Cold Ale - The Blokes' Thread!

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

I never think about the rest of the world immigrating. I thought in other countries; everyone just happily stayed on their own little piece of land.

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Exactly the opposite in fact.

We're inundated with people wanting to move here from UK, South Africa, India & China, while all the young Kiwis want to go to Australia or UK. Half the world seems to want to move elsewhere.

As well as that, NZ has been a natural destination for Pacific Islanders for many decades - they're a lot like Filipino workers, earn money and send it home. That plus NZ's aid to the islands pretty much keeps them in business.

Of the non-economic migrants, those from UK & Europe, the usual reason for moving here is lifestyle. We're a couple of little islands with no terrorists, no armed forces to speak of, a fairly low crime rate, low pollution and lots of natural beauty. Nobody lives more than an hour's drive from at least one great beach and it only snows in the high country.

While we struggle geographically, being further from markets than we'd like, our remoteness is attractive to many.

Feel free to come for a visit - we have plenty of room in the garage!

:D

My brother has emigrated to NZ. It was a lifestyle choice- plus he went to take up a good position making water jets.

He absolutely loves it there, his kids love it and his wife loves it. Its the attitude of the people he loves, being far from everywhere else they have to be self reliant and practical. Good idea's are promoted and encouraged, wherever they come from. In England, problems were solved by off the shelf solutions. In NZ you have to think round them, or role up your sleeves and fix it yourself- so he says.

As a sheep farmer I knew this already. Anything new that actually works, seems to be from NZ.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

My brother has emigrated to NZ.

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Whereabouts is he?

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

It was a lifestyle choice- plus he went to take up a good position making water jets.

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Goodo!

Nobody moves here for career reasons, unless it's a secondment, so well done by him.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

He absolutely loves it there, his kids love it and his wife loves it. Its the attitude of the people he loves, being far from everywhere else they have to be self reliant and practical. Good idea's are promoted and encouraged, wherever they come from. In England, problems were solved by off the shelf solutions. In NZ you have to think round them, or role up your sleeves and fix it yourself- so he says.

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I'm guessing he's not in Auckland, then.

That does sum up NZ of years gone by, and still in the regional areas, because he's right, the solution is often a choice between waiting for a part from Auckland, or fix it with No. 8 wire.

Auckland however, is a sewer. Nice beaches, amazing boating, superb islands, but lousy people with a typical metropolitan attitude, just like every other major city.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

As a sheep farmer I knew this already. Anything new that actually works, seems to be from NZ.

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Yep, first rule of farming - have a go yourself before you pay for some bloke to drive for 45 minutes to fix it.

The innovation is true, we still do very well in the new technology stakes. It's why Kiwis are in high demand in UK & Europe.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Whereabouts is he?

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Rangiora near Christchurch.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Nobody moves here for career reasons, unless it's a secondment, so well done by him..

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That's true, they had been scouring the world trying to fill the position for two years. He can't believe his luck, they even paid for him to move.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Yep, first rule of farming - have a go yourself before you pay for some bloke to drive for 45 minutes to fix it.

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Absolutely! :thumbsup: He (like me ) is a farmer's son and fits right in.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

Rangiora near Christchurch.

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Very pleasant spot.

He doesn't support those filthy Canterbury Crusaders, does he?

Auckland v Canterbury = :argue:

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

That's true, they had been scouring the world trying to fill the position for two years. He can't believe his luck, they even paid for him to move.

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Brilliant!

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

Absolutely! :thumbsup: He (like me ) is a farmer's son and fits right in.

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He's definitely in the right place then. Rangiora's just far enough out of the city to be properly rural.

Is he a horse-racing man? It's almost compulsory down that way.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Exactly the opposite in fact.

We're inundated with people wanting to move here from UK, South Africa, India & China, while all the young Kiwis want to go to Australia or UK. Half the world seems to want to move elsewhere.

As well as that, NZ has been a natural destination for Pacific Islanders for many decades - they're a lot like Filipino workers, earn money and send it home. That plus NZ's aid to the islands pretty much keeps them in business.

Of the non-economic migrants, those from UK & Europe, the usual reason for moving here is lifestyle. We're a couple of little islands with no terrorists, no armed forces to speak of, a fairly low crime rate, low pollution and lots of natural beauty. Nobody lives more than an hour's drive from at least one great beach and it only snows in the high country.

While we struggle geographically, being further from markets than we'd like, our remoteness is attractive to many.

Feel free to come for a visit - we have plenty of room in the garage!

:D

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Thank you, Atheist, if everyone is as charming as you and the little one; I'm sure I'll love it!
It's a strange thing to me that the Americans are more worried about terrorists than the guy in their back yard cooking meth:devil:
Our beaches are getting pretty grungy... I hear we are actually buying sand and shipping it from Haiti. When I was a kid; there were huge shells for the taking.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

My brother has emigrated to NZ. It was a lifestyle choice- plus he went to take up a good position making water jets.

He absolutely loves it there, his kids love it and his wife loves it. Its the attitude of the people he loves, being far from everywhere else they have to be self reliant and practical. Good idea's are promoted and encouraged, wherever they come from. In England, problems were solved by off the shelf solutions. In NZ you have to think round them, or role up your sleeves and fix it yourself- so he says.

As a sheep farmer I knew this already. Anything new that actually works, seems to be from NZ.

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Well, I guess I'm migrating out your way, Prendrelemick. I can roll up my sleeves, and while I'm pretty good at taking things apart; I can't fix them or get them back together. Oh, for the days when a person could pull out the tube from their television and test them at the 7-11

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

...As well as that, NZ has been a natural destination for Pacific Islanders for many decades - they're a lot like Filipino workers, earn money and send it home. That plus NZ's aid to the islands pretty much keeps them in business.

...Feel free to come for a visit - we have plenty of room in the garage!

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We have our share of "out of country" workers, though in our case many of them are not legal immigrants which has created quite a furor along the border states.

Be careful with those invitations, I have enough gumption to take you up on that offer even if I have to sleep in the garage! New Zealand has been on my wish list for some time.

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

...Our beaches are getting pretty grungy... I hear we are actually buying sand and shipping it from Haiti. When I was a kid; there were huge shells for the taking.

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Sounds,
I thought about you lately as I hear more news about the oil in the Gulf.

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

... Oh, for the days when a person could pull out the tube from their television and test them at the 7-11

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Ha, ha --I vaguely recall the vaccum tube testers in the stores. Believe it or not, but I actually have a box full of vaccum tubes from my father's collection of garage junk he kept over the years.
Sounds like another photo op. The younger crowd might apreciate how far we've come!

Gilliatt

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

Thank you, Atheist, if everyone is as charming as you and the little one; I'm sure I'll love it!
It's a strange thing to me that the Americans are more worried about terrorists than the guy in their back yard cooking meth:devil:

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yeah, that always gets me. If you don't count 9/11 - and I don't see that ever happening again - your chances of being killed by a terrorist are incredibly small; unless you live in Kabul.

How many murders are there in USA annually?

Here's a funny thing - only the other day, I was talking to someone about Americans and how they hardly ever migrate and I pointed out that all of the Americans I'd met in business who had moved here were crooks.

From our one-time landlord of our offices, to an immigration consultant who wanted to work with me, to a scumbag perpetrating fraud - who also made death threats like some bad copy of Don Corleone to me - to a businessman whose "legit" cover meant he used our professional services.

Every one of them ended up being on the "Wanted" list.

It's a strange world.

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

Our beaches are getting pretty grungy... I hear we are actually buying sand and shipping it from Haiti. When I was a kid; there were huge shells for the taking.

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Believe it or not, in a fairly large country with only 4 million people in it, we still manage to stuff up our beaches.

I took the kids fishing & crabbing a few weeks back. Whereas, only a decade ago, you could get to the big crabs within a 5 minute walk, we had to go for about 20 until we got to the few immature ones remaining.

My oldest boy and I once watched a team of Asian families strip a beach of every living thing bigger than a nickel - crabs, shellfish, starfish, you name it, they took it. Stupidly, because there are no laws to specifically protect many species, they're quite within their rights to do it - it just means anyone wanting to look at sea life has to go to less accessible places.

Only in and around Auckland though

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Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle

We have our share of "out of country" workers, though in our case many of them are not legal immigrants which has created quite a furor along the border states.

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Yes, being 4000 km from the next land mass makes it a little more difficult for illegals - they have to stow away on ships or smuggle themselves through customs, so we don't have too much drama like that.

What we do get is a huge number of Pacific Islander families who come for a visit and then disappear.

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Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle

Be careful with those invitations, I have enough gumption to take you up on that offer even if I have to sleep in the garage! New Zealand has been on my wish list for some time.

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Crikey, if you or sounds really did pay a visit, we'd provide better than the garage!

I've made better friends online than offline in the past couple of decades and have had several visitors stay.

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Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle

We have our share of "out of country" workers, though in our case many of them are not legal immigrants which has created quite a furor along the border states.

Sounds,
I thought about you lately as I hear more news about the oil in the Gulf.

Ha, ha --I vaguely recall the vaccum tube testers in the stores. Believe it or not, but I actually have a box full of vaccum tubes from my father's collection of garage junk he kept over the years.
Sounds like another photo op. The younger crowd might apreciate how far we've come!

Gilliatt

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I saw a program on television where the farmers have contracts to bring the illegals across border to pick; they are supposed to return after picking season...is that naive of the government, or what.
I will never figure out the US; we keep borrowing money from China while we keep our borders open. If enough don't pass through the border to give free medical to; we look for some country that has had a disaster. The hospital that recently set up a multimillion dollar temporary rescue facility in Haiti is now going out of business.

So far, I haven't seen any changes at the market regardin the fish; but I usually buy the frozen stuff that was probably bagged before the spill. I'm a big shell fish fan. Oh for the days when you could get 3lb lobster.

Definitely take a picture of those tubes. Life was so easy in those days. It reminds me of when my 15 year old maytag washer went on the fritz. I called out the repairman; he finished and had 50 screws in his hand.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

yeah, that always gets me. If you don't count 9/11 - and I don't see that ever happening again - your chances of being killed by a terrorist are incredibly small; unless you live in Kabul.
How many murders are there in USA annually?
Here's a funny thing - only the other day, I was talking to someone about Americans and how they hardly ever migrate and I pointed out that all of the Americans I'd met in business who had moved here were crooks.
From our one-time landlord of our offices, to an immigration consultant who wanted to work with me, to a scumbag perpetrating fraud - who also made death threats like some bad copy of Don Corleone to me - to a businessman whose "legit" cover meant he used our professional services.
Every one of them ended up being on the "Wanted" list.

It's a strange world.


Believe it or not, in a fairly large country with only 4 million people in it, we still manage to stuff up our beaches.

I took the kids fishing & crabbing a few weeks back. Whereas, only a decade ago, you could get to the big crabs within a 5 minute walk, we had to go for about 20 until we got to the few immature ones remaining.

My oldest boy and I once watched a team of Asian families strip a beach of every living thing bigger than a nickel - crabs, shellfish, starfish, you name it, they took it. Stupidly, because there are no laws to specifically protect many species, they're quite within their rights to do it - it just means anyone wanting to look at sea life has to go to less accessible places.
Only in and around Auckland though

Yes, being 4000 km from the next land mass makes it a little more difficult for illegals - they have to stow away on ships or smuggle themselves through customs, so we don't have too much drama like that.

What we do get is a huge number of Pacific Islander families who come for a visit and then disappear.

Crikey, if you or sounds really did pay a visit, we'd provide better than the garage!

I've made better friends online than offline in the past couple of decades and have had several visitors stay.

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Americans are only afraid of what Cnn tells them to be afraid of...Cnn repeats the same news every 15 minutes; so the threat increases exponentially. I guess, on a good note; it keeps them from worrying about all of the real threats out their.
I guess most of the time, only hungry people migrate; and it's the hungry people you have to watch out for. Oddly enough, our bad immigrants, while complaining of getting bad deals from the Americans; prey more on their own.
It always amazes me when I go into an immigrant owned shop and see the way they treat their workers (even the ones from their own social level)
Our beaches used to be wonderful; really, it was the Americans that ruined them: why walk two feet to put that dirty diaper or chicken bone in the trash can. We have big machines that clean the beaches and push down the sand; but it breaks the shells and the crabs. The cruise ships dock close and throw out all of their rubish; which increases shark attacks.
It would be great to visit you and the mrs. I guess I should start saving my pennies. I haven't taken a traveling vacation since...was it ';94 or '96?

I feel a new company coming on... Cold Ale Tours of New Zealand. Predrelmick's already got his Agent there - his brother. :D

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Originally Posted by soundofmusic

It would be great to visit you and the mrs. I guess I should start saving my pennies. I haven't taken a traveling vacation since...was it ';94 or '96?

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Well it's about time then!

:D

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

I feel a new company coming on... Cold Ale Tours of New Zealand. Predrelmick's already got his Agent there - his brother. :D

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Not a bad idea at all - we make some nice dark ales here now.

20 years ago, all you could buy was (cat's wee-wee), but a few people saw the chance of getting a niche market and started making some top brews.

Instead of a pub crawl, we could have quiet brewery tours, capped off with a sampling of the local brewer's options. Very seemly.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Well it's about time then!

:D

Not a bad idea at all - we make some nice dark ales here now.

20 years ago, all you could buy was (cat's wee-wee), but a few people saw the chance of getting a niche market and started making some top brews.

Instead of a pub crawl, we could have quiet brewery tours, capped off with a sampling of the local brewer's options. Very seemly.

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As long as theres white rum and cuervo; I'll be set for the duration. I love my little pina coladas and lime margaritas:cheers2::party:
Now here's a person who can have a party without the booze:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by dizzydoll

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Now here's a person who is a party all on their own; just in case we wind up steering to a deserted island...are you a man or woman, mate?