Community Archives - Web Development

GodZone Internet Services

You know those days you get an email, and you can tell the message of it from the first few words? I got one of those this morning from an amazing company we have worked with, GodZone. After 25 years serving the church in the internet space, enabling domains and website hosting, email and DNS, Glen and Rosanne have announced they will be ceasing operations at the end of October

To many this has come as a surprise, and will have them looking to work out what to do with their services that had been through GodZone. I know of a number of churches and small businesses that have had domains registered with GodZone to support the ministry, or have utilised their very reasonable website hosting services.

I would recommend anyone looking at their options for services going forward, to look for a team that knows what they are talking about. Glen has been an expert in the area of domains and DNS for many years, and the reliability and stability of the GodZone services has been a testament to this. Stability online is built on knowledge of how things work over a number of different services, and how to get the most out of them all to best suit your clients needs. Many of the larger players in the website hosting game in New Zealand have really suffered from a lack of depth of knowledge in this area, and a lack of consistency in staffing and knowledge has left their services either letting customers down.

Talking with the team I trust over at Webmad (shameless plug) we are offering free website migrations to our high spec hosting services, and free domain name transfers to any existing customers of GodZone Internet Services wondering what to do. Not sure whether migrating to Webmad is the right option? Its free to give us call and discuss options – if we can enable your decision makers to make informed decisions on the next steps with your online resources, even if that isn’t with us, that in itself is a ministry.

I first ran into the GodZone team may moons ago in 2008 when we were looking at domain name options for the local church I am involved with. They had the domains church.org.nz and their various offshoots, which we investigated using a subdomain of for our own website. Fast-forward to 2022 and I was lucky enough to work out a deal whereby Webmad was able to take over registration of these domain names and look to continue the legacy of being able to offer churches cost effective domain name options. We aim to continue this legacy going forward.

We certainly wish Glen and Rosanne all the best with their future endeavours, and Thank you for the superb services and ministry you have provided the church community over the last 25 years.

Websites Making A Difference

Webmad got its name because we wanted to be a part of making change in this world. Websites Making A Difference. As part of fulfilling that vision every now and then a good cause comes up where we can offer our services to help the community

One such cause came up recently. Our local community is currently getting a new public pool – the South West Leisure Centre. This is all rather exciting for the community, as we lost a great resource many years ago when the Sockburn pool was closed down. When the pool was being planned, submissions for features were put out, and one of those features which just didn’t make the cut in terms of funding available from the local council was for a hydrotherapy pool to be added into the complex

What is a hydrotherapy pool? Well its a heated pool commonly used as part of physical rehabilitation or therapy to enable weightless movement of a joint. It is useful for lots of things from arthritis relief to recovery from injury. Having the ability for local residents to benefit from this feels like a great thing to assist with.

When the local rotary club came to us with their plans to fundraise to help ensure this great facility is added into the new pool complex, we jumped on board. and that is where https://hornbyhydrotherapy.nz has come about. There is a goal to get to $1.4m funding to make this happen, and as of writing this the team are at $301k so making good strides into the funding journey.

The website is purely a front to the fundraising operation – it has been designed to be visually appealing, have all the information you need to get on board, and links off to the main online giving platform, givealittle. Built using WordPress, the Hornby Rotary team can update the site as needed along the fundraising journey, and it provides a centralised point to direct people to.

We are proud of our association with this cause, as one of the many things we are looking to do in our community to give back, and help make it a better place. If you feel like you’d be keen to help, let us know.