Commander William (Bill) Smith, DSO, OBE, RNZN (Rtd)

I was privileged enough last week to be seated next to Commander Bill Smith at a Golf Club dinner.  My first thought was, oh no why am I being seated next to this old timer?!

But it was the most interesting night – Bill was one of the HMNZS Endeavour crew with Sir Ed Hillary on the original Trans Antarctic Expedition that crossed the Ross Sea in Summer 1955/56 to find the location for Scott Base. 

Having just got back from my Antarctic trip we obviously had lots of comparisons to make as Bill has not be back since his last visit, Summer of 1956/57.  Bill even asked about the pancake ice which is still there in abundance.

Bill told me lots of stories of his time during World War II where he was a midget submarine Commander and used the original diving equipment of an external lung.  And how the divers would swim out to the nets  surrounding the enemy ships and cut holes in them big enough for their subs to fit through. The divers would then put bombs on the bottom of the enemy ships to blow them up.  The number of Privates that were killed using this type of early dive equipment was large – well before compressed air was introduced. 

To train the Privates would hang on to a weight and free dive down 100ft drop the weight and kick like crazy back to the surface.

In Auckland the Navy base has a building named after Bill.

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.

Cave Swimming Tonga

Reading the article today re the kids getting stuck in the cave while swimming reminded me of my cave experience on a diving trip to Tonga last year.

We were shown a cave by our boat boys that we could snorkel in to. It had two entrances, one 11M’s under the surface and the other 2.5M’s under. Most of the divers were entering and exiting the cave via the top hole but some of the more experienced free divers came out the bottom hole – it was amazing watching them drift up from the depths. The visibility was fabulous for up to 20+M’s which provided a great view of the divers appearing out of the lower entrance and kicking up to the surface for that much needed breath.

Timing was everything – You had to kick hard and go in with the tide and duck duck duck otherwise you’d knock your head on the roof of the entrance which was 2m’s long. Once in you had to equalise your ears every time the tide surged back and forward to counteract the change in air pressure.

As always with this type of adventure once in you are only half way, you still have to get out! So, yet again you had to time it right and kick with the tide and keep the head down ensuring you didn’t rise too soon and hit your head on the entrance on the way out.

Even though it took a couple of times to get the timing right to go in I am glad I did it!

Walk on Earth Fashion Show

Walk on Earth Wellington’s premier fashion show featured at The Grand Hall, Massey University last night.

This year 600 people (a full house) attended the show supporting the Wellington City Mission youth programme which was hosted by the Walk on Trust.

It was a great show featuring some of my favourite Wellington designers: Andrea Moore with her lovely jackets and dresses; Laurie Foon with a couple of her ranges, Starfish and Laurie Foon; Sophie Voon had a gorgeous wedding gown collection that she showed (nice for a change); and Mandatory and House of Hank featured for the male fashion guru’s out there. There were 19 labels lined up in all.

Hayley Smith was probably one of the only designers that really got into the theme of the event incorporating a spirit guru on stage and earth people dancing around. Zantis had some nice mix & match pieces for this summers ‘Daughters of the Nile’ Collection if you want to make your way out to Hataitai.

The first half of the show was a little boring and left me thinking not much shopping is going to be done this summer L but the second half was a lot more interesting, at least showing a few items I would consider purchasing once the weather warms up.

Father Britten, from the City Mission was a bit dry in opening up the show and the MC was a little nervous but his outfit more than made up for it – that red frock and high heels!

For all ‘Walk on …’ events my friends and I get to be front of house staff for the night so we can watch the show in the front seats (usually the aisles) and attend the after show parties. And if we are lucky we get a goodie bag! (Not that these are not anything to write home about)

Now that the preshop viewing has been done and items noted, lets get on with the real shopping!

Wellington’s Cable Car Challenge

Two companies that I have helped enter the CCC have made it in to the second round – Yahoo!

The challenge was open to all Wellingtonians who had an idea or business that they wanted put in front of New Zealand angel investors and American VC’s. The first two rounds were all about the business plan and overall potential of the company; this includes the team (Me!). All plans had to be entered via an online business planning tool from a SaaS company, PlanHQ.

The interesting part about this challenge is the actual presentation venue; it’s the Wellington Cable Car! Companies who make it to the third round have to make their investment pitch in the 41/2mins it takes to ride the Cable Car up to the top and then Q&A’s on the way back down. A brilliant concept!

First prize is irrelevant really the presentation itself to the VC’s being the coveted prize.

The 26 companies that have made it to round two have been able to attend workshops on writing business plans, adding value to IP, market validation and the third round winners get to attend a presentations workshop.

Fingers crossed for my two companies!

 

Blood Moon Eclipse

I was all set to watch the red moon eclipse last night; when the earth passes between the moon and sun for a total lunar eclipse. I had put the day in my calendar a while back when I heard it was going to happen.

Yippee! The day had arrived but I could hardly stay awake. By 9 O’clock the moon was a quarter covered – how long was this going to take? I went to bed.

Craig and I took turns jumping out of bed to spot the changes in the eclipse. Quarter by quarter it changed but once the whole moon was covered we couldn’t see a thing – I had missed the red glowing moon somehow… even binoculars didn’t show anything.

Oh well maybe better spotting next time – 2014

So, why red? Well… You will still see the moon because of deflected light from earth’s atmosphere. But as the atmosphere absorbs blue light, the moon appears red.

So, why Blood? Apparently it is mentioned in both the old and new testaments. In Joel 2:31 it talks about the sun turning to darkness and “the moon to blood.”

 

Nokia Battery Recall

If like my Nokia cell phone you have a battery with the code BL-5C then go to the Nokia site and enter your 26 digit batch number and hit submit – it will advise you if your battery is from the faulty batch and what to do.

They will send you a new battery and a prepaid envelope to send the faulty one back to them.

It only affects a small percentage (46 million out of the 300 million) of the BL-5C battery’s made between Dec 2005 – Nov 2006 so do not stress. Plus the melt down only occurs when charging, they say to monitor the battery while charging – no major damage to persons or possessions has occurred, yet.