Napier and FTA

I don't really update my blog as much anymore lately. That's mainly because of uni work that piles up. Well, it doesn't really pile up. It's my habit of procrastinating too much. Surprisingly enough, I don't do that at work though. Perhaps if I see university as more of work it might be different, and who am I kidding but myself.

For this weekend, I went down to Napier to visit some good friends of mine. They moved down there at the beginning of the year. The flattest place I've ever driven on, that's for sure. They have what they call a 'surf beach' with only a 1 foot swell (or less) much to my disappointment, but I did enjoy my time there. Wine tasting, cheese tasting... tasted the BEST coffee I've ever had in my entire life, which even surpasses Sierra down at Lorne Street and they make my favourite coffee. Here's where it starts to sound silly (and I hope to god it won't be). It's organic coffee. Every Sunday, they have what they call a Farmer's Market. It's quite small, just a bunch of farmers and some other food vendors having their stalls up and they sell whatever food knick knacks they have. One of them happened to be a coffee stand and of course it was in the morning, I needed my 2nd kick, you might say. Tried it, and it was heaven in a cup. Only then did I realize they won some kind of NZ Gold Coffee competition thing. If only I remembered what the name of the coffee was. All I can remember is that it was organic.

Also went wine tasting. Went to a winery called Craggy Range. Breathtaking site. The mansion was HUGE, and at the front of the mansion was a lake and blah blah blah, I'm not very good at describing things so I might as well post photos.






















Now... I've been meaning to make a long speel about this issue. I'm sure the country is divided. Some people may be for it, some people may be against it. I am in the latter and this issue involves the FTA with China. Yes, big deal, the Chinese are taking over blah blah blah what else is new (no offense to all Chinese out there, I am also part Chinese). Finally something Helen Clark and John Keys finally agreed on which made me doubt their capacity for thinking. Yes, I am no expert in economics, and yes I know there are issues I would have overlooked but from what I can see at the moment, we are a very tiny country taking on one of the richest and the largest (not just in land mass) country in the world. Yes, it's great because now things will be cheaper and other businesses here will have the opportunity to flourish into a global conglomerate yadda yadda yadda if they know how to grasp the opportunity by the balls *achem*. I'm babbling. My main point is... they're going to suck us dry. In comparison to how much China will be getting from us to how much we will be getting from China (also considering the amount of Chinese imports), they're going to suck us dry. Just look at the population ratio. Yes, I am against it. You would think that because my father has a business that relies on Chinese imported goods, we'd be for it. No. Don't get me started with the Tibetan monks. Trade and politics just... don't seem to go together in this issue.

SIDENOTE: I was having my oath taking last week (yes, I'm now officially a Kiwi citizen). It overwhelmed me the amount of Chinese taking part in the oath taking in comparison to other cultures.

However, please do not mistake this entry as a flaming hating entry against the Chinese people.