New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[DJR]

On 6/8/2021 at 12:35 PM, 475 said:

.................. Apparently networking is the name of the game,....................

Thank you so much, finally I know what to tell my wife when she says I spend too much time on the BikeHub and should re-paint the bedroom ceiling!

[patches]

9 hours ago, Chris_ said:

Well done ya knobs...

Now if just one of your companies would start hiring foreigners (this foreigner to be exact) we'd be peachy.

 

 

8 hours ago, patham said:

Us BrisVegans just squeaked into the top 10 over here, the poor second cousins of the antipodes. I might just have to binge-eat some reasonably priced tropical fruit to console myself....????

"most livable" clearly doesn't place too much weight on affordability ????

Recently had the in-laws over from Sydney and they were a little shocked at the cost of living here.

With the average Auckland house price over $1.3m combined with the cost of food and goods. Add in a dash of lower pay compared to Aus and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

But as we've always said on this thread... There are things money cannot buy and that high cost of living is a worthwhile trade off for many.

[patham]

1 hour ago, patches said:

 

"most livable" clearly doesn't place too much weight on affordability ????

Recently had the in-laws over from Sydney and they were a little shocked at the cost of living here.

With the average Auckland house price over $1.3m combined with the cost of food and goods. Add in a dash of lower pay compared to Aus and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

But as we've always said on this thread... There are things money cannot buy and that high cost of living is a worthwhile trade off for many.

Yup, you know things are bad when the Sydney-siders start mentioning about the cost of living and house prices.

[davetapson]

On 6/9/2021 at 5:17 PM, 475 said:

Thanks for the input everyone ????

We're mid 30's, so don't think age should be a problem yet. I'm in IT (I see lots of positions available on LinkedIn) and my wife is a GP. So far it looks like she will struggle a bit more as she has exams etc to complete before she can start looking for work. This process is also not that straight forward (unless we are over complicating it).

I'll get cracking on the documentation and start reaching out to companies and people.

My  wife is GP - as far as I know it's six months under supervision in a practice, then some form of inspection of your notes and a bit of watching of an appt or two?

IT, plenty of work.

Edit: this was one thing that the agent got us to change - I was going to come in under my skills, he changed it to coming in under hers.  Gave us a more advantageous visa as far as I remember.

Edited June 10, 2021 by davetapson

[davetapson]

Not sure Zurich, Tokyo, Geneva are particularly cheap to live in.

Also got buddies in the UK b1tching about house prices - they say up 30% in the last year, also Canada, so maybe we not as out on a limb as we think we are...

[DJR]

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/luanda-is-the-most-expensive-city-in-the-world-for-expatriates-12397908

Aag all you first worlders, for once you have nothing to complain about, Africa can teach you a thing or two about being an expensive place.

[Rocket-Boy]

On 6/9/2021 at 10:04 PM, patches said:

 

"most livable" clearly doesn't place too much weight on affordability ????

Recently had the in-laws over from Sydney and they were a little shocked at the cost of living here.

With the average Auckland house price over $1.3m combined with the cost of food and goods. Add in a dash of lower pay compared to Aus and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

But as we've always said on this thread... There are things money cannot buy and that high cost of living is a worthwhile trade off for many.

Mate, if someone from Sydney says its expensive, then its expensive af!

But yeah there is a lot more to life than just basic costs of things.

[patches]

Two fairly recent NZ government initiatives I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on...

1. Over $700M spend on a pedestrian/cyclist bridge to cross the harbour
2. EV/PHEV subsidisation with the flip-side being additional fees applied to certain fossil-fuel powered vehicles

 

[patches]

Anyone here applied for an Aussie Visitors visa, in this time of Covid?

The process seems about the same as it was, with the exception that if you had a previously granted visitors visa impacted by covid travel restrictions, you don't have to pay for the renewal. However I see "TTS" (the biometric people) seem to have vanished and VFS appears to be the replacement.

Wonder how long the current approval process is?!

[eibmoZ]

8 hours ago, patches said:

Two fairly recent NZ government initiatives I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on...

1. Over $700M spend on a pedestrian/cyclist bridge to cross the harbour
2. EV/PHEV subsidisation with the flip-side being additional fees applied to certain fossil-fuel powered vehicles

 

Not sure how i feel about the 700 price tag…but me wanting to commute into town i love the idea of the bridge. 
Cant they just lay down a floating bridge like juma used to do ( joke)

 

The EV thing  i feel is a sham. What are all SMEs going to do, all tradie vans and ute’s . The way I understand they will be taxed extra as there is no option for them. The same for farmers, companies with trucks etc.

also don't see any electric motor bikes on Labours list( would love to see some) 

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by eibmoZ

[davetapson]

The bridge is contentious.

I like the idea of the bridge, I think it will lift the status (for the want of a better word - gravitas?) of the city - plus connecting up with the pink track going into the city would be awesome.  Depends how accessible they make the North Shore side.  Also how much they make it tourist (i.e. Instagram) friendly - although the no of Instagrammers will be inversely affect the biking friendliness of the bridge.

As for the price - cough! 

For the price it seems a waste not to be using that capitalisation to improve the bridge, but I suppose that would only be to make it six lane, and that would be pointless as there is nowhere either side for those 6 lanes to join up to.

Me, I say do it, but it does leave a slightly sick feeling.  Some things are just worth doing.  I can see people flying to NZ just to use it (in the same way people go to Sydney effectively for the bridge.)

As for the 'but Buttfk, Southland, needs a bridge on the Z99 what about them you callous bastards' I figure Aucklanders have been paying for rural infrastructure ever since there was a bigger population / industry paying tax there than compared to rural tax payers, and they do it uncomplainingly  (as they should.)

As for the incentive/levy - sure, incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles (although, if they're so great, why do they need incentivization?) but don't penalise the use of the other.  This is not to say I don't like ev's, I think they're great, and if I could buy one for $4k like I can a Suzuki Swift, I would.  But they don't work for everyone - tow a trailer/boat/horse box?  Carry a ton while towing a ton - you can do that with $20k and tank of diesel, not so much EV, even with Tesla trucks and alternatives.  The time will come, but it's not now, incentive or not.
 

[davetapson]

Oh, and coming up to applying for Permanent Residence in a couple of days - can still remember nervously PM'ing Wayne asking how he did it.  Time flies, I think Covid helped by taking a year out of our lives. (Although I did build a boat.. ???? )

Three years to the black passport..?

[patches]

17 hours ago, eibmoZ said:

Not sure how i feel about the 700 price tag…but me wanting to commute into town i love the idea of the bridge. 
Cant they just lay down a floating bridge like juma used to do ( joke)

 

The EV thing  i feel is a sham. What are all SMEs going to do, all tradie vans and ute’s . The way I understand they will be taxed extra as there is no option for them. The same for farmers, companies with trucks etc.

also don't see any electric motor bikes on Labours list( would love to see some) 

 

The Bridge

As a cyclist (albeit a lazy one) that lives on the Shore, I think the cost outweighs the benefits. I reckon the bridge will be a novelty which fades after a few months.

The layout and logistics of the Shore will likely result in this mainly serving people from Northcote and Takapuna, with those living further north will still have to wind their way to the bridge.

Add to the fact that the current bridge is long-in-the-tooth, due for upgrades, but unable to accommodate them, makes the $700M+ spend on a pedestrian/cyclist bridge seem like a misdirection of resource.

In my uneducated opinion, focus should be on a more suitable harbour crossing (bridge or tunnel) for vehicles. Perhaps one which takes commercial vehicles and public transport off the current bridge (not dissimilar to the north shore's bus lanes) then one of the current bridge's clip-ons could be repurposed for cyclists & pedestrians. The current bridge would also last a few more years than planned due to the reduced load.

But yeah, that's just my thought on it .

EV's

Whilst I do believe PHEV's and EV's are the way we should be moving, and current vehicle prices and capability make them prohibitively expensive or unsuitable to most, I welcome the idea of a rebate to assist those wanting to make the move.

But as many have stated, it ends up being trades, farmers and the like (who are dependent on vans, trucks and utility vehicles) who end up subsidising little city runarounds for the middle-to-upper class. That is the part I think was a little short sighted.

[davetapson]

2 hours ago, patches said:

As a cyclist (albeit a lazy one) that lives on the Shore, I think the cost outweighs the benefits. I reckon the bridge will be a novelty which fades after a few months.

Yeah, this is the fear.  

But what if the opposite happens - now that it is actually possible to cycle to the city, people actually will?  I don't work there, so it's moot for me, but the one guy I do know who works in the city, cycles now and then, even tho it is difficult.  I suspect he'd cycle given the chance.

There are some things that are tickets to the game - without, no game, with, game.  We just don't know what the value of the game is, and the price of the ticket is high.

I agree that other forms of access would be preferable, e.g. tunnel. But if bridge costs $700M, what does tunnel cost?

I have a suspicion they did all these sums, decided they couldn't afford anything but the cycle bridge and decided to just go with that.

"Hey, it'd be better to build a tunnel, and rennovate the bridge."
"Yeah! How much?"
$15B"* 
(* number sucked out of my thumb for effect - but whatever, it's gonna be big - rail tunnel is R5B, so double that,  plus, for two tunnels, and road tunnels will be bigger diameter and apparently it's diameter that costs...)
"Hmmm..., let's build the cycle bridge."

Kind of the least worst option.  Like when you buy Pinot Noir, paying too much for something you don't really want because you can't afford what you do...

It would be interesting to know what the politics of this thing is.  They've been promising for so long, but I suspect not at this cost.  Unless this is just a round about way of having the decision not to build it thrust on them by the public.

Also, who's brother-in-law owns a construction company/bought all the houses on the point...? ????

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by davetapson

[patches]

42 minutes ago, davetapson said:

Yeah, this is the fear.  

But what if the opposite happens - now that it is actually possible to cycle to the city, people actually will?  I don't work there, so it's moot for me, but the one guy I do know who works in the city, cycles now and then, even tho it is difficult.  I suspect he'd cycle given the chance.

There are some things that are tickets to the game - without, no game, with, game.  We just don't know what the value of the game is, and the price of the ticket is high.

I agree that other forms of access would be preferable, e.g. tunnel. But if bridge costs $700M, what does tunnel cost?

I have a suspicion they did all these sums, decided they couldn't afford anything but the cycle bridge and decided to just go with that.

"Hey, it'd be better to build a tunnel, and rennovate the bridge."
"Yeah! How much?"
$35B"* 
(* number sucked out of my thumb for effect - but whatever, it's gonna be big)
"Hmmm..., let's build the cycle bridge."

Kind of the least worst option.  Like when you buy Pinot Noir, paying too much for something you don't really want because you can't afford what you do...

It would be interesting to know what the politics of this thing is.  They've been promising for so long, but I suspect not at this cost.  Unless this is just a round about way of having the decision not to build it thrust on them by the public.

Also, who's brother-in-law owns a construction company/bought all the houses on the point...? ????

 

Oh yeah, bridge is definitely better than no bridge.

With reference to Sydney's bridge and the walking & cycling access there, the main differences are

• they have had cycling access since the bridge was completed (1932)
• the bridge is shorter and flatter (cycling up and over current Auckland bridge will be a workout)
• it's not the only harbour crossing, The M1 tunnel runs right next to it. Anzac bride is just a few KM away.

But yeah, whilst well planned transport infrastructure is crucial, the designated purpose of this bridge seems to be the least of the city/country's worries.

Just last week nurses were on strike because of the minuscule pay increase they were offered. Then there's the wider 3yr public sector pay freeze and the brain-drain implications from that (personal gripe of mine, haha), and let;s not forget the Pharmac underfunding and backlog. $700M which could improve the quality of life for more people in a far bigger way than said bridge.

So I guess in the wake of those, a "nice-to-have" cycling and pedestrian bridge seems like a frivolous spend.

My guess is that the majority of longer term use will be for recreation or "recreational-commuting" (cyclists who commute because they enjoy the ride, not because it's their only option. Picture Pinarellos heading to the boardroom ????).

But hey, I may be completely mistaken and this bridge may be like the field of dreams, hahaha

Edited June 16, 2021 by patches

[mazambaan]

My little secondhand contribution; In a Zoom meeting recently a colleague from SA but now in NZ for a few years; small business (built environment consulting) remarked that one thing was strange in NZ; people just paid on invoice.  In SA a letter of final demand was treated as a start to negotiating the price.