Taupotreeman

Had to take a trip over to Hastings, Hawkes Bay to pick up the chipper after having a winch fitted and stopped off in Napier to see the City Council's street planting to get some ideas (seeing as Taupo's is non existant). Pretty much every street planted up. Puriri outside Mclean Park. Norfolk Pines along Marine Parade and just to show that just because someone plants a big tree in your view shaft it isn't going to block your view for ever and topping to retain the view ISN'T THE ANSWER. Are you listening Taupo District?

Sounds like a good one to have on the shelf at work. I'm slowly getting together a half decent selection of books so this can go on the list.

Cheers guys. Might even get this one myself.

Thanks for the pointer I'll pm him.

Just wondered if any fellow arborists are based in either of these two areas. I'm heading over next June and am keen, if possible, to hook up with maybe a crew or manager if their time permits, to get a look at how things are done stateside and maybe learn a little about the trees over there. I'll only have day here and there but if anyone is keen to let me have a look see I'd be keen to hear from you.

Just a little direction if possible please ladies and gents. Have a good friend doing the Diploma in Arb as part of his job (so part time). Can anyone point me in the direction of any reading/research material for Tree inspections please? Mainly the assessment of trees for the potential to fail, significance of trees and maintenance requirements? Any help would be appreciated.

Nice to see the bulls getting at least a little revenge for once.

Especially when the council is funding the purchase of said shiny things.

Can't wait to get there next year and see them for myself.

This Olympics, Sky has finally taken over the coverage in NZ and it's been fantastic. I've finally been able to watch a heap of the boxing. I'm not sure about the flowers (wife is a florist and she thinks they're great) but I watched one of the Ukranians yesterday and his haircut was something else. It seems a few others from the Ukranian team were sporting the same style. Mind you, the guy won silver and his smile took over his whole face so he obviously doesn't give a monkeys and who can blame him.

Love it. These flash mob things always make me smile (except the rubbish ones) and I don't care if that makes me a little bit of a saddo. Here's another.

What Jack says. Had mine four or so years and only just starting to leak after standing in lots of water and even then it's hardly noticable. Extremely comfy and great support all round.

Chimney stack outside Rosedale Abbey. Not exactly a main thoroufare, in fact most definitely a back road but you need your witts about you to tackle it.

Sorry to say that we don't either. In fact, I can't remember the last time I did. We have all good intentions of implementing rscue practice but for some reason it slips through the net everytime we have a free period.

I suppose what we would class as a small town would only be a village in the UK and unlikely to have too many arb jobs. Doesn't mean to say you couldn't travel but some of those small towns are quite close nit and difficult to break in to. I'd still avoid Auckland though, full of jaffas:001_tongue:

Arran, if you want more detailed info regarding sponsorship etc PM me as it takes up quite a bit of space and is a bit too long winded and boring to post on the forum. Adam, cocky bugger,

No chance mate, you got all those big ass ugly Pines over the top of Thorndon and Tinakori down your way

Done NZ and Oz and despite the pay difference I reckon NZ is better if you're coming from the UK. The weather is more tolerable. Don't get me wrong, the sun and heat are nice but not all the time. I also prefer the lifestyle in NZ. Easier to do more without travelling massive distances. Keep an eye on trademe for accommodation and some of the backpacker websites are worth a trawl. As for places to avoid? Auckland. Expensive and over rated. Seriously though it depends on where you want to be based.

Tried one battery powered saw and that was sufficient to put me off for quite a while. Always keen to see how Husky do with a new climbing saw. Tried the very first one they brought out and it was pants so never been back until recently. Been trying to get one here on trial for a while now but the Husky dealers are never keen so we keep buying Stihl. Shame really because we have 595xp which is quite a good saw. One of the husky dealers actually told us that not much research had been done or money invested in the new climbing saw but I don't know how much credence can be given to that statement. We'll be due a new climbing saw this year so I'm very interested to see what the newby is like.

Tom, if you send me a PM I'll give you a run down on how to make life easy for yourself getting in to NZ for work. I'll need a bit of info off you but there's several ways to do it. Just a bit long winded to do it on the forum.

Hopefully this isn't breaking any of the forum rules but if it is I apologise in advance and will take the rap over the knuckles. Driving home from work I see this fella. Local home and property maintenance guy on his aluminium ladder, pole hedge trimmer at the ready waving it around like mad clearing a Pittosporum that is up through the 230v conductors and into the 400v above those. The wires are uncovered. I've already given this guy a bit of a rollocking after catching him working over the top of a 400v conductor in an uninsulated MEWP or EPV. The guy has no real experience working with trees and pciked up a lawn mowing round as a change of lifestyle. I've done a couple of tree jobs for him including the EPV job that he left after removing all the anchor points in the tree. Spent three hours peeling back silver Birch bit by tiny bit from over the conductors with a set of poles while standing in what was left of the tree on my spikes.

Mario, how long would you recommend for the drive? I don't actually have fixed time at the moment for anything other than the start of my holiday. Intending to fly to SF then on to New York but from there we have nothing confirmed so we're all good. I'd aimed for five to seven days to do the trip at a leisurely pace as I'd like to take in Mt St Helens on the way. I heard some of the one way car hire costs can be a bit steep so this might be the only limiting factor.

No worries bro whatever I can do to help.

Had a mate just completed one of those challenges plus he managed dessert too. Would hate to think what his arteries look like as it seems to be a regular thing for him.

Check with NZQA first would be my advice. They don't reckognize a lot of the UK quals, especially if they are the older type. City and Guilds would be one and the NPTC wasn't reckognized either. Long term, e.g. for residency applications, qualifications are definately a help. Immigration will require a 3 year college course, diploma or similar. Cert in arb isn't usually enough unless you have some decent work experience, 5 years plus at least. The other option if you're short on the qualifications required, is to get on to the work to residency category or alternatively cross credit what you do have with a similar certificate here in NZ. Any papers you are short on you can sit here. Some employers will even help with costs. As far as employers go; they aren't usually too fussed about quals though they can be advantagous sometimes. Being a hard worker and good at what you do will win out nearly all the time. If you can do the job you'll get it whether you have the piece of paper or not. As an aised; saw a job advertised in one of the up and coming mining towns in Oz the other day for an arborist to look after the entire town. Rediculous amount of money along with a lot of perks but the place is way WAY out in the middle of nowhere. If you want to earn it would be the place to go but don't expect too much of a lifestyle.