REVIEW: Peters Farm Lodge in Waipiata

While doing the Otago Rail Trail we took a day off to stay at Peters Farm Lodge in Waipiata after some days heavy cycling. The Lodge itself is about 3 - 4 kilometers away from the rail trail but Peter will pick you and your bike up in Waipiata and usually offers to give tours of settlement. If you do decide to bike to the lodge it is not a hard ride and there is signage all the way with arrows to guide you.

The lodge is situated on a farm and looks out over the countryside and paddocks. 

The lodge is a very old farm house but you can also stay in the cottages which are good as well. The lodge has well contained rooms which do have power outlets but it's not a motel so you will have to go to the kitchen for water and cooking. 

The kitchen is good, it has refrigeration, stoves and a bread maker. When we were there breakfast was included in the price. There is also a small lounge area next to the kitchen will a iPod dock.

Peter himself is very nice and a top kiwi bloke, he does little things for you like taking you down to the kayaks and giving you tours as well as picking you up from town and hes usually around to have a good chat to. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there, my only suggestion is that you take a day off like us or have a short day of biking and do stuff like going kayaking.

This Blog Is to Serious

Time to spice it up a little bit with a new range of posts and renewed inspiration. Watch this space for more stuff.

Why I Didn't Switch To RaboDirect

Today I switched from Westpac to BNZ so I could get a 1.25% higher interest rate on call but why would I want that if RaboDirect offer a much higher on call rate?


In case you don't know RaboDirect is a bank which is operated fully online worldwide. 


Here are my reasons:

• BNZ and Westpac are actual banks with physical outlets that you can touch. While most of the time I will be doing internet banking, its nice to know that I can't meet a real person if I want to.
• I can see what BNZ internet banking looks like. They have videos and pictures and I can see how I would manage my money but with RaboDirect it's just a grey login screen with no tutorials.
• RaboDirect is no longer a AAA bank. Neither is BNZ but it's a reason.
• RaboDirect has bad customer reviews, if you go to the raitings page people are very unhappy about them dropping the interest rate, sure not a big deal but all those 2 star ratings are worrying.
• I can find out much more info with BNZ. I can go online and see exactly what they do and everything about them but with RaboDirect it's just a mystery. It's like going through a black hole. You don't know whats on the other side. Some people like not knowing what is on the other side, but when it comes to banking, I prefer not to have any surprises - unless they're good.

You could also say that BNZ has been in NZ for longer and has a good brand image. This is true, but so does Westpac, I simply like the higher rate of interest for my everyday accounts.

Street Lights - Urban Youth Bible

Street lights bring the idea of getting the bible out to the modern day youth via rapping and hip hop music. They go under the label Humble Beast which believes in giving all their music away for free. This idea has come about because "50 million Americans can not read past the 4th grade level" and "Only 26% of junior highschool students meet the benchmark for reading on the ACT".

I also think its good that the youth (like myself) have the option to know some biblical knowledge and if you can't read then how can you get the message across to the urban youth. Streetlights give the urban youth who can't read the ability to hear the words of god. They are the worlds first audio bible specifically for youth and say it word for word.

Blogger Aiming To Be "Cool Platform"

When Blogger updated there interface it was a pleasant surprise, and now I believe that Blogger is trying to be the cool blogging platform. If you've been on Youtube recently on the Google channel, then you might have seen some modern Blogger videos. They are introducing the new Blogger interface and the new features you can achieve with the new Blogger. They are cool videos and the music is custom made and very catchy and many of the comments are just asking for the name of the song only to be disappointed (because it's custom).

The interface of the new Blogger is very fresh, good and fast and Blogger has a string of new features that enable you to update your blogs looks and performance such as dynamic views. This is a new way to view Blogger blogs that is very fun and interactive and over 200,000 people have decided the same thing by deciding to use it as their default template.

Here is one of the new Blogger video which appeals to younger viewers and showcases the new dynamic views.

Why Google Plus Will Fail

Google Plus was made to fail and will put people off their Google products now that they are integrating it with everything. I don't even have a Google plus account - I'm under 18. What I do know is that as good as the design and interface is, and it does look very good, Google will fail again when it come to social networks.

1. It's to much like Facebook. Social media is a fast paced industry and its not slowing down. People move on from social networking sites very quickly unless it has a purpose like Linkedin. People are waiting for something new and fresh. Google plus relates very easily to Facebook and Twitter so why switch. Facebook is already copying Google plus in many aspects anyway like the circles feature, the main reason to switch to Google plus.
2. It was in a private BETA for too long. Google kept G+ in a private Beta for far to long and by the time it got out, the hype had almost completely gone. People simply went on to see what it was all about then got off as none of their friends had stayed either. 
3. You have to be over 18 to use it. Teenagers can lead a revolution, after all they are the ones who will be spending the money in the future. Teenagers often spend the most time on social networking sites so why prevent them from doing so. They will just go somewhere else and grow up with that social network for the next 10 years. I'm not saying people under 13 should go on it. But limiting the usage of teenager will force them to look elsewhere. 
4. You have to organize. It's not something where you go on for the first time and post some status updates. You have to organize your friends into circles and when you have over 530 friends (not me ;) ) you may not bother to do so and that is the only reason G+ is different, circles. 
5. Nobody uses it. I have heard countless stories about how nobody has posted on G+ for weeks on some users account and social media is all about real time. 
6. Why switch from Facebook. There is nothing insanely wrong with Facebook at the moment despite all the privacy concerns and the new design. people need a real reason to switch. Google Plus does not have enough good reasons.

In conclusion G+ was born to fail and will do as you will see in the near future.

Why more NZ SAS soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan

And yet another NZ SAS soldier has been killed in Afghanistan with a shot to the chest. But why are more New Zealand troops dying than ever before? It's because of the army taking new steps to get people into the SAS. Previously you would have to do some years in the army before you could have been selected but now the NZ army is recruiting more SAS soldiers and you can say you want to go join the SAS as soon as you sign up. It is not however the NZ Army a fault, the SAS are the troops that really fight the Taliban. 


The public of New Zealand are calling out to the government to pull the troops out of Afghanistan. They some how get in their heads that the NZ SAS don't want to be in Afghanistan. If they didn't want to go, they wouldn't join the army. Many of the troops are in fact almost asking to go and help. The unwritten purpose of an army, is to kill people. Although that may sound harsh, it's true. 
That said the NZ Army to a lot of good Afghanistan, such as helping out the local communities. But their total aim is to free the world of terror threats and that means you have to kill people. 


Besides some of the New Zealand deaths in Afghanistan don't even count as war casualties. Other New Zealand soldiers have died when their trucks rolled when they were not under attack.


And finally having NZ in Afghanistan is important for country relations and trade. Since declaring ourselves nuclear free, the USA has disliked us because they can not bring their war ships into our waters. Being part of the Afghanistan effort puts us back up there with Australia.