How do you go tramping? As well as knowing what to take, you need to know a few skills.

First, you need to know how to read a topographical map. These maps require a bit more skill to read than your average road map. One of the best ways to learn map reading is to go tramping with somebody who knows how to read one and learn from them, or do shorter walks that you already know and stop to study the map every so often to determine how the symbols on the map relate to the terrain around you. The entirety of New Zealand is mapped out in 1:50,000 detail (that’s 2cm on the map to 1km in real life). You can see these maps (and print them) freely by visiting NZTopoOnline and you can also buy them at many outdoors shops.

Another important skill is reading a compass and/or using a GPS. These tools help you go in the right direction when you otherwise wouldn’t know which way to go (for example, in poor visibility conditions such as night-time or cloud). They are most useful in combination with a map. Shops like Mapworld can provide useful advice.

It’s also important to know how to use your tramping gear. Test these out before you go tramping. How do you put your tent up? How does your cooker work? Can you cook your food to a suitable edible standard with it? Will you get blisters from your boots? Is your pack comfortable enough? How far can you walk with a pack on without being totally knackered? A lot of this is experience that comes from trial and error. The best learning comes from other people’s trial and error, and you’ll find plenty of trampers willing to help you with the basics by joining a tramping club. See
our tramping and walking category for a good list of tramping clubs around New Zealand.

Yesterday the #1 searched phrase on NZS.com was “hoodia.”

It’s always a laugh seeing something turn up as the most searched term in a day when you have absolutely no idea what the term means.

After some quick research it turns out Hoodia (otherwise known as Hoodia Gordonii) is an as yet unproven weight loss appetite suppressant made from a specific cactus-like plant that grows in the Namib Desert (or so Wikipedia tells me).

So who mentioned Hoodia to have New Zealanders searching for it?

Recently, there has been a move made by Microsoft to get their digital document format OpenXML accepted as a standard by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). There have been many descriptions of how this format contains components that are proprietary and can’t be implemented by anybody other than Microsoft. Acceptance as a standard means that a government may, more easily, accept and prescribe it as mandatory for any communications. This, in turn, will mean that anybody who communicates with that government must use Microsoft’s software.

So, this can mean only that: the user’s choice is more limited, innovation is stifled, and the government is left vulnerable to the vagaries of the vendors’ business decisions in the future.

Yesterday Standards NZ decided to vote ‘no’ to the OpenXML standard proposed by Microsoft in competition with the present ODF standard. Congrats for making the right decision in the face of a tirade of PR noise. Let’s hope we avoid the Swedish situation and keep some sanity.

Who knows Microsoft might actually be forced to implement the present standard!

Rumours are swirling in the techno-loving world that Apple are about to release a bevvy of beautiful new iPods.

Amongst possible new music gadgets on offer are a large touch-screen video iPod and a revamped iPod Nano (perfect for the Christmas stocking!). Apple’s iPod dominates the portable music player market; these stylish little MP3 players have great functionality and are intuitive to use (even if you’re an iPlod like me).

Late last year, iTunes finally made an appearance on our shores, giving Kiwis the chance to stock up their iPods with hours of fine music. They’ve got more than two million songs to choose from, so your ears will never be short of fresh tunes! And these days, with portable devices having a capacity of up to 80GB, it’s not just music but movies, podcasts, audiobooks and photos that can be stored on your iPod for easy transportation, listening and viewing.

Check out the range of MP3 players in our directory, and take your pick for music goodness anytime, anywhere!

If you’re looking for information about businesses or services on the Internet, you may (like 85% of Internet users) start your search off by using a search engine. Search engines are amazing tools that are designed to retrieve and display information.

Getting the results you want
To get the most relevant results from search engines, you need to be quite specific about the ‘keyword search phrase’ you type into the search box. In this example, you have decided to use NZS.com to help you find out where you can buy piano music at a reasonable price. You are based in Christchurch (the city in New Zealand, not the town in England). The words you might choose to include in your search term would then be: “second hand piano music christchurch”.

By being so specific about your search, the search engine can pull up what it considers to the best and most relevant result to answer your query.

Searching for New Zealand Web sites
If you’re interested in searching for a New Zealand service or company, NZS.com itself is a great place to start, but Google is still the world’s favourite search engine and comes in hundreds of different varieties. Google NZ offers the option to search New Zealand Web pages only, so you can start narrowing your search field that way.

Read more about keyword phrases and using them in your search engine marketing campaigns. More on this in another post! Adios!

We may be at the bottom of the world, but we’re on the aliens’ radar.

A mysterious, dome shaped object was spotted in the sky on April 28th, 2007, near Kaitaia in the Far North if New Zealand. Our buddies at UFO Focus New Zealand have taken a look at photographs of the as-yet-unidentified-flying-object and declared that the object seems to be a craft, a view backed up by an international expert. Dr Bruce Maccabee said the craft appeared to be of a circular shape, with a dome shaped top.

The lucky onlooker who captured the UFO photos watched the UFO for five minutes as it manoeuvred north, before eventually disappearing. Adding to the ‘mystery’ factor, there were no scheduled flights in the area at the time and the Carter Observatory has ruled out the possibility that it could be a meteorite or space junk.

While there’s no comment on whether the photos may be a hoax, the series of images would have required hours of work to pull off. Until further information comes to light, Northland’s unexplained flying object remains (officially) a UAP, or Unusual Aerial Phenomenon.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for other odd things in the sky…

I love seeing New Zealanders do well on the world stage. Or the field.

Our favourite boys, the mighty All Blacks, are heading off to win the Rugby World Cup in France. They jet out of Auckland tonight, all fired up to bring the cup back home after a twenty year drought. This’ll be the year, for sure. Team coach Graham Henry and Captain Richie McCaw will depart with the squad to Corsica, before heading on to Marseille, their first World Cup base in France. Training begins immediately for the team, with their World Cup 2007 debut against Italy on the 8th of September.

For those of us stuck at home (and unable to swan off to France!), there are heaps of rugby websites to keep us entertained. Our favourites are:

• The official All Blacks site, where you can catch up on the latest news, player profiles and videos. There’s even a weekly podcast!
• A little slice of Rugby Heaven featuring indepth rugby news ‘n’ views.
• The site for fervent fans and certified All Blacks Fanatics, where you can leave a message of support for our boys in black and be in to win a trip with the All Blacks in 2008.

And while you’re waiting for World Cup kick-off, we’ve got articles to keep you informed. Find out the All Blacks’ chances of winning the Rugby World Cup, read all about our strongest competition in the tournament and swot up on your knowledge of World Cup history.

It was amusing to see the vegansexual debate raging in New Zealand in few weeks ago. It all started with Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, doing research on the lives of “cruelty-free consumers.” Then the Press published an article called ‘Carnivore Sex Off the Menu‘ featuring vegans Nichola and Hans Kriek, which led to a large amount of feedback in New Zealand and offshore.

Myself, I’m not a vegansexual, though I take my hat off to them for following their values. I’m a vegetarian who goes for a bit of cheese on my pizza, so I’m the more laid back vegosexual variety.

Personally, I think the vegan no-sex-with-meateaters thing is a bit of a rare case. For starters, there are a lot more vegetarians than there are vegans. Second, I know of a lot of vegetarians that would happily get with meateaters for a fling, but when there’s steak and kidney in the fridge, it’s the long term relationships that vegetarians can find difficult to sustain. Vegetarians with a soft spot for a meateater are left with three choices - deal with it, move on… or convert them!

NZS.com has dedicated a lot of time to finding New Zealand online content. It’s become evident to us that a lot of Kiwi sites are jolly hard to find. We regularly meet people at events etc that hand us their business card with their Web site on it. You take a look and see the site has no Google PageRank. This is generally because their site has no links to it from anywhere on the Web at all!

It’s a real shame to see this, because often they’ve spent thousands of dollars creating a site that looks pretty swish. It’s just marketing money down the drain, and in the end gives the Web a bad rap. I can imagine them saying at some point “We’ve spent a lot of time and money developing this site, but we get nothing much out of it, the Web is a waste of time.”

To stop your Web site being invisible, make sure you get it linked from high profile directories and content sites. What’s the point of having a site if people can’t find you?! Also, if you’re a bit more serious about it, then commit to an ongoing Web site promotion program - for most Web sites this is the key to getting a good return on your investment.

In my humble blogger opinion, New Zealand music is really getting its groove on now. Sure, we went through a bit of a cultural cringe era when we were afraid to say the words ‘Kiwi’ and ‘music’ in the same sentence, but now NZ bands and musicians are passing the cool test with flying colours. And they’re going online so you can find out (at any time of the day or night) exactly what they’re up to.

Before I go any further, I’ll point out that I like a bit of indie music. Well alright, a lot of indie music. But I try to keep my ear to the ground for interesting New Zealand music news from all genres of beats ‘n’ rhythms. If you want to sample some tasty Kiwi music treats, try:

• The new release from fantastic twosome The Brunettes, entitled Structure and Cosmetics, a happy mix of Beach Boys and cute indie tunes.
• The upcoming release from Phoenix Foundation; their greatly anticipated third album, Happy Ending, is due for release in October 2007.
• The music of Canterbury treasure, Dudley Benson, whose engaging and endearing music has been described as “part choral, part electronica, part pop’.
• Shapeshifter, who are soon to release a live album following the runaway success of Soulstice (which has now gone platinum).
• Kiwi songbird Brooke Fraser, who will be winging her way around New Zealand in October, from Invercargill to Whangarei.
• Ever-strong Minuit, who have been touring New Zealand this month, before departing for Europe to spread their funky blend of rock and electronica.

There’s a whole lot more New Zealand music, so get your ears onto it!