14 posts tagged “new zealand”

I love seals.  We saw heaps of them last week just north of Kaikoura.  Here's one.

itch

This morning, Brent, the morning DJ on Wairarapa More FM said, "do you see the beautiful sunrise?"

I was still lying in bed, debating whether I needed to get up yet, but upon hearing that, I thought, "no, I don't see it..."  So I got up, grabbed my camera, headed out onto the deck and saw this:

NZ Money

If you live in New Zealand and haven't heard of Kiwisaver, you must not have been paying attention the last few weeks. :)

Here's my question and totally unscientific poll.  How many of you are signing up for Kiwisaver?  If you are, what attracts you to it?  If you aren't, why not?

My husband Gary and I have been poring over the Kiwisaver website trying to figure out all the ramifications of it.  He is eligible to join now because of his job, and I can join as a "stay at home mum" and still receive the $20/week government subsidy. 

Gary's employer is really encouraging his employees to save for retirement... so much so that he is essentially making it "free" for everyone, by giving everyone a pay rise to cover their 4% contribution and also doing the 4% employer contribution from the get-go (rather than by 2012 as legislated).  It would be foolish for us not to take advantage of that offer, eh?

Haven't decided yet if I should open an account as well.  The $20/week government topup pretty much means $1000 a year for nothing, so it is probably worthwhile for me as well.

So, anyone else care to share their thoughts?

On hold with Genesis to find out when we might have our power restored.

Most of our region lost power last evening at about 8:45pm when a very unlucky possum decided to climb a pole, bridged a live wire with the earth wire, and caused an explosive flash seen all around, burst the water main running underground near the pole, and knocked out power for almost 2 1/2 hours.

Of all the nights to lose power, it has to be on the night when Meredith Grey may be drowned??  What the heck happened on Grey's Anatomy last night? For those of you not in New Zealand, last night was Part II of the ferry disaster (the episode that aired in the US in February, so no spoilers please!).  So can someone in NZ tell me whether or not George found the missing kid?  Or if McDreamy found Meredith under water?  Or what happened with the guy crushed under the car? Or, or, or ... ?  :)

Masterton - 150 years 2004

I was 'cleaning' my hard drive on my old PC the other day and came across this movie slideshow that I'd put together a couple of years ago. 

My town, Masterton, celebrated 150 years of existence back in 2004, and as part of that celebration, the town put on a Sesquicentennial Parade.  I put together this video using Microsoft Movie Maker (I think) with a selection of photos I took at the parade.  Figured it was just wasting away on my hard drive, so I'd post it here.

We attended the final concert in the Bic Runga Acoustic Winery Tour 2007.  It was held at Alana Estate winery in Martinborough.  A beautiful afternoon/evening with some wonderful music.  We really enjoyed it, and were lucky to have our blanket not too far from the stage.  That, and my trusty Panasonic with its 12x zoom, got me some great shots of Bic and her sister Boh, who opened the concert.

Here's a slideshow movie I put together with some of the shots from the night.  (includes music)  That's actually Boh who's shown in the thumbnail below. :)

big ole house and big ole moon (alternate crop/processing)

We were driving home and I said, "oh, that would be a neat shot with the full moon and the old house on the hill." Gary said I should turn back and go park in the middle of the intersection where there was some gravel. So I did.

swirl in the sky

I liked the shape of the clouds this afternoon.
(I'm using the BlogThis button on Flickr rather than adding the photo using the 'compose' button.)

The manuka is still in bloom.

bloom