Interesting. From reading the docs, I thought that it was guaranteed that every object in the NIB file is loaded by the time awakeFromNib is called. Though I have read of this problem elsewhere as well.
From the NSNibAwakening Protocol doc:
An awakeFromNib message is sent to each object loaded from the archive, but only if it can respond to the message, and only after all the objects in the archive have been loaded and initialized. When an object receives an awakeFromNib message, it is guaranteed to have all its outlet instance variables set.
by Justin — Sep 18
From the NSNibAwakening Protocol doc:
An awakeFromNib message is sent to each object loaded from the archive, but only if it can respond to the message, and only after all the objects in the archive have been loaded and initialized. When an object receives an awakeFromNib message, it is guaranteed to have all its outlet instance variables set.