DawieO

Yeah some nice riding out there indeed. Watch out for possums lying in the road. Can never tell if they are dead or just...

Been watching ETNZ train from our beach for months. Not too long ago we were out on the boat and they were reaching across the bay. We were doing 35kts at full throttle and they came past as if we were pedestrians. These boats are awe-inspiring! Somewhere I have video I shot of them doing their earliest foiling tacks, amazing!

BIG cajones on this run

That rack is designed for towing your dirt bike. Clever actually.

Yip, I like it too. Great looking car, really nice finishes and the big one sounds fantastic.

Huge sport here. Love watching the foiling boards

Place is magic. Now go rent some long-travel bikes and go hit the Skyline! Tip: do not try this on your short-travel Xc racing bone. I can tell you first-hand that the emergency room at ROTORUA hospital is very good at treating the ensuing carnage. Rent that Giant Glory and a decent helmet, buy a day pass for the chairlift and let rip!

Added, my geos. We should hook up a ride when the heavens stop trying to wash us all into the sea...

Hey crew! yes indeed we bought at auction 2 months ago. Hey Ramrod, Intern is right, we bought at auction about 2 months ago. The auction process can be a bit intimidating, but there are 2 cardinal rules: 1. PREPARE WELL - Valuations, LIM reports and inspections. These all cost a bit of money, but will save you lots in the long run. 2. Know how much YOU want to spend and don't go over that - CRITICAL. You have to live with this liability. 3. Don't get worked up by the emotions. 4. Go and observe a couple of auctions if you can. These are public so you are allowed to observe ad the learning is very valuable. The auctioneer's job is to make people spend as much as possible. Don't fall into that trap. If the bidding doesn't start from the floor, they will start it off. Let it run a bit, and if you want chip in with small'ish increments. As they get closer to the room appetite for a property, the bidding will slow. This is where it becomes small increments up to YOUR price, and after that LET IT GO. If the bidding stalls, and it is near the reserve price, the estate agents will tend to come and whisper in your ear that "a little bit will get us to the reserve". Remember, you can only spend what you can afford. In terms of the ask vs the realised price, it really depends on how much they can squeeze the pressure in the room. We got ours a smidgen UNDER the reserve price, but only because we have reached our top and wouldn't budge. The agents then confer with the seller and sometimes they drop the reserve.

Nice pics intern, I need to get up North sometime. we got out for a lovely little fish on Sunday. Quick blast out to the Noises with the missus. She has become a real fishing machine! The gulf was gorgeous this weekend, glad we got out. Reckon we'll be running out of nice weather soonish though...

Can see my office from there.

The Kiwi women's team have been the world-champs at this virtually forever...

That was an EPIC afternoon...

Importing your own car is VERY expensive and painful.

This morning in Hunua...

The request from the FBI is to create a version of the operating system to bypass the "wipe the phone after too many wrong attempts" feature. This would then allow them to throw a bit of weight into a brute force attack on the password. in essence try all the possible combinations that a large computer can come up with to find the password. Although the FBI is asking for such a version "just this once", Apple's contention is that there is no such thing as once, and the likelihood of such a version getting into the wild is high, thereby jeopardising ALL Apple OS's and potentially the security and privacy of everyone using them. McAfee have even offered to crack the phone for free rather than allow such an OS to be created. This is a pretty fundamental fight for user privacy vs sovereignty, much like the many going on around access requests to hotmail boxes and the like.

WOW! These are gorgeous!

a That is at the old Olympic diving pool in Barcelona. Pool is quite run down now, but some of the best views in the whole city!

PS, if you need help with getting accounts etc opened BEFORE you come, take a look here: http://www.westpac.co.nz/fx-travel-migrant/moving-to-new-zealand/

Yeah Wayne, the service here is really good, especially in the public service. I had an issue with an error on my work visa, which caused some frowning at Sydney on the way here. The AirNZ folks called ahead and cleared my arrival with immigration and they flagged it on the system for me. The next morning i went to immigration where they were expecting me. The day after that they couriered my corrected visa to my house. No charge.

Get hold of Bunnyhop.co.za they'll sort it for you.

Boats and volcanoes.

A bit of snorkeling while the girls chill out on Christmas Day.

ended up like this:

Did It two years ago. Awesome event.