Short 450m climb up to Karangahake Trig and back down the same way. The Settled forecast did not eventuate this time (mostly ended up with White) so will be one I have to come back again to do with a larger group and probably part of a weekend trip.
Click picture to view gallery (on NUI.NZ)…
Track conditions on Mt Karangahake Walk Track were very wet and slippery. Be very cautious particularly while descending down the track.
Short trip down to Wellington to Attend the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association Annual Conference. Prior to that, paid a visit to the Zealandia Eco Sanctuary… Click image below to access the gallery.
Recommend paying the extra for a guide for your first visit to the Sanctuary just to get an insight on where the wild life is hiding. The Sanctuary has yearly access options available which Is an option I would take up myself should I live in the Wellington Area. Aside from the main visiting area, the Sanctuary has quite a network of walking tracks [PDF].
NZ Shareholder’s Association conference on the following day was packed and fully subscribed. A number of speakers presented including…
…Recordings will be posted to the NZ Shareholders website for paid up NZSA Members.
Jetstar has so far been good to me (as is Air New Zealand with other trips). No Delays this trip. Maybe one advantage Jetstar has over Air NZ is that they offer meals with the Flexi ticket option at least for their Auckland to Wellington Leg (though I’m sure the extra 2nd meal I got on the way down wasn’t meant to happen and probably came about when I encountered a bug with their online booking system trying to select meals and seats)
Note: These are simply quick thoughts that have been jotted down. They have been categorized as “Insignificant” for very good reasons. They may contain hunches which will be unsubstantiated, unqualified and unquantified. Some of these points (each separated into their own paragraphs) may or may not be spawned into more substantial posts.
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The commentators of Interest.co.nz again
Housing market is deflating? I’d say given the behaviour of the market in recent years, I believe it’s a little bit too early to call.
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Global Liquidity feels bubbly.
There is a perhaps a concern with in me that if something of sufficient size does happen to impact the credit markets negatively to kick off some panic, the resultant domino effect is probably going to be unstoppable.
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NZ Clothing brands
I regularly see this on the many clothing labels…
DESIGNED IN NEW ZEALAND
Made in China
Additionally at the Agricultural Fieldays, there were a plethora of merchants that had signs out for exclaiming they had… “100% New Zealand Wool Jumpers”, with the word “made” conveniently omitted.
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Bushbuck Sales and Marketing Tactics
I get Bushbuck’s Email Newsletters now and again, I can’t remember why I signed up, it may have been to participate in some raffle at a Fieldays event at some point.
The stated recommended retail pricing (RRP) of their garments I feel appear to be the getting up there, almost the same price as what SWAZI Apparel sell their high quality, locally New Zealand Made equivalents for. Seems From there, Bushbuck have Sales every now and again which heavily discount off of their RRP which is probably in my view, more discounting back to “normal price”.
May be Bushbuck gear is indeed quite good, However in truth, my image of their brand may have been impacted a little when they keyword stuffed their TradeMe auctions with the names of other outdoor gear brand.
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Auckland Traffic, specifically South east
Traffic Patterns seem to be different each day, it’s a guessing game as to which route is fastest out of Highbrook / East Tamaki.
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Stuffed full of Shopping mailers
A person purportedly by the name of Sandra Young had used the email address: Sandra [AT] young [dot] Kiwi to sign up to several Melbourne retailer mailing lists. As a result, the “Catch All” email address for young.kiwi has been filled up with adverts and promotional mailers.
Main highlights included Dukono (in North Maluku), Komodo, and Kelimutu. Running from about 29th July 2017 to 6th August 2017 on a rather packed schedule with about 12 different flights in total cris-crossing over the Eastern side of Indonesia.
Matt Davison’s Video of our Dukono Trip
Places stayed at (Will hyperlink these when I get over my Indonesian cold)…
Assorted Notes and observations… (Still to be filled out as of 2017-09-06)…
A large portion of the Indonesian private vehicle Fleet are Toyota “Avanza” and “Kijang” Multi-purpose vehicles. The older Kijang has a larger 2.0 litre motor with it’s smaller successor, the Avanza, having a smaller 1.5 litre motor.
The driving style over much of Indonesia is typical of many Asian national (except Singapore / Hong Kong) with a more aggressive driving style and which will often strike fear into Westerners who are not used to it.
The roads in the more remote parts of Indonesia that we visited where suprisingly good with many key routes sealed. Have to admit, was thinking the island of Halmahera to be mostly of gravel / dirt roads.
Everyone in the group took Anti-Malarials as we had entered into areas which were deemed as high risk.