Conspiracy unveiled

This may come as a bit of a shock to some of you, but the $10 Calvin Klein cologne you buy in Vietnam isn't the same as the $100 Calvn Klein cologne you buy at home...

Testing the new sounder

Took the boat out for a quick blat the other day to test the sounder, and while we were out we wet a few hooks and fed a few fish.


Of course we weren't actually trying to catch any fish. If we'd wanted to we would have, afterall we now have a fancy new fish finder!


It was a great day to be on the water (we live in a really beautiful spot!). Since moving to the east coast we seem to have had a lot of easterly weather! Thankfully it's gone for now, and we have a few days of good weather this week.


Our new pride and joy, the 14'6" tinnie. No, it's not crashed into the garden. The outboard is cleaning in a tank of fresh water. VHF yet to be installed and GPS still to come :-)
Joined the coastguard the other day, so if you are saved by them in the future it's all because of our funding and you should be eternally indebted to us :-)

The Flash Tinnie goes Hi-Tech

Went out for a bit of a fish the other week (as you do). Launched at Leigh and motored directly towards Little Barrier Island until we were in 40 metres of water. This had us about 2 kilometres offshore I think.
Our fish-finder was crap so we couldn't really see what we were floating over. It wouldn't work when we were moving, and fish-finders generally don't work when the boat is still (they can detect the bottom but you have to be moving to be able to see what the bottom looks like).
So we just took a punt and started fishing in the middle of nowhere (not the most efficient way to catch fish). We were on the tail end of a bad weather system so we had 2-3 metre rollers coming in from the North East. Those of you that know the area will be thinking "Hmm, they would have been really exposed to that swell!" - yup we were! We stayed out there for about 2 hours, the boat was more than up to the task, and it was really nice being out on the water again.
Todd caught a Blue Cod, and while reeling it in a reasonable Trevally jumped on, so he battled two fish up from 40 metres below. That's one of the benefits of fishing deeper water I suppose!
When we got back to the ramp we met a local guy who had been out setting a long-line. Once he'd confirmed that we were locals he proceeded to tell us all of his top fishing spots :D and then gave us a pretty respectable Snapper to take home :D
He said he'd rather pop down to the pub than head home to fillet the fish so we obligingly took it off his hands.
It's good to know that there are good fish out there, and they are starting to bite again.

So when we got home to discover that the Fishing Show guys wanted us to make an NTSC version of their DVD for america you can imagine what we negotiated as payment...
Fish Finder
Now we just have to wait for fine weather so we can take it out and see if it does infact find fish!

Next on the list... a GPS unit. We're going to have the most hi-tech 14' tinnie in New Zealand!
:-)

Next thursday we're off to Little Barrier with the guys to fish for Snapper in the deep reefs :D

I'd fight the system if only I had the energy...

Two weeks ago I bought a newer/fancier webcam on eBay (the Oz Trailer flavour of eBay as the NZ site is virtually non-existant, and stuff on Trade-Me tends to get supid prices these days).
After buying said webcam I noticed that the seller didn't accept PayPal or Visa (something I really should have checked but I was buying from an eBay store so I had assumed they would).
The only option was to send the money via Telegraphic Transfer (this is the point where the banks would chuckle all the way... to the bank... if they weren't already there).
The $19 camera had $8 postage, so a total of $27 Ozzie. I checked with two banks and the TT was $25 :-S
Bit of a bummer paying that much just to send $27, but even at $54(NZD) it was cheaper than the cameras in NZ.
I went in, paid the money, filled in the forms and off it all went.
The next week the eBay store emailed me to say I'd only sent them $10, and that I'd need to send the other $17. I argued with them, sent scans of the TT form and the part of my bank statement that showed the money leaving my account but they were still adamant that only $10 had arrived, so I went back to the Bank...
Their response was: "Of course the receiving bank takes out a fee too, and we can't tell you how much it'll be in advance. Sending a TT for $27 was stupid" .... Gee, nice of them to tell me this AFTERWARDS!!!!

How is it that banks (every bank around the world by the looks) manage to get away with such appalling customer service?

What other service industry closes it's doors at 4:30, doesn't open over the weekends, charges it's clients each month for holding their money, and charges $45 for an electronic transaction?

But the reality is who can exist these days without credit? And so we are all stuffed...

As Dad said (many years ago), the world is run by banks and ad. agencies... (the politicians are just going along for the ride).

Ok, so that's my rant. I feel much better now :-)