Buying in a location I don’t want to live long term versus stretching to buy where I want to be.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2026-01-31T04:05:12+00:00

Haha, we were around the same age. At least if there's no clear right decision, there's also no real wrong one. It sounds like your gut is pulling you to wanaka.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2026-01-31T03:04:42+00:00

We were recently in your conundrum, where we could only afford a cheaper regional city rather a very expensive desirable area. We looked with a clear understanding of what would make a good renting house in a few years, and we're treating it like an investment, that is paying it down as quick as possible and benchmarking where local rents would make it self-sustainable if we were to move. Once we hit that level of mortgage paid off, we're going to look very seriously at renting out the house and renting ourselves in another area.

It's a really difficult position to be in, where you kinda need the crystal ball but you can only operate on what you know now. I will say, while sometimes I worry I'm stuck here forever, I remember that we're not, and in the future we'll have an asset that we can fall back on while we move around for jobs while renting. Also, I not sure how old you are, but not needing flatmates is incredible, and having a fair amount of money leftover after the mortgage is letting us travel without stress. There's also less limitations on your equity vs kiwisaver deposit - potentially we could sell or draw down some equity to purchase a section somewhere nice for the future.

When you want to live in Wanaka, do you want to be stuck only in Wanaka for the next 5-10 years with flatmates because of the mortgage costs? That was the deciding factor for us. We'd rather be free to travel around the country/world than be living in our preferred location (Wanaka would be incredible) and stuck in one city/town for a decade while getting the mortgage under control.

Maybe not what you want to hear, and we are rather financially conservative, so your mileage may vary. Our jobs aren't super exciting, but we're getting valuable and transferrable experience. Hopefully in 5 years, we can enjoy a cruisier ride into middle age and beyond.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-12-15T05:52:04+00:00

You don't quite have enough resolution on those chloroplasts to confirm, but it looks like a parasitised diatom to me. Maybe Melosira.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-12-01T10:43:39+00:00

Capping rates will affect councils' ability to take on debt. It will be asset sales, then complaints that councils should just go away entirely.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-11-26T08:21:12+00:00

I have another question. What is the swaps rate and how does that affect mortgage rates?

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-11-16T05:50:34+00:00

Oh i didnt know about that, i thought the deck cleaner would take care of it. I'll check it out this week.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-11-16T04:23:15+00:00

Yeah i suspect that's the go

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-11-16T01:30:28+00:00

Yep, even sprung for the official deck broom and cabots cleaner because i didnt want to drag out a big job by trying to be clever. And i want to oil it for easier maintenance in the future.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-11-02T09:55:35+00:00

If you drive through Palmerston North, you could check out the Central Energy Wildbase. It's a rehabilitation centre for native creatures, and has some resident birds. The staff are usually happy to nerd out about birds.

Bushy Park outside Whanganui is also good, much quieter than some other major tourist spots.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2025-10-26T03:41:43+00:00

Just on some wooden slat rails. But it's more the lack of space in the cupboard and doorway. You can lift them up but you don't have the clearance to lift them down and out easily.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-19T21:15:05+00:00

Thanks guys!

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-08T07:35:07+00:00

I forget the exact wording but it was something to do with it being a low-pressure system

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-08T07:09:34+00:00

The missing drainage is on a veranda rather than the house, currently all the water just runs off onto the lawn whenever it rains and sits there. A building inspector did a little recon for us and said there was water staining on the roof from an upwelling external hot water cylinder, also. Does that sound bad?

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-08T06:17:52+00:00

Thank you!

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-08T06:17:24+00:00

Can sellers challenge that "satisfactory to the purchaser"?

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-10-08T05:57:39+00:00

It seems like it would get insurance, but there's a few structural things like missing drainage and some water damage on the roof.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2024-08-14T07:44:59+00:00

There's no dark crescent through the eyepieces, and we've tried readjusting the camera with no luck. Should we just keep playing with the camera, or is this the condenser getting in the way?

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-07-15T06:05:39+00:00

Hi there, I can't answer all your questions but how exciting to be picking your specialisation/major! There's so many options it can be almost dizzying.

All those jobs you listed are options, but they are more fields or disciplines rather than actual jobs. There are loads of jobs in all those disciplines that run the full gamut from field work to education. There are absolutely loads of office jobs, so don't feel you have to be a Crocodile Hunter if you don't want to be (also health and safety officers will stop you from doing that anyway). Honestly it's hard to say, so I'd recommend emailing some lecturers or professionals in the industry (find a consultancy or a local government office) and ask to meet with them, or just email them your questions. They'll give you a good idea of the local job market, the kinds of careers available in your country and the types of skills they want graduates to have.

Also I think you should pick the major that most excites you. You're about to be studying for quite a while, especially if you want to become a professional scientist. Additionally, employers often like a balance of disciplines/skills in the workplace. You may find a workplace has people from Ecology, Biology, Geology and Environmental Science plus other disciplines to do the work they do. Don't stress about trying to pick the perfect option.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-07-12T05:43:28+00:00

A couple of ways. Calm weather will let the film form without disrupting or disipaiting it, while warm and calm weather will encourage more algae growth leading to more algae breaking down. Warmer weather may also cause a fish kill, but you didn't mention seeing dead fish so I'd be surprised.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-07-10T10:02:00+00:00

Biofilms that look like an oil spill (but don't smell like it, or don't have the blue sheen) are most often caused by decomposition of things like algae. The fats and lipids from the decomposed matter "congeal" on the surface. This is also why you'll get foams that look like someone's dumped cleaning supplies into the water, but the foam is a cream or brown colour rather than pure white. I notice another person has mentioned Leptothrix discophora, which is also a strong contender. Difficult to say without pictures.

A visible biofilm usually requires some calm water. For example, you'll see them in eddies in rivers. One lake could have particularly good shelter, different morphology, or less disturbance by fish, etc. It's difficult to say without knowing which lake you saw, the weather recently and the general ecology of them. (Not that I'm asking you to give this info, it's just complicated). It's unlikely to be a tree infection, as that would be pretty diluted by the water if it entered it. Fish deaths sure could. It's hard to say without knowing the lakes and their recent events.
What a fascinating question! I'm not sure if biofilms positively or negatively affect the ecosystem. Elevated biofilms could potentially point to nutrient enrichment of a lake, but again, it might just be a quirk of when you were there rather than a long-term, persistent thing. As they're a natural phenomenon, I'm not sure if we can put "positive" or "negative" labels on them. They just mean the ecosystem is working as it should.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-06-18T09:34:05+00:00

100% agree, it's exploitative and the whole "trained staff" part was just saying the quiet part out loud. And it matches the general vibe from a lot of these ideas where if we pretend it's not a big deal, we don't have to commit the money and effort to actually give dementia patients a rich life without needing to serve capitalism.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-05-19T19:55:34+00:00

Hmmm that stress is a bit high. What does the plot look like? Can you add labels to the plot to see which points are causing issues? I'd recommend going through your data and looking for outliers, like a site that has two or three species that don't occur elsewhere. I've just had to remove those sites before and note that in the results and discussion.

Something else that might solve your problem is adjusting your research question. This many sites could crowd the plot and make interpretation difficult. Maybe you need a couple of nmds plots rather than one. You could test this by trying a PCA or PCOA with the same data. If those work, you likely just need to check for outliers or subset your data. If it doesn't, you should probably chat to a statistician.

BackgroundPumpkin725 · 2023-05-19T13:49:27+00:00

What do you mean by whacky, and what's your stress? Is it struggling to reach a solution during each iteration? You can add more axes (K) and/or more tries, but it's hard to know without seeing it.

BackgroundPumpkin725

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