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

[patches]

19 minutes ago, Wayne Potgieter said:

LOL. I upgraded to the fenix 6X and then they launched the Epix. The fenix was always big on my wrist, but when I saw that OLED screen I really regretted my upgrade.

 

Long story short, managed to sell my Fenix 6X to a mate and then ordered the EPIX, which is...well, EPIC.

That rehashes one of my old pet peeves with the NZ retail industry. Fluctuating prices advertised as "HOT DEALS!"

About 6 months ago Noel Leeming, Torpedo and Harvey Morman had the Fenix 6X Pro for around $680. Decent deal and had me super tempted to upgrade. Even 1 month ago one could pick it up for $775

Fast forward to now with the Fenix 7 now out and suddenly the very same retailers have advents like this...

"HOT PRICE!" "LIMITED TIME!"

 

The words of wisdom for those looking to move here... ALWAYS research what something is actually worth, as the retailers here love to use the word "Sale" and other associated terms for just about everything.

Edited February 7, 2022 by patches

[Wayne Potgieter]

7 minutes ago, patches said:

That rehashes one of my old pet peeves with the NZ retail industry. Fluctuating prices advertised as "HOT DEALS!"

About 6 months ago Noel Leeming, Torpedo and Harvey Morman had the Fenix 6X Pro for around $680. Decent deal and had me super tempted to upgrade. Even 1 month ago one could pick it up for $775

Fast forward to now with the Fenix 7 now out and suddenly the very same retailers have advents like this...

"HOT PRICE!" "LIMITED TIME!"

 

The words of wisdom for those looking to move here... ALWAYS research what something is actually worth, as the retailers here love to use the word "Sale" and other associated terms for just about everything.

If ever you do decide to upgrade on a Garmin product, I have a loyalty code with fitness.net.nz for 10% of all Garmin products. So if they are the cheapest for whatever you need and you wanna save a little more, let me know.

 

 

[patches]

Anyone here had the unwanted pleasure of a pre-departure covid test?

Planning a trip over the ditch for Easter, and it seems there's no getting around forking out over $200 for a pre-departure PCR test.

Anyone know of places offering the supervised RAT tests?

Ironically I currently have RAT tests 4x a week for work and you'd think one administered by a health board, surveillance testing it's staff would count. But no. It's seems the travel tests are all privatised and it's become another money-making racket!

 

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

9 hours ago, patches said:

Anyone here had the unwanted pleasure of a pre-departure covid test?

Planning a trip over the ditch for Easter, and it seems there's no getting around forking out over $200 for a pre-departure PCR test.

Anyone know of places offering the supervised RAT tests?

Ironically I currently have RAT tests 4x a week for work and you'd think one administered by a health board, surveillance testing it's staff would count. But no. It's seems the travel tests are all privatised and it's become another money-making racket!

 

Welcome to having travel reopened in Omicron days.....

[patches]

As of today, no more self isolation when returning from Aus... that just made my trip next month a little easier!Still trying to figure out how to avoid paying $400+ in tests.

I noticed that some of my RAT tests show up as "Verified" and taken under supervision. Maybe at some stage these will count?!

(the older one was me testing the self reporting function).

[Wayne Potgieter]

18 hours ago, patches said:

As of today, no more self isolation when returning from Aus... that just made my trip next month a little easier!Still trying to figure out how to avoid paying $400+ in tests.

I noticed that some of my RAT tests show up as "Verified" and taken under supervision. Maybe at some stage these will count?!

(the older one was me testing the self reporting function).

So what happens if you take your predeparture test and its positive? Do you need to remain in AU for 10-14 days?

[patches]

3 hours ago, Wayne Potgieter said:

So what happens if you take your predeparture test and its positive? Do you need to remain in AU for 10-14 days?

Then we stay, haha! Fortunately I have in-laws there. But I will take my work PC with just in case I need to hunker-down for a week or 2.

TBH I'm almost hoping I catch it 3 weeks before the trip so that I don't have a last minute infection cancelling everything

[Wayne Potgieter]

Last week was mentally tough. Lots of work pressure and some major changes on the professional front and I wanted some time to make sense of it all and remember my WHY.

Decided to take the kids out of school for a day and go for a nice long hike in the Kaimai Ranges.

No cellphone signal, no electricity, just us and the bush.

Here is the obligatory photo spam...

[patches]

19 hours ago, Wayne Potgieter said:

Last week was mentally tough. Lots of work pressure and some major changes on the professional front and I wanted some time to make sense of it all and remember my WHY.

Decided to take the kids out of school for a day and go for a nice long hike in the Kaimai Ranges.

No cellphone signal, no electricity, just us and the bush.

Here is the obligatory photo spam...

What an awesome idea Wayne! Too often when life starts getting frantic, we hype ourselves up to get frantic with it. Taking a step back is a great way to properly assess the situation, figure out what actually matters most and chart a course ahead to take it on.

And hey, if you get some awesome pics in the process, it's a bonus!

[hayleyearth]

On 11/25/2021 at 1:10 PM, patches said:

Funny how things work...

A while ago I was working for the breweries and you were working in healthcare, now it's the other way around.

I still miss the utilities & process engineering side of things, and would seriously consider getting back into it. 

It would be interesting to know the difference in scale between the SA industry (obviously dominated by SAB/AB-Inbev) and NZ.

Like SAB were building "starter" breweries in smaller African countries like Botwswana and Namibia, and a "starter" brewery was 500,000 HL/year. I think The bigger breweries in SA (Alrode and Rosslyn) are over 6 million HL/year, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, best of luck in the new role, and if you ever need some Saffers with experience working for the breweries, I know of at least 3 who made it over to Auckland

We have a job available for a Project Engineer .... If any of those Saffas want a job in a brewery again.

[patches]

On 3/11/2022 at 9:44 AM, hayleyearth said:

We have a job available for a Project Engineer .... If any of those Saffas want a job in a brewery again.

I'll do some asking around. Do you have a Seek link to the PD?

Edited March 15, 2022 by patches

[patches]

Aaaand new Auckland CV's (Council Valuations) are out. Well, I saw mine about a week ago, but I just got the email from council this morning.

Land value up by 30%. Total value up by 20%. Hope Auckland Council hasn't got too nasty a surprise in store when rates are adjusted after May.

Also noticed that it's still about 15% lower than sales estimates. I wonder if council went easy on the CV update to avoid adding more fuel to the fiery housing market. Pre-covid CV's were used as an indicator or guideline for buyers, now they mean very little in that regard.

[patches]

The ugly...

Seems I have inadvertently rubbed someone the wrong way. For about the past 7 or so weeks I have been having issues with mess being left on my verge when council comes to collect rubbish. We have small green food scraps bins in my area, and the collectors spilled it on the lawn on a few consecutive occasions.

After the 3rd time I contacted council to make a complaint. They were responsive and wanted to send someone to clean it up, but I said not to worry, I had already done so. I was merely informing them that the issue persisted.But then it happened again, so I replied to the email chain. They then said they'd take it up with the supervisors of that team.

But then things changed... it went from an "accidental spill" to a deliberate dumping of ALL the bins contents onto the lawn.

But wait, it's not over... this past Sunday I put the bins out for Monday morning collection. When I woke up Monday morning, I went to check the bin. Once again, contents strewn across the lawn, BUT when checking the neighbours bins, I could tell that they hadn't been collected yet.

Therefore, my estimation is that someone (perhaps a rebuked disgruntled employee) is going out of their way to vandalise my property in the middle of the night. Doorbell cam footage confirms a vehicle stopping outside the house around 11:30pm then bins heard to be tossed around. Unfortunately the bins and perps are outta view.

Rather petty and pathetic if you ask me. Initially I wanted to go all Liam Neeson, catch them in the act, reprimand, photograph and report them, but after I calmed down I figured I'll just put my bins out early Monday morning, and they're welcome to waste their $3/L liquid gold to drive by pointlessly.

[Wayne Potgieter]

38 minutes ago, patches said:

The ugly...

Seems I have inadvertently rubbed someone the wrong way. For about the past 7 or so weeks I have been having issues with mess being left on my verge when council comes to collect rubbish. We have small green food scraps bins in my area, and the collectors spilled it on the lawn on a few consecutive occasions.

After the 3rd time I contacted council to make a complaint. They were responsive and wanted to send someone to clean it up, but I said not to worry, I had already done so. I was merely informing them that the issue persisted.But then it happened again, so I replied to the email chain. They then said they'd take it up with the supervisors of that team.

But then things changed... it went from an "accidental spill" to a deliberate dumping of ALL the bins contents onto the lawn.

But wait, it's not over... this past Sunday I put the bins out for Monday morning collection. When I woke up Monday morning, I went to check the bin. Once again, contents strewn across the lawn, BUT when checking the neighbours bins, I could tell that they hadn't been collected yet.

Therefore, my estimation is that someone (perhaps a rebuked disgruntled employee) is going out of their way to vandalise my property in the middle of the night. Doorbell cam footage confirms a vehicle stopping outside the house around 11:30pm then bins heard to be tossed around. Unfortunately the bins and perps are outta view.

Rather petty and pathetic if you ask me. Initially I wanted to go all Liam Neeson, catch them in the act, reprimand, photograph and report them, but after I calmed down I figured I'll just put my bins out early Monday morning, and they're welcome to waste their $3/L liquid gold to drive by pointlessly.

Wow. Thats not cool. Should we orgnaise an all night stakeout to get a rego number next week?

[Wayne Potgieter]

I need to increase my life insurance cover. Any recommendations for a good company to work with on this?

[patches]

9 minutes ago, Wayne Potgieter said:

I need to increase my life insurance cover. Any recommendations for a good company to work with on this?

Currently with Cigna think I'm getting a fairly decent deal.

About $30pm for $500k cover (they wouldn't allow more when I was on a Working Visa). Compared to SA that was a bargain. Twice the cover at half the cost from my policy there.

Now in the process of moving to Mercer-Marsh as they have a DHB employee discount, plus things like income protection etc. Initial discussions for comparison seem like they'll throw in income protection (75% of annual gross) and $50k of trauma cover for the same rate. Still haven't finalized though.