Taupotreeman

We can do that too. I'm half hour drive from the ski fields. Temps get down to about freezing at night in winter on the central plateau but the days are stunning. Warm enough to work all day in a sweat shirt but never that biting cold (I worked in North Wales for two and half years) that's associated with the UK winters. I also worked in OZ for a year and the heat is a killer. I didn't even want to spend time at the beach because it was so hot (two days at 50 degrees out on the tarmac). Summer meant finding somewhere with aircon. The further north you went the more humid it got. I was based out west of Sydney so Winter meant -2 at night then 27 degrees during the day; you just couldn't dress for that sort of nonsense. I do sometimes miss the heavy snow falls you guys get in the UK but I'm glad I made the move here and, now having dual nationality, I can come and go between OZ, UK, NZ and the islands as I please so I'm on a winner all round really.

The arse end of nowhere is fine and dandy with me. Too far for most people to invade or think of as an easy refugee country. Don't think you will be getting the castle anymore though as the housing boom put paid to cheap property in the major centres. If you're happy to live further out or in the small towns, like me, there's plenty of bargains to be had. You can still pick up a decent 3 bed in some of the smaller towns for about $150k so about 75k sterling. Plus we don't have to worry about bailing out Greece, Spain, Portugal etc no euro for us. Oh and my dad just got residency here at age 65. He smokes like a chimney and has diabetes so there's hope for some of youz fullas yet eh.

If you don't like Britain and Oz is too hot, too many creepy crawlies, floods etc move to NZ. Climate is not too disimilar to the UK, less than a 10th of the population (just over 4 million people) no issues with massive illigal immigration etc and the politicical problems pale into insignificance. The scenery is stunning, the beaches clean, the weather generally better than the UK, no snakes, only one poisonous spider species.........need I go on? Oh yeah, arborists are on the skills shortage list so you have a pretty good chance of getting in on a work visa or residency visa. Man, I love it here.

Both bikes look in very good nik for their age. Looks like a bit of a restoration job as they tended to rot through in places.

Seconded. Complete respect even if was somewhat dodgy I'm sure there's many of us on here that have done some dodgy stuff in the past, learnt from it and learnt to do things a different way next time. And we sure as hell didn't have the balls to film it let alone tell anyone what we had done.

What not to do with your motorbike.

After the power scheme finished in Turangi they planted the whole place in various species of Oak, Maple etc anything with Autumn colour. It's a choice site in autumn if you catch it right.

I do the odd freebie here and there. The most recent was for a school that had taken down a couple of trees themselves but couldn't shift the rubbish. The local police sergeant and head of the school board asked how much I'd charge to chip but I did it for free as the school was hard up. They stuck my name in the community magazine for free. I also do the odd one for the OAP who's obviously struggling to pay the heating bill never mind sort out that dangerous tree. It depends what mood I'm in, what the job is and how deserving the client is but I have done a few. What goes around comes around and it makes me feel good anyway so that can't be a bad thing. The ones that get on my nerves are those who have money to burn but think that you'll do all the extras for free. There's a name for people like that but I can't repeat it on a family friendly forum.

We are constantly told that the human race is on its way to armageddon, that we will soon wipe ourselves off the face of the planet. Sometimes I wonder if this is such a bad thing.

One thing I've noticed so far is how sparsely populated with trees some of the main centres seem to be. Not sure if I'm just used to seeing NZ streets or if it's just some of the photos don't quite show them all. Some of the trees look so lonely.

Upgraded from Clogger trousers which are absolutely pants (went straight through them with a MS200T without even stopping) to a pair of SIPs. Found them not to be very hard wearing and ripped really easily. Ended up carrying heaps of sawdust through the house as it got into all the rips then emptied itself out when I took em off. Now on a pair of Stihl HiFlex which I think are pretty good. They seem to be harder wearing and I love having all the pockets though it does mean I tend to forget where I put keys, wallet, MP3, tissues etc. Keen to try the strecth airs sometime but was told they weren't worth the extra money.

Run away run away

A couple of a decent sized Nothofagus fusca complete with epiphyte colony. The colony doesn't include the wife and friend (picture taken to give a size indication).

After reading this thread the other day I had a quick yak with my local Stihl shop owner. He charges about $60 (that's dollars) for an hour's work but stuff like bar dressing, tune ups and minor work he doesn't charge for. He doesn't charge to pull your saw apart and tell you what the problem is and, so far, his service is excellent. He will get me up and running with my gear again as soon as possible rather than putting it in the que. I don't mind paying over the odds for anything as long as I get the service. I wanted a new air rifle for xmas and tried several shops to find out what would do the job. All of them were quick to offer me a deal etc but only one took the time to let me shoot several different rifles, help me site them and show me how they all worked along with spending half an hour giving me advice as to which was the best for me. He got my business. Same with the Stihl shop; he gets my business because he looks after me. Sometimes things are a bit expensive but, swings and roundabouts, the next thing might be cheap or free. As part of this good relationship he recommends my services to his customers and vice versa. If you find someone who provides that good service stick with them and help em out a bit.

You might want to up your insurance if you're coming to NZ on a cycling holiday. Plenty of idiots on the road here and they don't give two hoots about cyclists.

Dip it in marmite and it's a twiglet.

I'm quite happy to say that I believe that when you die you're nothing but bug fodder unless you're BBQ'd. Each to their own.

Talking of phone quotes; wish I had a buck for every person who rings up and asks how much it is to chop a tree down.

Meno Cleuters (sorry, don't know how to spell his last name) often runs them. I think he has contact details in the Tree Matters magazine or you could try Rick Mexted at HITO, if anybody knows what's coming up he will.

Really? Most of the places I've worked in NZ people expect a written quote. I had some books made up with my logo etc on them and terms and conditions. I look at the job but give myself time to think about the price rather than giving them a price there and then. Usually I write them up the same night and post them out. Quotes are valid for 30 days and I have the book copy I can refer too if there's a query over the work that's been carried out. Very rarely do I get someone who says "oh, don't bother with a written quote". Might be different for the other kiwis but it was the same when working for Treescape. All quotes had to be written out. Most people seem happy to wait a few days for the quote to come through and if it's all on nice headered paper it looks proffesional. It can make a huge difference if someone sends through a quote on a generic cheapo quote pad and someone else sends it through on nice logo'd paper, especially if the prices are reasonably close. As for prices; I found it doesn't matter how cheap you are there will always be somebody cheaper. The real cheap guys can't keep it up for long and often go out of business pretty quickly so if you can keep ticking over while the others shoot emselves in the foot you should be OK. We have one fella here who is purposely undercutting everybody, no matter how cheap they may be, just to get his clientel list that much bigger. Eventually he will have to put his prices back up to survive so the rest of us just have to wait it out. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face.

On the subject of pulling saws apart and doing your own maintenance; does anybody out there have a MS200T workshop manual that they don't mind sending me via email please pretty please? It's starting to cost me a small fortune repairing the two I've got.

Pretty sure it's only city care in NZ.

Get a bit of sawdust trapped on the inside of a pair of sweaty chainsaw trousers and it acts like sand paper through the day. There's no way I'd leave mine for 6 months without washing. They're usually done weekly and I have a spare pair if one pair ends up really crusty. They can smell real bad too if it's a particularly hot day.

Apparently heaps of petrol, oil and grease lessens the effectiveness of the fibres etc and weakens the material. Looks like washing them more regualrly isn't so bad after all. It helps if you don't stink like a petrol station when you're accepting the cuppa or cheque from the customer too.

Very smart advice!