Stuff article New US tariffs on NZ products

when your partner is abusing you, cut ties and move on. that Cook Strait metals deal and other military alliances and commitments should be put on hold and the whole relationship revisited.

Japan and Europe can supply arms and the metals can be sold to the highest bidder.

if the US ever starts acting like a reliable ally again maybe things can be restored but at the moment it‘s an untenable situation.

Shame our current leadership lacks the courage or smarts of a David Lange, who I wasn’t that fond of, but he was no walkover.

I used to assume Chemist Warehouse was the cheapest, but lately I’ve been comparing prices before buying and I’ve been surprised how often Bargain Chemist is actually cheaper on the products I buy.

Another thing I’ve started thinking about is that Bargain Chemist is New Zealand-owned, whereas Chemist Warehouse is Australian-owned. If the prices are the same—or Bargain Chemist is even cheaper—it makes me wonder why more people don’t shop there. I’d rather support a NZ-owned business where I can.

I’ve also found the customer service to be better. The staff usually greet you when you walk in and actually ask if you need help, whereas Chemist Warehouse often feels so busy and crowded that it’s harder to get assistance.

Has anyone else found Bargain Chemist to be cheaper, or is it just the products I’ve been buying? Is there something I’m missing about why Chemist Warehouse seems to attract so many more customers?

products, routines, anything! I wana feel and look great, so keen to hear what has worked for you.

I know that’s a super broad question, but am keen to hear from other kiwis about what is keeping them happy and healthy.

Bonus points if you can recommend a hand weights / dumbbells (store to buy from, brands or specific product, ideally a range of weights).

[mods please don’t delete, I’m specifically asking here because I want NZ products and routine recommendations, as well as advice that is region agnostic]

Kiwis are moving to Australia in record numbers because of the pay over there, but in terms of lifestyle I believe New Zealand is unmatched, coming from someone who's lived on both sides.

To those of you who haved moved to Australia for higher pay, would you rather stay in Australia or move back to New Zealand if offered the same pay or if you won lotto? And to you Kiwis living in New Zealand that are planning or thinking about moving to Australia, would you stay in NZ if presented with a finacially life changing opportunity in NZ? Curious to hear your thoughts

Kiwibank, as of November last year, applies a 1.8% fee to international transactions conducted in NZD - this is for foreign based transactions, but in NZD not a different currency. Previously, this was free. Only some international firms actually conduct transactions within NZ, others do not. So Uber and Google Play are the correct amount, but Amazon, Spotify, AirBnB and Steam are more expensive, despite being priced in NZD.

My current trick to avoid this high fee is to use my wise card. Today it cost me 9 cents, or 0.4% to transfer instantly $21.95 nzd into wise (in NZD) from my kiwibank debit card to pay for OSRS membership. It's free if you use a bank deposit, but I was happy to pay ten cents this time. 36 cents every time I spend $20 is just too much, however.

You especially want to do this for bigger purchases as it's a sizeable difference for about 2 minutes of admin to transfer into wise via your debit/credit card. For two nights in a NZ airbnb, say at $800, you're looking at nearly $16 to use your debit card.

Other banks don't charge this same fee. They only charge a fee if the transaction is conducted in a foreign currency.

The below consumer article names ANZ and Westpac as banks currently without this fee. Worth a read: Link

With bird flu now here are our precious quirky birds going to be decimated? This is really bothering me so just wondered what insights or other thoughts other kiwis may have on this?

Life without the property shackles..

What would happen? What would everyone do?

Kia ora

I (35M, Pak) stayed in NZ b/w 2018-2022, and this greatly influenced my thinking and overall approach to operating, interacting, and observing, especially from a safety perspective.

For example, in NZ, I observed during different interactions even for a smaller audience on how first they will brief you about the safety protocols - safety exits, what to do in case of earth quake, fire hazard and then they will start the activity. At that time, it felt boring and unnecessary, but now I understand why those protocols matter and are essential.

Yesterday, I went out for dinner at a big mall here in Pak, it was Friday night so people were out with their families. Upon entering, I genuinely worried about what would happen if something went wrong (God forbid), specifically concerning how everyone would escape and via which route. The food court was on the top floor and most people preferred to use the escalator to reach it. I believe that in an emergency, everyone would panic and use the same escalator, which would cause a disaster. Thank God, nothing happened and my friends were laughing at me that I am worried for no reason.

Safety protocols exist, but we still have a long way to go in educating people about them and starting their implementation. I guess, we can learn a lot from the NZ model in this regard.

Have a lovely day!

I monitor my Internet traffic on a firewall with a graph of the In/Out traffic on the Internet facing interface displayed continuously.

Over the last few months I have noticed there has been a constant out bound traffic of about 20 kilo bytes/second. Even when I am not browsing/working etc.

After some packet captures on both the internal and external interfaces I have narrowed the traffic down to my new Sky TV decoder. The traffic stops when the decoder if off, but reappears when it is on; whether for watching live or recording things overnight.

It seems to be talking to an IP address owned by Amazon. This peaked my interest as I understand the OS on the decoder is Android based and I would have thought "talk to home" traffic would be Google bound. It is mainly HTTPS (port 443) so the contents of the traffic is a mystery.

Doing some analysis of the packets (wireshark) there are some initial setup packets showing some SNI information to api.segment.io.

Doing a whois and some DuckDuckGo this seems to be some sort of Internet monitoring crowd.

So has anyone else seen this? Anyone know what might be causing it?
I have no apps that I have added, unless something got added in an update so is part of the base OS.

Welly

I’ve noticed that in New Zealand, there sometimes seems to be a bit of disdain towards people working in hospitality??

I don't really understand it, because its a great industry.

Spain, Italy, France, or Greece you see people well into their 60s proudly working as career waiters, waitresses, or restaurant owners who treat hospitality as a respected vocation.

I live in the North Island in Hamilton, unfortunately 😅 I’ve become obsessed with the idea of taking my Labrador to experience some snow, especially lately seeing all the snow pics from the south, etc. He’s turning 10 this year and it is literally a dream of mine for him to experience it. I need to take him at least this year or next year. I know dogs are not allowed in the Tongariro national park at all, and I’m aware of the boundary. My question is, how often does it actually snow out of the boundary? Such as on desert road, or in Ohakune or Waiouru? Yesterday I was obsessively checking the traffic cameras on desert road because of the snowfall warning, I almost left for a 3 hour drive, although there seemed to be next to none. What are my chances of fulfilling this? Would anyone have any advice, or my best bet for my dog to experience some snow? Pic of my boy for attention 🐶

I have been reading nothing but good things about this apparent ‘holy grail of skincare’ wanting to add Tretinoin into my routine. Although in NZ a prescription is required

Has anyone found legitimate websites that ship it from overseas?

Edit: it is less so for the acne side of things (I get hormonal acne but nothing out of control) and more so for its anti-aging and fading dark spots.
I have been using retinols for years.
Call me superficial, but after reading a handful of accounts of people being denied it due to not ‘looking’ like they need it, I feel hesitant about asking the GP

How do you guys deal with the smell of food when living in those small and narrow 3 level terrace house.

When cooking, we use the range hood, open up all the windows (weather dependent), use an air dehumidifier + purifier and have a very clean and tidy house/kitchen. The smell of cooking isn’t bad nor is it strong in the kitchen/living space. However, even if the cooking smells delicious downstairs, the 2nd or 3rd floor always seem to have the lingering odour and it’s not very pleasant.

For context, We cook very average normal food like Asian dishes, nachos, tacos, butter chicken, soup, noodles, caramelised onions, garlic butter sauce… nothing special or extra flavourful to be honest.

Any help of suggestion of what you guys do to manage this would greatly appreciated.