Today was the first settled sunny day we’ve had in a while, so like Mole, I bolted out of the house, and went tramping in the Waitakere Ranges. From the Falls carpark I followed the Anderson track and Waitakere Tramline up to the Waitakere Dam (an old favourite).

I could hear the tram whistle as I was coming up to the tramline and wasn’t too keen on meeting it in the tunnel, but as it was we (me and another guy doing the walk) passed the tram at the end of the line where there was plenty of room. I think the tram gives plenty of warning, and you’d normally have enough time to find a place where you could get off the track although in some places it might require a bit of backtracking.

There’s definitely no water shortage in Auckland with the dam brim full and the overflow making an impressive waterfall down into the valley below.

I came back via the Cascade and Upper Kauri tracks. It isn’t the most direct route back, but was definitely worthwhile. The birdlife in the Waitaks has had a fantastic recovery. Thanks to the Ark-in-the-Park project I’m told. The bush used to be dead quiet, but today I enjoyed the company of a raucous flock of tui and several kereru. I recorded some of the birdsong on my phone as I was walking along.

Technical: The photos and birdsong recording are from my phone. (My camera battery was flat.)

To upload them I used Bluetooth. This required starting the Linux bluetooth daemon, running bluetooth-properties, making the phone visible, pairing with the phone, setting ‘Receive files in Downloads folder over Bluetooth’. Then I could hold my finger on an item on the phone, choose Share, Bluetooth and then my computer. And with that the item would magically flick across to my computer.

The birdsong was recorded in the AMR format, so I used audacity-freeworld with the ffmpeg-libs to convert it to OGG and MP3. I’ve tried using the new HTML5 audio tag to publish the sound files, but there is also an old href tag above that.

Brian brought this mouse inside to play with under my bed at 6am this morning. After chasing it all round the house I caught it with a rubbish bin and killed it with the Michelle-approved technique.

About three months ago I had a look at the Consumer Powerswitch website and compared the electricity prices for my (fairly low) usage. My old power company, Genesis, was in the middle of the pack, although I was on their “Household” plan when I would have been better off on their “Classic” plan.

According to Powerswitch I would save $158/year by changing to Energy Online or $130/year changing to Powershop.

I choose Powershop mostly because Energy Online is not able to read my “smart meter” remotely. Powershop can, and now it is doing this daily I can easily get an up-to-date accurate idea of how much electricity I’ve been using. Also, Powershop accepts payments by online banking which I prefer over paying by credit card; it has the highest Consumer customer service rating of all the power retailers at 92%; and finally I was intrigued by Powershop’s “power market” pricing model and it’s open API for developers.

By “power market” I mean Powershop does not have fixed tariffs for the electricity it sells. Instead the price per unit changes during the year. Power products can be bought in arrears or in advance for specific months. It is cheaper to buy it in advance, and there are also limited special deals which are even cheaper and worth watching out for. This is not the wholesale electricity market that the big players buy their power from, though the prices should reflect what’s happening there. Powershop provides “Standard Power” products and other partners provide products with carbon-offset or rugby-supporting extras.

To keep track of changing power tarrifs and usage Powershop has a pretty cool website, and iPhone and Android apps. It has an API for developers which I have been using to develop my own PowerMonitor tool. When I was asking around about Powershop before switching it was called “the power company for geeks”.

But, has Powershop been cheaper than Genesis? Just doing a rough calculation based on April/May last year and April/May this year, Powershop is about 2 cents/unit cheaper than what I was paying last year, but I’ve used more electricity this year.

These figures really are very rough: they don’t cover exactly the same periods; May’s bill last year was an estimate; Genesis has put its prices up since then; Powershop has cheaper power in summer and more expensive in winter. But at least I think it shows I’m not paying more since having made the change over.

Give the Consumer Powerswitch comparison a go and see what it recommends for you.

If you’re interested in switching to Powershop let me know. There’s a promotion running until 31 July where I (or any Powershop customer) can send you an invite which will give us both a $50 discount.

I let my cat (littleB) up into the attic and he has been sweeping out the cobwebs for me .

I am down in Dunedin for my Grandma’s 98th birthday. Staying here in Ross Home with my sisters Heather, Suzanne, and my aunt Judith.

Grandma had a stroke almost two years ago now. She depends on the nursing care here, and has trouble communicating, but she recognised us, and she can tell me the names of the people in her photo albums.

More photos here.