Kiwi Mechanic

My car's been making a strange squealing noise when I turn at low speeds and I finally took it in to get fixed. It turned out to be a loose belt. The mechanic told me that it only took him 5 minutes to fix and didn't charge me. Unbelievable. Last time I took my car in it took them half the day to diagnose the problem (my previous mechanic had installed the wrong water pump) but they didn't charge me the labour for diagnosing the problem. Kiwis' are great!!

Used cars in NZ are relatively cheap as used cars are imported from Japan (where they have much stricter vehicle emissions and safety laws). This means that the NZ fleet is rather old. If you car is over 5 years old, you must have it checked by a mechanic every six months to make sure it's safe to drive (but emissions are not checked). This check is called a warrant of fitness (or WOF). New cars need to get a WOF every year.

With high car ownership levels, no emissions standards and an older vehicle fleet, pollution is becoming more of a problem in NZ. I've seen bad smog in Auckland - but not everyday. The other big polluter is fires used for heating in the winter. I live in a bit of a valley and on a cold night the air gets pretty thick down here due to all of the fires.

Overall, NZ is still a very clean country, but I think this has a lot to do with the low population, rather than the environmental policies.

Winter?

The South Island has been hit hard by the first winter storm . Schools have been closed, roads have been closed, power has been out, flights cancelled. Yes a few centimetres of snow has caused all this.

As funny as I find it that the South Islanders are struggling with a dusting of snow, I'm quite enjoying "winter" in Auckland where it never snows. I took the dogs to the beach this morning and the sun was actually warm and I had to unzip my fleece jacket. Some die hard swimmers are still in the water. Auckland is also the first place I've ever lived where on Winter Solstice I can arrive at work in the daylight and just leave before the sun sets.

Sunrise: 7:34 AM
Sunset: 5:12 PM

Total daylight: 9h 37m

Dali Lama in Auckland

On Sunday I went to see the Dali Lama speak on Compassion and Kindness. He was warm and funny, but I kept thinking that he sounds just like Kermit The Frog. Here's what the NZ Herald thought. The NZ PM has come under fire for not meeting with the Dali Lama, though apparently they did speak while they were in Australia.

The nice thing about living in Auckland is that if someone famous comes to only one place in NZ, it's usually Auckland. Pink was in town last week, The Red Hot Chili Peppers last month and Guns 'n Roses are coming soon.

Canadian Rugby?

Last night I drove to Hamilton (about 1.5 hours South of Auckland) to watch NZ's national rugby team The All Blacks play Canada.

Rugby is NZ's national sport and kiwis are pretty serious about rugby. The All Blacks are one of the best teams in the world and are real contenders to win the world cup in France later in the year. The All Blacks have celebrity status in NZ and get recognized where ever they go (well, by everyone except me).

I didn't know that Canada even had a national rugby team. Half of the Canadian players are amateur and half play pro rugby in Europe. I thought there were only about 3 Canadians in NZ, as that's all that I've met here, but I was wrong. On the way down to Hamilton we passed 2 bus loads of Canadians on their way to the game. At the game there were quite a few Canadian flags scattered throughout the crowd.

The headlines in NZ before the game were "By How Much Will The All Blacks Beat Canada". We didn't have a prayer. The Canadians put up a good game for the first half, but things went downhill in the second half. This was my first time to see the All Blacks play and it was a great game with a great atmosphere with 25,000 fans in the sold-out Waikato Stadium. Before the game starts, the All Blacks have a tradition of doing The Haka, which is a Maori dance intended to intimidate their opponents. It's pretty impressive to watch. At one point during the game, there was a good wave going - Kiwi style - which involves throwing beer/wine bottles in the air as you stand. The bottles are made of plastic, but some were going onto the field where the play was taking place. There was an announcement to stop throwing bottles on the field and the fans immediately obliged. How civilized!

It was a fun game, but unfortunately, Canada really got spanked: