Petrol Prices Inches Up Again

Just a week after the petrol companies reduce petrol prices, they have raise it again by 4 cents due to higher crude oil prices as well as the weakening iwi dollar. Unleaded 91 now cost 1.709 while diesel cost 1.279 per litre.

Telephoning Home Can be Cheap

Telecom NZ have just release a plan that allows people to call to other countries at incredible low price due to new technological advances. For example, a call to Singapore cost 3 cents per minute (off peak) and 6 cents per minute for peak hours, for Malaysia, it is 4.5 cents and 9 cents respectively. So calling home is so cheap, there is no excuse not to do it.

Kiwi Dollar Under Pressure

The kiwi have been under downward pressure due to the bigger than expected current deficit. It is now trading at 61.3 US dollars and .9828 Sing dollar. What this mean is that imported things will be more expensive due to the weak kiwi dollar.

Icy Conditions Play Havoc on the Roads

Chilly night for trapped truckies 22 June 2006

By MICHAEL CUMMINGS

Four trucks stranded on the Desert Road were freed about 7.30 this morning. The trucks and their drivers had been snowed in overnight in freezing conditions. The road was still closed this morning. Transit New Zealand snow ploughs were needed to clear the road so the trucks could be freed, Constable James Dempsey of Taihape police said this morning. "What they do is basically carve a route out for them to convoy out," Const Dempsey said.

The trucks were stranded near the stretch of road referred to as Suicide Bridge, he said.
The weather was "not the best" on the Desert Road, Const Dempsey said.
One Waiouru cafe owner said snow was still falling about 8am. "It's snowing at the moment but you kind of get used to it after a while," he said. It was unclear when the Desert Road would be reopened.

In the South, as many as 30-40 cars were involved in accidents throughout Dunedin as drivers were unable to control their cars due to the icy conditions on the way to work this morning. Many motorist lost control of their cars and hit other cars or lamp posts. In Queenstown, a Malaysian tourist had their van overtuned due to unfamiliarity in driving on icy roads.

Petrol Prices Drop by 4 cents per litre

It is good news for motorists today as petrol prices dropped by 4 cents per litre across the board. The price of petrol is now $1.66 per litre for unleaded 91 and $1.23 per litre for diesel.

Here Come the Snow Again

As the South Island was just recovering from a heavy dump of snow last week, the snow came again today. As seen on TV today, snow was again falling in the Canterbury region as far as Kaikoura. As many as 1,800 homes were still without electricity from last week snowfall and hopefully they will get their source of energy soon and less homes will be affected this time around.

One of my ex colleague, CA, is touring the South Island now and hopefully, he will come out of this trip unscathed. I also received a text from another ex colleague, BL, who is living in Christchurch now, is enjoying the snowfall. She did not have to go to work and her kids have a day off from school and they had fun playing in the snow including snowboarding, building snowman and just admiring the beautiful white everywhere.

Things I Like About NZ

There are many things that I like about NZ. Firstly, NZ is a country of natural beauty. There are many beautiful lakes, parks, snow capped mountains and countryside beauty all around the country even though the South Island can boost some of the best sights in the world. Next, the people are just so friendly (not sure about the bigger cities though). Whenever you meet someone in the street and they will greet you with a Hi or g'day mate. Try that in Singapore and people may think you are up to no good. The salespeople here is one such example. In supermarkets, the cashier will always have a small talk with you. The other salespeople are all very patient with you and will answer every question you have and even if you leave without buying anything, they will still give you a sincere smile and advise you to go around to get the best deal.

The education sytem is another plus factor. The teachers here really encourage and praises everyone in the class to achieve their full potential and not just the best ones like in Singapore. In fact, the best one hardly get a mention here, the ones that show the greatest improvement will always be the star. Health is another plus factor here. For those with existing problems will be taken care of. I was given free yearly checkup and subsidised priscription. Lastly, there is no such thing as status here. Even if you are the Prime Minister or just someone who is working in an office, drive a big or a small car, live in a castle or a normal house, you are always treated equally here.

Asian Migrants are Leaving NZ

27th January 2006 ( source www.emigratenz.org)

Inevitably some migrants discover New Zealand is not for them. New figures from the Department of Labour show one in five migrants leave New Zealand within 6 years of arriving. Or, if you prefer thinking bottles are half full, 80 percent of migrants are still in New Zealand 6 years after first arriving. The proportion of migrants leaving New Zealand depends on where they come from. Migrants from East Asian countries are most likely to leave New Zealand - leaving at about double the average rate. For migrants who arrived in 1999, 44 percent of Taiwanese had left. Figures for Singapore and Hong Kong were 41 and 31 percent respectively. For more recent migrants - arriving in 2002 - people from south East Asian countries were again more likely to leave than migrants from other countries. The top 10 countries for migrants leaving New Zealand in 2005 (who arrived in 2002) is as follows:
Top 10 Nationalities of Migrants who arrived in 2002 Leaving NZ by 2005

Nationality/Percent
Taiwan 49%
Singapore 34%
Malaysia 31%
Hong Kong 29%
China 23%
Canada 18%
USA 17%
Germany 16%
Japan 16%
Indonesia 15%
Others 9%

All Blacks Win Again

For the second time in a week, the All Blacks have beaten the brave Irish rugby team by 10 points in Aucland, similiar to the first game played in Hamilton last week where they won by 11 points. Even though it was a good win by anyone standards, the kiwi public were quite dissapointed by the "close" scoreline.

To survive in NZ, you need to now your rugby because it is like a religion here in NZ. When the All Blacks play, nobody will be seen on the streets as everyone will be glued to their TV sets and the day after everyone will be talking about it at the workplace. This is what I call kiwi culture.

NZ Will Have 18 channels from next year

It has been reported that NZ will have a total of 18 channels from next year using the digital technology from the current 6 at the moment. This mean that viewers have more choice in terms of entertainment. However, household need to purchase a set up box, costing $200 - $300, to receive these new channels.

Junior Doctors Go on 5 Day Strike

It is rather unfortunate that no agreement have been reached to avert a 5 day strike by junior doctors in hospitals across NZ. I am really sorry for all patients whose lives may be in danger because of this actions.

South Canterbury Still Have No Electricity

If you have heard the news, South Canturbury, especially Timaru, still do not have any electricity after heavy snowfall hit the power lines 3 days ago. Most residents still live in the darkness and cold because the main lines are still down. Police and civil defence personnel have been visiting these residents especially those in the rural regions to check on their well being as telephone lines were also down and no communication is available. Roads are still dangerous to drive on and it has been forecasted that the snow will be coming again on Friday afternoon. Good luck to everyone at this part of NZ.

Freak Weather in NZ

Yesterday, NZ experienced once of the freakiest weather all over the country. In Wellington, there was gale force wind and many trees were uprooted and house roof blown away by the extremely strong winds (up to 130km/h). There were also reports that State Highway 1 between Paraparaumu and Raukawa was closed because of oil spills on the road. Auckland suffered one of its biggest blackout in years due to the shutting down of one of its power stations. It was chaotic as there as there was no traffic lights and businesses were forced to close due to no electric power. Christchurch and its suburbs suffered the worst though. It had a heavy snowfall overnight and as many as 6,000 homes were left without electricity as power were again cut due to the unexpected snowfall. Even though it look very pretty on the TV that all is covered in white and the children had a day off from school playing in the snow, I must imagine how cold it would be for those living in Cantebury country without any electricity.

In Palmy, we were a little luckier. We only had rain throughout the day and the ranges were covered with fresh snowfall which make it a pretty sight.

The World Cup is here again but the kiwis are not bothered at all

Yes, the soccer world cup is here again and everyone in the world is buzzing with it except in rugby crazy New Zealand. It has been reported that this world event can cause war to stop temporarily, cause many sleepless nights among the die hard soccer fans and of course, the millions, if not billions dollars that will be generated in soccer betting. It is perhaps, the biggest sporting event alongside the Olympics.

In NZ, you hardly hear of anyone talking or discussing about it. In fact, the rugby test between the All Blacks and Ireland this weekend get greater coverage than the World Cup. However, we do get daily highlights coverage of the event and they do show 8 matches live on TV 1. Sky TV shows all 64 matches live but the matches start at around 4 am in the morning till 9am.

To all soccer fans, may the best team win this year world cup. As for myself, I do hope that England will meet Brazil in the final of this year competition, first, because I am familiar with English soccer players and second, because Brazil plays great exciting sexy football.

The results so far:

England 1 Paraguay 0
Brazil 1 Craotia 0
Argentina 2 Ivory Coast 1
Australia 3 Japan 1

Kiwi slang

Below are some words that are commonly used by kiwis. If you have any more to add, please email me or add to the comments column.

G'd day mate - How are you?
Kia Ora - Welcome
Reckon - think so (I reckon that he is up to no good)
Bloody - very (eg he is bloody good)
Awesome - Very good
cool - good /nice
No worries - never mind / it's Ok
tea - dinner
bring a plate - potluck
kumara - sweet potato
mate /buddy - good friends (peng you)
haka - a war dance performed by the NZ ugby team
all blacks - NZ rugby team
tall blacks - NZ basketball team
black caps - NZ cricket team
silver ferns - NZ netball team
fly buys - a kind of reward system where consumers get rewarded with points when they purchase goods
good on ya - well done

Funny Winter So Far

As this is our first winter after many years in Singapore, we found that winter so far is really funny. It is extremely cold at night (-2 degrees) but it is glorious and sunny at day time (even though temperatures is still in the early teens). One have to wear winter clothes now including wool clothings, thermals, beannies and gloves and the cars and grass will be frosted (icy) in the morning.

It even snowed in Taupo a couple of days ago and the locals had a great time playing snowball fights and snowboarding. We even had a blackout two days ago because of too much electricity is being used at the same time that the generators cannot cope. Anyway, as long as the sun keep shining, we have no complaints. It is better than having a cold and wet winter.

winter fruits

The good thing about NZ is that in every season, there is different kind of fruits and vegetables. For example, in summer, you will have plums, apricots, peaches, strawberries, all kinds of berries and tomatoes while in winter you get kiwifruits and persimmons. Gold kiwifruits are now selling at $1 per kilo or 10 cents per fruit while persimmons are selling at $2 per ilo or 30-40 cents per fruit.

The Winter Is Finally Here

Even though 1st June is officially the first day of winter, it was not until yesterday that we feel the first taste of winter as the first 3 days have been sunny and warm with lots of sunshine. It was raining from the word go and the temperatures dipped to 10 degrees the whole day. At night it felled to a low of 2 degrees. We had the heaters on for most of the days when we are home and when we are outside, we wear many layers of warm clothing including wool sweaters, thermal wear and jackets.

The weather forecast is that there will be snow fall in many places in the South Island and central north island tonight and so the winter is really on now with the cold southerlies winds blowing from the Antartic. It is forecasted that Palmerston North will have a night temperature of -2 degrees while Taupo will have a -4 degrees tonight.

All is not gloom though as we may be going for a ski trip and building snowman at the peak of winter in Aug or Sept this year.

Things that are cheap/expensive in NZ

We had a visit by a Singaporean friend recently to Palmerston North and one of the question he ask was what is cheap and expensive in NZ.

Here are my list :

Cheap when compared to Singapore prices

House - a bungalow with 1000 square metres cost anything from $200K - $400K depending on area
Car - a brand new car cost anything from $15K (Daihatsu Siroin) to about $35K for a Honda Accord.
Car Insurance (about $300 per year for comprehensive coverage)
Car Road tax (about $200 pr year for all types of cars)
Dairy products (milk, cheese, chocolates, etc)
Wine (range from $6 onwards)
Pizza ($6 for a large hawaiian pizza)
Veggies when they are in season
Fruits and juices($3 for $3 litres of Just Juice juice)
Potatoes and potato chips ($1 for a 190g packets)
Internet connection ($16 for 150 hours of dial up connection)
Fish and chips ($3.00 for a large fish and lots of chips)
Water supplies (it's free)
Education (it's again free)
Prescribe medicine ($15 for 3 months supply for any medicine)
Petrol ($1,70 currently for unleaded 91)

Expensive when compared to Singapore prices

Burgers (McDonalds and Burger King)
Eating out (A plate of noodles is about$8 per plate at least)
Sending letters ($1 locally and $2 for small letters overseas)
Calling and texting from mobile phones ($1 per minute)
House rental compared to the actual price of buying
Rates (property tax)
Income tax (high end tax of 39%)
Interest rate (currently at 11% for car loan and 16% for unsecured)
Visit to GPs ($37 per visit without medication)
Made in NZ clothing including school uniforms (at least $25 for a simple t-shirt with school logo)
Music CDs ($22-$30 per CD)

More or less same with Singapore prices

KFC
Electricity Tariff
Made in China clothings

Junius"s 6th Birthday

Yesterday, we celebrated Junius 6th birthday at Pizza Hut with a couple of Junius close friends, Wei and Wen. They really enjoyed themselves helping themselves to the buffet spread. Earlier in the day, Junius went on a school excursion trip to the Awapuni landfill (a dump) to learn about recycling and we played a game of basketball after school with Terry and Edward.

Yesterday (1st June) also marked the official day of winter. It was, however, a fine day with the sun shining most of the day. Even though it was shining it was still cold but I cannot imagine when there is no sun at all. Was thinking about mowing the lawn but decided against it as the grass were not that long even though the last mowing was done more than 3 weeks ago. Anyway, I guess everything slows down in winter including the growing of grass and weeds.