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peteandmegan.com Two kiwis view of the world // // // // Tragic Taranaki Road Fatality Statistics Given it’s been almost two years since I last posted on this blog, it was always going to be something significant which got me back here. Unfortunately it was the news of a member of our community who had died this week in a vehicle accident. Since we moved to New Plymouth a few months … View full post Twin Coast Cycle Trail Review It’s a very unfamiliar thing to be here writing a blog post. These days, between facebook updates and an occasional tweet, I don’t feel the need to write many blogs to express myself or update people on what I’ve been up to. But occasionally, I have something to say that I believe google needs to … View full post Weekend in Tongariro Megan and I had a great weekend a few days ago. I wanted to capture the experience in a more permanent way than a Facebook status, and given we ditched our kids and left Auckland for the first time in 6 years, why not dig out this blog for a post! We left Auckland at … View full post Colton Dixon – Love Has Come for Me Colton Dixon’s debut album, ‘Messenger’ won’t be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ (it’s pretty “upbeat” (read: rocky)) but you have to love the depth of the lyrics of his songs. I really hope this is having a major impact on the millions of people around the world who saw him on American idol. I particularly love … View full post Will the Next Generation of Kiwis Opt Out of Home Ownership? I’ve been on a bit of financial planning binge over the last several months. This was prompted by a bunch of books I’ve been reading including the books from the ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad‘ series and a bunch of investment books (including shares, bonds and property). Meanwhile there has been a house price spike in … View full post Tragic Taranaki Road Fatality Statistics Twin Coast Cycle Trail Review Weekend in Tongariro Colton Dixon – Love Has Come for Me Will the Next Generation of Kiwis Opt Out of Home Ownership? Feb 17 Tragic Taranaki Road Fatality Statistics Categories: Current Events by Pete Given it’s been almost two years since I last posted on this blog, it was always going to be something significant which got me back here. Unfortunately it was the news of a member of our community who had died this week in a vehicle accident. Since we moved to New Plymouth a few months ago it had seemed that we kept hearing about fatal car accidents and had witnessed several accidents (one of which we were part, fortunately that one had no injuries). So I was left wondering whether Taranaki was an especially dangerous place to live and drive, or whether being a smaller community so just saw or came to hear of these incidents more quickly. So I decided to spend a bit of time trying to collect the data. The information of road fatalities per region was easily available ( for past years and provisionally for 2019 ) from the Ministry of Transport. It was a little hard to find the population estimates by region (since official numbers are only available in census years) but I eventually found these from the Department of Statistics. I’m no Data Analyst or Statistician, so there is every chance I’ve misinterpreted the numbers or miscalculated the results, so I’ll walk through what I did before I cover the results. I chose to compare Taranaki to four three others regions (Waikato, Southland and the Hawkes Bay) and New Zealand as a whole. For each of these areas I put their annual fatalities into a spreadsheet with the population for that year and divided the fatalities by population to get a ‘per capita’ fatality rate. For each of the comparisons I took the Taranaki per capita number, subtracted the other regions per capita number and then divided by the Taranaki number for a percentage higher or lower. These are the results: So with the exception of an amazingly good year in 2017 where Taranaki was safer than all the other regions (that I compared), only Waikato has been a more dangerous place to drive in recent years. Most worryingly for me is that it seems it is getting worse, particularly in relation to the National average and is on track so far in 2020 to be broadly similar (two deaths already this year). As a new resident of this region, I’d like to know (and I’m now going to start trying to find out) what is happening here to ensure that we actually have a better result than comparable regions like Southland and move closer towards the national average. This post has no tag Leave comment May 11 Twin Coast Cycle Trail Review Categories: Life's happenings , Travel by Pete It’s a very unfamiliar thing to be here writing a blog post. These days, between facebook updates and an occasional tweet, I don’t feel the need to write many blogs to express myself or update people on what I’ve been up to. But occasionally, I have something to say that I believe google needs to find, and given that my facebook posts rarely never go viral, this is the best place to express those thoughts. A few weeks ago Meg and I realised that given the girls were down South for the school holidays, we could go away and undertake a cyclng trip that might be too long for their little legs. One of the trails that had been on our list to try out was the Twin Coast Trail , between Opua (near Paihia) on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, and Horeke on the West Coast (Hokianga Harbour). It’s 87km, and depending on which guides you read, is either grade 1 and 2 (I share this opinion) or grade 2 and 3. A little bit of background on my and my cycling. Up until a couple of months ago I was a very casual cyclist who mostly rode my 10km commute to work and spent holidays doing short bits of New Zealand’s cycle trails with my family. However in February I did the Tour Aotearoa , riding 3000km from Cape Reinga right at the top of New Zealand to Bluff right at the bottom. As part of this I rode many of NZ’s higher grade trails as well as the full length of trails such as the Timber Trail and West Coast wilderness trail. After all this, I would rate the Twin Coast Trail the second best two day ride I’ve done (after the first two days of the West Coast Wilderness trail, Greymouth to Hokitika). Note: On the TA I did this and a bit extra in 1 day . Originally I had been planning to driving to Opua, park up and ride (with gear) to Kaikohe (well equipped settlement, halfway along the trail). Then ride the second half to Horeke and pay to be transported back to Opua. However after starting to ring around I struck the super helpful Lindal at All Seasons Bike Hire . He explained that people normally based themselves in Kaikohe and rode downwards in both directions. After explaining my situation in terms of timing (and the fact I didn’t want pay for full transfers at both ends) he offered to think about it and call be back. Five minutes later he called me back with a fantastic solution, at a price that was far cheaper than what anyone else was quoting. He also proved to be prompt, friendly and well informed. I can’t recommend him and his company more highly. So, on Saturday we drove up from Auckland. It was a 3.5 hour drive and in all honesty, the seven hours of driving in a weekend felt like a little too much and in future we’ll spend a few more days up there. We got to Kaikohe at about 11am and were fortunate to be able to get into our motel room and leave some gear there. By the time we left we were already well later than Lindal’s recommended time, but we compounded the error by following an eroneous map I had downloaded to my garmin. I won’t link to it because that just makes things worse, but take my word, DON’T USE THE MAP YOU FIND ON MAPMYRIDE FOR TWIN COAST TRAIL. If I get time I’ll make a proper route file. So after leading Megan on a 6km detour up a crazy gravel hill road and down again, we found the start of the route. Lots of sites can exlain in detail the route, but suffice it to say that it was varied, almost entirely off road and had a particul...