Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont?

Someone I know has gone up to Taranaki for the weekend and they sent a txt back to us saying "I can see Mt Egmont today". Now I don't like this name but apparently that's what their family and friends up there still call the mountain. I prefer to call the mountain Mount Taranaki as this is it's original name.

Time for a little history lesson. For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki. Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont in the 1700s after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont. John Perceval was a British politician, political pamphleteer, and genealogist. He was one of Captain Cook's corporate sponsors, and a syphillitic Lord who never set foot in this country! In other words Captain Cook thought he should name something after one of the people who helped pay for his trip! What a crazy person for a marvellous mountain as this to be named after!

In the 1980s it was ruled that the official name is Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont. However, I think the mountain should be called Mount Taranaki - it's original name. It gives the mountain the mana that it deserves (a weird name like Egmont certainly does not!)

Trouble buying Freeview

I'm looking at buying myself a Freeview box for my current good old CRT TV. And for something that's supposed to be "free" I'm not having much luck finding one at a decent price. I went to Dick Smith, Norman Ross, Harvey Norman, and DTR and prices for satellite and terrestrial boxes ranged from $230 to $500!! To me that's not a very cheap alternative compared to Sky TV. One guy said they aren't getting many Freeview boxes in now because TVs are coming out with Freeview built in. That's fair enough, but I don't have a spare $2000 right now to buy a new TV! Some of us have to pay rent and buy food! And why are TVs with Freeview built in about $1000 more than TVs that aren't - doesn't seem quite right for something the is supposed to be "free"!

In the USA they have already switched off all analog TV broadcasts and all their TV now is digital. This is going to happen in NZ within 3-5 years, so prices of Freeview boxes and TVs need to come right down if everyone has to switch over to digital. In the States people were able to get a voucher from the government to buy a digital box which covered most of the cost. I'm sure this will happen in NZ too - yeah right!

By the way, I'm keeping my CRT TV for a while. My picture quality is much better than what I have seen on some of these new LCD TVs!