Norman, the inspiration for this site!

Since August 2009 when a Norman McKenzie, director of web design company Meta Solutions suggested to me that I create a “blogging” website for my business I have published a continual stream of blogs, most designed to give business owners the heads up on things to think about within their business, others were funnier blogs about my observations coming from the eyes of a customer and more recently my blogs were the only thing that kept me focused on my business through the most devastating natural disaster to hit our city in over a century.

When this site was first created, I doubted the wisdom of Norman, I didn’t “really” think I had it in me to continue writing, but he identified something within me that I hadn’t identified myself …. the level of passion I have for what I do!  The excitement I still get from putting out information, I believe will help others in business help make their life just that little bit easier, is always there and increases when my readers interact by leaving comments or sending me emails.

The blogging journey started off by launching a couple of blogs per week for the first couple of months, talking about marketing and how businesses can really refine their message to their target market by understanding the 5 principles of marketing, the feed back in the early days was limited and when I look back at the content, it was not as good as some of the later articles but it did put our website at the top of the main search engines for most marketing inquiries – they did their job.

One of the single most popular blogs I wrote was titled When The Journey Is Better Than The Destination, it was a more humorous blog about a weekend trip across the alps in New Zealand and what we faced at the end of it, during the trip we learned that New Zealand has it’s very own Rambo …….

From a business point of view the most well received blogs that had my inbox running on over time were Where Is Your Time Going? which talks about the modern day time vampires of business, the internet! Sales Rep or Account Manager? which highlighted to many that there was indeed a difference between the two and depending on the sales objectives of the business would very much influence the decision as to which would be right for the job.  Coping With Adversity was written after the biggest earthquake, a magnitude 7.1 hit Canterbury on September 4th 2010 and was intended to help local business owners keep focused on their business to ensure it was ready to trade as soon as the local economy started to pick itself up again.  This article had comments and emails from all over the world, from business owners who had experienced disasters like floods and tornado’s.

The most important blogs I have written since the creation of this site was the Christchurch Earthquake series – A Business Mentor’s Story, this series began after the earthquake of the 22nd February 2010 a 6.3 magnitude quake that brought our central city to it’s knees and left nearly 200 people dead.  From that day, we had no work for 6 weeks as business owners fought for their own survival and then the survival of their businesses.  To drag me out of my own dark place, I decided to write about what we (my family and I) were going through with a commitment to my readers that I would talk about what I, as a business mentor and coach, will be doing to rebuild my business, in a hope that I can inspire other business owners along the way to do the same.  This series went worldwide, with emails and comments coming from all over the world, all with words of support or sharing of their own similar experiences, this series kept me accountable and very definitely saved our business.

In my mind, the advice I received from Norman that day, in July 2009 was the best advice I think I received for my business, blogging is indeed a very powerful tool, ideal way of keeping your clients and followers up to speed with principals and experiences that can enhance their own business, of course it is also a great tool for ensuring the search engines know your site exists and ultimately blogging lets potential clients get an understanding of how you think and gives them a good indication of the level of experience you have within the industry, giving you the best chance of converting any inquiries for your services into paying work.

Where will the next two years take us, who knows, but two things are for sure, the earthquakes and their aftershocks will decrease and the economy will grow and we will definitely be around to experience both!!

It’s Monday morning and I have a car insurance renewal policy sitting in my in-tray awaiting my attention from AMI (yes I am going to name this company ).  This year is not like the rest because I introduced my car into my business just prior to Xmas, so I thought I would do the honest thing and let my insurers know, thats when the fun began.

“How often will you need you vehicle for your business?” the friendly voice on the other end of the phone asks.  ”Typically I will require the car for at least 4 days each week” I reply.  At that point I get told, yes you will need commercial cover.  The lady at the other end of the phone then goes and works out how much my new premium will be ………….. wait for it …………………. wait for it ………………….I hope you are sitting down ……………….. an extra $250.00!!!

That equated to an increase of over 50% – for the same car, driven in the same town, by the same driver!!

Being of the Scottish persuasion, you can image how much this upset me, $250!!  Please explain to me why this is, I am likely to average only 8,000km per year (thats 10,000km less than the previous year when I used it for personal use), I will only be driving around Christchurch and it is likely to sit in my garage for at least 2 but more likely 3 days each week (again, unlike last year, when it was probably used almost every day!!).

The reason it is more expensive is that you NEED it for your business, unlike a residential vehicle where the owner is likely to be able to take alternative forms of transport if their car is off the road, like a bus.  So what you are saying is, for an extra $250 I will be covered by you for the supply of a temporary vehicle if my work one is damaged and needs fixing?  No apparently that is extra still, I would need to pay another $50 over and above the $250 for that service and even then I would have to pay $30 per day for the car.  Really, am I the only one that has a problem with this?

So to summarise, going on the mileage I have recorded in my driver log book, this year I will be driving approximately 10,000km less, I wont be driving my car to places like Akaroa, Hanmer, down to the In-laws in Ashburton (now thats risky!! ) or any other tourist destination where it is likely to get pranged.  It will be sitting in my garage for 43% of the week, oh and my no claims bonus is no longer protected (as it was last year) all for an extra $250!!

Come on AMI, for an Insurance company that prides themselves on being 100% Kiwi owned, you really have little clue or respect for all those smaller business operators out there doing their bit for themselves and our society.  It’s too easy to hide behind the word “commercial”, when really many of us smaller sized businesses that require a vehicle to get from A to B (as opposed to requiring a vehicle to deliver goods or perform contracting work) are of no more risk to you than the average family car.

If you are going to insist in hiding behind that word “commercial” then at least ensure you are actually giving something of value back to your customers, if I had been told I would have a rental car made available to me when my car was off the road, I could almost justify the cost difference and not have this awful feeling of being ripped off by some mindless large corporate institution!!

Not that I’m trying to make excuses for my [then] foul mood but my day started at some god awful time in the morning around 4.30am when my [normally] wonderful 8 week old son wakes me up with a couple of good ear splitting screams, apparently he was getting all pissy because mum interrupted his early morning breakfast to wind him – mental note mum – DON’T interrupt our son when he’s feeding, like his father he gets rather upset – it’s a blokey thing!!!

Anyway, I manage to get another couple of ours before getting up to get on with the usual Saturday chores, you know the ones, washing, hoovering, gardening (grass cutting week this week) and oh yes almost forgot the dreaded supermarket shop!!  Now in days not long past my wife and I would go and do the food shopping together, neither of us liked the job but we would often have a laugh when we both went but since little Lachlan arrived into this world and mum has been recovering from that traumatic arrival it has been down to me to get the food.

Trolley tunnel vision!!

It’s early afternoon (mistake number one), what was I thinking, every man and his dog (sorry, I should say every granny and her trolley) are out shopping at this time of day, but it would be okay I brought along my MP3 player, yes that’s right people I have an MP3 player I have up until now resisted buying an iPod although I have to say I would love an iPhone … sorry I deviate … focus!  So I put on my MP3 player (mistake number 2) and march into the super market like a man on a mission, I grab a trolley but unbeknown to me it has a dodgy front wheel, had I not had my music on I would have realised this straight away cause it was the one with the proverbial squeaky wheel and it stuck intermittently!!

I get through the fruit and veg section at the start, turn into the second aisle, nothing, no fizzy drinks, no just juice, no V8 fruit and veg juice (it’s nice try it!!), I’m thinking great, it’s a busy Saturday afternoon and some idiot has decided to re-merchandise the store, hello, someone needs to take my course on Prioritising Your Day because a big re-merchandising move on one of the busiest days of the week really is not a priority!!!

All was not lost I found what I was looking for on the next aisle, but what used to be there, oh no I can’t remember I knew at this point I was going to forget things and there was no way my wife was going to believe they changed the store round (the fact that the shopping list was still on the fridge was definitely going to work against me), never mind press on.

Now I often look at the younger generation and think, your ears are going to be shot by the time you’re my age why?  They all, almost without exception walk round in their own little world with there music blasting in their ears and now I know how that felt, it was okay, I’m walking down the baked bean aisle and I’m hoping I’m not singing out load “… down at the bottom of a pit in a blazing storm, torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike…” (10 points if you can name that song!!) when I hear something for a split second I was going to dismiss it but that little voice in my head is shouting “pay attention”, I remove one of my ear pieces and this little old lady is trying to have a conversation with me, “have you found the tinned soup” she says, what tinned soup, don’t you know the best bit of the song is coming up, can’t you see I have things plugged into my ears which means go away I ain’t in a good mood!! …. “yes, they’re back there on the left” I said all the while my MP3 player is screaming “…. and I think some body, some where must be towing a bell…” (got it yet!).

Coming through, get out of my way!!

I plug myself in having helped the old lady, feeling good that I helped her, feeling bad that I found her annoying and on I went, on to the aisle with the pasta, now parents listen up, if you think your child can drive a trolley and you let them, for crying out load keep an eye on them because tired, grumpy fathers pushing dodgy trolleys will mow them down like a rugby player, shunt them out the way or at the very least catch their heels!!  There is just no need to be taking up an entire aisle whilst you are deciding to go for twisted or shell shaped pasta!!

Several aisles later it’s getting to the end of my song, it’s building up to its finale “…like a bat out of hell I’ll be gone when the morning comes ..” (yes I know you knew), I’m thumping away lost in the moment when yet again, the same little old lady asks me something, I’m thinking, what’s wrong with you woman, can’t you see I am building up for the songs finale, cant’ you see I ….. steady, she just needs your help; “have you seen the bread son?”, bugger me she’s right I have come to the end of my shop and there is not a loaf in site, what is going on!!!  I replied “no sorry I haven’t maybe it is next to the bakery?” a logical place you might be thinking, but not in this store (normally) but today it WAS next to the bakery, right back at the entrance to the store , so off I trot back to the beginning trying to get through the till queues, they are like the Christchurch drivers, no-one ever gives way, sorry I wont get started on that subject!!!

I manage to get my bread, get through the tills and home, and yes I forgot my wife’s yoghurt for her cereal!!!

My therapy session since has gone well

Faster Broadband, Bring It On

I feel the need to have a bit of a vent!!  I am sure I am not the only person on this planet that has bought a plug ‘n play item that quite frankly doesn’t quite hit the mark and leads to some serious disappointment.

This little yarn begins when I decided to jump ship from Slingshot to Telstraclear to take advantage of their fibre network with faster and more reliable broadband.  This was particularly important for two reasons, firstly I work from home and I need a good consistent broadband platform to do a lot of my research and secondly (and just as important) I am an on line gamer, I thoroughly enjoy my time blasting and shooting things and other people on line it’s a great stress relief.

So here I am waiting for the big day to arrive, the installer comes in and plugs our house into the fibre loop which will give me 3 times faster down load speeds and 4 times faster upload (especially important for my gaming requirements).  Just before he leaves he tells my my old router wont cut the mustard and I will need a new one, he tells me what I need and I happily go off to the shops and by a new one.

On my return I rip the packaging to pieces in my haste to get the system set up, once it is set up (which was easy) I had to load some software onto my laptop to access the router and set up the network.  Everything went according to plan, I did my speed test, wella I have faster broadband yippeee!!  I hooked on my wifes laptop to the network that to worked straight away, I know what your thinking what’s your problem everything is working well ………. and yes I agree it was right up to the point when I switched on my Xbox!!

Four days later I finally get on to the Xbox, it’s Wednesday night, Xbox night, the night a group of us jump on line and create mayhem and carnage but it would eventuate not for me, at least not for the first 2.5hrs!!!

I appreciate that my internet connection was working, but in this day and age when gaming on line is taking over the world why oh why is there no instructions or recommendation on how to configure your router for gaming!!

Now there is a little feature called a NAT which stands for Network Address Translation and for good gaming connection this NAT setting needs to be on “open” or at very least “moderate” as this will allow you to talk to your friends privately and set up private games if you have had enough of scrapping in the general arena, but what know one tells you is that the ports required to do this are closed by default (this reduces the risk of people hacking into your network) so of course that means you can’t play with your mates aaaargh!!!!

The Fix

The fix took me nearly 3hrs to get right, 3hrs of down game time, not good when you only get one night a week to have a real good blast!!  Now I’m no computer guru, my terminology is likely to be all wrong but I will add a couple of screen shots to try and explain what I did, so here it goes!!

After doing the obvious things like resetting the Xbox360 and switching the modem and the router off more 10 seconds I Googled the problem, man I don’t no what we would do without Google!!  It was not easy to find something relevant but after a bit of perseverance I found an article that looked like it might fit the problem.

1. Access your router through it’s IP address which will look something like 192.168.2.1 (if you double click on your local area connection or wireless connection icon and then click on the Support tab at the top it will tell you what your Default Gateway is, this is the IP address you need)
2. If you have never changed the password hit Enter (this is usually default) otherwise type your password in.
3. I have a Belkin router so I needed to click on  Virtual Servers, here you need to specify a couple of ports to use ONLY on the IP address that your Xbox360 uses, the image below shows what I did:
   

   Don't put in the first setting, it did not work (hence it is not enabled)

4. There is a DMZ setting that can be enabled for the IP address of your Xbox360 only, what this does is places your Xbox360 outside your firewall (this does expose it to potential hackers) but it will remove any problems you have with your on line experience.  Here is an image of this setting: 5.  Save changes and quit, this will ensure that your Xbox360 gaming experience will work smoothly without compromising any other computer on your network.

…… But why can’t these manufacturers put some specific instructions with their product advising gamers that it may be necessary to make these adjustments BEFORE they try and play on line!!

Happy gaming everyone

The definitive explanation of ………..

MARKETING

This will clear up any confusion ……..
You’re a woman and you see a handsome man at a party.
You go up to him and say, “I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome man.
One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, “She’s fantastic in bed.”
That’s Advertising..

You see a handsome man at a party.
You go up to him and get his telephone number.
The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Telemarketing.

You see a man at a party, you straighten your dress.
You walk up to him and pour him a drink.
You say, “May I,” and reach up to straighten his tie, brushing your breast lightly against his arm…
And then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a handsome man.
He walks up to you and says, I hear you’re fantastic in bed.”
That’s Brand Recognition.

You’re at a party and see a handsome man.
He fancies you, but you talk him into going home with your friend.
That’s a Sales Rep.

Your friend can’t satisfy him so she calls you.
That’s Tech Support.

You’re on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome
Men in all these houses you’re passing. So you climb onto the roof of
One situated towards the centre and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!”
That’s Junk Mail.

I hope you all have a complete understanding of Marketing now

….. Politely declining the offer of trying this ab work out for Bruce Lee (now there’s a flash from the past) I explain I’m feeling a bit queasy, he sits me down gets me more water then puts this entire workout to paper just in case I might forget, now you might be thinking the worst is over until I come back tomorrow, well that’s what I thought but boy was I wrong .

Generally I like to think I have an average level of fitness, I’m never going to win a Triathlon but I am certainly fit enough to do what I need to do in a day without breaking sweat, except this day.  I get home wake my wife up (by generally making lots of noise rather than bringing her breakfast in bed!) and stumble into the shower.  Well bugger me, how hard does it need to be to wash my hair, I’m trying to rub shampoo into my flowing locks when both my arms start shaking uncontrollably and the shoulders feel as if they are about to explode, I have to resort to holding one elbow about head height so that the hand attached to the arm of the same elbow can rub the shampoo in and then help to rinse it off, what have I been turned into and I keep saying to myself, I paid $150 for this, they definitely seen me coming.

Anyway I survive the shower, have a plate of cereal and some orange and off I go to work, the rest of the day was just another day at the office but by the end of the day I found it harder and harder to get up and down the stairs by the time I get back home I’m starting to wall like the proverbial old man.  Glad to crawl into bed, I’m thinking a good nights sleep and I’ll be in the gym again tomorrow…..

6.15am the alarm goes off, I turn to switch it off and there is a very uncomfortable feeling shooting through my legs and as I try to get up my legs have already decided to sleep in, they each feel the same weight as that barbell Jamie had me squatting yesterday.  After an hour and a half of moaning and groaning I manage to have a shower and breakfast with the major hurdle of getting my socks on (I’m convinced the training yesterday made my arms shrink or maybe my legs grow longer) taking most of that time.  I have to say it wasn’t all doom and gloom, certainly for Kirsty she thought it was very funny and found the whole episode highly amusing!!

Should be free with every Gym Membership!!!

It happened on this day I had to do a bit of traveling, the first leg of the journey took 1.5hrs and by the time I got to my destination I was in trouble, I can’t remember the last time my body was in this state but when I tried to get out of the car I had to pick my legs up and swing them out one at a time, all I needed was a seat that swivels and then tips so I could roll out and that was the way the rest of the day went.  I swear I could have gotten away with parking in the disabled areas!!

For three more days I had to wait before my body came back to normal, five days in total, hell at this rate I’ll only need to go to the gym once a week, but I don’t think it will do anything for a shrinking belly!!!

I guess if I have learnt anything from this experience it is that someone will pay whatever they to and do stupid things if they are motivated enough and of course I have learnt the limits of my body in the gym!!  A week later doing only have the routine each morning I have managed to survive so here’s hoping the body is over the worst, and here’s hoping the belly starts shrinking!!

Now let me explain something, it’s not that I’m competative by nature (friends wipe that smirk off your faces!) but my gorgeous wife is pregnant and in the early days of the pregnancy she only put on a small amount of weight and very little on the tummy; being the supportive husband that I am I felt the need to go out in sympathy with her and grow my own tummy.

The problem I was having was I was winning the race, couldn’t believe how easy it was, hold up on the excercise add a chippy once a week and add the odd Big Bikki (ginger crunch flavour – hmmm yum!) most working days and wella 10kgs later I over take Kirsty (by 8kg’s).  To stop these alternative thoughts you may be having, I am no Thomas Beatie (truth be said, Thomas Beatie really isn’t Thomas Beatie – for those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, google the name!!) but I was starting to look like it.

Being in my late 30′s and obviously thinking about having a mid life crisis (not that I’m any where near my mid life of course!!) it started getting to me that I could no longer fit into my work trousers, I looked like one of them tourists with their bum bag around their waste and my shirt buttons are starting to strain so having proved my point that I can win anything if I put my mind to it I phoned up my friendly council gym, Pioneer Leisure Centre and booked one hour with an instructor to give me a weight loss program.

Having blamed my work for not getting to the gym in the early evening and being freshly motivated I booked this appointment for 6.30am as this was going to be my new training time I drive the two minutes to the gym (come on, what do you mean lazy, I need my energy for the work out!!) and I am met by Jamie, towering head and shoulders over me and very obviously an active person waiting patiently to put me through my paces.  Being the Scottish individual that I am, I went in their to get as much out of the session as I could, after all I had just paid a small fortune for the next 3 months, at this point all I’ll say is “be careful what you wish for!!”.

What a site at 6.30am !!!

Having asked me whether I prefer weights or cardio machines and my answer being weights, he puts me on a cardio exercise program with not an exercise bicycle or cross trainer in site and he appeared to be excited at the prospect (I’m sure all personal trainers are reincarnated Drill Sergeant’s).  So the exercise begins, first off Fat Man Chin Up’s a very PC term for an exercise that is like a reverse bench press followed immediately by push ups until failure and let me tell you failure inevitably ends up with your face planted in the floor, great look!!  This then is followed swiftly by squats and lunges, at this point the cardio has kicked in, gone into over drive, my heart is looking for a way to get home with out me and my lungs seem to think they need to be twice the size ……………….. bugger me I’m only half way through!!!

At this point Jamie is looking incredibly pleased with himself, I am starting to see how it is that he can get up at this awful time of the day, I would to if I could watch over weight 30 somethings thinking they are 20 somethings try to look as if they can cope with what you’re throwing at them (hmm maybe I was a Drill Sergeant in a past life).  Anyway I degress, off now to punish the shoulders, then go back to squats (no weight, except my weight) mixed with step ups on a rather large step, bugger me here’s my heart again frantically trying to escape but this time my lungs have given up the ghost and are following my heart out the door, then Jamie says “what do you normaly do for your abs” christ I thought, the worst is still to come.  I take a minute to run off to the water fountain to give myself a well earned rest just to come back to Jamie lying on the floor holding a barbell arms extended (as if he was half way through a bench press) when he lifts his feet off the ground and starts dropping his legs to the side, when I’m watching this I am thinking of one thing only will I spew over him or run off to the toilets, I wasn’t feeling flash at all!!!

Politely declining the offer of trying this ab work out for Bruce Lee (now there’s a flash from the past) I explain I’m feeling a bit queasy, he sits me down gets me more water then puts this entire workout to paper just in case I might forget, now you might be thinking the worst is over until I come back tomorrow, well that’s what I thought but boy was I wrong ………..

The second part of this little yarn will be published next week see you then!!

It had been snowing intermittently during the previous two weeks so we were looking forward to lots of snow capped mountains.  We had asked a couple of friends to come along to as not only was this going to be a good relaxing break it was also the week we let everyone know that Kirsty was pregnant and we were expecting our first child.  As it was our friends couldn’t manage but hell we were going to enjoy ourselves anyway.

Early on the Saturday morning the train trundles out of Christchurch, not the prettiest of cities from the train, but hey were we worried, no, within minutes we could see the first of the snow capped mountains, the sky was blue, the sun was shinning, it was going to be a good day.

Once we hit the first of the mountains the conductor tells us that some spectacular views of the Waimakariri river was coming up and hinted that you would not be disappointed if you made your way to the viewing carriage.  Being the budding photographers that we are (not) we put on our winter jackets and headed for the viewing platform, bloody hell was it cold, within seconds I looked like Rudolph, within the minute my nose was running the London marathon and to top it off I couldn’t see a bloody thing because were one of the last to get there!!  We came back to our seats, not being able to feel our faces and finding it incredibly difficult to talk (those of you who know me might be slightly surprised by this statement but hey, that’s what -10C wind chill factor will do to you!!) but we saw the sights all the same, I may not be able to share them with you now but they are still well entrenched in my personal archives.

Time for a high tea, nothing beats a good cup of tea and warm scones, jam and cream on a cold day, we continued for the next 15-20mins getting warm and feeding our face, oh and checking out the incredible view!!

Cass the real home of Rambo

We came through Cass where the conductor tells everyone about it’s sole resident, Rambo, apparently he keeps the lines clear, you can imagine I had this muscle bound Italian with ammo belts strapped to his chest blasting the shit out of anything that lay across the tracks.  Interesting enough he was featured on Close Up (I think) a couple of weeks later, I have to say I was disappointed he was a grey haired older gentleman and really quite ordinary (I preferred my version!!).

We trundle on towards Arthurs Pass through some low lying fog which, when the sun started to get through reminded me from a scene on my Xbox when I’m taking on Zombies ……  Sorry didn’t mean to break the idyllic scene, but it really was eerie.

Kirsty & Me at Arthers Pass

We get to Arthurs Pass; we get off to stretch our legs for five minutes, just enough time for some of the passengers to suck on their cancer sticks and enough time for us to get cold ears and noses again.  There was lots of snow, the kids on the train were all having snowball fights and we managed to find a nice person to take our photo together.

Back on the train and we go through the longest tunnel in NZ, obviously not much I can report here, it was dark, but hey at least we can say were went through it.  Out the other side we are surrounded by the almost tropical vegetation of the West Coast, no snow here, just lots of greenery and water falls.

The train makes one more stop in Moana on the shore of Lake Brunner where the couple sitting at our table disembark.  A wee while later we pull into Greymouth, yeah Greymouth, the place we were going to spend the next 24hrs.

Once we picked up our luggage we checked into our hotel, we deliberately chose one near the station as Kirsty was getting tired quite quickly so we didn’t want to be walking too far.  The hotel we booked into was one of the biggest in the town and part of a bigger group so assumed it would be quite good, eh wrong!!!  Other than the 2009 newly fitted lift it was definitely stepping back into the late 70’s early 80’s but they get away with it, why, it’s close to the station and there was quite a few of us checking in off the train.

Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to walk into the town centre (1 block away!) and see what we could find to eat.  We found a pub restaurant nearby, the food was good and reasonably priced, so we ate our fill and decided to do a bit of shopping (window shopping at the very least), well bugger me if all the shops weren’t shut.  2pm on a Saturday afternoon and the place is like a ghost town with Paperplus, Dick Smiths and an “alternative” shop being the only things open, it was like stepping back in time by 20yrs.

What a let down, what are you supposed to do in Greymouth if you do not have a car, I suggest to you nothing, for what its worth we went back to the hotel so that Kirsty could have a sleep, all the walking around was making her tired.  There we stayed until tea time; we decided to go out for tea (so we could have another walk) and went to the Speights Ale House.  When we got there we were told a table would be available in 30mins, we put our name down and went to the bar for a drink.  45mins later we asked how close we were to getting a table, they sat us down almost immediately, took another order of drinks and on return with these drinks they tell us we may have to wait another 45mins!!!  Apparently the problem was they had a private function and the kitchen couldn’t cope, I don’t know much about running a restaurant but I would have thought the kitchen should be able to cope even if all the tables had someone sitting at them, apparently I am wrong because the general dining part was almost empty and the kitchen still couldn’t cope!!

Anyway we eventually received our meals, mine didn’t taste that flash and Kirsty chose a chicken dish which was not that warm (anyone who has been or is pregnant will tell you not to eat it for fear of food poisoning and seriously affecting the baby).  So after a wonderful trip, a boring afternoon we end up with a disappointing meal.

To me Greymouth has a wonderful opportunity to capitalise on a captured audience but quite frankly they don’t, I’m sure there must be a way of squeezing more dollars out of the tourists who decide to spend a night in Greymouth but what that would be who knows.

A classic example of the journey being better than the destination; the next time we do this trip, and we will because it is stunning, we’ll get off at Moana and hire a batch at least the place is stunning to look at and there are plenty of walks and a big lake to play on!!