More apologies regarding the rectification of the first stuff up in posting the answers to last week’s crossword. Here they are, promise – Kokila

We go out twice a day here. The afternoon trip starts at 4 pm and we get back around 8 pm when we then have dinner.

The morning trip starts at just after 5 am, and returns in around 9 am for breakfast. I surprised myself by waking up at 4.30 am without the need for a call.

A troop of baboons crossing the track.

And then departing into the bush.

The first big five sighting – white rhinos.

They don’t seem to be worried by visitors as much as some beasts – possibly because they know few things short of a mortar could hurt them. You can see here how close you can get to them. Would be very messy if they did a sudden charge as they can move at 50 km/hr.

This rhino would weigh at least two tonnes. The horn is close to a metre long. They are the largest land mammals after elephants.

These are dwarf mongooses, and they are the smallest carnivores in Africa, being up to a foot long.

And the second big game sighting. Mr Buffalo. They will usually kill a lion one on one. It generally will take multiple lions to kill a buffalo. They estimate 200 people a year in Africa are killed by a buffalo.

A meeting of the local Bar Association.

A literal zebra crossing.

A monkey up the tree.

You could almost touch these antelopes.

An eagle in the tree.

And back home at 9 am. It’s a good day when you’ve done so much before breakfast!

Herald has a post-election politics quiz.

NZ Herald reports:

“Why should we have another country’s flag in our top corner? I’d rather see a fern [which] for me is the national emblem. How we do that [depends] on how people want to do it.

1/1 I agree on.

“We should be moving towards a republic.”

But he added that it was not a “number one priority”.

2/2

Asked about New Zealand’s relationship with the US, he said: “I think we’ve gone back too much from where we were.

“We have a stronger voice and more respect internationally by being independent. And I don’t think the cost is that great.”

Not sure what he means here. How are we not independent at the moment? 2/3

He said he had no issue with gay marriage or same-sex adoption, and acknowledged that updating adoption laws – which the Government has said is not a priority – was long overdue.

He would have to see the detail of any bill to legalise gay marriage or same-sex adoption before voting for them but supported them in principle.

4/5. What I like about him is that he is willing to say outright that yes he supports gay marriage and same sex adoption. Goff could never quite bring himself to say that, and just would waffle about supporting civil unions and adoption law reform generally.

But he is less liberal on cannabis.

“I don’t think people should go to prison for smoking a joint but I don’t support legalising cannabis.”

He said there was merit in the Law Commission’s recommendation for a mandatory cautioning scheme.

5/6. I like the Law Commission proposed cautioning scheme.

On alcohol reform, Mr Shearer supported a split purchase age of 18 in bars and 20 in supermarkets and liquor shops.

5/7. There is no principled reason to stop a 19 year old buying a bottle of wine at a supermarket.

He said there was some evidence to clamp down on alcohol advertising, but he wanted to research the issue more.

5/8 in total. Not too bad.

Stuff reports:

KiwiSaver has been only “modestly successful” at getting poorer people to save for their retirement, a new Treasury report says, warning that the scheme “may in fact reduce national savings”.

The working paper on the initial impact of the scheme on retirement savings argues that, because of the subsidies going to those who would have adequately saved anyway, the government may be paying out $13,000 a year for every person at whom KiwiSaver is aimed.

That does not surprise me. Those better off and already saving are the ones most likely to take advantage of 2:1 and 3:1 subsidies for saving.

The Treasury report said as many as 93 per cent of those in KiwiSaver were outside the target group, so the vast majority of the public cost of the savings scheme leaked away from those who may be poor in retirement.

A brave Labour Party would perhaps say we do not believe in middle class welfare where huge tax subsidies go to those who don’t need it, and we’ll restrict savings subsidies to low income NZers only.

It would be unfair to say that winning a second term was easy for National, because to lift your vote in Government is no easy thing to do. But the history of NZ is most Governments get a second term, coupled with an Opposition Leader who was so associated with the past. So the challenge was not so much to win, but to win with an ability to govern well – which has happened with a narrow 61 majority for National, ACT and United Future.

Winning a third term in 2014 is far harder, and I would regard National as the under dog at this stage. iPredict has Labour winning in 2014 at 53% and National at 47% and that is probably about right.

National needs to lose just 0.2% of the vote and it can only govern with the support of the Maori Party. Who knows what the Maori Party in 2014 might do, but I suggest that David Shearer is not as foolish as Phil Goff, and will not treat them as the enemy. Shearer was never part of that time in Labour that treated them as the last cab off the rank, and chose Winston in preference to them. They could go with Shearer in 2014.

But the Maori Party may not hold the balance of power. If National drops 3% in total, then NZ First would hold the balance of power. That is likely (but not certain) to see a Labour-led Government.Of course NZ First may implode again, as Peters is showing no sign of having changed his ways of bluster and bullshit – even over whether or not he had a fall.

So National are the under-dogs. It means that they will have to work incredibly hard to win a third term, and New Zealanders will have to be convinced they deserve it. This means the Government and Ministers must do far more than be competent administrators – they must push and drive reforms which clearly benefit New Zealanders. The welfare reforms are central to that. But so is trialling charter schools and bedding in national standards.

The economy will be front and centre. Sadly there will be very few votes in just doing what is necessary and getting the books back into surplus. At best National just won’t be punished for not achieving that. National will need to confront some of the harder issues such as housing affordability, and will have to make calls on do we leave mineral wealth in the ground or not. As I am typing this up from South Africa, I suspect locals here would be amused that we even have a debate in New Zealand about whether to mine or not.

National’s first term was about infrastructure. The second term is looking to focus on science and innovation. What will be the focus on a third term, if there is one – that voters will vote for? It has to be something that they feel couldn’t be done until the building blocks of the first two terms were in place.

Finally the left in the second term will talk a lot about poverty and income inequality as if they are the same thing. They are not. To take one example – China arguably has far greater income inequality than 20 years ago. But they also have 300 million less citizens in absolute poverty. National needs to own poverty reduction as an issue, and disentangle it from the socialistic goal of income equality which has failed in pretty much every state which has tried to legislate for it.

David Lange once famously called for a cup of tea for his Government. John Key needs to do the opposite. The pace of reform must increase, not slow. Voters want to see a Government confronting tough issues, and making decisions. They don’t want to just see a Government whose job it is to manage rather than lead.

At the weekend was due to leave Capetown and head to a tented camp in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve next to the Kruger National Park. Now I definitely was looking forward to this, but can’t say I was upset when I got a phone call to say there is a strike on, and it is unsafe to stay there without all the staff. So the travel agency at their own cost were transferring me to the Tintswalo Safari Lodge within the Manyeleti Private Game Reserve.

I’m doing some tented stuff later on again anyway, so will still experience that, but for now am going to be enjoying four nights at the Speke Suite, which normally costs US$1,340/night! That’s what I call a great travel agency! So this has been one strike action I’m all in favour of.

This is the local airport you land at. Then a pleasant three hour drive through countryside to thepark and the lodge.

This is the balcony of the lodge I am in. You can relax in your private pool with animals literally walking past you.

This is the main room, which is huge. Even the bathroom is probably bigger than some apartments in Auckland!

And this is the view from the main area, where we dine. The only fence they have is one to keep the elephants out, as they do too much damage if they stroll through.

Within an hour of arriving we were off for the first of seven four hour trips. I asked if the seat out the front is for bait, but it turns out that is where the tracker sits 🙂

Came across these zebras early on.

The bird life is almost as fascinating as the big game. Countless varieties.

Yes they are hippos. I wasn’t in the mood to go swimming with them!

Until you see a giraffe just a few feet from you, you really do not realise how magnificent they are.

Then the kids came out to join in.

This bird (I have to check its name) is the largest in Africa and weights 12 kgs normally. Made me wonder what sort of meal it would make!

A couple of wildebeests or wildebai.

One might think that all you do is drive around the nice well formed paths and wait for beasts to walk by. Well certainly some do, but you also go right into the bush when tracking. We’re tracking a lion here, and you’re in very enclosed spaces – you certainly couldn’t drive away at speed. Much of the time the car is creating a new pathway, and you’re having to duck as branches bounce around at you.

We weren’t sure if the lion was still there, so our driver/guide Fritz went to check it out on foot. Barely 30 seconds after he left we heard a loud roar and Fritz very quickly reappeared retreating to tell us he had basically all but walked into a lioness and half a dozen cubs, and she was being very protective. They took off before we could see them, but hope to track them tomorrow.

We had a break at this lake, which was beautiful in its tranquility.

And then had the sun set over it before we carried on tracking at night. Saw a few more beasts, but obviously photos not come out so well at night.

It’s hard to describe how incredibly relaxing it is to be driving through natural African parks, with birds and beasts just roaming about everywhere. You feel you’re one of the luckiest people on the planet to be experiencing nature in such a way.

I was meant to go up Table Mountain my first day in Cape Town but it was an unusually windy and inclement day and it was closed. But fortunately my final full day in Cape Town was beautifully sunny, so a great day to visit.

This is a view of the city from the bottom end of the gondola or cable car.

Each cable car takes 65 people, and what is very cool about them is the interior rotates so you do not need to worry about who gets the best view, as everyone gets to face all directions as you go up.

A view from the top.

You could spend hours and hours up here doing all the different paths.

Another view from the top. Cape Town is such a beautiful place.

Don’t jump, your kids need you!

That is Robben Island you can see in the distance. can also see their new sports stadium built for the FIFA World Cup.

Apologies for the glitch yesterday.  Answers as promised – Kokila Patel

The HoS reports:

Evidence of dodgy voting has emerged in the battle for Waitakere. A judge has found nine people voted twice and 393 people voted despite not being on the electoral roll. …

The Herald on Sunday has obtained a copy of Judge John Adams’ initial judgment. It shows Bennett gained eight votes after the recount while Sepuloni lost 12.

Labour bosses will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to accept defeat or pursue an electoral petition. Former president Mike Williams, who was a scrutineer in the recount, did not favour an electoral petition as he thought it unlikely Sepuloni would win.

I’d say the last thing Labour wants is an electoral petition, as based on past behaviour, the likely end result would be the margin for Bennett grows bigger.

A couple of Green MPs (I can’t recall which ones – Holly Walker is one I think) are doing a survey on the parliamentary oath. There has been a recent change made by the House to standing orders, so that any MP needing to be sworn in, will not be sworn in if they do not recite the correct wording of the oath on the first occasion.

This is because it had started to become a game with various MPs that they would recite their own personal version, be told it is incorrect, and then finally do the correct one.

I’m a supporter of the change to standing orders, because I think it was all about MPs grand-standing. I actually do not like the wording of the current oath, and think it should be changed. However as a citizen I have no power to change the oath. However MPs do – they can amend the Oaths Act. And I’ve never seen one of these grandstanding MPs put up a members bill to do that. If MPs do not like the oath, they should amend it, not ignore it. It is a legal requirement of being sworn in.

So I do give the Greens kudos for surveying people on what they think of the oath. Their questions are:

1. Do you think NZ Members of Parliament should have to swear (or affirm) allegiance to the Queen?
2. Would you support an oath that MPs swear (or affirm) to do their best for Aotearoa/New Zealand?
3. Would you support including an oath where MPs would swear (or affirm) they would do their best to protect the environment?
4. Would you support and oath or Affirmation where MPs would swear (or affirm) to honour the Treaty of Waitangi?
5. Would you support a change from a standard oath or affirmation to an arrangement where each MP makes a personally meaningful oath?

My answers are no, yes, no, no and no.

The oath should be something that 99% of New Zealanders would agree with – hence serving New Zealand should be the focus. Anything beyond that is starting to get into personal partisan agendas, which not all MPs would agree on. Just keep it simple – have the MP swear they will do their best for New Zealand.

I think most people have heard of Robben Island. It is the island prison 7 kms off shore from Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 20 years. Most of the prisoners here were criminal prisoners as distinct from the political prisoners. It is now a museum.

Now like me you might think those cells look pretty bloody small for prisoners. Well as it turns out, these are where the dogs were housed, not the prisonerss.

The average prison cell was in fact half the size of the rooms the dogs had!

This pile of rocks was started by Nelson Mandela after he visited post-release. Each political prisoner added a stone to the pile.

Ironically the prison island has one of the best views of Cape Town, where you can see the city dwarfed by the huge Table Mountain. It’s an iconic view.

At the right top of Table Mountain you can see where the cable car goes to. This zoom photo from the island gives you a better idea of how much the mountain dwarfs the high rises.

We were shown about by one of the former political prisoners, and there is nothing like a first hand account of what life was like in the prison. This is a typical solo cell. Barely enough room to double bunk!

And this was Nelson Mandela’s home for the best part of 20 years.

I’ve often said that if my political enemies locked me up for 27 years, I would not come out of it preaching peace and reconciliation, I would have a list of names, a long list of names, and would not be happy until the list had them all crossed off – like in Kill Bill. But that is why Nelson Mandela is such a great man, and I’m just a vengeful c**t 🙂

The Productivity Commission has released a draft report into housing affordability.

If you do not wish to read the full 259 pages, there is a 40 page summary and even a four page brochure.

The Productivity Commission is based on the Australian model which has strong support from Governments of both sides of politics. It has been the ongoing commitment to reforms such as those proposed by the Australian Productivity Commission, which has seen Australia move more and more ahead of New Zealand. If we do not act on recommendations for improved productivity, then there is a cost.

They observe:

… the distribution of house prices in Auckland is now markedly different to that in the rest of New Zealand, particularly at the lower end of the Auckland housing market. For example, between 1995 and 2011, the gap between lower quartile house prices in Auckland vis-à-vis the rest of the country increased by over 260% in real terms.

This means that for people in Auckland, even the less expensive homes are becoming unaffordable for many.

Section prices have grown more quickly than house prices over the last 20 years, indicating that appreciating land prices have been a key driver of house price inflation in New Zealand. This suggests a shortage of residential land in places where people want to live. Land price pressures have been particularly acute in Auckland, where section prices now account for around 60% of the cost of a new dwelling, compared with 40% in the rest of New Zealand.

They note:

The prevailing approach to urban planning in New Zealand has a negative influence on housing affordability in our faster growing cities. The widespread planning preference for increasing residential density, and limiting greenfield development to achieve this, places upward pressure on house prices across the board. Constraints on the release of new residential land create scarcity, limit housing choice, and are increasing prices across the market.

It’s simple demand and supply. If politicians restrict the supply of land, of course demand will push the price up. Measures around the tax system can make an impact around the margins, but one has to also get the fundamentals right.

They recommend local authorities:

• take a more active approach to the identification, consenting, release, and development of land for housing in the inner city, suburbs, and city edge, both with respect to volumes of consented land and the time taken to achieve consents;
• adopt a strategy that allows for both intensification within existing urban boundaries and orderly expansion beyond them;

The Auckland Council especially has to release more land for development, otherwise a generation of middle to lower income Aucklanders will never have an opportunity of home ownership. Those poorer Aucklanders will be locked into being tenants for life, funding the retirements of the well off.

They also note the large sums of money now being spent on subsidising rental housing, and how this will increase significantly in future if fewer people can own their own home:

• $564m on income related rents for 69,000 state houses
• Accommodation Supplement of $1,200m paid to 320,000 people (around 50% of all renters)
• $36m on community housing providers

Feedback is open on the draft report for a couple of months.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has published its fourth survey of the state of democracy in the world, as at December 2011.They have five groups of criteria:

1. electoral process and pluralism
2. civil liberties
3. functioning of government
4. political participation
5. political culture

Countries are then ranked into one of four groups:

1. full democracies – 25 countries (11% of world pop)
2. flawed democracies – 53 countries (37% of world pop)
3. hybrid regimes – 37 countries (13% of world pop)
4. authoritarian regimes – 52 countries (38% of world pop)

The top 10 countries are:

1. Norway 9.80
2. Iceland 9.65
3. Denmark 9.52
4. Sweden 9.50
5. New Zealand 9.26
6. Australia 9.22
7. Switzerland 9.09
8. Canada 9.08
9. Finland 9.06
10. Netherlands 8.99

The bottom countries are:

1. North Korea 1.08
2. Chad 1.62
3. Turkmenistan 1.72
4. Uzbekistan 1.74
5. Myanmar 1.77
6. Equatorial Guinea 1.77
7. Saudi Arabia 1.77
8. Central African Republic 1.82
9. Iran 1.98
10. Syria 1.99

NZ’s score and ranking is the same as in 2010.

Stuff has a profile of new Labour Leader David Shearer. It’s a great read, and shows some of the extraordinary experiences he has had. My favourite is:

His wife Anuschka, Nush, as he calls her, worked with him there. “She is a Mt Roskill girl. I wish it could be more exotic, but it’s not.

“I was her flatmate in a house she owned in Auckland and moved in and then after a few months moved in a little further. We got to know each other over the Cornflakes in the morning.”

In Somalia, she was his head of operation. “She’s tough. I remember a bunch of Somalis all came in with their guns and bandoliers of ammunition across their chests and said, `Mr David, could you talk to your wife, she is much too unreasonable’. She said no way they were getting more money, because they were paid enough.

Heh.

Did a all day tour of the cape, which was highly enjoyable.  There were just eight of us in a mini-van so got to know everyone else well.

As proof that the world is a small place, one of the eight worked in Bonn for the UN Climate Change Office. She was holidaying after the Durban conference. Well the chairman of the group she was involved in (Kyoto Protocol negotiations) was a NZ diplomat called Adrian Macey, whose son was one of my best mates at school. So two degrees of separation.

Anyway first stop on the tour was to Seal Island.

Only 45 rand (NZ$7) to go out there on the boat to see the seals. Very choppy though.

Seals will use anything to sun bathe on!

A view of one of the bays after we drove through it.

A view from a lookout.

We were travelling through the Table Mountain National Park and just next to the road were these antelopes. You can’t get out and go over to them though in case there are any baboons around.

This is Cape Point. A magnificent place to have as a backdrop for lunch.

That is the new lighthouse. Much smaller but much more powerful than the old one. It can be seen 63 kms away.

A long way down if they slip.

The old lighthouse.

This is Bellows Rock, which sunk the Lusitania in 1911.

This is the Cape of Good Hope as seen from Cape Point.

The path down from Cape Point.

And the cable car for those going up, officially calledThe Flying Dutchman Furnicular.

An ostrich observing us from behind a bush.

The Cape of Good Hope.

We almost missed these Zebras, as they are so hard to spot from a distance against the rocks.

On the way back from the Cape we went to a town called Boulders which is one of three locations for African penguins.

Some penguins live on the ice. These ones are smart and live on a beach!

Yes, more penguin sex!

Penguins often mate for life. Aren’t they a cute couple?

The final stop in the day was the Kirstenbosch National Botancial Garden. It is at the back of Table Mountain.

A fine and noisy specimen this one.

We only had an hour at the gardens, and to do it properly you need half a day.

A typical path way through it.

The water is a different colour due to the minerals up the mountain.

As I said a very good full day tour.

AP report:

Cancer weakened, but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind’s eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.

“I love the imagery of struggle,” he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. “I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”

Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.

“There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar,” said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. “Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.”

A huge loss of such a wonderful writer.

An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble (“Satanic Verses” novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (pre-Sept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of shame: Michael Moore, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong il, Sarah Palin, Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11) and Prince Charles.

“We have known for a long time that Prince Charles’ empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant,” Hitchens wrote in Slate in 2010 after the heir to the British throne gave a speech criticizing Galileo for the scientist’s focus on “the material aspect of reality.”

Out future King he’s talking about!

The judicial recount of Waitakere has found a number of invalid votes for Carmel Sepuloni and the Judge has found that Paula Bennett received more valid votes, and with a majority of 9 is declared once again the MP for Waitakere. That’s a wonderful result for Paula, who so loves being the local MP out west. A big ups to her and her team.

For Carmel, she is out of Parliament entirely, and Raymond Huo is once again a Labour List MP. A bit of a blow to the rejuvenation efforts for Labour, but at least a boost to their fund-raising efforts.

Carmel might now regret her ungracious tone when she was declared winner after specials. Of course she has open to her the option of an electoral petition, but those things can cost $200,000 or so and off memory National has never lost an electoral petition, well for the last 40 years or so anyway.

John Hartevelt blogs:

It’s right that New Zealanders discuss and debate who should be conferred the top awards. The media should lead the discussion and the PM and his ministerial colleagues on the adjudicating committee ought to take heed.

Oh I see. It is the role of the media to lead the discussion on who gets knighted, and it is the role of the Prime Minister to tale heed.

I’m gob-smacked.

As to why Key mentioned Richie McCaw had indicated he thought a knighthood was premature, it’s simple.

If McCaw wasn’t included when the honours are announced, then the media focus would all be on him missing out, rather than on those who gained the honours. So Key gets it out early that Richie has said he doesn’t think it is appropriate while he is still playing (a stance I agree with), and that means when the honours come out, the focus will be on those who do get one.

In my column at the NZ Herald I make a case for term limits:

I still believe a term limit of say six terms would be a good thing for New Zealand. If MPs knew that they had a maximum tenure in Parliament, I believe they would focus more on what they could achieve during that limited time, rather than be focused on how to get re-elected time after time after time.

Arguably one could also have a term limit for the top job of Prime Minister also. Isn’t nine years enough for any one person to make a contribution?

I hope the constitutional review will consider term limits as an issue.