Tree Trunk Gorge MTB Ride

I ventured up to Taupo in the weekend for a spot of mountain biking as good training for the Wild Wellington Event and before the onslaught of Xmas parties. Saturday morning saw us heading back along the Desert Road to ride Tree Trunk Gorge track. The best place to park is near the bridge down Tree Trunk Gorge Road off the main highway – you are less likely to have your vehicle broken in to and you finish the ride with a down hill from either direction.

To shorten the loop ride which normally takes you across the swing bridge at Pillars of Hercules and then slowly climbs up to the main road you can turn around at the swing bridge and go back the way you came – it is a lot more fun particularly if you ride on the two walking only tracks instead of riding on the gravel road- they are fantastic!

One of the boys ended up punctured by a branch in the inner arm. A vet and dentist played doctor and stitched him up – ouch!

An 80th Birthday

The whanau descended upon Hawkes Bay last weekend from Australia and all around New Zealand to celebrate an 80th birthday.  

My uncle’s lifestyle block which sits amongst the orchards and is down the road from the Napier Golf Club, a stunning piece of land with views to die for, was turned into a typical kiwi camping ground for the weekend.  The garage looked like a European Marae, the kitchen a high precision Army Mass unit, the outer garages had BBQ production lines running morning and night, wet areas required hourly hosing down and time sheets signed like in public places   Ear plugs and lots of alcohol where required to numb down the noise from screaming children, high pitched aunties (cat fights) and booming uncles (piss taking of aunties) – Phew!

The weekend once again showed the family has lots of talent from BBQ techniques, singers and musicians, chefs, sporting legends to everyone is a doctor.

I did escape for a nice flat road ride around the vineyards and a run to stay sane.

I think Grandad had a fabulous time celebrating his 80th with friends and family.  Most of his friends had to get their minders to drive them as they all need nanny naps and walking sticks too!

It was fantastic catching up with everyone happy travels!

Golf Lesson #2

I had my second golf lesson today with Scott Puddick. I am now able to work on my swing after getting a ‘good’ on my set-up technique

I bought some shoes last week from The Golf Warehouse, now I just need the bats… it has been such a mission though – I have money burning a hole in my pocket and I cannot seem to get rid of it.

It is fun to finally put a few moves together and get the feel for what is suppose to happen.

Check out this golf site for lessons online, it seems to be the easiest to navigate.

Also try rock bottom golf a US company for very cheap equipment.

Oh and Gary, Scott got a hole in one a few weekends back in Taranaki.

Award Winning Furniture Designer

As you may have previously read I am in the process of having the lounge refurbished and I have to say John Rippon from Insight Furniture is a credit to his business.  He is easy to work with, is very informative and will go out of his way to make you happy.

The Furniture Association New Zealand awared John “The Supreme Award 2005″ and the ”Runners Up Award 2006″ of which his company really does deserve.

I definitely recommend this company – such fabulous designs and quality made products.

Try Tendering for a New Car

A friend of mine put a tender out for a new car, a 4WD actually, and he had the most amazing response. Car yards from all around New Zealand ended up partaking in the negotiations as they saw it as such a novel concept. The Land Rover dealership in Hawkes Bay said in all his years he hadn’t seen this before.

Apparently tens of thousands of dollars were saved using this method.
A brilliant yet such a simple concept- give it a go if you are in the market for a new car and let me know how you get on.

Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES)

If you have some spare time during school hours and have a good understanding of business functions the YES programme is always looking for more mentors to assist with students enrolled in this course.

Apparently there are more students enrolled in the YES course than there are in accounting these days, which shocked me as I thought the basic accounting course taught the fundamentals of all financials…

Anyway this course is also a competition run over the course of the academic year. Students take a personality test to ascertain which role they would be best suited to ie. financial, communications, or marketing manager, CEO and product development. Once this is established teams are formed and students are sent out to create a company with a real product with real money. They have to do market research, obtain funding, do R&D, get the product manufactured, market it and sell it for a profit. They obtain extra points for other areas like a verbal presentation.

So what is required from a mentor? Whatever you want really… I did one hour per week in class and made myself available for any calls or email advice. Plus it is only during the school term and the class visits could be purely to help one team or to help the whole class.

The class visit is when they are having their weekly board or senior management meeting. I helped a class and went around each group spending about 10mins with each listening and asking them questions to get them thinking about areas they were looking weak in.

It’s all about creating tomorrow’s entrepreneurs today.

Thieving Brats

I am still fuming over Craig’s car getting broken into outside our house on Tuesday night. I keep thinking that if I had gone outside when I heard people talking near by I could have beaten the little shits up or at least made it so they would never have kids or walk again – Grr!

It was still daylight and I was home. One of the neighbours saw the pamphlet delivery kids leaning on the car about the time I heard all the commotion but Craig doesn’t seem to think 13-14yr olds would be that ballsy in daylight. Either they were or they came back later with a big brother.

It is school holidays and we are told to expect this type of behaviour to be more prevalent during this period – not on my back doorstep!

I am pissed that they get away with it. This is the third time that a radar detector has gone west. Time to install a more robust alarm system. I understand that they do not sell the motion detection ones much anymore due to the large amounts of false alarms but we are looking at a 4 star unit that detects noises within the car through microphone sensors strategically placed near windows.

If I see the shits I’ll knock their blocks off…

2007 New Zealand Export Awards Finalist

My client 4RF who won the Wellington ANZ Exporter Award earlier this year have become a finalist in the ICT category of the Exporter of the year 2007 Awards.  Yeah!

The Awards dinner is 15th November – watch this space…

Wellington’s Cable Car Challenge

Two of the companies I am a team member of have made it through to the final stage of the Cable Car Challenge. The competition has been put together for Wellington start-up companies.

The pitch to VC’s inside the cable car is the 16Th October – fingers crossed!

A week in Brazil

Home after 5 days racing around in Sao Paulo, a crazy city of 18million people which expands to 25million during the day.

Despite the growing Bio-Fuel used in market the moon had a red glow to it each night due to the haze and you never actually saw the sun.

If you can help it try not to fly Aerolineas, they may be the cheapest but this is one of those times where you get what you pay for and Business Class isn’t much better than Economy so I would consider another airline, LAN Chile is an option.

I found this to be one of the worst continents for jet lag due to the time difference and extreme late nights everyone has there. Finishing in the office around 2130hrs then going straight out for dinner killed me most nights – never getting to bed before 24oohrs.

Went on a tour of Caio bus factory after a 3hr drive out of Sao Paulo. I have never seen so many ant/termite hills, emphasised by the red soil I dear say. The bus bottoms (chassis) were imported and the rest was assembled on site. The factory seemed clean and organized but the assembly lines are labour intensive with no robots used at all. I do not want to see another loser cruiser again – the wheels on the bus go round and round (you had to be there) Caio buses could transport the whole of New Zealand in two days, that is how huge they are. One bus with capacity for 280 people had 400 people roll out on to the curb one day.

After the cocktail party for the Trade Mission we all went to the All Blacks bar, which was a dump (typical sports bar), as the Minister wanted to go… amazing how you get use to non-smoking bars and cafes in New Zealand.

Had a few traditional dishes, meat and more meat Went to two great restaurants that cater for the local dishes, Churrascaria’s, for a hilarious night of meat; the wild boar was great covered in chutney – we didn’t even bother with the salad bar. Also tried sucking up a straw the local Mate Herb tea, a stronger version of the green teas we drink here. And Campenesa restaurant on the motorway on the way to the bus factory which served the number one dish, meat with a tomato sauce and cheese on top then baked in the oven – delish!

The cafe that made me laugh was where your plate of food was weighed at the check out, paid for then you found a table to dine at.

Another fun night was the dinner and fruit Caipirinha’s at Sky Bar in Unique Hotel. I recommend this one if you want to get out of the grot of the city, reminds you life is not half bad.

If you intend on living there for a while do not buy a nice car and have a uniformed driver as people will think you are rich and rob you. And even though everyone dresses in bright colours the cars are all greys, blacks and other mute colours.

We experienced a 200km traffic jam, the key is to keep moving by driving around the blocks pretending you are jumping cues – toll roads were usually empty and saved 2hrs worth of cuing.

In the end I think a few companies did business and others gained market research. It was noted at the round table that it takes time, lots of perseverance to enter the market, a partner is essential and you need local knowledge, lawyers etc. Large companies are usually family owned and everyone works in them, relationships are key to doing business.