Pohutu Geyser in Te Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley | New Zealand

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 7

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 1

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 2

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 3

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 4

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 5

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 6

After a quick lunch, I was heading towards the Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve sites. Te Whakarewarewa Valley is a huge area spreading more than 70 hectares and there were so many points to see, that it would be impossible to do in an hour. Also, I had to video and take pictures of whatever I was seeing and that adds more time.

So I decided not to go far and stay close to see nearby points. I was worried that if I got lost, I would be late to come back to catch my tour group. I will briefly describe some of the points of interest I visited.

Natural Steam Vent Cooker – Foods can be cooked just by placing a pot on hot soil via Mother Nature.

Pohutu Geyser – The largest geyser in the southern hemisphere. Erupts twice each hour and can reach 30 meters high.

Ngararatuatara Cooking Pool – Same as the vent cooker, but here you can cook food in water as the water is boiling by nature.

Lake Waikaukau – Named after ancestor Hatupatu. Very acidic water, but birds still swim in and around the waters. Another miracle by Mother Nature.

There was so much more I missed, but what I saw was more than enough to appreciate Mother Earth and nature. Miracles exist and they are just around the corner on this earth to see.

I noticed that for safety reasons, you can only walk in designated areas within fenced boundaries. But still, the vapour and hot steam from the geyser and hot spring water can reach you sometimes. Whenever I saw steam was coming my way, I had to run to avoid it to protect my cameras.

I was able to make it on time for the tour bus. The next destination was the world-renowned Waitomo Glowworm Caves.

European Heads Lead Calls For Bank Regulation

Debate on Bank Regulation

First Published Date : September 7, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

The G20 summit in Pittsburgh later in September will feature some lively debate on bank regulation after the heads of Europe’s three most established economies all put their names to a letter stressing that the 20 richest countries in the world must take steps to regulate their banking sectors. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy penned the joint letter ahead of this month’s summit in the United States, each of them aware of the revulsion which has met increasing stories of bank bonuses amid the financial storm of this year and last. Despite likely allegations of populism – which would hardly be inaccurate – the words of the three are likely to be echoed by voters.

Much of the ire raised among the financial crisis has been the result of banks which have taken large amounts of government bailout money moving to pay out much of it in bonuses. This puts some banks in a tricky position. In many cases these bonuses are a contracted issue and withholding them would put the banks in breach of their contracts to employees. However the bank is performing on the balance sheet (and those requiring bailouts have clearly not been touching the sky), if the individual executives have been delivering the numbers stipulated in their contracts then the bonuses are owed to them by right. As much as the rest of us may be moved to shake our fists at the injustice of it all, ignoring contract terms would put companies on shaky legal ground.

The moves proposed by Europe’s Big Three, then, will deal more with what can be offered in the future – and it seems that they have little thirst for a return to the practices which many blame for the crisis itself. In the words of the letter the lifting of financial tensions has resulted in many of the world’s financial institutions assuming that a return to old practices could be acceptable. It is many people’s view that “bonus culture” encouraged high-risk practices which are blamed for much of the difficulty in which the global economy still finds itself.

Although the three leaders collaborated on the letter, it is known that they are not in total agreement between themselves. While Nicolas Sarkozy views it as essential that bonuses should be capped at a certain level, his opinion is not quite backed by the Brown administration which feels that the plan is unworkable and favours the option of clawing back some of the bonuses after a period of time if long-term results are seen to have suffered. Consensus may be hard to reach in time for Pittsburgh, but publicly leaders are saying that it must be reached then in order for a firm line to be drawn on the subject. With the recovery of stimulus payments also set to be discussed in Pittsburgh, it could well be that there are disagreements aplenty around the table when the finance ministers sit down to talk.

Best Travel Rewards Programs by U.S. News & World Report

Best Flight and Hotel Loyalty Programs

First Published: Aug, 2015 ADawnJournal.com

U.S. News & World Report recently looked at 28 airline and hotel loyalty programs and picked their 2015 best travel rewards programs. The factors used to decide the rankings are the following:

Airline Rewards Programs

Ease of Earning Free Round-Trip Flight (45%)

Additional Benefits (25%)

Network Coverage (10%)

Award Flight Availability (10%)

Number of Daily Flights (5%)

Airline Quality Rating (5%)

Hotel Rewards Programs

Ease of Earning Free Night (45%)

Additional Benefits (25%)

Geographic Coverage (15%)

Number of Hotels in Network (10%)

Property Diversity (5%)

Based on these criteria, here are the top ten airline programs:

Alaska Airlines 
American 
Southwest 
JetBlue 
Hawaiian 
Virgin America 
Frontier 
United 
Delta 
Spirit

And the top ten hotel rewards programs:

Marriott 
Wyndham 
Best Western (tie) 
Club Carlson (tie) 
InterContinental 
Leading Hotels 
La Quinta 
Starwood 
Hilton 
Hyatt

These rankings are on only U.S.-based airlines and hotel rewards. However, most of these hotels mentioned here also have a presence in Canada.

While the rankings might provide important insights, you should not adjust your rewards programs solely based on them. The factors determine these rankings may not have anything to do with the rewards programs you follow and you should stick to your programs based on what makes sense for you.

Recovery Talk “Premature”

The Economy Is No Longer In Free Fall

First Published: May 17, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

As tempting as it is to believe that the economy is well on the way to recovery after the trials and tribulations of the past couple of years, it is important not to just take any sign of improvement as a signal that everything is hunky dory again. The nature of the beast is that we are going to have some false alarms before everything is back in shape, and there may well be people who get caught out speculating in a financial environment that does not do justice to their hopes and expectations. A good example is the recent news that financial indicators are showing positive signs. They are, but that is not the full story.

Data from both north and south of the Canada-US border seems to suggest good news – that the economy is no longer in free fall as it was last year and for the early parts of this one. While this is good news, a stabilization is by no means the same thing as a recovery, and neither is it a guarantee nor even a predictor of immediate recovery. We have had the free fall period, and it was longer than anyone would have hoped. Whether a recovery could even be trusted to be definitive if it were to happen right now is questionable. There is a lot to get through yet before we can confidently herald a recovery. Patience is a virtue. We may have to wait for growth to kick in and be grateful for the recent improvement from terror to stability.

One possible reason for the need to be patient on recovery is that retail sales in the States have fallen. American shoppers have, after a brief rally, retired to the sidelines amid uncertainty over the strength of this new found stability. Without an increase in retail sales there is less on which to base a recovery, as the stimulation of an economy relies quite profoundly on the spending power of its citizens. Not only on their spending power, in fact, but also on their willingness to spend. If shoppers show concern over the ongoing state of an economy, it can make them reluctant to go out and spend, and more likely to save their hard-earned cash. Good and wise for those people, but less so for the economy.

Other indicators which seem to show a lack of immediate recovery include the fact that Canadian airlines are finding it difficult to attract passengers. More people flying is a sign of a thriving economy, as satisfied business individuals reward themselves with holidays that they feel they can afford. As things stand, these individuals are thin on the ground (and in the air) – which, in addition to news of a continued fall in worldwide demand for petroleum oil, points to a low level of economic activity both in Canada and abroad. It is, however, easier and better to approach a recovery from a point of stability. One hopes that this will come sooner rather than later. For the moment the message is “stay tuned”

Will Self Help Books Help Your Personal Development?

Personal Development and Self Help Books

When you think of personal development, you probably think immediately of self-help books. Self-help books is a billion dollar industry will millions of people buying books that apparently teach them how to live better and be better at whatever it is they want to improve. However, the question is, do self-help books really help your self? Should you spend your money on these books?

To start, self-help books are books written with the intention of instructing the reader on personal problems. They get the term of self-help because they are apparently teaching you to help yourself. These books focus on psychology like romantic relationships, human behaviour, controlling will power and more. Self-help books usually advertise themselves as being able to help you find satisfaction within your life.

These books will often tell you that they will help you when other therapies cannot. They often tell you they can do it faster and that entices many who want to fix things now, rather than working for the change. There are also many celebrities who offer self-help books, even though they have no training in self-help.

Most of these books are bogus and you should not waste your time with them. When you are looking to develop yourself personally and better yourself, you cannot do it quickly. We live in a society that wants everything now and instantaneously. We want things fixed immediately because we are a one-hour photo society. Things do not happen quickly, they take time, they will not be fixed immediately. When you want to change yourself, you must look inward of yourself and make the change. It takes time and it is a long personal journey. Self-help books are a lot like diets. When you find a fad diet that helps you lose weight because you are only drinking apple juice and eating cucumber sandwiches, you lose a lot of weight. Then when you lose the weight, you stop the diet and gain all the weight back. This happens because you did not take the time to truly change who you are. You just followed diet till you got what you wanted, then went back to your own ways. If you want to lose weight you have to alter your lifestyle, with exercise and eating right. Then when you lose weight, you keep it off. Self-help books offer you a quick fix and initially you may feel as though they are working, but they are not. They are just giving you what you want and then when you think you have what you want, you stop following the self-help book guidelines and you revert back to the way you were.

If you truly want to better yourself, you need to take the time to look inward and begin that long inward journey without having a self-help book or celebrity telling you have that is going to happen. Things do not come quickly, so don’t think they will. Take things slow and you will be happier in the end.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Nov 27, 2010.