hayleyearth

Does anyone have Rands in a bank account back home that they want NZ Dollars for here? I want to send some money back home, so thought about asking someone here and then we both save on fees...

We have plenty of photo's, I just haven't had time to go through them and I think the only time I will have will only be after I am in SA on Sunday

Regarding food for hiking etc., we took just these to Great Barrier this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised, especially with the porridge and muesli breakfast options, because I am a difficult breakfast person and I finished mine. (Cheapest I have found was at Torpedo7). http://backcountrycuisine.co.nz/bcc/index.php/archives/category/breakfast Easy and cheap - just add one cup boiling water to most of the options and wait 10min.

It is a really easy walk from the Rangitoto ferry to Motatapu (you don't have to go over the volcano) and it isn't a tide thing, there is 'a bridge'.

I am going to GB this weekend We are only taking 7kgs each and in that is all food (for 2.2 days), cooking equipment and a sleeping bag too.

2weeks 2 days left then I am heading back to SA for a month Holiday!!z 1st time going back since coming to NZ and I am quite excited. Going to be an interesting/ big trip back home as my partner is also joining 10days later and it will be his 1st time in SA so we will go on a bit of a road trip. Was quite weird having to think where to go etc over that time for someone to see the most/best places. I will also get to see the place I have been building since moving here for the 1st time and I think it will be nice having a place of my own with familiar stuff again. And then of course my dad's braai vleis

I hope you are sarcastic? Did you see it is going to piss with rain for the next 24hours?

I think fitting into the work environment is difficult for most of us here in NZ, these people are just different! Another South African guy that started here at the company a couple of months after me set up a meeting with me today to discuss how I am finding working here. He is sooo frustrated. One thing is for sure they do not like people that 'are different' (have their own ideas) and that are driven. You should just fit into the mould, all think and act the same and go at the same pace (snail pace that is). He told me he hates coming to work and mainly because there is so little to do and just everything happens so slowly. I could do nothing but laugh, because that was my exact feeling. I have recently changed groups, so I am learning new things again which has me happier than what I was for a long time in my previous role. I had all these great ideas for my previous role, new developments that could have mean good things for the company but it seems like they just didn't want to venture out of their comfortzone...which is scary for me for a "research and development" company. I understand now why I takes them 10+ years to bring new things to the market. Doing your own thing is probably best Wayne, I hope to follow rather sooner than later!

Done Done Done.. Now I am hungry!

I am going to Rotorua this weekend...talking about good trails to ride!!! BUT I am taking my road bike...eish! Taking my mom, weather looks crap all over the show this weekend, so I thought there will be best. To get some riding in I will be making the Rotorua to Taupo trip on bike Sunday morning early while she can drive when she wakes up. Will be my 1st time there without riding MTB (since 2011)..

Auckland weather cant be THAT crap...if one can still ride and run through winter outside.. June + July + Aug = 2571+km riding and 355km running (still need to get home per bike today too) Probably the most I have done through any winter before.

So completed my 1st half today, didn't make my target time, but it was a wild shot in the dark anyway having only started running really about 3.5 months ago and not even knowing if I could run 21km back then, for a 1:49 and a tummy bug (or is that a common running issue)...

Yip I am on the same "Work to Residence Accredited Employer" I will be applying for Permanent Residency in June 2018.

How cool is this.... I am working with my old job (in JHB) to do things for me for my current project. I sent them one of the tubes I make here so they can x-ray it in one of the machines I designed there so I can see how the image look and if I can design a similar machine here to determine like the wall thickness etc as we manufacture the tubes here on the line. Currently there is not any solid system in the world that can determine wall thickness of a corrugated tube made of foamed polymer, never mind an 'in-line' with the extrusion line/live feedback system. If I can get this right, I'd be pretty stoked, would have been more stoked if I could have done this work on my own/through my own company though (eish....can't to get my residency!).

Cool my plan thus far: Leave work at 14:30 In Mount around 16:30-17:00 Register 17:00 Go for a walk around the base of the mount (have actually never done this) to see how much energy I will have to save for the last 3km and to get a bit familiar with that transition section 18:30-ish Dinner in The Mount somewhere, maybe a monster pizza (and a few pints ) at Astrobar or somewhere else (you guys might have in mind?) Bed at 21:00

Running (luckily only a half!!....either way don't know what I was smoking the day I decided to enter though! ) Edit: only see now Intern's reply

@ Intern and Wayne etc we having a hub dinner/beer on Sat eve in The Mount? Or Sunday breakfast?

Ooooooh nice! That blue one, is it quite fitting? Rain , wind proof?

One thing about riding in Auckland, you get your Strava "Climbing Challenge Completion" the same time as your "50% Distance Completed"

me me me... My mom can 'babysit' and sightsee while we ride... I am sure your kids are so well informed about Rotorua already from all the people you have taken there that they will be able to tell my mom about all the facts in the area Let me know ahead of the time so we can plan it in, I am going to start booking weekends soon soon what I will do with her while she is here...kinda like this (not in this sequence accept for the 1st one/weekend): 1. The Mount 2. Rotorua 3. Queenstown 4. Hahei/Whitihanga/etc 5. New Plymouth 6. Wellington.......or other small town(s) that might be more arty/scenery... OR skiing weekend with Potgieters 7. Paihai 8. Around Auckland/ Piha/ etc

"Pics, trails, reviews, more info about trail heads etc"....my go to place is Trail forks. NZ don't have a "bikehub", does any other country actually? I tell many many people from different countries about bikehub and what info one can find here, usually after they ask " how do you know about the latest bike tech, and servicing and races all sound the world, the best riders etc etc ", I give one answer always " thehub". Most riders (dirt, road, triathlon etc etc) don't know much other than just riding. The ones I have spent time with (plenty by now in all disciplines) don't know about the different brands in most things cycling related, they can maybe mention like 4 bike brands (don't even ask where the brands are from), they take their bike to shops to get tyres changed etc. Honesty, they don't seem filled with info, so the lack of cycling related bike media isn't a shock to me really. That's my view about most of the riders I've met here.

You better take TONS of bug spray for JD, they just love him!

I think this weather is affecting my brain...I went to go buy a full body swimsuit...those type one uses in a laps-pool or open water 'distance' swimming .....I am considering getting some coaching