In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point; that is, the region on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points which are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth. Full article at Wikipedia.
Double-click on or move the original map to set a marker on a desired location. The antipode map will automatically show it’s antipodal location.
Back From Fiji with a few photos
Ok – so Ive been back a week now. but it took a while to settle back in, and then I came down with an awful head-cold. Thankfully I still had some UK Sudafed tablets, so its all dealt with – cos you now can’t buy them in New Zealand.
I had a wonderful time. In fact the only downside of the whole week was that I went for a very quiet relaxing break, and unfortunately so did half of Australia because it was the school holidays there. With their children. So it wasn’t exactly as quiet as I was hoping. But the hotel was wonderful, the spa beautiful, and thankfully the room I was in was away from the pool area where the children were, and I basically had my pick of loungers and umbrellas to sit on the beach with.
Fiji is in no way cheap to stay in for a good hotel – and there are plenty of good hotels. And this time of year seems to be a good time to go: its still hot but not too hot, and theres a nice mid morning and afternoon breeze which makes lunging on the beach just truly wonderful.
At first I was very conscious of the high price of everything. After all money is a bit tight right now and I didn’t want to go crazy, but after a day or two I did relax and decide that I could cope with a bit of rampant overspending in the search for some recovery time. It really worked.
So- heres a few pictures of Fiji – I didn’t got go exploring – or do anything other than relax, order room service, laze on the beach, and hit the spa.
Oh – and hubby got major brownie points for rearranging his work and booking a surprise flight out to join me on Thursday night.
View From my room as the sun starts to go down.
The “Adults only pool” at about 8am – before it gets filled with kids that can’t read.
My Own Personal Sun Loungers – not a single other person ever sat there the whole week I was there. Perfect.
And the view from my own personal lounger. Ahhhh.
A beautiful gift of Frangipani from housekeeping.
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Avalon is in Fiji…
…thanks to a free flight on Singapore Air points from our last UK trip, and a deal on a hotel via Expedia.
…where internet connection is really expensive – hence its taken me a few days to log on and approve comments – so apologies for the delay.
…where hubby couldn’t join me cos the life of a newbie contractor means he cant take time off right now
Ill be back online at the weekend.
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Still no Ikea in NZ, but…
July 15, 2010 by Avalon · 12 Comments
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
straight from the Facebook Page “I want IKEA stores to open in New Zealand” comes a link for a new company in Parnell Auckland that is shipping IKEA products from Australia for you, MYKEA. (Now called MYFLATPACK)
(Please read the comments below before buying from this company).
The Idea is that you visit the Australian IKEA website, fill in a form with MYKEA telling them what you want, and they send you a quote telling you how much it will cost to get it delivered to you, including all costs (taxes, shipping etc). You can then place the order or not. They have a minimum order of $150 AUD, and you cant any item less than $10 AUD, but all in all it looks like a good system to me.
Now you are going to pay a premium for this obviously – not only are you covering IKEA’s profit, but also MYKEA’s, but hey – nowt wrong with that. They are being enterprising, and offering a service that many NZ’ers really want. Good on ‘em. And lets face it – you can always judge for yourself whether the quoted prices suit your pocket, or are fair. Given the numbe rof people I’ve met taking flights to Aussie just to go get stuff from IKEA – I’d say they could be onto something in saving you money on airfairs and excess baggage fees!
Actually they aren’t the first to do this. When we first arrived 5 and a bit years ago, there was a company doing the same thing, and another company that was actually just importing container loads of stuff and selling it the old fashioned way. Both of those stopped trading – Ive no idea if it was because they went out of business or went on to do other things. But it does suggest that there may be a window here in which to make the most of this opportunity.
Depending on whether we make out “city living” arrangement permanent after a few months of trialling – I am sorely tempted to splurge (once we have cleared the credit cards!) and buy some decent storage! NZ is woefully short on decent affordable storage I’m afraid. And to be honest – when you have kit out a second home -you need access to something that isnt going to rob you blind on the costs. The nearest similar store to IKEA in NZ is Freedom Furniture – but its a lot more expensive. Arguably the quality is better, especially if you compare it with the cheaper IKEA ranges, but when the budget is what matters – there really isn’t a good alternative.
If you have IKEA bookshelves – or indeed IKEA anything - what ever you do – bring it with you! You will regret it if you don’t. Even if you don’t want to keep it – bring it and sell it on Trade Me.
By the way: apparently the reason we cant have an IKEA store in NZ is becuase teh Auckland council reckons they cant cope with the traffic chaos that will inevitably ensue when 4,000,000 kiwis descend the place. Sheesh.
(Edited: Thanks John for the update on the website. MYFLATPACK now carries a small inventory of stock in Auckland. Prices are expensive, but ho-hum. And postage is based on a % of the total order – 10% for North Island deliveries).
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Where do you really live?
Via a friend on Facebook (Fount of a gazillion and one useless time wasting applications that can drive you potty, and occasional source of something wondrous), comes the wonderful Antipodes Map.
It’s really cool.
SO I went to have a play of course.
If I start of in Hereford, which is where I grew up in the UK (and not far from where I emigrated from), then the Antipodal point is in the ocean off the south coast of New Zealand. Which is a bit nippy to be honest.
If I go the other way, and look for the point that corresponds to Carterton, then it gives me a place in Spain called Juarros de Voltoya, which is just a bit North West of the town of Segovia. Oddly enough, Ive been to Segovia – it’s the home of a rather wonderful round Templar Church, castle, and very grim Cathedral.
Have a play: you can waste hours with it.
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At what point has the IAA failed?
A south Auckland immigration agent who has been waiting for a year to get a licence to practice is furious at the delay and says it is causing her family financial hardship.Agents now have to get a licence from the Immigration Advisers Authority, a process that is meant to take just 40 working days.However, Alunga Tangilanu’s home-based business has been locked up for a year – and so is her family income.
Ok, in theory, I don’t actually have too much of a problem with some applications taking longer than the 40 days it should. In fact its about time Immigration Agents got a taste of what its like to be kept hanging on for ridiculous amounts of time while your life is left hanging in the balance. But as with immigrants being ignored, I would hope that the IAA would be a bit more pro-active. If after a year they still cant determine that this agent doesn’t warrant a licence – I have to ask, why not?
Registrar of Immigration Advisers at the agency, Barry Smedts, says the agency’s primary role is to protect consumers.
“We’re all about providing protection to migrants. Mrs Tangilanu’s case is under investigation and I’m not prepared to discuss that.” Smedts says the authority is still waiting for information to arrive from overseas.
Again – sounds familiar. Anything is OK cos we are “protecting Immigrants”. That is getting real old, real fast for me. They should be able to say one or another within 1 year for crying out loud.
The authority, which has a small staff, has approved 450 applications in two years.
This is the crunch point though. 450 applications approved. In the 2 years of it’s existence. That a whole 450 people who are licenced Worldwide to act as agents to help you with your Immigration application. And if you can’t afford (or don’t want to use them, cos lets face it, they still don’t have a stellar reputation amongst immigrants), you can’t get help from anyone else. And as they are dealing with so few application, exactly why don’t they have the ability to make a decision on a case thats been rumbling for over a year? They are after all supposed to have licensed about 2000 agents by now.So it’s not as if they have been overwhelmed with applications.
So I have to ask, given that this agency was supposed to handle 2000 agents, and it’s creation has had such a marked (negative) impact on the industry it; what on earth is the point of the IAA? I think the Immigration Agent industry has blown a huge raspberry of contempt at the agency.
Also worrying is that this agency is supposed to be self funding from the $2000 licensing fee for agents. Clearly they are woefully short of that number – so who is paying for this?
PS. Welcome to my 500th blog.
Sorry it was a boring and completely non-funny one.
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INZ Staff getting sacked? Whatever next?
July 13, 2010 by Avalon · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life in New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
Filed under: Life in New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
With a grateful Hat Tip to Paola.
It seems that Immigration New Zealand have sacked seven staff for corruption, and even more surprising, 6 of them were based in New Zealand, and only one offshore, in Delhi.
“The majority of the cases involved conflict of interest issues, and involved the non-disclosure of interests in family or friends’ immigration applications.”
I wonder what the minority was?
“It needs to be seen in the context of a 1200-strong workforce in 30 locations across the globe,” [Head of Immigration] said.
I actually disagree with that. You cant have a department that is prepared to treat people like garbage on the basis that their job in Protecting New Zealand is so vitally important and gives them carte blanche, and then turn round and say “well, most of us aren’t corrupt, so thats OK”.
Im Glad to see that they are finally starting to clean up the mess, but I do wish they would stop softening it up. They have some appallingly crap staff that need to be got rid of. So why don’t they just do it, and say “Yep, we ballsed up a bit there and hired the wrong people”.
“We take all allegations that we receive seriously. We’ve had 63 in the last year, most allegations are unsubstantiated, but where they are we are clearly going to take decisive and appropriate action.”
I wonder how many allegations were “unsubstantiated” on the basis that INZ refused to acknowledge that the allegation was made. Five of our allegations were also “Never substantiated”, because you refused to even answer the damn questions. Its a very handy way of getting the statistics down, but it still means you have staff working there who are prepared to lie to cover up their cock-ups.
Still, its a step in the right direction.
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Our First “weekend in the Wairarapa”.
July 11, 2010 by Avalon · 2 Comments
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Cost of living, Life in New Zealand
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Cost of living, Life in New Zealand
Well, this is it – we are now officially City Dwellers, having taken our first Saturday morning (well, afternoon actually) jaunt out of town for the weekend. So this is how it went.
Friday Night:
We decide at 8.40 pm to go to the 9pm showing of Eclipse at the Reading cinema, and are sat in there by 8.55 with coffee and Diet Cokes. No “ah yes but it’ll take us 90 minutes to drive, 10 minutes to park, then we have to come back home”.
Saturday Morning.
Wake up at 9.30.
Realise we don’t have any eggs for breakfast, so rather than nip across the road to Moore Wilsons, decide that we will use our “eat out” budget to spring for bacon and eggs at Mr Bun’s. (Cheap and cheerful). Throw a few things in a suitcase, and pop off for breakfast.
Finish breakfast at 10.30, head back to the flat and work out how to fit a suitcase, two laptop bags and a handbag in a tiny car. Thankfully, because I couldn’t be bothered to get eggs from MW, I also didn’t pick up a 5.5kg frozen turkey that I was planning on buying to stick in the big chest freezer ready for Christmas.
Leave at about 11.30, feeling that possibly we haven’t really got this who “weekend” concept quite right. We are heading for something more like “Afternooners” or “4pm-ers” at this rate.
We finally made it back home by 1.30pm, and only that by not stopping in Greytown with the other hoards from the city for lunch. Passed a few other convertibles there I can tell you!
So here we are – in the peace and quiet. Not having to listen to the bars and clubs over the weekend. Getting our fix of open countryside and greenery.
Possibly off to the beach tomorrow!
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The problem with buying Leasehold properties
Leasehold properties are cheaper than Freehold properties – which makes them look like a bargain. (Well sometimes – you can see leasehold properties for sale at freehold prices!) But theres a reason for that – you don’t own the land – you just own the building on it. Someone else owns the land, and charges you rent for the privilege of owning the house on it.
Like Hawkes Bay Regional Council, whose leases are coming up for renewal, and so they have hiked the prices up.
One week Niki Willis was paying $27 a week ground rent on her leasehold home in Napier, the next she was paying $172.
Now that’s one helluva hike in your weekly budget. And bear in mind this is on top of any mortgage your may have to pay.
The council, which owns about 1000 residential leasehold properties in Napier with a total book value of $85 million, realises many leaseholders are finding themselves in impossible situations when their ground rent is reviewed at the end of the 21-year term
Thats the bit to be aware of: how long is your lease for, and when are the rent reviews allowed. 999 years with no rent review till the end – possibly worth thinking about, but a rent review every four or five years and you could be in serious trouble.
And the worst thing is: not many people are willing to buy leasehold land. I know I wont touch it with a bargepole – so straight away you cot your chances of selling for a good price. Hey – thats why its cheap if you want to buy it yourself.
Many of the new apartments going up in Wellington along the waterfront are Leasehold.
Added to this in New Zealand is that some of the leases are owned by Maori Iwi and you could possibly have issues with any claims under the Waitangi Agreement. SO if you are thinking of buying Leasehold, especially in New Zealand – please take care. Make sure a lawyer goes through all the ups and downs with a fine toothed comb – then at least you fully know what you are taking on.
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Me and the MX5: The Finale
July 6, 2010 by Avalon · 3 Comments
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Well, let’s just say at this point that Motors: Mazda: MX5 has been listed as a favorite on my Trade Me account as long as I have had a Trade Me account. This is basically becuase when I first started getting into Property Investing, I happened to pass by the Mazda garage in Wellington (as you do – honestly its on the route to Moore Wilsons). And I thought I would pop in to look at what they had in the showroom – so that I could build a “Vision Board” of where I wanted the investing to take us.
And lo: they had this really swanky new Dark Purple (so dark its almost black), shiny MX5 that was just screaming at me to buy it.
I was in Wuv.
Slight sticking point – it was $50,000.
And it was brand new – which means as soon as you drive it out the dealership its worth a lot less than you paid for it. Not great odds for anyone planning on making squillions in the property game. Besides – didn’t have $50,000 sitting around burning a hole in my pocket. But dammit – thats the car I wanted, so it went on the dream board, and I have been keeping an eye out on Trade me for 2nd hand ones. One came up a while back, but still with a price tag of $35,000 which is still too much for me.
Ho Hum. Of course now that I need to buy a new car, the swanky purple one isn’t available – at any price, but I have been watching and planning. I was hoping to be able to spend about $20,000 but in the end the pennies just weren’t there. So I decided to buy a cheaper version – and I can always spray it when I have some more money.
2nd hand MX5′s can be had for between $3,000 and $45,000 – so I thought I’d better be at the lower end. I test drove a few in the 8-10k range, but in the end decided I wanted an Automatic. Basically because most cars over here are automatics, all ours were, and I’ve just got used to them. Besides – my original 2 MX5′s were as well.
On Friday last week, I called a guy in Levin who was selling an 1999 MX5, automatic, British racing green (no pop up headlights). Asking price $7995. A quick price check said that was very reasonable – I looked at one a year older for $11K, and one a year younger at $14k. We drove over to take it for a spin, and I loved it! It was in good nick (needs a good clean inside), but the roof is sound, it drove well and everything worked. Experience says theres not likely to be a huge amount that needs fixing – they are not cars that are run by complicated computers so they tend not to be expensive to fix. And the big expense which was a new Cam Belt had already been done and there was a service bill to show it.
All it took was a call to the bank manager, who had been warned this might be coming, and she put the payment through straight away. The guy was comfortable enough from talking to me to let me take the car straight away, and within 10 minutes I finally had my long sought after dream: an MX5.
We then drove a little north to Foxton Beach, grabbed fish and chips from Mr Grumpy’s and coffee from the Simply Balmy Cafe and had a late lunch at the beach sitting in my new car with the hood down. I couldn’t stop grinning.
In fact – I still haven’t stopped grinning every time i get in the car.
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Me and the MX5: part3
July 5, 2010 by Avalon · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Well, we managed with one car for the first year, sharing it between myself and hubby, mum and dad. The fact that we managed that long without a car each and 3 spares was a minor miracle. Never before has my family coped with so little vehicular choice.
Being countryside dwellers for so long – we are into the habit of having to get around under our own steam. Theres kinda point relying on public transport when theres only one buss a week into town, and the train station is 10 miles away. Its no different here in NZ – public transport doesn’t start till you get to Carterton, and thats 15kms away.
But when mum and dad came back for there second 6 month stay they decided to go buy themselves a car. They went out one day – and came back with an old Jag XJ6 – basically a Tank with bigger comfier seats and a fuel consumption to match. Cheap to buy – small mortgage needed to fill up at the pump.
So we managed for a few years like this, then when they came to stay full time, my brother also bought a car, as he was now going to be living separately from the rest of us, and needed to be able to get about.
It was at this point that I made the comment over of coffee or two that if there were any more cars to be bought by this family – it was damn well going to be mine. Any deviation from this plan would be met with a major Grumpage alert.
At which point the Jag decided to die on us having failed its WoF and being about to cost considerably more to repair than was spent buying it. This was a few weeks ago. So I jumped and suggested that maybe now was the time for me to replace my MX5.
Obviously there are a lot of changes to our lives right now, with Hubby changing jobs and us moving into the city. So I figured that we could use a small car, and mum and dad could keep our big, fast, blacked out car with the big boot. Much more useful for the country life, and lets face it – a small car in the city is much easier to park.
Only problem was – how the hell do we buy a new car when we have little money and a credit card bill we cant pay in full?
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