Gen-i brings together IT and telecommunications services to provide converged ICT solutions for businesses across New Zealand and Australia.  Market demand and new investment has expanded our regional office based in Napier which services Hawkes Bay and Gisborne clients. Already with a staff of 20+, our Napier office is again growing creating exciting new opportunities within our services team.

We have an opportunity for a Senior Systems Engineer who has mastered the server and virtualisation space, so is ready to take the next step in their IT engineering career.  You will have an extensive   all-round knowledge of IT solutions, first rate problem resolution abilities, along with ability to build great customer relationships through superior communication skills.  You'll feel very comfortable in a presales consultancy situation and have project management capabilities   All this while still finding time to enjoy the fine weather, outdoors and great lifestyle that is the Hawkes Bay.

Day to Day you’ll provide all levels of pre and post sales IT support, systems administration, server engineering and implementation services to a range of business clients with a huge variety of IT infrastructures. By exceeding customer expectations, you'll develop a key role in their organisation and become the customer’s trusted IT advisor.  Showcase your excellent judgement and problem solving abilities managing particularly tricky client issues as needed.

You'll possess strong inter-personal skills, and be proactive and energetic whilst taking ownership of issues.  You’ll enjoy sharing knowledge to benefit the wider team as well as mentoring other Engineers. You'll have an area of expertise in Microsoft Exchange, SANS, VMware or Citrix, or a combination of all of them. Couple this with an industry qualification i.e. MCSE, CCEA, CCNA and you'll be on your way.

As a member of the Telecom New Zealand Group, Gen-i has a team of energetic and passionate people in 17 locations.  We're proud of the reputation we have earned as one of Australasia's most preferred ICT services providers with clients that span 3,300 public and private sector organisations. We are totally committed to achieving outcomes for our clients.  Their success drives us. Their success is our success.

What are you waiting for? Take your career to the next level.  Apply today. www.seek.co.nz/Job/gen-i-senior-systems-engineer-napier/in/hawkes-bay-napier/21566826

We're pretty stoked. The other finalists are all major corporates or leading marketing agencies. We’re a family run wine shop in Havelock North with a staff of 8.  It’s classic David and Goliath stuff. And we have our friends at Jericho to thank.

Jericho owner Jeff Mann and his wife Nicola Heath drove the decision to enter the competition and deserve the credit for getting us over the line. We go way back with Jericho. Jeff and I have been mates since the third form and Advintage was Jericho’s first customer.

But that was then. Jericho has grown to become New Zealand’s preeminent email systems developer and is the digital partner for many of New Zealand’s largest companies.

We use their SmartmailPro product to send our bulletins and use Jericho built systems to manage all of our online operations. The radical content management system that Jericho developed for us in 2010 formed the basis for our NEXUS entry. It has revolutionised our world – giving us in-house, developer level control of our entire online systems. It’s breathtakingly easy for us to use. We love it.

The NEXUS winners will announced in February next year.

I’ll keep you posted.

Mac

Over the next seven months, Chorus will deploy the new UFB network past some 8,000 premises in Napier, Porirua and Taupo. 35 schools will have the opportunity to connect to UFB, offering 11,000 primary and secondary students a host of new e-learning opportunities. In addition, Chorus’ existing business fibre network is being made available to businesses across all of its UFB deployment areas.

Chorus General Manager of Network Build Chris Dyhrberg said that by late next month work in all of Chorus’ first tranche UFB deployment areas will have started.

“With the addition of Porirua, Napier and Taupo, we’re well on-track to deploy the new network past some 43,000 premises by July next year,” said Dyhrberg.

”This is another positive milestone towards improving connectivity across New Zealand’s urban centres - enabling better business productivity, health care and student engagement, through UFB,” said Sean Wynne, Chief Commercial Officer of Crown Fibre Holdings.

In line with Government policy, fibre will be delivered first to priority customers, which includes schools, health facilities and businesses.

Chorus is working with a range of retail service providers to assist them in developing new fibre-based services. This will enable residents to connect to a service using ultra-fast broadband in 2012.

“With new fibre pricing introduced earlier this year, retail service providers can connect many businesses across Chorus’ deployment areas to ultra-fast broadband today,” said Dyhrberg.

This means many businesses can begin to connect to Chorus’ existing fibre network ahead of the UFB network deployment.

Chorus’ website has the list of urban schools included in the first year of the UFB rollout, as well as an online map outlining the 24 UFB candidate areas, the first year deployment plans and its business fibre area. This means people can check on the rollout progress and find out if they can connect to the existing business fibre network.

Chorus has now begun the UFB network rollout in Ashburton, Auckland, Blenheim, Greater Wellington region (including Porirua and Masterton), Napier, Palmerston North, Rotorua and Taupo, with work due to start in Dunedin next month.

UFB deployment plans for Feilding, Gisborne, Hastings, Greymouth, Invercargill, Kapiti, Levin, Nelson, Oamaru, Pukekohe, Queenstown, Timaru, Waiheke Island, Waiuku and Whakatane are still being developed.

In all, Chorus’ new UFB network will run past more than 800,000 homes, businesses, schools and health facilities throughout the country by 2019, building on its existing 28,000km national fibre optic cable network. ENDS. Napier, Porirua and Taupo suburbs and schools included in Chorus’ first year UFB rollout plans

The following is a list of the suburbs and schools which are included in Chorus’ first year plans for Napier (covering the period to 30 June 2012) to enhance the local broadband network and enable the delivery of ultra fast broadband to the door.

Suburbs: • Napier – Napier airport area, Pandora, Hospital Hill and the Taradale Road industrial area

The schools that will benefit first cfrom this roll out are: 

Henry Hill School • Marewa School • St Patrick's Catholic School  Napier Central School •  Napier Girls' High School •  Napier Intermediate • Nelson Park School •  Onekawa School • Port Ahuriri School • St Patrick's School •  Westshore School • William Colenso College 

 Information on Chorus’ UFB project can be viewed online at: www.chorus.co.nz/ultrafast-broadband Chorus’ online map outlining its UFB candidate areas, the first year deployment plans and its business fibre area can be viewed at: www.chorus.co.nz/fibre-rollout-map For further information: Melanie Marshall - Chorus Mbl: 027 452 6231 Email: melanie.marshall@chorus.co.nz Paul Clearwater – Crown Fibre Holdings Mbl: 027 282 0016 Email: Paul.Clearwater@crownfibre.govt.nz

During his talk, Rob weighed into the amalgamation debate, and talked about the value of us locally marketing ourselves and acting as a single region.   I pondered on this for a few days, and decided to send a note through to Rob.  What I asked of him was to have Air NZ demonstrate their support for the Hawkes Bay brand. 

On the Air NZ website you could only choose to fly to or from Napier/Hastings.  I asked Rob if he would support an additional destination option on the website to include Hawkes Bay.  Rob wrote back personally (yay!) and said he thought this would be a logical step for Hawkes Bay so that people searching under Napier, Hastings or Hawkes Bay can find the destination and schedule they are seeking. 

 It took a couple of months, but I am stoked to announce that you can now to choose to fly to or from Napier/Hastings or Hawkes Bay. 

 I have to say I was fully impressed with both the responsiveness and follow through that Rob and his team at Air NZ demonstrated here.   Rob doesn’t know me at all, and my experience in dealing with him on this aligns entirely with the essence of who Air NZ as a company is.

 Check it out for yourself - http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/

Not so fast! There are plans and precincts to consider of which you can read more on the outcome in this Hawke's Bay today article. Mrs Pierce says in her submission that "Most of the shops in the village are owner-operated where people are cared for by individual shop owners," and "that her 140 members did not want big box retailers or large fast food outlets in the village".

From a wider perspective, Hawke's Bay has a diverse collection of cafe's and restaurants that provide us all choice and reward us with unique experiences. That uniqueness is something worth keeping for us and for our regions visitors. Or is it? Or do franchise chains add something of value to the mix? I'd appreciate your thoughts on a Tweet2eat article on this topic, as currently we tend to focus on supporting local owner/operator business first. Should we be covering franchise / takeaway restaurants as well? After all they're staffed by locals too?

Kati’s father, Denis Kasza, Hungarian immigrant and oncologist, was one of the founding winemakers in the Hawkes Bay region during the 60’s. Therefore it’s Kati’s Hawkes Bay Roots that have had a huge influence on her personal mission, business model and values, making it that much more special for evolu to stock in the area. Evolu products are stocked worldwide in Asia, Europe and Australasia, so this is truly a celebration of the bay’s brilliance.

Kati’s recent appearances on TV1’s Good Morning show this month have had evolu followers buzzing and some keen new customers admiring Kati for evolu’s story. Her appearances have had her whipping up botanical smoothies for the face using only ingredients that can be found in the kitchen, and giving some sound advice and helpful tips on how to care for your skin at home.

In other appearances, Kati regular speaks at the Women’s Conferences in Wellington, The Wellington Beauty Therapists Association meetings and of course is the star of evolu’s demonstration videos, which can be found on evolu’s YouTube channel ‘evoluskincarenz’ or by following the link http://www.youtube.com/user/evoluskincarenz

Kati also stands proudly as a spokes person for Sweet Louise, a charity that evolu is actively involved in, and which offers support and services to New Zealand women living with secondary (or advanced or metastic) breast cancer. Sweet Louise CEO Sue Brewster is delighted to have evolu on board, saying their flagship qualities of community standing, strong presence in the New Zealand market, credibility and the personal ethos of the owners align well with the Sweet Louise mission of 'positive lives'.

So to our fellow Hawkes Bay friends, we look forward to meeting you!

At the same time this news was being heralded, Hawke's Bay Regional Council this week started a six month trial for a bus service of their own (along with GoBay Busses) from the CBD to Ahuriri using a regular bus. I can start to see where the arguments for amalgamation can seem quite attractive here...

There is no doubt that some form of transport link between Ahuriri and Napier has been long overdue in recent years, especially with the boost in population Ahuriri as seen with all its little apartments. There had previously been tram (a long, LONG time ago i.e. pre-1931 earthquake) and bus services between the two areas that died off due to lack of patronage. But I think spending $1.5 million on two busses (presumably, this is just the cost of the vehicles themselves, never mind the running costs - we haven't been told that as yet) is a little excessive, when a regular bus service will do and, you would hope, cost ratepayers a lot less.

Personally, I'm a big walker. I walk into town from Marewa at least once a week and to Ahuriri from Marewa almost as often. Every once and a while I'll even walk from town to Ahuriri and vice versa. But with older residents and tourists carrying bags and other travel-based flotsam and jetsam the walk from town to Ahuriri (where a number of hotels and motels are now based) is a bit too far to stagger, especially in the midst of a Hawke's Bay summer. But does it matter HOW they get there?

When I go to Wellington I love to commute on the trains and busses. When I go to Melbourne, the trams are an excellent and regular form of transport. Do I care if they are specially designed or look unique? No. So what's the big deal with these busses being "Art Deco" busses? Other than the CDB, there really aren't many AD-style buildings on the vaguely-proposed route. Is this another attempt at "quirkiness" by local government, like the giant, grass rugby ball that was to adorn Marine Parade for the World Cup was supposed to be?

I talked with Airnet’s Ben Deller about this at a Tweetup (a gathering of local Twitter users, for the uninitiated - and well worth attending!) last Friday and he suggested I write something on the matter for Fruitbowl, so here it is!

So I'd like to hear the thoughts of fellow Fruitbowlers on the issue: How do you think the council(s) has handled this? Does it matter how you get to where you're going, so long as you get there? Was there a better alternative NCC could have looked at? Is $1.5 million excessive? Shouldn’t there have been more public consultation? What is the point of such a tourist-based service starting after the majority of Napier’s tourists have been and gone? Should they have used local HB industry rather than overseas companies? Is there more to Napier than just Art Deco and if so, how do we get the message out to the rest of the world?

Thanks Australia, you were a formidable opponent and provided worthy competition but unfortunately I think you were let down by Cooper (Or did he live up to expectections?)

See the flying magpie?

Onto the final......

GO THE ALL BLACKS!