There is an interesting little quiz @ pundit.co.nz where you can compare your opinions on various topical issues and see how your opinions match up against the policy of each of the parties with a chance of winning an election seat. (Note the poll does not currently include the Maori Party).

The poll can be found here.

Not surprisingly my compatability results are:

1. National 78%
2. NZ First 69%
3. ACT 69%
4. United Future 66%
5. Labour 55%
6. Progressive 53%
7. Greens 46%

Interestingly enough the two area's that I am in most disagreement with National is the Economy & Taxes and Education sections with 44% and 67% respectively. The difference of opinion in the  is ceneterd mostly on the issue of a tax free zone at the bottom of the income scale much like is currently available in Australia which I support but National does not, a redefinition of the Reserve Bank Act to have less focus on Inflation and to look at other measures, and to keep the research fund for the pastoral sector both of which I support. (There is still plenty of room to trim fat from the bloated and inefficient education sector.)

On the Education side of things I strongly appose the no fail NCEA system that we currently have that National has a neutral stance for, and I am also neutral on bonding graduates to stay in New Zealand with discounts on their student loan.

So let me know how the rest of you poll.

For the first time this year I am no longer confident that National will win the Election. Polls have them sitting inbetween 45 & 51% of the party vote. If they do get 50% or higher of the party vote and win the electorates they are expected to win, forming a government will not be a problem. They would most likely not form a government by themselves due to an overhang caused by the Maori Party, but should have the numbers by forming a coalition with either the Act Party or United Party.

If National only polls at 45% of the party vote however, then things change significantly. They would come away with 57 seats in a 123 seat parliament, and needing 62 seats to get a majority even with the 2 MP's from Act and one from the Uninted Future party National would still need to form a grand coalition as such with the Maori party to get the majority. In this situation the Maori party would be the one party that could determine who was in the next government, either (57Nat + 2Act +1Unt +4Mao) = 64  or (47Lab + 11Grn + 4Mao) =62. In any case I would still suspect that the Maori party would be more likely to side with Labour than National. Note: That the dependency on the Maori party becomes even greater the more Maori electorate seats they win as this would cause a greater overhang. For example if the Maori party wins all 7 Maori seats yet retains its 2.3% party vote the overhang will take the total parliament size up to 126 with a requirement of 64 for a majority. It gets even worse should the NZ First party get past the 5% threshold or Winston win Tauranga.

The scary thing about this is should Labour win this election it will be the amount of clout that the Greens and the Maori part will have, with potentially up to 33% of the new ruling parliament being formed by the minor parties. To put it simply if you want a change in government get out there in two weeks time and give your vote to National or Act. Voting any other party will simply bring about another 3 years of the same Nanny State.

Following up from my original post, the other option that we are considering for our honeymoon is Italy. The tour that we are looking at goes through Rome, Florence, Venice, Splits(Croatia) and finishes up in Vienna. This trip would clearly be a more busy trip as most of these places have a ton of things to do if you want to.

Rome:
There is so much to see in Rome that no matter how long you go there for in a holiday you will not be able to see everything in the first pass. And unlike in Greece there is a lot more in a concentrated area and the items are less ravaged by time. Clearly one has to go to the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, the Villa Borghese, St Peters Square, and the Vatican just to name a few. With the tour only spending 2 days here I doubt there will be enough time to see even all this.

It has been a unusual yet good week for running so far. 13km completed of my 20km goal and my legs are holding up. Unusual because last week the shin splints were back and I had only run 13km total over a longer period of time.

As an update my current plan has me running 5 days a week (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, & Thursday) although currently not at very long distances.

• Saturday 3km Route
• Sunday 6km Route
• Monday 4km Route
• Wednesday 4km Route
• Thursday 3km Route

Still walking parts of the 6km route, although that was in part due to getting a nasty case of chaffing of which I will have to investigate how to overcome should it become a repeat offender. Still hating the hills, particularlly the short yet steep hill right at the end of my 4km circuit.

Assuming I have no unexpected problem completing my 20k goal this week the next plan is to phase out the 3km route and do two 6km runs for the following week. Setting a 24km/week goal.