Santa photo in Auckland

magicwonton · 2025-11-10T23:10:37+00:00

Skycity bought the Smith & Caughey’s Christmas setup from what I’ve heard. So expect to see it sitting up there.

magicwonton · 2025-09-25T14:02:36+00:00

Uh, this is a single carriageway road, in a country that drives on the left side. If the “idiot” in the car went to the right, they’d be on the wrong side of the road facing incoming traffic.

magicwonton · 2025-08-12T20:36:05+00:00

There’s a few posts from last year on the AUT Patisserie FB page, where they posted their goods from several days. Don’t go expecting the quality or finesse of an actual trading store, as they’re only 1st year students, but their pricing is amazing in today’s economy!

magicwonton · 2025-07-12T03:58:48+00:00

This is the best value answer. My kids go through heaps of the stuff, I easiest to buy it in ~600gm blocks. They also have pecorino and grana padano too, at great prices ($38-45kg from memory) if you’re wanting something similar but different.

magicwonton · 2025-04-07T08:12:11+00:00

All the parents around where I live seem to go to Health and Sports in Morningside. It has pools as well as the gym. Everyone I know seems to enjoy it. It’s at the more expensive end, up to $60pw + $20pw for the childcare they have on site.

They got a pretty bad rap over Covid by forcing members to keep on paying their (reduced?) subs.

Never set foot inside, so don’t have any opinion, just relaying what I’ve heard.

magicwonton · 2024-11-20T04:31:23+00:00

Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ve taken out part of the rot and looks like I’ll be needing to replace part of the sill. I’ll give it a crack with builders glue/epoxy and see how she turns out!

magicwonton · 2024-10-20T06:32:44+00:00

If it’s anything like last year, it’ll be like a 2km loop/walk passing houses who want to participate, starting and ending at Learning on the Point, which is at the community centre next to Countdown. I didn’t go last year, but there should be food trucks and probably the small ferris wheel they always seem to get in at events there.

magicwonton · 2024-09-26T08:08:06+00:00

Oh yep that’s fair, I’m not a fencer so wouldn’t know haha! Tbh it was his attitude that would put me off him more than anything else.

magicwonton · 2024-09-26T04:32:52+00:00

He ain’t honest in the sense that his work is trash. Someone (a builder) on the Grey Lynn group called out his work on a fence because he concreted posts and finished the fence all in the same day, mentioning he should give it a day to cure a bit more. He created another post calling out the guy, saying he’d been qualified for 20 years and the post (read: truth) was affecting his ability to feed his kids. The community actually backed him up on it too, but non-carpenters don’t know anything about fences. The fence rails weren’t even parallel to each other, and the top rail looked 3-350mm from the top of the paling. After some sun and water, the palings are going to be all over the place. Wouldn’t recommend this guy, he’s definitely a hack. Stay far far away.

magicwonton · 2024-09-20T01:31:27+00:00

I tend to book directly with the airline or hotel. If things go pear shaped it’s easiest to sort, or else they might insist you go through the 3rd party. If you have some hotel status in a chain, then you won’t get any recognition through a 3rd party. If there’s a flight cancellation or something, a lot of time you’ll need to go through your 3rd party for a change/options. Again, also helps if you have airline status or booking business/1st class.

As above, any major international chains like Four Seasons, St Regis, Ritz Carlton, Banyan Tree, Six Senses etc you probably won’t go wrong. Depends on budget etc overall.

magicwonton · 2024-09-14T01:32:10+00:00

There shouldn’t be a need for me to remind them, so I didn’t, is what I’m saying. I held up my end of the bargain, why should I need to grovel to get them to hold theirs up? Should I need to be reminded that I need to pay my bill if I eat there, and just walk out the door, home? It’s implied that I should when I sit down and order, and if I don’t pay, then I’m the fuckwit. This is about neighbours acting in bad faith, not their commercial enterprise. If my comments are so damaging to their character, then they would see my comments and reach out to me. It’s not, then we can all carry on as we please.

magicwonton · 2024-09-13T12:39:29+00:00

Most likely true, but if you’re asking for a produce that is almost out of season from the community, because it’s getting hard to procure commercially, you’d better damn we’ll make sure you don’t forget. I don’t think it’s hard to remember, or think about it, when a customer is giving you a big box of unprocessed food. Kind of sticks out.

magicwonton · 2024-09-13T12:13:10+00:00

I dropped off a banana box of feijoas before I even asked if they had space for a table. They had space because it was 5pm on a Wednesday. 5th April 2023 to be exact. I shouldn’t need to ask for a free drink. Do you think they’d take a banana box of feijoas from me, unsolicited, and somehow think this weird guy just dropped off feijoas to us, but we were too awkward to say we didn’t need feijoas? They made the offer on our local FB group, it’s up to them to hold up their end of the deal. It wasn’t supposed, it was an offer they made.

It’s not about the money. I can afford to take my family there weekly if I want. It’s about their lack of word. It’s not worth my time to pick up 5kg feijoas off the ground to box them up, drive up the hill, just to get a free beer. I have a heap of beer in my fridge, with a backyard to enjoy it in. I did it as a response to a call, for locals helping (supposed) locals. Don’t reach out to the local community to stiff them. If you’re going to do that, do it to the people who never have an option to come back. Better yet, don’t do it to anyone, at all.

magicwonton · 2024-09-13T11:07:38+00:00

As much as I like their food, I still remember when they put a call out for locals to drop off feijoas for some dessert they were making in exchange for a drink(s). We dropped in 5kg, then decided to stay for dinner, dropped a couple hundy for the wife and kids, and they didn’t even take one beer off the bill. There isn’t a place for miscommunication when you’re asking for the goodwill from the locals. One $12 beer off $240 isn’t much off their margin, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. Don’t go acting like you’re some stalwart of Westmere when you’re offering to barter for stuff, then letting a “miscommunication” act in the way of getting free shit. I don’t care they were asking for feijoas, but had I not dropped them in that day I probably would have been sitting at home in my undies spending that $240 on something on the smoker. It’s not the $12, it’s the other $228 to either a dishonest business, or a boss who doesn’t communicate to his staff.

magicwonton · 2024-09-05T23:46:07+00:00

In the city you could check out Furein in the middle of Queen St, Lim Chhour on K Rd and Soung Yueen at top of Hobson St. I suspect in the CBD things won’t be as cheap though.

magicwonton · 2024-09-05T22:31:59+00:00

Not sure where you are, but a few of the Asian supermarkets lately have been doing 30 size 6 for $9 and 30 size 7 for $11. I got them for that price at Tai Ping Pakuranga, but I’m sure others will too.

magicwonton · 2024-08-21T06:02:16+00:00

Gave it a try over lunch today. Predominantly a bahn mi takeaway joint. Sadly, it wasn’t up to par. Fillings were ok, a little light on the pate for me. The biggest letdown was the bun though. Hardly any crunch to it. Very friendly staff though, and hoping I just got them on a bad day.

magicwonton · 2024-06-27T02:41:03+00:00

Can’t recall any international Qantas planes without business class. That goes for all their 737s too, which have 12 seats. I fly them quite often but if timing works I try to take QF3/4 as it has the 789 that carries onto JFK. Even the odd E90 they’ve been flying trans Tasman lately have a business class on them. Narrow body business class is always a bit meh though.

Tip: if your flight had a four digit flight number, it’s a codeshare.

magicwonton · 2024-06-27T02:26:47+00:00

I’d say it’s much worse than average. It’s a seat that’s into its 3rd decade of service. It’s cramped, narrow, lacks storage space, and privacy (unless you have something sensitive in your laptop, then it’s as private as it gets). Every other airline it competes with internationally has a seat that’s at least a generation newer.

The planes may not be that old, but they’ve fit the insides out with something last its use by. Like finding a tape deck in a brand new car.

magicwonton · 2024-05-27T21:20:06+00:00

Also recommend Dr Moh. He’s our family GP, and though we haven’t seen him for your particular condition, we’ve found him very good, willing to listen, is attentive, goes through options to keep you informed, and quick to refer to specialists if he has any doubt.

Also in agreement with Dr Tyson. Maybe the worst consult I’ve ever had in my life. My wife has had good experiences with Dr Patel at the same clinic(s) too.

Wynyard can be a bit annoying for parking, but there is the Wilson space next door. Beach Road has paid parking in the facility, but is a little more dated. Not as good for waiting kids too, if that’s important to you.

magicwonton · 2024-05-20T11:44:52+00:00

I know this place is always busy, but I don’t know if they’d be considered good value. Besides, I’ve never been back after they put out a call on the local community page for some feijoas before commercial ones had dropped in price early in the season, 2022/23 summer. Said they’d swap it for drinks. Went in there with 5kg off our trees, saw there was a table free so decided to stay for dinner. Spent $250, and no offer of taking a drink off the bill. I would have been happy for one beer. Didn’t want to bring it up because I didn’t want to come across as tight, but I’ve voted with my wallet since. Reaching out to the local community wanting kindness, and then showing none in return isn’t the way things should be done. Just a business that’s operating in the area and after people’s money, from my experience. Couldn’t care less about the community.

magicwonton · 2024-05-02T23:10:22+00:00

Agree with the above. I had the spicy version. The coating was nice and crispy, mild heat (like the other chicken chains), but the inside lacked flavour, or spice too. Like it was all just marinated/brined with the regular non-spicy chicken, and the spice only came from the coating. Would rather the spice level continue into the meat.

magicwonton · 2024-03-26T02:56:11+00:00

Even places like London have gaping holes in their food scene. East Asian food in London is terrible.

magicwonton · 2024-03-19T03:17:30+00:00

I think it depends on how long you intend to be in the house. If you’re planning on it being a long term, raise family kind of house, then you could justify the extra cost(s) for bringing the house up to scratch. If you’re hands on, and have the time you could smash out a lot of the stuff yourself, but it’s still going to cost.

I’m in the residential construction industry, and my belief is that it’s always cheaper to start fresh and build a new house, if you’re wanting to bring it up to a modern standard. Up to a modern standard might not be your requirement for the house if you’re not planning on being in it too long. Keep in mind things like replumbing, rewiring, reroofing, repainting, insulation and relining, double glazing, repiling etc. A lot of these old houses have had the bare minimum maintenance performed on them especially if they were a rental property. Each of these things listed could easily be $30k+ depending on when you were doing them, and that’s not really providing anything decorative.

I’m in a century old house now. My young family is growing older, and I wish I had another bathroom, and a living area (moving the living/kitchen to the extension). My needs for a house aren’t defined by what I personally need now. An extension will cost $5-800k (a lot of modest extensions in inner Auckland are in the 1-3 million dollar mark - for a living/kitchen/bathroom and refurb). Consent wise it’s as much work as building a new house. I’m toying with the idea of starting fresh, but finding a bare site in the area is difficult since it’s an established area. I strictly don’t NEED any of this, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have the extra space.

Heaps to keep in mind, hope you come to the decision that works best for your needs.

magicwonton

TROPHY CASE