So a few changes to the website.. note the *new* reverse-page *feature* ;) Any more suggestions welcome!

So today in work learned that a bird watching society in Auckland is winding up. Now societies aren’t allowed to make money.. however, over $3 million had been given to the society in gifts etc, and in the rules of the society upon winding up the company, any leftover monies were to be shared out equally amongst the members.

There were 30 members. So.. $100,000 just for being a member of a bird watching society. Not bad eh ;) Not naming names but I believe when the people who found out in the companies office (where I work) that this was the case, they tried to become members (wouldn’t you?!) unfortunately no dice…

It is actually quite insane the amount of havoc one could reek if one wanted to ;) I mean for example every company is given a company key – a mechanism to change data on through the companies website for anything pertaining to the companies set up etc. For example (and this has happened once) a disgruntled employee obtained the company key (a mechanism for changing the company data) – and then went and resigned all the directors!! :D Hehhehhe, ehem, sorry, I mean that’s terrible of course, but still, kinda funny – and the thing is that we can’t just put it back together.. they have to write in and do all sorts of stuff… It isn’t super easy to get the key – you do have to confirm that you are authorised etc, but still.. it is possible

However, for the most part (99%) the system is not abused so it is actually very effective – it’s quite interesting really to see the different systems. You can incorporate a business online for $60. Not too bad really. They can e-mail / SMS you when you need to file your annual returns etc, it really is quite efficient. Must check the Irish governments website sometime and compare…

Glynn missed his flight out of Bangalore.. so got as far as Singapore and may have to wait a week for a flight. Still, I guess he’ll enjoy Singapore!, shame, now we are going to have to wait another week to see Big Fish (Tim Burtons latest offering, which I’m quite looking forward to)

Lazy weekend, registered for kite surfing which should be fun. Headed off to see a bouldering competition in castle hill, but it rained so no show.

Pretty close and loud (and wet) thunderstorm on Saturday night – haven’t had one of those since getting here.

Oh – and while I try not to watch tele, I make allowances for (admittedly crap) remakes of… Battlestar Galactica. They’ve remade it. But it’s still pretty cool. I mean any series which starts with the human race being annihilated down to 50,000 people has gotta be good? right? ;) No, but seriously, I lived in fear of the cylons (and my brothers), so it’s good to catch up with them again.

So, interesting last couple of days in the new job, doesn’t look like it’s going to be like what I thought Call Centers would be like.. at least there’s no selling involved.

Glynn is in India, which sounds like a bunch of fun, but it’s kinda good too, as I feel slightly less unfit now that this

isn’t happening this week. I dunno, when you get past 100 situps in a single sitting (ba boom) it’s too much! Mind you, I guess it’s good for those overhangs.

Me, well – I’ve been playing a bunch of squash, almost every day this week!. Oh, and good news for next week, looks like caving could be happening on the West Coast / Nelson with Dave and maybe a few of the others we went Canyoning with back in the beginning of January.. who knows.

Well, last day in work today, well the Administration job at any rate.. pretty interesting one as they go – conducting reference checks and stuff..

The interesting stuff though was that head office (Auckland) is migrating all the system over to Exchange 2003 so mail has been totally messed up, coupled to that they want to set up a VPN, so looks like there is a fairly good chance I will get some contract work out of it (at contract rates too I hope ;)

Start work tomorrow in a government call center.. should be a whole lot less pressured.. there’s no targets, no deadlines, just do as much as you can in the time given, and will get 15 min breaks too I guess (thank God for bureaucracies I guess!) So quite looking forward to that.

Kite surfing lessons this weekend – Billy Connolly is in town too, was fairly tempted to get tickets again! but they were re-sold out (he put on an extra show).

Got killed at squash by Thor! dunno what happened :)

So.. Friday was Waitangi day – which celebrates? Commemorates? When the English gained control of the NZ by offering the Maori citizenship in return for relinquishing their sovereignty.. (on 5th Feb 1840).

But of course, what’s really important is that we get a Bank Holiday :) So off to Nelson to visit Kirsten (who is the 1st cousin of my 1st cousins husband – and the 1st cousin of Jonathan Carr who we went canyoning with..) easy right?

So off to Nelson, lovely drive up.. well I was asleep for most of it after being out at karaoke with Rachel and Nate the night before! Got up and into our hostel – the Green Monkey.. and then headed into the town to get our bearings and meet up with Kirsten – which we duly did at 6pm in the pub, though were only drinking refreshing lime and bitters..

Off to an *excellent* (dingy looking) Thai place – forget the name.. has tables for 6 people! but does take out too. Great food though – was recommended by one of the people in the hostel.

Nice long walk along golden beaches (have got to get back up and do the Abel Tasman walk…) and then an early night.

Sat – checked out the market – bought my PolyPros.. basically thermal underwear that all kiwis wear when hiking… it looks odd, but seems to work. Always very bright stripy colours, pics to follow eventually!

Off to the trailhead then, the AA sign at the start said ‘1 in 5 grade, experienced drivers only’. I was more worried whether the car would make it up..

Here’s a pic

But it did, though I didn’t find that ‘Cars coming down the hill should give way’ was in operation much..

The hike to the hut that we were staying in was through more beautiful beach forest

Seeing as I had my backcountry pass ($65) the hut was free for the night – it’s a really excellent card that one – you can use any hut in the country for free (except for ones on the Milford Track and the other great walks..) Met a guy called Bob there – (Bob Negryn) – a photographer, infact if anyone is in Dublin and feels like dropping in, a couple of his pics are on display in The Royal Hibernian Gallery – 2 Ely place.. might be worth a look!

A pretty cool evening, polished off the wine, which was great, and then a moonrise

Oh, met a bloke wot works for DOC (Dept. of Conservation) pretty interesting guy. I was asking him were the stoat traps…

…making any difference. Not much was the answer. They want to spray these pellets – called 1080, but they kill off all the nasties (Stoats, Possums) and deer.. and there’s a pretty strong hunting lobby. But apparently a huge amount of wildlife and fauna is slowly being taken over by imported animals..

Off early the next morning, and a long drive (via more excellent fresh tomatoes and stuff) home. Had a horrible scare driving home.. I will have to chalk it up to experience.. back luck to even get into the situation, but flying home, came to a “FORD!” sign.. so a ford.. should have guessed it would have water in it (place is so dry at the moment) but it looked more like a humpback bridge was the real danger, anyway, as luck? would have it, at exactly the moment I went through it, a huge articulated lorry did too, completely covered the windscreen in mud.. couldn’t’ see a damn thing with a huge amount of oncoming traffic. I’m not at all proud of getting into the situation in the first place, but am glad to have got through it unscathed… but if anyone is passing through Fords again.. I would recommend putting on your windscreen wipers preemptively ….