden Te Mata peak? I took a blue run off the peak and crapped myself. There are some places there you can die. Or so I think, anyway!

Interesting that Tauranga is least affordable in terms of salary vs price. We've thought about moving there or Napier for affordability reasons (PS. not really, our kids are just settling in here and we're loathe to move which makes things difficult).

So here is my understanding, and you can take it from where it comes: 1. the NZ economy is doing way better than anyone expected. Tony Alexander, who is a respected economist here, says that it is probably due to the cash that normally gets spent out of the country on overseas travel being spent in NZ. The economy is buzzing along ok, albeit with some uncertainty in sectors, but nothing like anywhere else in the world. Property prices have gone ballistic. Houses are currently selling at 50%+ premium over where they were 6 months or so ago. More fool us, we put off buying a property, waiting for the 'Covid induced economic slump' hahhahahahahhahahahahahhaha. Houses we could have bought then are now completely and utterly out of our reach. Adequate 4 bed house on the North Shore is going to cost you the best part of R20M. A pile of unlivable junk went for R12M third quarter of last year, and will have gone up in value since then. 2. there are issues, for sure, but not systemic. The parts of the economy hit the hardest are also, for want of a better word, the most liquid. A lot of the tourism is based on mom and pop operators and youngsters or less-settled folk. So that they are in distress, although not great for them, is of little consequence to the economy. 3. I'm going to assume that the vaccines will be predominantly effective. My wife is a doctor and nothing that we have heard from the medical side of things rings any alarm bells regarding the vaccines. At worst they might not work if they are not effective against whatever strain of virus is around, but you're not going to grow another arm or head. I personally assume that the vaccine we will get will work, and if not, they will get one that does. They're pretty pragmatic about stuff here. I've got family in the States, most of them have been vaccinated, no one has any issues or concerns. 4. Vaccines have landed here, we're waiting for the roll-out. I would expect that once we are all (largely all?) vaccinated, and they have some proof that the population is protected against the virus, they will open the borders. I was going to say 'and life will be back to how we know it' but prior to this little lockdown, we've pretty much been living life as we know it anyway. There may well be fits and starts and bumps along the way, but that's how life works. We've lost friends in SA, and the docs on the E. Rand where we came from have been hammered - there have been an number of deaths, including a partner at one of the clinics my worked at when we returned from the UK, or folk left effectively crippled. Given the choice of that, or this, there's no question as to which I would prefer.

I suppose the next question is, outside of South Africa which bought a vaccine that is not particularly effective against the SA version of Covid, why do you think this? My understanding is that they are going to buy the J&J version which will be effective? I'll answer your broader question, but want to know where you are coming from first.

In what way do you think it's not really working?

At least the weather is better for this lock down. Start of lock down last year was 6 weeks of absolutely perfect weather.

Haha, yeah. The amount of stress we pile on our shoulders for no reason. My experience... My SA license was for heavy vehicle (long story)... AA: if you want to convert this to NZ heavy vehicle you need annual medical? Me: Jet lagged, haven't arranged to find a doctor yet, don't know how, have family in tow etc, can't be arsed - just want a license... "Ok, just make it normal vehicle then." AA: "Can I do that?" Me: "Yes." AA: "OK." They are so trusting, unlike us. Same thing, license in post couple days later. Heard another story of a saffa who was livid that the bank had dared post his bank card to his post box.

Reminds me of when I moved from one town to another in the UK and phoned BT to have my phone number moved. Used to Telkom taking 6 weeks or whatever... Me: "Hi, this is Dave, please can you move my line from A to B?" Them: Sucking of teeth. "Ah mate, I can't do it before midnight..." Me: "Don't worry, I'll live with that..."

Just reading through a 2Degrees mailer for BB and I see that they say that if your BB fails for whatever reason, they'll hook you up with mobile data to compensate. That's conscious thinking.

Ironically the one thing NZ isn't short of is UV - due to the (lack of) Ozone Layer. When the sun is out and bright, it's got a real bite - Africa got nothing on it. UV damage to everything is pretty apparent, including humans.

Was speaking to a life-saver type dude and he reckons that the NZ attacks might be the same shark. His comment is sometimes when individuals taste human, they get a liking for it.

Ah - in going through my emails for this, I found another one: "If you have Amazon Prime, cancel your subscription, when the billing period is over, come back to this email, click the button, have free AP for a year, then restart your subscription."

We have a family deal where we have four phones with unlimited data and free calling to NZ and Aus for $160 - it's $85 for the first phone, then $25 per extra phone up to a total of four - so four phones with unlimited data and calling for $40 ea. And then the discounts on BB. Edit: In theory we don't need the BB because could use phones for everything, but that's fiddly.

As for power, we use Powershop where you can buy power in the future for discounted rates, also 'Power packs' as they appear randomly. It's like Discovery, they tell you it's cheap, but it's too complicated to figure out if it really is. I think it is. It might even be so. Last bill worked out at 360kwh for $100.52 = 0.279c/kwh Have just changed from Vodafone BB to 2Degrees BB because I get 1000mbps for the same price as 100mbps from Voda (except of course Voda will offer me a discount when I cancel) due to having 2Degrees mobile contract for family. Seems good so far, only been a couple of days. Also will get $150 to spend on fuel at Z in a couple of days. And free Amazon Prime, only I have that already. The touted 'Kiwi' customer care sounds as if Pune has been incorporated into NZ, but was pretty good.

A question for the hive mind as they say, even if the hive is somewhat small... There's a sign on a light post as you come up Beach Road out of Mairangi Bay heading north that says "50km Scenic Cycle Route" or something similar. I'll take a pic if I remember. It's quite faded, and somewhat bent, so it's not new. I've had a quick google it try and find it, but without much luck. I've also cycled along Beach road looking for the next sign to see where the route goes but have not found another one. Any idea of how I might track this down - it might have been a nice route? I haven't paid attention for signs while cycling the reverse direction, will try and remember for next time I go that way.

Clippies rides there most Wednesdays with his boys, if you can hunt him down via search. I'd say drop me a message and I'll drop you his number but messages seem to have disappeared. I've ridden there over winter, a strategic (and muddy) mistake, but for me it is a ride-through turn around point for a training ride I do rather than a destination... so I know the main roads, but the forest seems riddled with tracks. 26 June 2024 for us...