Beyond the Sea

Monday, March 31, 2008

Stagland's Park

Last Saturday we decided to go find a park to tramp around in. We looked at several options including the Wellington Zoo. But Amy remembered that the bank teller told her about this place called Stagland's that was a sort of farm petting zoo deep in Upper Hutt. Remember that as you drive north out of Wellington you smack in to the Rimutaka mountains so the fringes of Upper Hutt are a maze of steep valleys. There are several parks here. We loved the farm zoo park in Overland Park, KS so we thought we try the kiwi version--Stagland's it was.

The drive out was pretty cool if a bit hair raising. New Zealand has a funny definition of road. It was all good until we actually made the turn off to the particular valley that the park was located in. Before long it was narrow and twisting. There was no center line and often we had to pull off in to the 1-2 foot "shoulder" to let an on-coming car get around. The speed limit was posted at a ridiculous 70 kmh... HA! But it was beautiful and there were many beautiful homes along the way. It is amazing how quickly you find yourself on back roads here. While quaint and picturesque, they are also unmarked and hard to figure out.

Saturday was misty with periods of heavy mist. It has yet to really "rain" here. The mist gives everything a good soaking though so it was pretty wet. It took about 30 minutes to get there. It was a beautiful park tucked between several high hills covered with pines. It did cost $44 for us to get in, but we may go back to get a season pass. It would be a great picnic destination any day.

There was a well cleared gravel trail around the whole farm. There were geese, ducks, swans, pigs, deer, ginea pigs and rabbits. It also had two large aviary's full of exotic birds. Feed bags were $2 extra. We discovered that the ducks were very familiar with the feed bags. We had probably 100 of them following us on the trail! It was a pretty quiet walk and wecould here the tiny feet scrabbling on the gravel behind us. It was like having a marching duck army.

The landscaping was done to create many natural looking pools and the Hutt River did run past the farm so it had a lot of natural water formations as well. It all looked very clean and well kept, but still "wild" without looking like a garden. It was one of the most peaceful, beautiful places I've seen.

Amy was estatic to pet the rabbits and ginea pigs. But her favorite was the donkey. I only had my phone camera so these pictures are not the best. I need to get a new digital camera for these trips.

The trail wound around to several hidden turns and grottos. There was a little suspension bridge (only about 6 feet off the water) over the river. There was a small abandoned section of old sheds that had been part of a small town. There were a few antiques spread around.

When we finished walking around we hit the Cafe in the park (every thing has a cafe in it here) and had some carrot cake and coffee. We watched it rain for a whle and then drove home. It was a shortish trip due to the rain, but we'll go back.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

New Zealand Royal Navy

I'll start this entry off by saying emphatically that the NZ armed forces has been among the first to rally to virtually every call to arms in West. Where the US has been slow to respond, NZ never hesitates. It has proved that a small nation can tower over larger nations in its ability to sacrifice for others. I have profound respect for those that serve out of the most extreme desire to do good. I know that my freedoms have certainly been defended by NZ. And now it is with good intentions that I poke a little fun at our respective militaries between the US and NZ.

One of the first things I noticed about the NZ military was the recruitment ads. These are completely different from the US. In America you see scenes from Top Gun as F-16's race across sunsets and fully geared, yet thoroughly clean troops "play" at field exercises. It is all very "G.I. Joe" and patriotic. Now cut to the NZ recruitment ad... Gun ships blow unclear targets to flinders, men *and* women hide in foxholes while debris rains down on their heads and they shout instructions in to comms. Small squads open up with automatic weapons and then a montage of modern weapons play before cutting back to a soldier in civilian dress on the deck of a Destroyer saying "I love you, Mum."

Holy Shizzle!

Amazing what marketing can do, eh? From watching the US ads you might not even think you would ever be in danger. But in NZ, hell, they're warning their Mums that their sons and daughters might get blown up today! Now that's some balls. That's telling it like it is! While not every service man (or woman) will see real combat, at least NZ is out there saying you certainly could. That would never happen in the US. The US military never (not even in the recruitment office) talks about shooting people. Of course we all know what the military is for. But if you just watched the ads... in the US the military is for college, job training and experience while the NZ military is for blowing stuff up.

So I went to the NZ Royal Navy website to take a peek around. You know the US military is fairly exclusionary. No one over 35, US citizens only, no gays, no fat chicks, etc. But the third bullet down on the NZRN recruitment page is "Join from Overseas". The requirments are any previous military experience and being a citizen for 10 years in Australia, UK, USA or Canada. Then farther down they hedge on this and say well... we'll consider folks that were just citizens of those countries for 10 years. And then more hedging, if you lived here for 5 years, what the hell? Here's a gun.

Then I checked out what positions they had open. I assume this is the entire NZ Royal Navy's list of open jobs... there are 20. Think about that one for a few ticks... Even if their unemployed rate is pretty low... how many folks can that equate to total? 1000? 2000? Talk about "the few"!

These positions are all broken down in to grades/ranks. They all seem pretty normal until you get to Lieutenant. The first one on the list is "Warfare". That seems pretty obvious. In fact, I would sort of expect all of the postions to have something to do with "warfare" but I guess this guy is the specialist. That would be a manly title wouldn't it? "I"m Lt. of Warfare, Curtis Effing Owings." *grunt*

Some of the other titles are not nearly so glamorous... Construction Manager, Education, Supply, Doctor... Of course I probably can't do any of these and then I see "Observer". Observer? Lt. Observer, Curtis Owings... What does that guy do? I think I could probably swing that job. "Watcha doin' Lieutenant?" "Watching you."

One of these jobs really stands out though. In the list of Lt's one is called "Mine Clearance Diving." This job has all the fun, doesn't it?! Under crushing depths, limited air supply, burst lungs, explosives and lots of shrapnel and certain death if you get it wrong... Same pay grade as "Observer". Now if someone gave me a choice between two equal pay jobs like Observer and Mine Clearance Diving... "Have a good dive, Bob... I'll be watchin'... good luck!"

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Ten Thought Tuesday (on Wednesday)

A co-blogger has started doing 10 random thoughts on tuesdays... So I figured why not?

1) People often consider intellectualization superior to emotionalism because when you intellectualize and you are wrong it doesn't hurt.

2) I think folks that constantly prove to themselves that life is crap are really just trying to gain some control over their lives as you can always seem to make your own life worse, but it seems much harder to make your life better.

3) The need to Control might be the biggest problem in Western thinking.

4) Control of anything other than yourself is an illusion.

5) Science has become a religion as equally flawed as any other religion.

6) Just because you do not understand a thing does not mean it does not work anyway.

7) What if the "laws" of physics were not same a billion years ago?

8) When you consider the "real" mass of atomic particles you quickly discover we, the world, and the universe are made of virtually nothing. In a very real sense, we are only manifested vibrations.

9) A thousand years ago most Europeans were serfs who worked the land, made just enough to survive and gave most of their earning to fuedal lords. Today most people of the Western Civilization work to pay for their house (ironically taking care of their yard), make just enough to pay their bills and give most of their earnings to a few very wealthy men. The idea of Progress is an illusion.

10) In a billion, billion years all trace of human exsistance will be eradicated from the Universe. There will be no historical record, no monuments, no grave markers, no Earth, no grand civilization and no human left to care. All the "lasting value" of your achievements and any legacy you leave will be lost. The only lasting value in life is today.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Weekend and a few Kiwi-bits

Easter in NZ is a 4 day holiday. Yes, you get Good Friday off and I guess just because Sunday was the Resurrection why not take Monday off too. I guess raising the dead must have been hard. Whatever the reason, I like 4 day weekends.

There is one wild hare in the Easter ointment. By law, all retail outlets are to be closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Yes, the Saturday between is "normal" as is the following Monday. There are a few exceptions--gas stations and dairies (convenience stores) can stay open. No big deal. But let me tell you, that Saturday in the middle rivals the day after Thanksgiving in the USA. Holy cow... it was 30 minute grid lock in the parking garage. There were folks standing in stalls so that their spouse could eventually work their way over to park. It was nutz.

All was good until Saturday lunch when we discovered that due to a banking error our account was frozen. Great holiday. Bank is closed and no money for 2 days. I had to raid poor Gabe's piggy bank for cash to get in to the public pool. Luckily, my beautiful and fabulous wife had cooked a giant hammy feast for us so we had plenty to eat.

The pool was pretty cool. They have all indoor pools here as it does not ever quite get "hot" here. Plus I have a theory that the Kiwi's are complete wussies about winter. But then I wouldn't want to go swimming when it was 50 outside either. Anyway, pools are big and indoors. We went to the one in Naenae (kiwi's say this like Nainai). It had a very large double sized pool with swinging ropes and a zip line, a kiddy play area (complete with outdoor playground) and a single large water slide. It felt very much like my old highschool gym only someone had replaced the gym floor with a pool. I think entry was a total of $13 for two adults and Gabe. We met our friend, Lisa, and her three children there--Sam, Emma and Sophie. All three are dears. Gabe loves Sam (he's in the same class) and Emma and Sophie (both much younger) are a hoot. It was a good time.

I'm going to try to commit to writing more. I mean "writing" like writing stories/books. I have a hard time focusing on single topics, but what I think I'll do is give myself permission to skip around and write short snippets in the hopes that it will increase my general writing stamina. Possibly, I'll be able to string several common threads to together in to a better product. It can't hurt. I may post here or not.

Kiwi-bit... I've discovered that kiwi's have an insane facination with multi-level charts. Apparently 2 dimensions is not good enough. A really good chart must include at least 3 dimensions or more. For example an org chart grouped both by columns *and* rows with the each band color coded for yet some other designation and sometimes bubbles around groups of rows/columns in yet more colors. They will spend hours (seriously, hours) explaining to you the meaning of this 4 dimensional chart. They will end up with "so there is our organisation, any questions?" I thought perhaps it was just my boss. It isn't. Kiwi's love multi-layer organisation... don't ask me... I have no idea why.