Thanks Graham. Looks the business

I've had my blizzard since 98 and it is still going strong while in the same time I have busted several full suss frames. I think you should be OK

LOL Dibbs!

Seiko do nice watches. I have a version of the divers watch which is a 25th anniversary durace watch which is a numbered Seiko Divers watch but with Shimano and Durace on the face. It is self winding and I've had it for more than 10 years. Great bit of kit

I'm with ajr on this. Had a 19" one and that was right for me. 5' 10".
Now ride a L Turner 5 spot DW.

"I live here, not that far from John_Key actually", actually far too close

I live here in wellington. good place with tracks all around the town and a reasonably decent 300m climb at my back door. I like it.

christchurch is a bit of a dump and very bland although it is in the south island. Wellington is the place to be. Small city with a bigish city feel and excellent riding-I'm bias though, I live here.

Holidays-legal minimum is 4 weeks annual leave and 11 days of public holidays and not sure what someone was going on about US voucher system.

Crime rates are low and you don't have the muggings, etc that happen in big cities in the UK. There is crime but it isn't something that has really ever affected me apart from the house being broken into once. That said I leave my 5-spot parked up outside my front door at night and it is still there in the mornings.

Certainly I would give living in NZ a go. Job wise you'll find you'll need to be more of a generalist and be able to cover a range of tasks and companies here are not so hung up on specific skills but generic transferable skills are highly thought of.

Place isn't perfect, but no place is. I would say quality of life is much better than the UK by long shot. Food is local, people are friendly and approachable.

I have owned both bikes and like the turner better. The DW set up is better than what the ventana has. The ventana can bob a bit without the propedal on.

Try both out

king kong
way too many stickers going on there…. personal opinion mind you

I had this problem with my formula oros. Turned out a drop of oil on the pivot at the end of the lever fixed it. Felt a bit of a dick when I worked out that was all that was causing it….

well it has to be said, some decent body armour given the british army being such cheap gits when it comes to equiping their troops

you have to be invited. Just in the process of being invited to sakhalin for some work there. Once you get the letter you then apply to your local russian embassy for a visa…..

l

I got made redundant last year. Actually in the end it was a good experience as it allowed me to change the pace of my work. I now work half days and go and work 2-3 months a year out of country which gives me enough money for the rest of the year.

At the time it wasn’t a nice experience, but there is light at the other end of the tunnel!
Summer is coming anyway!

I was on a ship in the gulf of aden back in 2001 that had just been attacked by pirates off Somilia. The pirates turned up in small roundabout and raked the vessel with automatics and then started firing RPGs at the vessel. I talked to the American crew and they shat themselves. It was a seismic boat so only had a top speed of 14 knts and it steamed away as fast as it could go. The crew had the firehoses out ready to repel any boarders but the pirates gave up. I saw a video of the attack and it got kind of freaky when one of the pirates shouldered an RPG. The crew were sound guys, but they were pretty freaked out by the whole experience.
Boats and ships are pretty vulnerable to this sort of attack and putting security on the boats just ups the ante. When the attack happened the captain radioed for help by there was only a french frigate a couple of hundred km away and weren’t much help. It is a big ocean out there

fishnchipper is now John key

Wellington? Well the karapoti is a road ride and not really that fun if you want something technical.
Try Makara Peak, Wrights Hill, Mt Vic and the Southern Walkway, Carparts up in Brooklyn are all very nice tracks with a decent amount of technical challenges. Further afield there is Belmont and mt lowry/Wainuiomata which is a really gem.
Sorry to say expat, but I found the tracks in the UK pretty benign and all a bit ho hum. No offense, but there are a lot of pretty average bridle ways which while they are good to put routes together aren’t that exciting technically wise.
Have you been and done Wakamarina or Nydia Bay? I doubt you would fine something as technical as those trails in the UK.

there are no good tracks here in wellington. Move right along, nothing to see….. :arrow:

@alexathome. I agree, the driving and idiots in boy racer jap cars here in nz are appalling. Drivers and road manners etc in NZ are terrible!!

Inzane, dead right about Christchurch. The place is over run with chavs.

news story

I was there during that w/e. It was a shocker

I have great mtb trails on my doorstep, and fantastic mountains to go biking in only an hours drive away.

But Inzane you live in Christchurch which is a white trash filled smog ridden place which is flat boring and folk think their coffee needs a litre of milk with it

Rose Farm is in the area. There are a quite a few hidey hi kind of camp grounds in that area and if that is your scene, then coolio, but I found Rose Farm was nice and quite and surrounded by countryside. Very nice. I was working in Yarmouth at the time and camping during the summer was sooo much nicer than a nasty B&B in yarmouth town….sivver….. Some OK road riding on quite country lanes too.

As Joe says there are some reasonable tracks out towards Reepham. I had the ‘pleasure’ of living in Norfolk a few years back and while there aren’t big hills, there is some riding to be found on bridleways and footpaths which really get little use in this part of the country. You’ll find there are lots of tracks that come off Marriots way, so go exploring. We also used to follow another long distance path, Weavers Way to the north norfolk. There are some good trails out the back of Sheringham on the coast. Nar Valley way is also worth looking at. Most of the Norfolk folk are content to drive their tractors and cars, so the tracks don’t get much use. Thetford was OK, but a long way to drive for an average set of tracks.

there isn’t any stw equilivent. There is good riding all over wellington. makara peak is a good place to start.
Get a copy of the Kennetts NZ mtb book. It has all the rides in it. Ground effect sells it