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

[Hairy]

10 hours ago, patches said:

Would you look at that weather...

*subtle topic change attempt* ????

But really, Auckland has had some really annoying weather lately.

Windy, spats of rain and even hail yesterday.

On Saturday and Sunday I was trying to do some woodwork. This involved wheeling a myriad of tools out of the garage into the courtyard and setting up (garage too small to setup in).

I got about 15min into it before it would start drizzling. I then packed up everything, wheeled it back into the garage and waited it out.

5min later the sun was shining as if nothing had ever happened. So I set up again.

Rinse and repeat 3x and eventually I gave yup in frustration.

Man I need a bigger garage!

 

Take a chapter from Scott Browns YouTube channel and notice that he has a quickset awning that he puts up on his job sites for either the sun or the rain or for both on the same day.

[patches]

15 hours ago, Hairy said:

Take a chapter from Scott Browns YouTube channel and notice that he has a quickset awning that he puts up on his job sites for either the sun or the rain or for both on the same day.

Hahah, I did delve into my Scott Brown memory-archive and thought about getting one of those popup gazebo's but ran into 2 issues...

First is that most of the ones I have found are 3m x 3m. My courtyard is only 2.5m wide. Second was the aim to prevent ANOTHER thing form cluttering the garage when not in use.

So I came up with an alternate idea...

A giant shower curtain!

The plan is to run 2 "rails" of braided steel cable along the side of the house and fence-line. Then attach a tarp to that with carabiners making it easy to remove. But ideally I'll just pull it all back towards the back of the garage when not in use. It should cover that whole area outlined in blue.

Most of the supplies are classified as essential and therefore available for delivery during our Level 4 Lockdown, so it may be a worthwhile project to keep me busy until we get back to some sort of normality.

[GrahamS2]

16 hours ago, Slowbee said:

Because we are on a critical purpose visa, valid for 12 months, we are busy with the "what to declare" process.

 

In terms of what came over on the plane with you, what items did you guys declare ? Last thing I want is  NZ$400 fine for "not knowing". Watching border patrol on DSTV has my knees terrified.

 

 

 

 

Medicine and anything organic (which I would avoid if possible).

[davetapson]

On 8/18/2021 at 3:35 AM, Slowbee said:

How you guys feeling about the country wide lockdown for 1, yes 1 case ?

 

What is the general sentiment ?

 

I'm slow to the game here (sorry Patches, killing your skillful move there...)

The thing is that it's not "1, yes 1."

It's the pub full of people that one guy was in, plus the pubs that those people then went to plus the pubs that all of those pubs full of people went to plus...

Add in every other place that those people went to - supermarket, chemist, concert, church - so the lurgy is well spread by the time one case is identified.

And, if he's got it, who else has it also?

I went back to find the time line of our first, long, drastic, traumatic, lock down.  It was two weeks of half lockdown,  four, yes four, I'll spell it, f-o-u-r weeks of proper lockdown, then two weeks of lesser lockdown, then trail off.  So we killed that-that-must-not-be-named by sitting at home watching series for four weeks*.  And then essentially went back to normal life while the rest of the world went up in flames.

Why would we be anti-lockdown?

(Edit: * Not really,  I changed jobs, built a boat, found out my kid has ADHD by trying to teach him at home, and since getting him sorted, all at govt expense, his school life has turned around, won a values award end of last term at school, I found out I have ADHD (not at govt expense) because my kid has ADHD and when the psychologist said 'If we don't get your kid treatment his life will probably look like this" and I thought "hmmmm" - which has changed my life around.)

Edited August 19, 2021 by davetapson

[davetapson]

17 hours ago, Slowbee said:

Because we are on a critical purpose visa, valid for 12 months, we are busy with the "what to declare" process.

 

In terms of what came over on the plane with you, what items did you guys declare ? Last thing I want is  NZ$400 fine for "not knowing". Watching border patrol on DSTV has my knees terrified.

 

 

 

 

Don't be daft with what you bring, no need to declare anything.

If you trying to be a smart ass with anything, you will know full well what you should be declaring.

To state the obvious, don't bring biltong, droe wors, organic stuff.

Probably do bring one box of Advil CS because Pseudoephedrine is banned and you can't get real Advil (or any other sniff-reducing muti) here... claim ignorance and incredulity that such a thing would be banned because wtf would ban something like that?   (They can't get upset over one box because you can't start a P lab with just one box, however, if this is going to make you sweat like a drug smuggler, don't.)

Our experience of walking through the airport at midnight was "anything to declare?" "no" "no biltong?" "no" done...

Do throw a bunch of expensive booze  of your liking into your container.  It's more expensive here.

Actually, buy your limit of alcohol at the duty free on the way through to last you through quarantine...

Edited August 19, 2021 by davetapson

[patches]

17 hours ago, Slowbee said:

Because we are on a critical purpose visa, valid for 12 months, we are busy with the "what to declare" process.

 

In terms of what came over on the plane with you, what items did you guys declare ? Last thing I want is  NZ$400 fine for "not knowing". Watching border patrol on DSTV has my knees terrified.

As GrahamS2 said, avoid raw organic matter. Many processed food stuffs products (treated woods etc) are fine, however if in doubt, declare. As long as it's not illegal (drugs, etc) then the worst they can do is take it away. No fine.

When I first landed in Christchurch and the biosecurity officer saw my little green book, he said with a smile "ahh, South African, hope you're not carrying any biltong".

I didn't at the time, but on my last trip back from SA I tried to scoff down a 400g pack of those Woolies mini salami sticks, knowing that I'd have to turf them, or pay the $400 fine if I forgot to declare. I didn't make it through the pack (or feel so good for that matter) and ended up chucking about half of it when landing at the layover in Sydney ????

As for Border Security, this may be a controversial opinion (with the Aussie residents on here), but I genuinely believe that NZ law and border officers are generally more friendly and laid back than the Aussies. Anyone who has watched Police 10-7 in NZ will laugh at how friendly and almost considerate the police are.

On the other hand, having flown into Sydney a number of times I've observed the Border Force officers(yes, even in the official name they chose to use the word "force") seem grumpy and are short and snappy with passengers.

 

[davetapson]

17 hours ago, Slowbee said:

Because we are on a critical purpose visa, valid for 12 months, we are busy with the "what to declare" process.

 

I'm amazed you're quite happily chuffing along on this process. 

Something must still be functioning normally at INZ despite all the disruption...  maybe I should ask you to check up on our PR application!

[davetapson]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:10 AM, patches said:

But really, Auckland has had some really annoying weather lately.

I've kind of figured "It's only rain if you notice it".
The Kiwis don't. 

Kiwi:   "I think I'll go for a run"
Saffa:  "But it's raining?"
Kiwi:   "What?"

[patham]

1 hour ago, patches said:

 

As for Border Security, this may be a controversial opinion (with the Aussie residents on here), but I genuinely believe that NZ law and border officers are generally more friendly and laid back than the Aussies. Anyone who has watched Police 10-7 in NZ will laugh at how friendly and almost considerate the police are.

On the other hand, having flown into Sydney a number of times I've observed the Border Force officers(yes, even in the official name they chose to use the word "force") seem grumpy and are short and snappy with passengers.

 

Could well be true, although as time goes on you have less and less interaction with real humans in the Aus airports. Its all self-serve biometric scanners, and you only see a real person when the scanner refuses to accept the passport. But the queue managers who are the only BF staff most people see do seem to be the shouty ones.

My last Zim passport had barely perceptible (by eye) printing error in that the left hand side of a zero in the biometric number was printed marginally thicker than the right. Unfortunately when run through the Australian scanners, this digit would be scanned as a "1" 9 times out of 10, and then the check-sum algorithms would flag a data inconsistency. So I would first get called up by the duty officer, and then get accompanied to the forensic focussed office, with the magnifiers, super duper scanners and other CSI paraphernalia to be checked out. Luckily the first time this happened I was carrying a whole ID file with me, so had reams of old passports going back to childhood, birth certs etc. so I was able to convince them I wasn't a forger, together with all my bank cards, drivers license etc. Learnt that these secondary ID was essential back-ups to be carried on international flights! Long story short, these interactions were always pleasant enough, and it was just a delay to allow for in layover planning.  

The TSA in the US have staff that really span the spectrum from amazingly friendly/tolerant to those with pent up aggression that is just searching for an excuse for an outlet. Never make the first joke with a TSA person.

 

 

[davetapson]

I came through Darwin or somewhere having spent an extended time in SEA.

DEA type guy: "Do you have any hard drugs?"

Me: "Geez dude, if I did, would I tell you?"

Him, looking a bit non-plussed: "Well... do you?"

Me: "No."

I always wondered:
  a: just what a stupid question it is
  b: just how badly that might have gone.

Maybe they ask you and watch your reaction.

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, davetapson said:

I came through Darwin or somewhere having spent an extended time in SEA.

DEA type guy: "Do you have any hard drugs?"

Me: "Geez dude, if I did, would I tell you?"

Him, looking a bit non-plussed: "Well... do you?"

Me: "No."

I always wondered:
  a: just what a stupid question it is
  b: just how badly that might have gone.

Maybe they ask you and watch your reaction.

If you answer no, and then then find some on you, then you you are deep poo poo as you had a chance to declare. Either way they would nail you, but if you declared you may get off a little easier.

[Slowbee]

The declare stuff mainly has to do with all the digital stuff we are bringing into quarantine.

 

I have since found out it is something to do when we leave a country and intend coming back, as opposed to coming in for the first time. Prove that it is yours and you are not importing stuff.

 

 

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

1 hour ago, Slowbee said:

The declare stuff mainly has to do with all the digital stuff we are bringing into quarantine.

 

I have since found out it is something to do when we leave a country and intend coming back, as opposed to coming in for the first time. Prove that it is yours and you are not importing stuff.

 

 

Its more for short term stays, so you don't get taxed on return. They can, and usually will, say that you purchased it while abroad and hence need to pay tax on the electronics.
We usually stop off at the SARS counter and declare our devices and test equipment when working abroad for this reason.

 

[IceCreamMan]

2 hours ago, Slowbee said:

The declare stuff mainly has to do with all the digital stuff we are bringing into quarantine.

 

I have since found out it is something to do when we leave a country and intend coming back, as opposed to coming in for the first time. Prove that it is yours and you are not importing stuff.

 

 

Have you moved money to NZ yet? 

Rand taking a lil beating currently. 

 

[eala]

On 8/18/2021 at 3:23 PM, Steven Knoetze (sk27) said:

The governments approach has always been to try and get the entire population vaccinated before re-opening. That could take a very long time.
Then consider that research seems to show that the vaccine is ineffective against the new Lambda variant from Peru......
After this post I won't comment more on the "C" topic, will derail a good thread unnecessarily. 

So if it does not do that then why do it. To be responsible?
In fact people who have survived pre vaccination infection are dying, not to mention the side effects.
I am no anti-vaxxer, have had all the shots needed to travel into deep Africa but the science is sketchy for little to no reward.
Read this as a start, have a friend with an uncle perfectly healthy who is suffering:
https://www.openaccessjournals.com/articles/are-subdeltoid-bursitis-and-polymyalgia-rheumatica-preferances-of-covid19-vaccine-14563.html

You can  treat a shoulder discomfort ,but some covid survivors suffer from lung damage months after they were out of hospital .They need to take high corticosteroid dosage and use oxygen permanently.Above is so minor it is not worth mentioning 

[davetapson]

23 hours ago, davetapson said:

I always wondered:
  a: just what a stupid question it is
 

It's like the entry form for the US: Are you a terrorist, or do you belong to a terrorist organisation, sorry organization?

Hmm, I wonder what I should answer.

Given 9/11 I'd take a wager that it doesn't catch everyone...