Which high school?

How do I put this: I am and am not in NZ at the same time. But I stayed in Auckland.

Qantas from Singapore? Changi is usually quite lenient, if you are transiting from somewhere else (say, Kuching), and assuming you don't start your journey in Singapore, with your hand luggage. I brought in my cabin bag and my laptop bag, no problems.

Prices of computer parts in NZ are a bit higher than Malaysia, and range can be painfully limited (compared to KL's Low Yat) unless you order online. Personally, bring a notebook the 1st time, then when you come back at the end of the year, consider bringing a desktop over (when you don't have to much to carry with you) on the way back.

Yes, I do miss having a desktop.

Christchurch. Please. At least know where youre going.

As wornbook said, I think the only bank which has both branches in Malaysia and NZ is HSBC. I'd second what wornbook said, that is, to go there, and open a normal NZ back account. I love ASB. And their 7.75% interest. Then have your parents transfer the money to your NZ bank account, be it TT or BankDraft.

So if I have/get a IRD number (link here BTW), what do I do with it? And how much less is taxed on your bank interest? The iRD is currently taking close to 30% of my bank interest! *(^&$%#%^^*(&)(*_)&*%&^$&

Limeuu is omnipresent.

This post has been edited by haya: Jan 23 2008, 09:06 AM

50/50 chance. Sometimes customs lets it through, sometimes they'll ask you to chuck it.

You can buy them at Medowlands these days if you're in Auckland.

East of Auckland. South of Howick area.

Throw away. Dispose. Get rid off.

You are seriously going to have some problems in NZ.

Both. And I expect someone who has 3 months break, and knowing the fact he's going to NZ, to brush up his English. If I can find a Taiwanese who will pay me to teach English, what can you say?

Seriously fantagero, 3 months of holiday using the internet, and you still don't know how to use the internet for research. Here's some free advise: stop frequenting forums. Learn something. Like typing "New Zealand broadband" into google. If you bothered to use Wikipedia, you will know that there are only 2 teleco's in NZ. And if you have so much free time, why can't you be bothered to read through this thread?

Forget Screamyx. Forget Maxis Broadband. Learn Number Portability. Vodafone is not just something you see when Man U plays.

No wonder we Asians don't have a good name.

Well, can you make it unsuck on the internet also?

Anyway, to answer your question, all Telecom broadband speeds are "unleashed", meaning it all depends on how far you live from the exchange. If your line sync is 5Mbits, theoretically the fastest you can download within your cap is 500kB/s (note units).

I've never got more than 140kB/s through.

Yes, but must we drop down to their level? Goddammit, we all are going to their country, as a guest.

The thing is, when I go to China, the locals expect me to know Mandarin, to live, to work and get around there. If I go to Japan, even being in Tokyo, English doesn't get you very far. And there are few translation services around. Fair enough. It is their country after all.

While in NZ they treat non-local language speakers relatively well compared to the 2 countries I've mentioned. Can't read your bill? Call for a translation. Cant understand council letter? Call for a translation. And yet, I see these Mainland Chinese come to NZ, send their kids to learn Mandarin. If you treasure your damned Chinese culture/language so much, why come to NZ when you can't adapt to us? We are forced to adapt to your language and culture when we go there!

God, I sound like a redneck typing this out.

Just out of curiosity, loan from where, EmperorMeng?

Completely different circumstances to what most of us Malaysian International students face.

Welcome to NZ! Even in winter some of them wear shorts to go out!

Its not so much the temp but more of the wind chill factor.

Its called Vapor.

Where was the heat when I wanted it in Auckland, and the cold wind when I was in Christchurch?

On another note, who here is using ihug? I just need to know a few things.

Other than Xtra, is anyone here on another ISP?

Vodafone has bought over ihug, ever since the old parent company of iinet let go of ihug.

The reason I'm asking is that ihug has a $50/month fair use plan. When you do the maths, that gives you 20GB of data a month, as long as you don't use more than 2GB a day. Even if you don't bundle, $60/month isnt that bad for 2GB of data a day.

Anyone tried it? I can still remember Xtra's disastrous "unlimited" plan.

Depends. Few houses are totally insulated. Usually its only the bedroom walls that are insulated from the cold, and even then such rooms in most houses aren't that many. Especially if you have a older house. There are also different types of insulation, such as heat insulation, sound insulation (coz their houses are made out of cardboard) etc.

As with regards on how much a house is, it all depends on where you are, how big it is, the location, etc. And how much is it going to cost to insulate the whole house? A LOT.

As for ihug, I was just wondering if anyone was using the said plan. It sounds like a interesting and value for money, and since all HP's are pretty much Vodafone anyway, it might be worth bundling with soon-to-be-vodafone. Just wonder how good is it, how stable is the network, and experience in general.

As I've said in the past, I'm not a big fan of agents. But since you ended up with ascholarship (lucky you), the best way would be to get in touch with IPC directly. That information can be easily found on their webpage. IPC eh? You'll be next to Massey Uni (nice place), and from what I've heard, quite a bit of Japanese there.

<EdLiNa>, what are you studying?

While bringing perencah (spices) over might be a good idea, remember that NZ has strict quarantine laws, so dont be surprised if you cant bring in some stuff. And yes, if weight limit permitting, bring along the small stuff like pens, pencils, pencil lead, files etc frm M'sia, as they are a bit dearer in NZ thanks to the currency exchange. Don't bring over bulky stuff like paper through: its affordable here!


In other news, I've discovered the best way of staying warm(er) in Auckland: live in an apartment with 5 floors above you!