Another Perfect Day in Paradise

One time camping around 2000 in Arrowtown (near Queenstown NZ), I heard a scottist tourist at the next site over come out of his tent and loudly proclaim "Ahhhh....another payfact dey in paradiyce".
At the time I had only left NZ's shores once, to go to Fiji for a holiday, but as I was about to head away from NZ for at least a few years, what the scotsman said got me thinking. It got me thinking that maybe I take this place for granted.
Now that it's almost 6 years since I lived in NZ, I now realise I sure did take it for granted.

So, here is a quick shot of me in a small slice of heaven. You can't see my face by I am grinning. It's not easy work cutting gorse but I got a decent gas powered cutter last visit which makes it a bit easier.
In NZ, Gorse, Thistle and a bunch of other weeds were brought here by the English and Scots when they came here a couple of hundred years ago. Thistle was brought to remind the Scots of home, and Gorse was being used for farm hedges in England. Unfortunately, Gorse is nothing but a real pain in the ass (sometimes literally) in Aotearoa.
Anyway, its good to get away from the desk and do a decent days work in the sun on the land. Another perfect day in paradise.

Some Kiwi Humor

I remember seeing the first 42 Below Vodka ad circulating on email about 3-4 years ago. Sometimes living away from home, it's easy to forget some of the stuff that makes ya laugh and other people stare at you like you need help.

I figured there must be more, so in between my busy appointments today, I decided to see what I could find.

Well, treasure hunters, you are in luck.

There is a whole collection of this stuff made by 42 Below Vodka. Very much bordering on offending even the PC police, but who cares right?

http://www.42below.com/flashad/storyof42/

Holmes Jnr

My bro-in-law and best friend Marty and his wife Paula had a son last night.

Jordan Alexander Ritchie

Nice shot there Holmes and Holmes Jnr,

- from Holmes in Taiwan.

The All Blacks Haka

On Saturday, the mighty All Blacks crushed Australia. But what everyone was talking about was the 'new' haka, Kapa O Pango. For the benefit of those who didn't make it to the game, or those that missed the first half, here are a couple of Haka videos.
First the original, which Adidas did a nice job of overlaying Maori warriors...and second, the new haka. There is something really special about this unique part of NZ culture, which is taken to the world just a few times a year. (It'd be a shame to miss it eh?)
I've gotta tell ya, seeing Tana Umaga screaming like that at the opposition made me proud to be a New Zealander - and an All Blacks supporter....well I mean, who'd want to be the standing there on the field facing that?

Original Haka


Kapa O Pango


Allblacks.com

Sailing in the Z

I grew up sailing. My Dad built a Nolex 22 trailer sailer around 1977, and we took family holdays in it for years. It was a 4 berth glass over ply yacht, painted bright yellow and called "Kowhai Manu" which, in Maori, means yellow bird.
We sailed it around some of the beautiful lakes and coast of NZ.
When I was 9, he built me a racing dingy called a P-Class, which is a 7 foot wooden boat with a large sail. P-Class's are a NZ design since the 20's and really are a NZ institution - every significant kiwi sailer usually started in a P. Some of the more well known kiwi sailers are:
Peter Blake
Russell Coutts
Dean Barker
Chris Dickson
Peter Lester
Grant Dalton
Leslie Egnot
Digby Taylor

NZ is famous these days as the only nation to ever successfully defend a challenge for the America's Cup outside US waters. NZ's fixation with the America's cup started when Australia won it in 1983, and NZ decided to challenge Australia for it in 1987 in a boat called "KZ7". It was a classic story, including a "BandAid" type celebrity song called "Sailing Away" that all kiwis bought a copy of to help find the challenge. We didn't win, but we learnt a shit load about 12m yacht racing, including the biggest wanker of them all, Dennis Conner. After that were a couple of challenges for the cup in San Diego, much of in in court rather than on the water as rules were bent, broken and ignored.
1995, NZ got really serious, and built a black boat, NZL32, or "Black Magic" which totally kicked ass and finally lifted the cup off the Americans. The same competition saw the Australian boat sink in the opening round, which absolutely delighted kiwis the world over.
1999 saw the first NZ based Challenge, and that injected billions into NZ as global fat cats came down to eat fresh NZ lobster with NZ wine while watching the races just outside of Auckland, and left with titles to coastal property all over NZ. Some would say this was the beginning of the property boom in NZ (subsequently fuelled by Lord of the Rings, and 9/11)
NZ defended the cup and soon prepared for another onslaught in 2003. Russell Coutts, the man who helmed both the win in San Diego and the defense in NZ, was bought by a Swiss team called "Alinghi" much to the horror of the nation. I have never seen such passionate anger over a sport as happened when Russell went to the Swiss. The 2003 campaign Team NZ logo was called "Loyal".
Russell took with him some key players of the previous NZ team, so the writing was on the wall for NZ in the 2003 series, which saw the cup lifted from NZ by Alingli, crewed mostly by Kiwis who were paid millions.

I was lucky enough to meet and talk sailing with Peter Blake around 1982 when I was 12, and it was a tradgedy when he was murdered in 2001 while on a Environmental Awareness expedition in the Amazon.

100% Pure NZ Sailing website
The America's Cup wiki
Sir Peter Blake
Red Socks

Sam, you ARE the man!

Meet Sam Morgan.

Back in 1999, Sam decided to drop out of school and start an internet auction site, called trademe.co.nz.

Not long after it started, I signed up along with my best friend Marty. Back in those early days we were wheeling and dealing all sorts of stuff, and would bid on each other's stuff to get the price higher and all that. At that time, trademe was so small that I remember the team was just 1 or 2 people and I'd get emails from Sam himself from time to time. We were like pioneer traders in NZ, ha.
When I left NZ, Marty continued to buy and sell lots of stuff on trademe (and still does), but for me things went a bit quiet for me there for a while.
When we were living in Singapore, I found a music shop that sold all the good gear, like Gibson, Fender, and Epiphone Guitars.
As it was, the retail price of stuff at that shop was about 50% what it was in NZ, so I spied an opportunity with trademe.
I talked to the shop and got a trade account, which bumped the low price even lower, and I started to buy Guitars in 2s and 3s. What I would do is take them out of the box and photograph them at all angles and close up etc. Then I'd pack them into a proper guitar hardshell case, and cover it all with cardboard.
I went to the post office down the road and airfreighted them individually back to NZ, and listed them on Trademe. They were hot selling items.

Along with the auctions and a few word of mouth spinoffs and special orders, I sold about 11 or 12 guitars before a few things put the brakes on it: Tax & Import customs, Traders who bought but changed their mind and then tried to claim the guitars were fakes etc (what a hassle to sort out), and then the move away from Singapore to Taiwan.

I was approached by a couple of guys that wanted to start a parallel import business, but to be honest, I don't think making a business out of pure undercutting will ever work long term unless it is on a massive scale.

It was fun, and I learned a lot...and actually made a respectable amount of cash...But look at Sam. In 1999 at 23, he started with a borrowed laptop and an idea. It wasn't a new idea. The site wasn't really that complex or flashy. Just a no bullshit, simple site that was reliable.
Today he sold it for 700 million dollars. 700 MILLION dollars.
And he gets another 50 millon if some targets are met in the next 2 years. And he gets to keep his job - and I bet he's not just getting 5 bucks an hour.

Man, 700 million at the age of 30.....what am I doing?

Today's News Release
Small Bio
Bigger Bio
Good Wiki Article
A book about Trademe secrets