Fishing at Bayswater/Devonport floating platform

Text fishing??

You can have your own quarter at the fishing floating platform

What if a snapper pull my fishing rod into the water? Btw, behind is the northshore bridge which connect north shore with Auckland city centre. It has totally 8 lanes but it is still jam heavily during the rush hour.

Well, it is sunny and nice weather. Good day for fishing, ai? (ok, I am trying to start using kiwi accent :P ) We went to Devonport/Bayswater floating platform and hope to get a grouper or snapper there :D

If you don't know about Devonport, it is located at the north shore of Auckland and definitely a lovely place to stay (price is lovely too...).

In the end, we didn't get any fish though. It seems they don't like the squid as bait. Other fishermen can catch quite many but they use smelly tuna meat as bait.

After finishing the fishing, we went to Torbay and Albany to watch the area as I am thinking of moving there. Good primary school and second school there, but just a bit far away from city centre as the trend of Auckland usually setup the working place in the city centre. I gotta drive 52KM (return included) everyday to work if I stay in Torbay/BrownBay or Albany. However, this is the same distance from my home to my office when I was in KL.

FYI, you should bring a good sun block. Even it is partly cloudy and we started to fish at 3:30pm - 6pm, I got sun tanned (luckily not sun burnt yet ... I am paranoid to sun burn after my serious sunburn at Kotsamui Island many years ago)

New Immigration rules!! darn!

There is a new immigration rules announced which will affect anyone who get work permit after 30 Nov. (I saw this on newspaper) For those who can't earn more than 33700 per annum, the children have to pay international fee (Primary and secondary education included) instead of free education. This will increase the risk of new immigrants as they may want to start low in wages for the first job.

By the way, did I mention .NET developers and Microsoft experts have more job opportunities here? Many large banks use SQL instead of Oracle. Most Oracle DB job I saw are in Wellington (governments). Of course, there are always exception but so far, if I remember it correctly, I never see an Auckland Oracle database job before... Microsoft infra technology such as Exchange, ISA, AD are even more dominant in this area. Java is slightly less demand than .NET but it is still good enough.

House price is increasing after 1 year of slumping, houses are sold like hot cakes (this may explain why so many house agents own wonderful ships for weekend relaxganza). By 400k, you can get quite a nice landed house in a good area. 500k can be in high-end area already, but you will work your socks off to the bank here for sure... However, I don't think we can get a landed house in KL for 500k (dollars to dollars). Wages here is more than Malaysia. A Linux engineer can earn 5k per month (but tax is higher than KL, for my tax bracket is average 21% vs 30% here). Interest rate is about 6% in Malaysia, NZ is about 6.5% - 9%!!! (when economy is good, interest could be crazy to fight inflation)

Permanent Job offered.

I have gone thru quite a few interviews within this month and successfully land a permanent job! (Another headache started as I need to get a car now... BMW...CLK...some European sporties start flowing on top of my head but I shouldn't do this, my logical right brain told me to get a cheap and economic car until it is more stable.)

I have recently been offered as a Data analyst/developer doing the MS SQL and some development work in Java. This should be fine for me. An opportunity in KL which is quite a very senior role is in progress. The pay of this NZ job is quite low (if compare to my contract job but hey, it is permanent and the contracted company doesn't seem good since they still couldn't get hold the project and still owning my wages!!). Honestly, the position is opened for 2-3 years experience developer but I still go for it (and spend lots of work on the manager explaining over-qualify is beneficial to the team, not a bad omen). The wages should be able to support myself or another family member. Give it maximum of 3. However, the "Ken" family has a headcount of 4. My wife will need to find a job once she permanently start to station here. My plan is to get the rental in KL to support us while wife is looking for job.

At the same time, I am asked to sign a 1 year contract as the manager told me that I am "over-qualified" for the role and quite risky if I am using this as a stepping stone. I fully understand that because I will do the same if I am the manager. Hiring over-qualified staff is good but the royalty won't be there since their value is actually higher. The risk of losing over-qualified staff is usually high. I haven't signed yet, but I need to see how is the detail and how fair it is to me. We can negotiate here.

Nevertheless, the market unemployment rate is still high. Many people are struggle looking for job but this has little improvement if compare to 4 months ago.

Jobs opportunity

So far, I mostly focus on technical related job. I was lucky to engage in a short term contract job and this opened the opportunities for other jobs. (Kiwi employers like people to have Kiwi experience, the first job is always the hardest).

In term of job market, to be honest, it is not really good at the moment (2009). Many jobs are competed heavily. I recently just applied a job which the agent told me there are 140+ applications. However, I need to keep myself optimistic and positive. Few days ago, I was turned down by a Java developer job even I have 7 years of Java/J2EE experience and certified. The HR manager told me there are 200+ application on this post. I felt I was lucky even I am selected to get interview. Haha I remembered when I hired a system engineer in KL and there were 50+ applications, I already felt it was too much to read....

Kiwi economy is small, there are many jobs are listed in the job sites but many of these jobs could go anytime. I had met a few cases that the agent told me the position was withdrawn and didn't make it thru (after applying and a few exchange with the agent). Agency only attend us if we have a chance to success else they won't entertain us since they usually have several other candidates. I think I am coming at the bad timing, nothing about my skills or skin. I currently still have 1 response going (after ton of application sent out) and hope it can make it to the hire company and success from the competition. Miracle please!!!!!!!

Nevertheless, I got to stay positive. This place is good, my allergic has even gone since I came here. Free TV channels here are full HD standard...just the timing to watch Premier League is odd haha

Follow up

Well, the interview went on yesterday seems positive (and hopefully I will be shortlisted). I was applying Java development job but somehow my mixture of software and infrastructure skills caught the IT director's eye. They will employ me (if I am hired) with a probation period of 1 week (if compare to Malaysia 3 months or 6 months) to see if I can deliver my tasks and the ability to merge into the company culture. I think it is fair enough.

After getting more settle down here, I start to miss my family and friends back in Malaysia. My parents who is always there when I feel vulnerable, my 2 cute little sisters <(^_^)<, my pretty wife, my prince and princess, the dudes who spend the weekend with me doing guy things...bah. I really miss them :( Really. 

I need to find a job and secure it. I strongly believe I can do it.

Mission bay and One Tree Hill Scenario Raid

Well, NZ is famous for the weekend quality of life. We went to Mission Bay, which is located at the east of Auckland, and it is one of the most expensive property area (can compare to Devanport in North Auckland). People just sitting there, watch the beautiful scene, play remote helicopter/airplane, kiting, dating (I am alone.... sigh sigh).

One Tree Hill has a huge park, people just jog/cycling/walking in the park there. On top of the hill, there is a monument there. Cornwall park is providing free fire wood and BBQ stove. 

Auckland Food Show

Eatting out in Auckland can cost you a bomb. Really, go to food court in shopping mall could cost you $11-12 (1 plate of food + 1 drink). So, I usually cooked at home so that I can test the freshness of the food here :)

I followed friends to go to the Auckland food show and bought some food there. See the Tuna steak? It cost me $10.81 for that (it is actually 3" thick)

My place, my broadband and my food

First of all, I rent a room in west auckland which has a distant about 30 min walk to the west harbour ferry station ($12 single trip to down town, return ticket is $20, you can buy monthly ticket which will be cheaper). There is a bus stop just outside the house, so it is quite ok in term of the transport (bus ride to town center is $7.50, pretty expensive huh?). This house has a really good view (see the picture yourself). I really feel I am 10 years younger hahaha fresh air everywhere.... by the way, it is winter now. The temperature is around 6-12 degrees at night. Not bad if compare to Kansas (-8 or worst hehe) where I studied my degree 4 years there.

First thing to sort out...

Recalling my flight from MAS to auckland on 16 July, it was 9pm Malaysia time and reach here around 7am Malaysia time next day. Not that bad, board the aircraft, sleep, wake up and the plane is ready to descend....

Ok, here is what I done once I touched down here.

I went to buy a sleeping bag because I don't bring a duvet here. It isn't that expensive, it cost me around 49 dollars. Then I went to buy a prepaid vodafone card ($35) and open the back account. The bank rules is quite confusing, everything you got charged if you use the counter service. Anyway, I intent to use the internet banking more. The bank required my NZ address and phone number and opening the internet account for me.

The bus here is quite expensive though. I spent $4.3 going in a distance from cheras to KL single trip. I used to hear that things are expensive here, suprisingly, it isn't that expensive. May be due to the recession, every retailer goes on sale everyday.

In the land of the long white cloud!

wow! I was impressed here. Really, fresh air, suitable food, impressive house (ok, I rented quite a good house, but it is a bit far from CBD).

And I went to Murawai beach yesterday, it was really jaw dropping scene. I will put some photos once I get it. Still busy sorting out my broadband application.

Btw, broadband here is more expensive than KL. It also has limit of data exchange. I am getting 3GB per month one, once my use more than 3GB, vodafone will charge my credit card (malaysian one...) for NZ$10 for another 3GB. ok, I can live with it. (in case someone would like to know the price of the bb, ok, 3GB package cost me around 75 per month (or 80... sorry i forget but it should be around there)

I will post some settling thing such as phone, bank tips etc once I sort out my bb. Starbuck here bb isn't free. I spend NZ$3 for 1 hour...it has 1 min left.

Stay tune.


* As at 2014, NZ broadband price is quite good now. You can't compare it to USA/Japan/Korea though *

29 April 2009 - Flight Booked!

Ok, the journey will begin on 16 July 2009. Flight booked. Select MAS because it only cost me RM 886 only!!!! After seeing the price and comparing it to AirAsia>AirNZ or SIA options, I decided to use MAS because I love Malaysia .... hmm I admit the price could be the main reason.

20 April 2009 - NZIS set my final date to arrive NZ

Finally, NZIS sent the notification to me that I must arrive NZ before 20 July 2009. After all this time and effort that have been spent onto this, I started to feel the next "BIG" change of my life. It became real and start to feel hesitate to let go my current status qua. The job, the social status, the friends, the work connection network, the family etc..... all of these were occupying my mind every moment. However, I still can remember my most respected man (aka my dad) encouragement, "Man should put your mind at the globe level!" I know how he felt last time when he chose to stay in Sabah instead of his dream to go to Canada.

I strongly believe, god will give me the best option for my life and my family. I will continue my old man destiny and show him that his son can do it!

27 Feb 2009 - WTR approved!

WTR invitation arrived! OMG, I was so busy in my job and I already forgotten my NZ application. Now, I am bond with a contract until end of 2009 and the world economic is getting worst everyday, and even NZ economy is slipping fast. I was getting extreme pressure over this. I have a car to sell, I am doing pretty well in my current job and have a family to feed….well, people said I am always optimistic so I decided to give it a go! kakaka



Here is the the WTR approval:





Ever since I submitted my EOI, I started to browse a few NZ websites almost every night which I believe it would help me to know the country more. Below websites are extremely valuable for anyone interested to go to the Land of the White Long Cloud :)

1) http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ - The official immigration website. Submit EOI here.
2) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ - News from NZ
3) http://www.emigratenz.org/ - The best emigration website for NZ. Extremely useful.