Young David

A few weeks ago, we received an invitation from the Mayor of Napier to come along to a top-secret meeting, along with a lot of other non-native Kiwis… this video was the result:

Now that we’re settling into NZ life, we thought it was about time we investigated the local library. We weren’t able to go out there today, since it closes at 17h30, but I went onto the Napier Public Libraries website today, and was completely floored by the following:

• The library has a website
• The website has an online catalogue
• The catalogue is searchable
• Members can reserve books online, to be made available at either of the two town libraries
• Membership is free to anyone who lives in the city

I read this with tears in my eyes. I’m used to the under-budgeted, outdated libraries of South Africa, and I’m desperately looking forward to exploring these libraries (which we’re obviously paying for with our taxes, and should enjoy) soon.

On our recent “fishnic” trip to the beach, we discovered the kiwi scourge of sand flies. They’re nasty little bugs who live by bodies of water (beaches, rivers, lakes..), and buzz up from the ground to nip your feet, all the way up to your knees. Their bites draw blood, and the spot is itchy for weeks afterwards.

Fortunately, a spot of insect repellent (waterproof) will generally keep them away, but our first (unprepared) encounter with them has left us with a few itchy spots on our feet for the next while. Apparently our sandflies are tame compared to the Australian version…

On Friday we left Napier to spend the weekend with friends in Taupo. Gayle fetched me from work, and we drove straight there. The petrol gauge was less than a quarter full, and so we both agreed that we needed to stop for fuel “soon”. We drove past a fuel station on the way out of Napier, but it was on the wrong side of the road, and it seemed like too much trouble to stop, turn around, and fill up. Thinking like South Africans, we thought “there’ll be another one along the way”.

40km into our trip, with the petrol light on, and the car starting to shudder going up hills, we still hadn’t found another petrol station. We whipped out Lola, our trusty GPS, asking her to “take us to the closest petrol station”. “Sure”, said Lola. “Turn around, and go 45km back to Napier”.

Clearly, this wasn’t an option, since we didn’t have enough fuel to get us another 45km back. Further investigation from Lola revealed that the next petrol station was about 70km ahead, in Taupo itself. We knew we’d make neither, so we decided to drive as far as we could, then either call for help, or leave the car, and hitchhike to get petrol.

Sure enough, about 10km later, our car ran out of fuel, ascending a hill. We managed to turn her around, and roll her down to a “picnic spot”, out of the way.

Turning on the cellphone, I tried to call our friends in Taupo…

No signal.

We tried Gayle’s phone, since mine can be tempermental…

No signal.

Well, we thought, we’ll just have to hitchhike. With handbag and laptops slung over our shoulders, we stood in the rain, bedraggled and alone, sticking our thumbs up in the air, trying to look disarming and friendly.

After about 5 minutes, a car pulled up, and the driver offered us a ride.
They were Czechs farmers, touring New Zealand. The father (unable to speak English and translating via his son) and son pair were driving to Hamilton (at speeds which would have earned them several NZ fines). They were unable to farm in the Czech winter, since ground temperature is roughly -5 degrees Celcius, so it’s common to spend the winter touring, or doing seasonal work. The son was hoping to get a job in Hastings, to pay his fare on a trip to the South Island in February.

After about 20km, we came across an old fashioned roadhouse, which advertised “Food, Petrol, Accommodation”. Thinking ourselves fortunate, we thanked our new friends, and they dropped us off in the car park.

We soon discovered, however, that the fuel pumps hadn’t been used in years, and we still didn’t have cellphone coverage. (Note the pig in the background)

So, after meeting the grizzled locals inside the roadhouse, we stood outside, on the verge of the highway, and resumed our hitchhiking. The sun was out by this time, and we admired the view as we waited for a ride.

After about 10 minutes, a gentleman named “Murray” picked us up. Murray was from Hastings, on his way to Rotorua, passing through Taupo, and offered us a ride. His final destination was actually Auckland, to watch the Police concert with his mates from Rotorua.

We finally arrived in Taupo (only getting cellphone signal about 10km out of town), settled down for dinner, and later went back with fuel to fetch our car.

The lessons I’ve learned from this experience:

• NZ is not like SA. There are not petrol stations everywhere. Fill up before you leave.
• There is no cellphone coverage in the mountains, and in some rural areas. Have a backup plan.
• I will pick up hitchhikers from now on.

Here’s something to think about, South Africans…

A Berlin burglar’s break-in took an unexpected turn when he stumbled upon a corpse and felt compelled to call the police.

“He called to say he’d just broken into a flat and found a dead body,” said a spokeswoman for Berlin police. “He gave the address of the place and then hung up.”

Officers discovered the 64-year-old resident of the flat dead in his bedroom. The man had passed away about two weeks ago, and authorities are not treating the death as suspicious.

The burglar has not been heard of since. Local media said he fled the flat empty-handed, but police could not confirm this.

(via http://www.stuff.co.nz/4362322a4560.html)

Folks here are very cautious about exposure to the sun.. and with good reason! Here’s what the sun here will do to your car…

This evening I had the privilege of meeting a true Kiwi Golden Girl. When our landlord originally suggested that we pop in to see our neighbor, an elderly widow, because it would be the “proper” thing to do, I have to admit to resenting it a bit.. I thought, “Gosh. We’ve got so much going on right now, I don’t feel like weighing down my schedule with the whims of an old lady..”

Well, after 2 glasses of very palatable wine, and about 7 tasty little chocolate balls, we’ve just returned from a wonderful hour at this sweet old lady’s house. Far from being an old bat, she’s an ex-broadcaster (which you’d easily pick up after a few minutes’ conversation with her), with a more than a lifetime of memories and experiences to share.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s now 5am. The jetlag monster woke me up at 3am, and at 4am, I got fed up with trying to sleep, and decided to do something constructive with my time. Here’s a summary of our first day of kiwification:

Touchdown

After flying from Johannesburg via Dubai, Bangkok and Sydney, we arrived in Auckland at 3:30pm yesterday, exhausted, hungry, and smelly (30 hours in transit will do that to you). After customs and biosecurity checks, we were met by our kiwi friends, Simon and Marie Young. (No blood relation, but we have a lot in common)

The kiwimobile

We’d pre-purchased a Ford Mondeo from an old SA mate, who happened to be leaving Auckland for a few years, shortly before our arrival. The arrangement was such that we even managed to exchange money and keys in South Africa, prior to our departure. We collected the spare key from a postbox belonging to a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, then found the kiwimobile sleeping outside the warehouse (pre-arranged) where it’d been for about a month. (Open air, public access – don’t try that in SA!)

The battery was completely dead, and a few spiders had started redecorating the passenger door.

With Simon’s assistance, we managed to jump-start the car, find the keyhole to open the boot (it’s not obvious!), and figure out the alarm / central locking / stereo system. Today’s trip to Taupo will be a good opportunity to stretch the kiwimobile’s legs, but it’s already obvious that it’s a “sweet ride”.

Pizza on the beach

We took the kiwimobile to Pizza hut, grabbed some pizza, Pepsi, and ice cream, and headed to the closest beach. Having forgotten a sitting-on-device, we went “rustic”, sitting on the beach, munching our pizza, and drinking out of the bottle. (Because I forgot that we’d been given straws). Turns out that Simon, Marie, and ourselves have more in common than we’d initially realized, and we made tentative plans to go camping / tramping in the future.

Sunrise, Sunset

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the sun sets around 9pm here in summer. It’s deceptive though, because it feels like about 5pm.. I’m sure we’ll get used to it, and it’s great that in summer, after a full days work, we’ll still have 2-3 hours of daylight to enjoy outdoors.

I didn’t realize that some of my friends hadn’t heard about the fire which destroyed our boarding house (and our personal flat) in March 2007. Here are the photos. They’re also on my Facebook profile.

Let me highlight a few choice ones…

• Our bedroom
• Our lounge
• Our kitchen

Our insurance did pay out, which is one of the reasons it’s quite easy to immigrate to New Zealand now.. we don’t have many of the personal possessions which might have kept us back.

Thanks to all the folks I met at the DunLUG meeting last night.. especially to Jack for the pizzas, Stewart for the beer, and Katinka for the fresh eggs for breakfast this morning ! You’re a sociable, rowdy, fun bunch, and it was a very enjoyable, geeky evening.

We did some wireless hacking, cracking a WEP key in 2 minutes and 11 seconds, as well as exploring how to annoy your colleagues with multiple deauthentication attacks, and why not to upgrade your router via wireless. I’ve put the presentation slides online here.

I also showed off twitter and twittervision, since twitterific kept popping up in the middle of my presentation

Jack and Tim, here’s the post we discussed about Dune2 for Linux. The original Dune2 is also available for free now.

As I mentioned, we’re planning to immigrate to New Zealand to start a family, and I’m exploring employment options in the Linux / Open Source IT sector.. if you’re aware of any opportunities, I’d appreciate you assisting in my “kiwification”, by distributing my CV far and wide
Finally, thanks most of all to Bob Brown, his wife Linda, and their adorable 18-month old guru Linus, for hosting us overnight. It was a treat!