Anders in New Zealand

Stories from the street... [UNCENSORED] [WARNING: RACISM, DRUG USE, VIOLENCE]

2013-09-20T01:44:00.001-07:00

Entertainment is expensive in Wellington, a movie ticket is around 15 dollars and with popcorn and soda, that quickly doubles - so you have to make money last, or make sure that what you get in return is at least worth your time in terms of value.

Wellington, like many many other cities have these people who wander the streets and try to bum cigarettes off of you. And me being a business man, I can't help but wonder what I can do to monetize on this, and if not money, at least get some sort of value in return. So I have developed a plan that allows me to get something in return from these people. Usually, the results are mediocre, but from time to time, I get something worth writing about - today I hit the jackpot!

It's actually pretty simple, whenever a bum approaches me to get his fix, usually by saying something along the lines of: "Bro? Bro? BRO? Can I have a cigarette off of you?" at which point my face lights up and I reply: "Well, I've got a special offer just for you, limited time only! I will give you TWO cigarettes, one now, and one later, but in return, you have to tell me the story of your life, what do you say?" - "Ar... Are you serious?" - "Yes I am."

"Well... Fuck it bro let's do this shit! Come here, let's go sit... This is going to be a long one - I might have to charge you three cigarettes!

When I was seven, I don't remember shit before that man, sorry. When I was seven my parents moved to Australia, Melbourne eh, because... work. I went to school there but it was shit so I dropped out, started hanging out with friends. My parents, never really saw them, working and shit, so I hung out with these people who did some tagging and stuff. It was sweet, hung out, started smoking at eight-nine. Then on weekends drinking, then every drinking, more smoking. When ten-eleven perhaps more than that, weed. Twelve snorting lines after I hung out with this gang, they did graffiti."

- All while telling me this stuff, the guy was simply staring into the rain, correcting his cap from time to time. He seemed to be around 25 years old. A gust of wind brought his scent to my nose - this guy had definitely not showered for a day or two.

"Tagging, weed, snorting. It was pretty bad eh? The gang started stealing cars - not to sell or anything, just to drive around and have a bit of fun, skids and shit. I was fourteen then I think. Years start blowing by man, it got really serious, pills down the drain, not just on weekends, get me through the days and stuff. Went to juvenile when I was thirteen the first time maybe. I go in and out for like, at least five times. Had some fun with that. The gang stuff got really serious, dealing with another gang of niggers and shit. Fifteen, got into fights all the time, we won, niggers couldn't do shit.

So I turn 16 I think, my mom decides it's time for something to happen. She threatened me a long time, I told the gang and shit but they didn't believe it. One day my mom drives me to the airport, she booked a ticket to Wellington. So to the airport, Christchurch and then in Wellington. I call up my mates at home and be all like: "You know how my mom said she'd fly me to New Zealand? I'm in New Zealand now!" They tell me to come back but fuck them. I get this job at a friend of family, do some gardening for some time. Get a car, do some skids, because fuck it, it's my own damn car now, I can do what I want. Nice BMW too, real good. I met a girl too, Airini, maori, freaking great girl. Some time later my employer falls or some shit, breaks his knee - out of business no job. Wait I have picture, see this..."

- He pulls out his phone, an older Nokia, powers it on and shows me the background photo of his girl and two grownup dogs.

"She's great man. Yeah and these two babies. So I'm out of a job right because this cunt can't fucking stand on his legs. I start hanging out at home, get bored, go to town, meet some people, do some shit. Pretty much the same as before, start tagging, hanging out with wrong people. Steal cars, drugs and all that shit again. Stole a bunch of cars, not just to drive anymore, we took the tires or whatever we needed that week, then burned it or dumped it somewhere. Doings skids and shit my car breaks down, goes to the trash, no car anymore. Bummer.

So one night we out getting a car, drive around, fucking police catches up, get arrested, detained for a month - couldn't go anywhere. As soon as it's over I'm out doing shit again, get caught and detention for three months before they put me on 24 hour curfew. I get one of those fucking ankle things, you know so I can't go anywhere outside the house. Airini offers I can move in with her parents in Palmy. Fuck no, but I couldn't go anywhere else, so we do that shit. Got to know her family really well, like, all of them, fucking horrible. I get a job, picking fruit, means that I can go out between like 9 and 5 every day which was really good. Airini and me save up some money, get our own place close to their parents because I couldn't stand that shit anymore. We get some puppies too, the dogs I show you, amazing, they were little then.

So a week after we move in, this bunch of niggers moves in next door. Doing drugs and shit, drinking all night on the porch every day, just yelling and screaming. They did some tagging and shit too just when I was doing better away from it all. I start hanging out with them, then I have a breach, meaning I was out when I was not supposed to so I lose my job and have to stay home for three months. So I just sit at home and smoke weed all day, go to the niggers next door and smoke with them, play games all day. Anyway, three months later I can go back to work.

First day back at work, I come home and my house has been robbed, they took fucking everything; laptop, big ass plasma TV, Xbox, everything. I go knock the niggers door and tell the fuckheads to give me my shit back, they don't do anything. Fucking retards. So the next few months get really weird man, every night they're out there drinking and yelling and shit at me. They don't give a shit about Airini, because she's maori too, but I'm white. They do this every night man, I go out there and tell them to fuck off, they give me shit, but I'm not going to let them get me. So for a month or so, whenever I see their tags anywhere I spray it over and write my own next to it. I know they're getting pissed, talk about it all the time.

Then one day I call my mates in Wellington, next day I grab a fucking car and drive there, with no license, police took it in the car chase. So I drive down, pick up my mates and drive back before five. That night they didn't come out, but the next one, they're there.

I go out and tell them to fuck off, their tags are no good anymore, getting sprayed over. Niggers ask me if I'm the one who's been doing it; "Fuck yeah what you gonna do bitches?!" They walk over and start acting all cocky and then my mates show up behind me, bigger than me. I grab the first one and headbutts him in the face, he falls down, silent. The kiddies then start walking back as we walk towards them, I knee the next one in the ribs and he falls on the ground as well, we chase them over to theirs, my mate hands me a hammer and then the police show up because of the noise so the niggers start running because they're not 18 yet, underage drinking. There's like six of them and I follow them, they keep running and split up. I get two of them, and I got them fucking good.

The problems stop, they don't drink or make any noise anymore, and when they see me they run, that was pretty good. We moved back to Airini's parents though, the place was shit. I lost my job after that. Maybe two weeks later we decide to move to Wellington, more job opportunities. I met the people I knew in Welly again, and they wanted me to go out and shit, but I didn't, just stole a few cars and stuff again but nothing big, just some weed. Then I got a job down on the wharf, unloading containers, but I lost that a month ago. I want to get back into gardening but it's just hard to find anything. I had a job last monday, but that was just one day. We live out in Miramar now, Airini and me, and the dogs. It's good shit, away from all the problems. So I go here, try to find work."

I offer him his last cigarette and thank him for the story, offer him my lighter but he says he's got one himself. Then he stands up, turn around and walk away - as it has happened before.

Do note though, I have a deal with myself: I don't tell them my name, and they don't tell me theirs - I don't want to know. Their stories is all I want, nothing more. Names in the above text have been altered, jobs may be different, places probably are too - but the story is true. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

EDIT: Forgot to add, he is only 19. But living a life like that does take its toll on your body.

Wherever the wind blows!

2013-09-10T00:36:00.002-07:00

Wellington being windy is no news, but recently it has picked up and carried me in a different direction than what I expected, or was prepared for when I left Denmark a little more than a month ago.

The company I was supposed to intern for, turned out to not really have enough time for me, which lead to me being quite bored with nothing to do on a daily basis. So what is one to do? Sit around and wait? Not me.

I overheard a conversation next door and when a topic I'm knowledgeable about came up I decided that perhaps it was time to approach them, and so I did. We talked and knowing both Michael and David from my stay at the office last year we casually talked about my current situation, to which there seemed to be a solution: "Come work for us!"

After some emailing with school, a haircut, and a VISA-application, I have moved my internship to Hunter Safety Lab, who are manufacturing the IRIS, which is a truly amazing product, if you don't want to get shot (by a hunter). Check it out, it's really cool!

So that's what's been going on lately, hopefully soon I'll have more updates. I can't share much more as of right now, but things are great, and I'm looking forward to see where the wind takes me next!

Eszter arrives!

2013-08-25T02:37:00.001-07:00

This Friday was a day long awaited, as it was the day that Eszter arrived! Which means I now have someone to talk with at the office, about other stuff than just business. Potentially someone to go party with as well, as soon as she's over her Jetlag :p

First up, I went to the Airport to pick her up with Barrie, her host. We all went to their place for dinner, before splitting up so that she could get some much desired sleep after a long journey. Like myself, Eszter flew Emirates, and absolutely loved it, it's a pretty amazing travel provider I'd say.

Saturday we met up again, and got dropped off at the beginning of the waterfront, from where Eszter and I walked to Te Papa, where we would meet up with Joe to watch a Chilean movie about the war that never was between Chile and Argentina. It was really good, and definitely worth watching, Mi mejor enemigo is the title ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410316/ ).

Eszter wanted to go home and was tired, so that we did, and watched the game between the All Blacks (NZ Rugby team) and the Wallabies (Australians). It was a great game, actually quite fun to watch, and All Blacks won, so later when I went back to town, there was a pretty good feel everywhere on the streets. Chips was busy for a while, and so before meeting up with him, I took some pictures of street artists in Wellington, which can be seen here: http://imgur.com/a/HW362#0

Sunday was dedicated to spending time at Chips', to once again see Mike, another Magic Judge I got to know last I was here. It was nice catching up again.

All in all, a pretty good weekend.

Magic!

2013-08-18T02:09:00.001-07:00

As in the cardgame I play, and pretty well if I may add that. More about that in a moment.

A few days has passed since my last update, so here goes: I started my internship with Yonix, and I've got my project more or less figured out.

Wellington is to my delight very much the same as last year, with awesome food at the Foodcourt where I meet with Chips just about 3 out of 5 days a week - and we're meeting again tomorrow to plan a trip to Brisbane, Australia - to play Magic.

So far things have been going well, 2nd place in the two tournaments I've participated in, a $10 investment total worth winnings worth $50 - not bad.

I've also won the earthquake lottery, in that I've actually experienced one this time here. Last year they happened over night while I was sleeping, and didn't wake me up, but this time I was wide awake and got to see things fall off shelves and people run around, that was fun.

All in all, things are quietly progressing as expected and for a study trip, this is pretty awesome!

Meeting the boss!

2013-08-12T17:00:00.002-07:00

Monday, 7 days has passed since I left my bed in the living room upstairs at my parent's place, and here we go, time to face the real world again, after some relaxation. Dare I say, much needed relaxation! When I went to New Zealand in 2012, there were no signs whatsoever of jetlag once I got here, I was fresh and ready to go from day one. This time around however, I am having some issues, I usually wake up around 4:30-5:00 and get sleepy around 16:00. Monday was a little better, woke up 4:45 this time, so things are moving the right way, just not as fast as I want it to...

I headed out for lunch with Jody Bullen, the CEO of Yonix, the company I will be interning for. Yonix is... well that's what I have to find out too, but here's their website: http://yonix.com/
Jody and his team have created an online document collaboration platform for Business Analysts, it's a bit like Google Docs, except it does MUCH MORE, things that if you are a BA is super awesome to have. I think that for the sake of everyone's sanity I'll stop here.

The meeting with Jody was awesome, we get along very well, as expected, and we outlined what I will be doing these next 3 months under his wing, trying to make things better, learn something and write a good report in the end. I can't share many details unfortunately, confidentiality and stuff, but as a business student this is a very interesting company to work for.

Back to New Zealand

2013-08-10T22:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome back everybody! I am returning to New Zealand for a few days (until christmas), and naturally I will once again start blogging, for friends and family abroad!

Day 0 (Monday, 5/8-2013):
Today Sune, John and I went to Odense, sort of to say goodbye and apparently also play magic because they had a draft going, which took longer than expected and therefore included in my blog as time says 01:15, meaning it actually is now...

Day 1!:
And what a terrible day it is, weather-wise. Total I think had perhaps 3 hours of sleep, but that's okay! It means I can easily sleep on the plane. Eventually my last bits and bobs are packed and Laura drives me to the train, and then suddenly I am at CPH Airport. Before getting off the train, I overheard a conversation between a guy I later found out was called Yusuf and one og DSB's On Time Team members, about him flying at the same time as me, where he was worried if he would make it. At the airport I quickly found out where I was supposed to go, but noticed Yusuf looking confused, so I told him to just come with me. We walked and talked, got through check-in, security etc. and eventually ended up at the gate and could board.
One thing I had noticed was that Yusuf carried only one piece of luggage, and it weighed nothing. The explanation being that he had brought only bags, and was planning on buying all his clothes in Kuwait and then bring it home - smart... Now, I'm going to New Zealand though, and I don't really think that plan will work out that well, as things aren't really cheaper there.
Cool thing though, the plane was so empty (about 30-35% full), it was easy to find some nice and comfortable seats in the exit-row with plenty of legspace for me... Funny as in earlier today I read about Tall People Club in DSB's Ud og Se magazine - probably a club I should actually join :p
Eventually we landed in Dubai airport and here I parted with Yusuf who was continuing to Kuwait.

Day 2:
Not the most exciting, basically just waiting for 10 hours at the airport before moving on again. Dubai Airport is not bad though, plenty of shops always open and everything is nice and clean except for when there are chinese people around. In the 15 minutes I spent at Burger King trying to survive the night with a healthy snack, two different families managed to drop a soda and leave it and it's contents on the floor, as well as a pack of fries... Like a baws!
But again, except for that, it's a stunningly beautiful airport, definitely worth a visit (and I didn't even leave the transfer area!). The most amazing thing however, was probably that this airport caters to the needs of absolutely everybody, including pedophiles... Why else would they have signs showing where the unaccompanied minors are located? ( http://i.imgur.com/Np8viYv.jpg )
Time to board the airplane came along nicely (eventually), and boy was it nice to hear someone speak english again, and then with a kiwi-accent, now I am actually getting excited!

Day 3:
12 hours later, and yes they passed quickly in an A380, short stop in Sydney before continuing to Auckland, which actually concludes these travels, technically, as I have yet to but a ticket for Wellington. But that's a problem I'll manage in Auckland, which I eventually ended up in. Getting a ticket was quite easy, and an hour later I was on the plane, and another hour and I was in Wellington - almost there!
I called up my mate Chips whom I had discussed pickup with earlier, and about 30 minutes he showed up with Gene hanging out the window and holla at me (interj. 1. an exclamation of greeting. 2. an exclamtion used to show excitement or enthusiasm. verb. 1. to call. 2. to summon).
We went to Gene's place to play some Magic (that card game, you'll hear lots more about it over the next 4 months) with 2 others. I ended up sleeping at Gene's place, since I could not get in contact with Carol, my host.

Day 4:
I eventually left Gene's place to go have lunch with Chips at a mexican place in the food court ( http://v.gd/foodonwillis - that's the entrance, there's probably 20 different food choices downstairs incl. mexican, turkish, indian and many more ). Chips lives with 2 other guys, one who works there and will shortly be the manager of the place, and they make delicious food!
After this, Chips went back to work and I hurried to Vodafone to get my phone working - 140,- DKK for 250MB of data... I get unlimited in Denmark for just 79,- DKK. Oh well, I knew those were the conditions from last I was here.
I got it working and then waltzed up to greet Rebecca at Creative HQ on Level 4, 50 Manners Street, where I interned last year and I am going to again this time around. Rebecca was the only one in this day that I remembered from last. Tui, who I also know, was there, but in a meeting. I chatted with Rebecca for a few minutes and then went up on 108 The Terrace to say hi Nathan, my boss last year, to catch up with him.
I had a nice talk with Nathan who invited me to stay for a while until he was done working and then I had a beer with him and everybody at the office. Very nice afternoon of catching up on what has been going on since I left.
I got a hold of Carol, with whom I agreed to get picked up the day after at 13:00.
Eventually it was time to depart, I went back to Chips' place, stayed for about 15 minutes before we went to eat with some of his friends who had just been at Beervana ( http://www.beervana.co.nz/ ) and were indeed very intoxicated (as one would expect). From here it was back to Chips', play some cards and eventually go to bed.

Day 5:
Pretty lazy day all in all. Woke up around 8:30, got my first shower since I left home!, went to get brunch with Chips, then back, play cards and wait for Carol to pick me up.
Carol came by, and she is a wonderful lady who lives far far up the hill in Northland, we almost can't get any higher (pictures will come later, the weather is bad and there's really not much to show right now http://i.imgur.com/BS563df.jpg ). The house has a very interesting architecture, which I will write more about later as well (you'll see). We got Cleo, the cat, the most playful and fluffy thing ever, the loveliest creature who knows nothing better than to spend all day in front of the fire on her back ( http://i.imgur.com/wfbZuoU.jpg ), so that's what we did on the 6th day, Sunday, me and her, watching Comedy Central...

All in all, everything's well! I didn't quite make it to the 7th day before relaxing, but, we can't all be as awesome as God!

Christchurch

2012-05-04T04:34:00.001-07:00

This past tuesday, Gigi and I went on our way to leave Wellington to go down to Hayley's place for some serious thesis writing. We have all been really busy lately since our deadline is due next week, so we haven't had much time to travel around and see the area yet, but Gigi and I however did have a few hours in Christchurch before we were on our way to Dunedin, since our flight wasn't direct.

So, we decided to go to town after landing in Christchurch and see what the earthquakes early last year had done to this once so big and beautiful city.

I would have loved to say a lot of nice things about this town, but truth is, it's a giant dump. The centre of the city is completely demolished with everything falling apart, construction work going on everywhere, but no people. It mostly reminded me of parts of Poland and eastern Germany with buildings left unattended since WW2 where they were bombed to smithereens.

Amidst all the tragic ruins, I did however find reason for laughter! I'm telling you, someone's got their priorities wrong in Christchurch, apparently putting together an emergency shopping centre was a lot more important than, let's just say, restoring the many year old historical church in the centre of the city?

For more pictures, flick through my gallery here: http://imgur.com/a/dcyC3

Showering in the Elevators

2012-04-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

So today at around 10:10am here on 50 Manners Street (Check Location), the fire alarm went off. My first thought, learning from last time when we had a fire drill, was to grap my gadgets and then get out. So I did.

10 minutes earlier, I could swear someone was showering on the other side of the wall, I set next to the service shaft and it really sounded like there was water in there.

I wasn't wrong. I walked down the fire exit and on my way out, I saw the elevators getting full of water... Once I got outside I talked to Gilles, who told me that he had been downstairs to grap a coffee, and when he was, he saw everyone from the 11th floor coming down soaking wet, reason: A water pipe had burst. Note: You can easily recognize people from the 11th floor because that's where the Spanish Embassy is.

And then came the fire brigade, 4 trucks loaded with firefighters, ironic, when all we needed was a plumber. Anyways, some pictures:

Those little amazing things... A tribute to Metlink!

2012-04-19T19:18:00.001-07:00

On the buses, everyone says "Good day" (or morning or evening) when they get on the bus, and "Thanks driver!" when they get off.

You always know when the police or fire brigade is coming before you can even hear them: The buses stop, blovk the road for cars and makes space for them.

When your card isn't working you get to ride for free! (Happened to me once and the busdriver sees me every morning).

The busdrivers are always friendly and very talkative! I get off at the second last stop on my route so it's very handy for me.

They're not on time, but got precise GPS estimates of arrival so you don't have to worry how long it will take.

Update:
So I've been told that a friend of mine passed this on to Metlink, you're welcome to contact me guys!

On second thought, maybe the ones I should thank is GoWellington? I don't know which is the parent company or if they are related at all, both deal with transport in Wellington and I'm just a tourist.

It never ends!

2012-04-09T01:00:00.001-07:00

New Zealand that is. Turn around a random corner and you see something new, exciting, pretty, weird or just amazing in some other way.

In the middle of Wellington Harbour, formed long ago, before the time of Kupe, when Te Ika-a-Māui was just fished from the depths of the ocean, lived two taniwha, Ngake and Whātaita, lies Matui or Somes Island.

Somes Island served pretty much the same role as Ellis Island in New York, just off Manhattan. While New Zealand never really screened immigrants to the same extension, the local farmers were worried about diseases and so Somes Island had one of (and at several times THE) the worlds most secure animal health checkpoint. One feature being that noone ever wrote notes, instead notes were recorded with a microphone on an external tape recorder outside the security zone. Quite clever.

There was more than animals out there, or so they say: During WW2 Italians were held prisoner on the island because their weird language made them spies. Thick accent+gibberish=spy. Good thing security was low and the Italians could go swimming, make money creating sea-shell jewellery and meet their families 2 times a month. Italians were imprisoned on Matui for 2-4 years, many never found out why.

In 1956, a chinese man was put in detention on a small rock (calling it an island is really an overstatement!) just north of Matui. He was believed to have leprocy and was put there for that reason. When possible, the lighthouse keeper would row out with food, and apparently more. After the chinese man had died 3 months later, they found furniture made from shipping crates and more. They never found out why died, but today the small island goes by the name Leper Island.

Now, this place is beautiful! Just look at the picture, enough history!

Featherston French Fair

2012-03-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

This weekend was awesome!

So Hayley was coming, which in itself is pretty cool since I haven't seen her since her housewarming way back on January 20th.

Friday night we went out and played pool, luckily Hayley and I both suck really hard at it so noone really won a game, rather we would take turns losing for pouching the 8-ball too early. After a few games we met up with Hayley's friends and went clubbing until 1:30. When we went home we sort of talked a bit too much and forgot to get off, so we had to walk for 30 minutes to get home.

The next morning we were going to visit Gigi in Masterton to go to a French Fair in Featherston. We got on the train and went to Solway Station where Gigi met us and walked us back to the Copthorne Hotel and Resort. We dropped off our bags and went to the playground for the kids (Gigi and Hayley) to play.

After that we went to KFC, while there we planned the rest of the day: Go to French Fair, go back to Masterton, go shopping for me to cook again, go home and watch TV and drink loads of New Zealand wine. Pretty good plan we thought.

Girls and their bags and hats...

Pizza-machine!

"Market trash"

So on to the busstop, get on bus and go to French Fair. As expected we forgot to get off (again), and so we thought we had to walk but didn't. Because as it turned out, Rick the busdriver (who's going to play a major role later on!), offered to go back that way after stopping at Featherston station, we kindly accepted! 20 minutes later we were at the French Fair and could check out the attractions. Rick said he'd be back at 5-10 past 5 which gave us about 3 hours at the fair.

Personally I don't think it was awesome, but there was a lot of what I would call regular market trash for sale. They did have a fucking (and this is AWESOME!) mobile pizza-bakery! That's like, amazing! A car with a giant wood-fired pizza-oven on the back of it! Oh well. I bought a gift for Marta and the girls went shopping too and got a few things. The coolest thing was probably the Betty Boob coasters that Hayley got. How she can call them girly I have no idea about!

French Fair. That was the name. While people did dress up like stereotypical french people, we didn't meet any. 7-finger chocolate man was from Belgium and the apple-juice man from Romania. The rest were presumably Kiwis.

Eventually it was time to go and so we left, waiting for the bus. Rick did come back, but he was going the wrong way! Well: He had misunderstood us or we had misunderstood him, so he thought we were going back to Martinborough and not Masterton. Whoops! We got on the bus anyways because we did not want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere at a closed French Fair without french people.

We got to Featherston station where we would have to wait for 3 hours for the train to arrive. Rick saw that we were in a kinda sucky position and gave us an amazing offer again:

Featherston

He would go to Martinborough, come back and fuel up, park the bus, and take another bus home and drop us off at Copthorne because he lives in Masterton and Solway is on the way there. We couldn't really say no to such a great offer and got off in Featherston.

Back in Featherston we went shopping for groceries and got an ice cream while waiting for Rick to get back. Rick got there and fueled his bus, we got on, he parked it, and boarded the smaller slightly broken schoolbus. On the way back we had some great discussions on the development of the whole area where he's lived most of his life, spending 18 years in Australia since there was no work in New Zealand.

Bus 199 before departure to Solway

So Greytown, which we passed through on our way back, was the first inland town in New Zealand. It was created when all the rich people had bought the good land along the coasts mostly on the South Island, so poor people had no options for starting up. For 25 pounds they could but 1 acte land in Greytown to build a house on, and get 25 acres of land to grow to grow crops on somewhere around the city. With no money however, they couldn't afford to clear off the bush and start growing crops so after a few years you had a small town with a whole lot of poor people with big houses and no land because it had all been sold to the rich people. Masterton and Carterton which are nearby, were named after the two people behind this seemingly great initiative, Masters and Carter.

Anyways, we got back to Copthorne and thanked Rick many times for being so damn amazing throughout our day (which without him would have gone terribly wrong!). And I started cooking.

Pasta with a sauce made of: leak, carrots, beans, capcicum, tomato sauce and then some fried bacon. The girls loved it and it was truly amazing!

That was my weekend! Tomorrow back to Welly and work on project and relax! It was great seeing Hayley again and we had a great experience just, messing up our entire plan for saturday!

So Anders, what does Kiwis eat?

2012-03-28T22:15:00.002-07:00

Fish and Chips,
Fish and Chips, and
Fish and Chips...

No really, that's all I've had this past two weeks, for tea at least (that's what my scottish heritage host family calls the evening meal). The reason being that Callum, the son of the house, has a science experiment going on, testing different types of packaging for delivering Fish and Chips.

So for the sake of science, we've been Fish and Chips. Callum had set up 5 different contraptions for packaging/wrapping the chips

Pre-heated Crock-Pot
Aluminum foil
Woolen sweater
Polystyrene box (aka Thermocole or Flamingo)
Control (whatever packaging the shop supplied, a paper bag basically)

Upon the arrival of the Fish and Chips we would sit and wait for 5-10 minutes for Callum to measure the temperature as it was falling in each of the 5 wrappings and eventually we would get to eat and rate the transportation methods and their impact on the quality of our chips.

Consistently, the aluminum foil kept the chips hot, but soggy as there was no way for the water to escape the packaging. The polystyrene box was quite big, and seemed to keep the item warmer, and crunchier than regular packaging, but not a practical solution. The pre-heated crock-pot, would have the same effect as the aluminum foil when closed. However, if the original packaging was broken (happened on one occasion by accident) the chips would stay warm and crunchy, really good. The one solution to win the award of the best solution for keeping chips warm and crunchy however goes to the woolen sweater. While temperature was slightly lower than the pre-heated crock-pot, the chips stayed crunchy and most importantly: It's practical and requires no effort.

The control performed terrible: Crunchy but cold after just 5 minutes.

Those Wellingtonians

2012-03-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

So on the bus morning, I noticed something quite peculiar, and since the traffic was slow I had plenty of time to ponder for the reason of it.

All the way in, the areas outlined with yellow stripes for the buses to park in had trash in them. It's most likely trash collecting day, but why would it all be in the bus stop areas?

Well, suburban Wellingtonians probably agree that parking is quite a hassle and also very expensive. The city council recently announced that prices will increase, again!

So to avoid blocking their drive-way or ruining a perfectly good parking spot, people simply dump their trash in the busstops, because these people have a car anyways and don't care about the buses. Smart eh?

Tramping trip to Otaki Forks!

2012-03-16T17:28:00.001-07:00

So as I mentioned I'd post about my trampint trip

Mike, our guide

Robyn, my previous host, knows a guy called Mike who has been tramping in New Zealand for more than 40 years, written books on the bush and its huts, held seminars and speeches about tramping and probably a lot lot more. Robyn suggested that I went tramping with him some time ago and I decided that it was probably a good idea, especially considering that he'd do it for free!

Big slid, we had to travel all the way around it!

If he was going to take me anyways, I might as well bring some friends, so I invited all the people from work and quite a few of the interns at companies incubated at Creative HQ decided to come, so Mike, Robyn and I were accompanied by Gunhild, Gigi, Andrew, Gilles and Walker on our tour.

Mike was a great guide, besides being well-equipped with gear and food, he had legs that would make any professional biker jealous. He knew a lot about the bush and was telling us about several different plants and trees, some of them edible, but could cause diarrhea, others good against diarrhea!

Our trip started at 10 in the morning and went from a parking area with a little hut and into the wild where we would go see a boiler, used to drive an engine some 100 years ago, dragging cartloads of wood back and forth. On our way, the parts that hadn't slid away, we would sometimes see iron tracks which were only used for the corners, for the straight pieces they used wooden tracks back then. On our way we would besides steep hills, small rivers flowing down the hills (that we had to wade through) also encounter bridges. The one here is the second longest in the Tararua Forest Park (the area in which Otaki Forks lies).

I can only recommend going on a tramping trip, the most amazing thing was that there are no fences, no must-do tracks or anything. You are on your own and can go anywhere you like. It's not like Denmark or the US where they close everything that's slightly dangerous. The bush is dangerous, not because of it's animals or trees or anything. The big killer is the weather, and not being prepared for rain, snow, sun or anything in between can be lethal if you suddenly get stuck out there. Mike was telling us how these mountains have their own weather and how it can change from one type to another in minutes if the wind starts blowing in a different direction.

I've included only a few of the pictures taken on the trip here, to see them all go to THIS WEBSITE.

But, I think everyone enjoyed it! And I would definitely go again, which I am planning on. Might just take the same group somewhere else if they're all up to it, and Mike doesn't mind leading us :D

Just a warning

2012-03-16T17:06:00.003-07:00

Despite the lack of updates, life hasn't stopped down here, quite the opposite actually!

New Zealand is heading towards wintertime and now you may ask me: "Why don't you just say fall?" - Well New Zealand doesn't really have 'fall'. The term describes what happens in that period of time, the leaves fall from the trees. New Zealand however, feature mainly evergreens, meaning that the trees here don't drop their leaves. They do replace their leaves, most often by growing taller and sacrificing the lower leaves to make new ones that are higher up and can get more sun.

So now the weather is more like the Danish, we have days with heaps of sun and no wind, and we have days with with and rain. So while people keep telling me the weather is awful here, I can only shrug and say: "Just like home!".

This past weekend, which I'll describe in detail in the next post with pictures and so forth, Gigi came to visit me here in Wellington where we went tramping in Otaki Forks!

So, it has been a while...

2012-03-02T01:47:00.001-08:00

... And not much has happened. Wednesday 22nd I moved to a different place, with a guy called Murray in Miramar. Basically the reason for this is that I was a bit annoyed with the buses to and from Belmont, Lower Hutt. Miramar offers buses all week until midnight, which means I can stay in the city and hang out with people a lot longer than before.

In relation to work it's been moving forward a lot. I've been working on improving our communication with potential customers and the results seem to be great. More people open our emails and more people click our links after we changed the headline and the contents of the emails.
Currently I'm making video tutoriaæs for existing customers so it's easier for them to start using our software, not that it's hard to use at all, but hopefully this means that we will receive less phonecalls with very simple questions.

Other than that I'm doing fine, starting to miss the family at home and the girlfriend in the US. Luckily I get to see all of them over the summer break and after that I have no plans yet.

I wish there was more to tell but as of right now, life is pretty stable here. Summer is ending, it's raining a lot more and it's quite chilly in the evenings. Though the coldest it'll ever get is like 9•C, and that's a cold winter :) It's so windy though that it feels like it's a lot colder.

A weekend in Karori

2012-02-19T10:40:00.001-08:00

So this weekend was definitely not boring!

Friday after work, Gunhild (another Dane who works on the same floor as me) and I went to the train station to wait for Gigi and Sara who were on the train from Masterton. The train however was so full, that they dumped a bunch of passengers including Sara into buses so they could drive over the mountains instead. All this moving people around delayed the train which Gigi was still in by an hour and 15 minutes, but at 6:15 we were finally gathered in Wellington and ln our way towards the bus towarda Gunhild's place.

The girls got ready, with their showers, makeup, clothes swapping and shoe picking, and eventually we were ready to go back into the city and party all night long, and so we did.

We didn't really know where to go except around Courtney Place, which was a great idea. There is nothing but clubs and bars in that area, so we had fun all night walking around and trying most of them. We got drunk and danced, and that's about all that went on friday night/saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon was spent in the garden, playing badminton and other beach games that Jenn and Barry, Gunhild's hosts, had in a little bag full of toys. Since noone else was home to do it, us danes decided took some potatoes and a really good Danish persille-sovs, om nom nom!

After we had eaten, Jenn took us all to Zealandia, a sanctuary for some of New Zealands hunted wild like the Kiwi, that can't defend itself against cats, dogs and other animals imported by the Brits back some few hundred years ago. It was a really great trip but unfortunately it's hard to take good pictures on a nightwalk, which is when the Kiwi is out, together with their indigigeneous reptile, frog and the glow worm. A funny little fella that glows bright blue at night to attract little insects and eat them.

Sunday we spent sleeping late again, except for Gigi who got up early and went home. The rest of went on a drive down the south end of the north island with Barry as our tour guide, telling us a lot about the earthquake fault lines in Wellington. Then we dropped Nena, a german backpacker, off at a cloister or something, at least she was handed over to Sister Lucy. Barry then told us it was a community that used to have schools, daycare, hospital, church and much more but have had to cut down due to the decreasing amount sisters in community.

Today, monday, it's time for another week of work! But it won't be boring, that's for sure.

Pictures will come a little later.

Rugby - Hurricanes vs Crusaders

2012-02-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

So, as I posted earlier, Gigi and I was going to a Rugby match,
The busride there was pretty average, nothing big happened. So we got out and found ourselves at Tui brewery, I never heard of it before, but whatever. Gigi and I walked over to the bar and found a big sign: "NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES HERE - COFFEE SODAS AND MORE"... Bugger. Apparently that was all in the tent a little away. So we went and got ourselves a can of Tui, 440ml 4% ale, really good taste. Then we followed the masses towards the stadium. Everywhere around us we saw that the local rednecks had emptied their fields for sheep to put up signs saying: "CARPARKING $5".
We finished our beer and walked inside (no liquids allowed upon entering), and saw a lady selling yellow and orange buckets with slits cut into them so people could wear them as hats, which apparently quite a few people decided to do.

Not knowing what to do, with still another 90 minutes to go before the match would start, we went and got 6 beers to share, oh yeah and 1 more each from the free voucher we got on the bus. We found a spot and sat down as close to the field as possible, with our noses touching the string that marked 'no trespassing' line. A game between two 'for fun' teams was going on but ended shortly after we got there.
As we got closer to kick-off, we got more and more aware of how good an idea it was to get a spot early on. People were gathering and now in 3 layers all the way around as Hurricanes and Crusaders started getting on the field to warm up.
Right before kick-off, the two mascots arrived by helicopter to the middle of the field, they came out and greeted their teams (opposite from where we were of course :s). Anyways, quite spectacular.

Initially, the game wasn't actually that interesting, both Gigi and I spent more time talking to people around us, especially one lady who sat down next to us. Her name is Jay and she owns a bar in Petone (really close to where I live in Belmont) right across the street from Domino's. So I have to go there at some point and say hi. The game went on, after an initial lead by the Hurricanes 3-0, the Crusaders quickly made field goal to a lead of 3-7. From then on, it went pretty bad for the Hurricanes, but, we still had fun after chucking down 3 or 4 beers each at this point, and people around us probably a little ahead, the mood was good. During the break, there was lots of fun things going on.

First a guy ran in and climbed the goal until security shook it and he decided to come down, he did however manage to complete his goal, putting a yellow bucket on the top of the pole. Meanwhile some guys were undressing and ran into the field to start doing the a haka. Security wasn't too harsh on them so a couple of their friends joined in including a bunch of girls. Eventually they gave up and wandered back to their spots, but nice intermission. When they were discussing a proper consequence with the guards, a group of sumo-wrestlers attempted to fill the field and dance to LFMAO's "Sexy and I know it", but once again security spoiled the fun and they didn't even make it out of the pit. Would have loved to see that though. 2 made it out on the field and started dancing but security punctured their blown-up suits and walked them back to the pit.

It looks like I'm not enjoying it but the sun was in my eyes

The game resumed and quickly it turned into 19-3, then 19-8 and stayed there till the end of the match. Gigi and I continued with our beer. We decided to ditch the game at that point and go get some food, a hotdog, Kiwi-style. Bread cut open in the top, add fried onions, put in sausage and then a thick line of ketchup and mustard in a zig-zag line down the top of the sausage. Spiced with a Tui, you got a good meal!

After that we started heading home. We went to the bus where we waited for a while, I was still disappointed that the merchandise store was closed all day (possible there was one in the VIP-area but I wouldn't know, couldn't go there), so I couldn't get a Hurricanes jersey. I know they lost but they're from Wellington so I'd like to support them.

Gigi and I went home and went to KFC for another well-deserved meal there, oh yeah, that's where we ate breakfast. After that, we headed on down to Liquorland (by this time Gigi was calling it Legoland 'cause she was quite drunk) because from the tickets we had discount coupons for a crate of TUI beer. It wasn't until we were in the cool room that we found out what size of beer it was we had a discount coupon for, a crate of 12 x 745ml glass bottled-in-a-wooden-box beer. That was heavy. So we walked out and found a bench to sit and enjoy my birthday cake.
After that, we dragged the cake home, and just hung out the rest of the evening. Today which is my birthday by the way (at least here in New Zealand), I'm going to spend going home to Belmont, and get ready for work tomorrow.

Weekend with Gigi

2012-02-10T13:27:00.001-08:00

So, I'm now in Wairarapa at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort. It's a nice hotel where Gigi is interning. The plan for the weekend is to go see a Rugby match between Hurricanes and Crusaders. Gigi's pretty sure one of the teams are staying at the hotel, but were not sure which one. Possibly the Hurricanes though as the hotel staff is rooting for them.
This hotel is far out in the middle of nowhere, so me being hungry wasn't a good thing last night, as Gigi doesn't really cook, I just had to check out what the fridge had to offer.
2 potatoes, a tomato, an onion, a leek, and a big orange potato-like thing.
I peeled the potatoes and the orange thing and boiled them. Chopped up half an onion and the rest, and fried it all. When the potatoes were done I fried them too.
It was delicious, and whatever that orange thing was, it tasted well. Even for Gigi and I, who both love meat.

Just a garage, nothing to see here

2012-02-07T21:45:00.001-08:00

Weekend update

2012-02-06T02:09:00.000-08:00

So it's been a wee while since I last updated, I'm not dead, just so you know.

I previously posted about Educa, the company I work for, well Nathan and I are getting along very well and the job is both fun and interesting. Unfortunately I can not share details but I like it there, the environment is great at the office, lots of friendly people.

Wellington is a cool city, and I prefer it over Auckland. Auckland seems very uptight, over-polished and stressed where Wellington is more down to earth and relaxed.

Thursday and friday I worked. Thursday I met up with Gene Brumby, a Pro Tour (Magic: The Gathering) player and his friend Chips (I think was his nickname? Not sure) in Brooklyn where he lives. We played some games and talked about his trip to Honolulu to play and hopefully win a lot! (Best of luck mate!). Friday after work Nathan and I went out for a beer and after that he dropped me off at home (Robyn's place).

Saturday I slept long, because I could, then Robyn was going shopping and took me to the train station, where I then headed off to Wellington. I went to Pulsar Max, a store where geeks who like to play Magic, can hang out. I entered a tourney and had fun with the locals. I met a guy called Charlie, and while we were playing a game, he checked his phone for messages, one his friends have invited him to play at Toi Whakaari, I asked if I could come because my last train had already left. We went there and saw Tom Keeper Passes, a really fun and interesting play about society, very well thought through and played. Despite their low budget (I assume), they did an amazing job!
After the play we went to Charlie's, watched a movie and went to bed. Sunday morning we went back to the store and did another tourney. Eventually Charlie had to leave so I decided to head home, around 5:30 or so.

Now, the only way to ge directly home is to take the schoolbus, schoolbuses naturally don't run on sundays, so I had to take an alternate route. On the 83 to Queensgate, Lower Hutt, from where I'd wait 40 minutes to get on the 150 towards Kelson. The short story is that I wasn't home until 7:40, after walking from Speedy's Reserve and up the hill to Robyn's. Here was Richard, Robyn's friend, with his kids. They only just finished eating so they cooked some more for me which was really nice of them. So I had my own little buffet with salad, rice, sausages, mushrooms, corn and beer.

Monday february 6, was a national holiday, celebrating Waitangi Day, the day when Maori (the people who lived here 'first') came to peace with the brits, accepting the Queen of England as their ruler. So I slept long again.
Around afternoon, Robyn asked if I wanted to go for a drive, I didn't have anything else to do so I went with her, a good choice. We went up a hill, I took some pictures of the landscape and we continued, Robyn was going to say hi to her daughter. So we drove to her place. They had kids all over the place, turned out the pool was out and that's where all the screaming was coming from, 3 kids (around 6-8 I guess) was swimming and jumping in and out, they had fun. In the garden was Robyn's daughter, husband and some of their friends sitting and drinking wine, and 5 minutes later, dinner was server. Quite awesome, considering that we didn't really plan anything for food. We talked lots and had fun, then went back home.

All in all, lots of things going on all the time, New Zealand is quite fantastic.

I would have liked to attach some images, but the internet is really slow, so, not this time :s

More China

2012-02-02T02:57:00.001-08:00

So Robyn's been there and thought she'd get her grandson an amazing little piece of Farreri-branded merchandise, it's a mobile phone yes.

Educa

2012-02-01T01:16:00.000-08:00

So for someone like me who never heard of this until now, I just thought I'd introduce this to everyone, so you get a basic understand of what the company I work at does.

Educa is their name, referring to "Education", specifically "Early Childhood Education" or ECE. Many schools, daycares and kindergartens have a system for tracking the learning and growing up of the kids they take care of. This is usually a physical folder with paper and sometimes pictures stored at the institution, rarely accessible to the parents.

Educa is all online, where the parents and the teachers have easy access from any device with internet, can upload pictures and share learning stories that their kids participate in. That way, parents get to track the development of their kid, in an easy way.

If you want to know a little more, check out the website at www.educa.co.nz

Educa is located at 50 Manners Street, as part of Creative HQ. Creative HQ is basically an incubator for small start-up companies in Wellington. They have strategists, marketing people, finance people and other start-uppers in the building with expertise within many different areas to use during a start-up process.

Warm Welcome Wellington - What?!

2012-02-01T00:53:00.001-08:00

So Gigi and I got out of bed, rushed to the bus station, and got aboard (considering I was dragging along a female I consider 45 minutes from wake-up to bus station fast).
Auckland to Wellington went smooth, Jetstar hasn't been as terrible as expected. We got to sit on row 2 for some reason so we're pretty good, getting off first and everything. My only problem was the amount of legspace (about 5 cm less than 'normal' airlines), and this weird buzzing sound that the airplane made once the engines turned on. Thanks again to China Southern Airlines for providing me with an airplane survival kit, the earplugs came in handy once again!

In Wellington Gigi and I took a shuttle (cheapest) to the train station. It was pouring rain even before we landed and it is still raining outside (it's 10 in the evening at the time of writing). After I ran across a big street for 2 cheeseburgers for her, we said goodbye to eachother. I then proceeded to Creative HQ where I'll be working for 3 months, to meet up with Nathan and get introduced.

I'll talk more about my job, the things that I'm allowed to say, in case any competitors snaps up my blog, in a later post. It's really exciting and I'm looking forward to get my hands dirty (not like in the picture below though!).
If you want to know more about the company and what they do, check out the website: www.educa.co.nz
Apparently that kinda thing is big down here ('apparently' because I never heard of anything like it existing in Europe or US, maybe because I don't have kids yet.

For now I'll just leave you with this children's book cover I stumbled upon in a magazine, seemingly teaching kids about the great terror that puberty can be for some.

When the weather clears up I'll make sure to take some pictures from the balcony where I live, Robyn's house is amazing.

Goodbye Auckland

2012-01-31T01:56:00.001-08:00

So, Gigi and I went our separate ways earlier today, she did wait for me apparently, but she wasn't in front of the store we agreed to meet by. Either way, she didn't waste her day, but went to Waiheke as well and went on a wine tour. She had her fun it seems, so that's all good.
We met up at ACB around 18:00 and went out for bubble tea, Gigi doesn't like it. So after drinking a liter of tea, we went back, Gigi wanted to take a quick nap, and I should wake her up shortly. 40 minutes later I was hungry . But she didn't want to leave. So, McD for me, then back and into bed. Guess it's the best, since we're flying with Nazi Airlines... Ahem... Jetstar, tomorrow.
Jetstar provides you with a 30 minute timeframe to check in and board their airplane, if you're late, you miss your flight. On top of that they have a whole bunch of other regulations, word on the street is (that'll be backpackers and other NZ people I've talked to and mentioned the name Jetstar), that they're horrible. It get's you from A to B, nothing else. The Ryanair of new Zealand so to say. I'm looking forward to see how it actually goes though.
Tomorrow we're getting up early and then heading to the airport. Then I'll take Gigi to her train towards Masterton, and I myself will go meet with Nathan at Creative HQ (the place I'll be working). He'll take me to Robyn's and I'll start working on the 2nd. So I guess this marks the end of my vacation. :(

So far!