DIY Metal Halide Safety

[Benar]

I have a few questions regarding MH, mainly wiring...safely.
I have a Lumatek 120/240v Dimmable / Multi-Wattage 250w Electronic Ballast, wanting to run a 250W SE Radium, through a BubbleMagus lampshade (like a lumenbrite lrg.)
Questions:
1. I live in NZ so will be running it on 240v (I believe our neutral <common?> is it's own line and not connected to the ground?!)

2. This is my predicament, I couldn't get hold of an SLS male, so cut that part off the adaptor and I've been left with this. It has a black (live?), white (neutral?) and a green ground. My lampshade came with bare ends; brown (our live), blue (our neutral) and ground. So I was thinking of connecting the male plug I am holding to the bare ends of my lamp cord. Cord is 300-500v.
3. If I solder the spliced connections, heatshrink a couple times, put a seperator between them, and heatshrink a couple more times, will this be safe? It would probably be the easier route as the ballast has attached the female version of what I'm holding.
4. What wires to where? Black-brown and white-blue? Does it matter as I've heard after the ballast (output side) it's just effectively a loop, is this true?

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Benar]

It appears I'm still alive.

 

[john08007]

maybe someone else will chime in but my MH connectors don't look like much more than a standard grounded plug with the exception that instead of the two spades going vertical they are horizontal, I don't know off the top of my head but I would assume that they draw a very low amp and you may be able to get away with some heavy duty plugs that you can get locally there

 

[Benar]

Cheers john, I thought about our heavy duty plugs, but didn't want to cut the lead from the ballast for warranty reasons.

For reference: if anyone searches in future in my situation. From ballast USA hot=black, this goes to NZ/AUS line=brown which goes to the base of the bulb (that springy metal piece.) USA com=white, goes to NZ/AUS dedicated neutral=blue which in turn goes to the screw threaded part of the bulb socket.
When lumatek states not to use a neutral on 240 and use two hots instead, they must be referring to US's hair dryer outlets etc where the neutral is grounded also? Our neutral is a dedicated line!

 

[john08007]

Yes, in the US for 110V we use black as the Hot, the common white and ground green are tied together in the circuit breaker box, 220V adds another hot lead here