January-March 2007

I reflect upon 10 years as an expat and we embark on a trip to the South Island’s West Coast and Otago lakes. There’s heaps on in Wellington too but the bestest greatest and most wonderful thing of all is that it’s really and truly summer, finally, thank god, summer.

And you can hear it in my accent when I talk

January 2007 not only marked the beginning of a new year, but was also the start of my second decade as an expat. I left Germany on January 7, 1997 to go to San Francisco, stayed there for just under 8 years, and now we are well into our third year in New Zealand. A cause for celebration as well as reflection.

When you follow discussion forums of immigrants and would-be immigrants to New Zealand, it often appears that the majority of people who decide to move to New Zealand are frustrated with their home country—their prime motivation for coming here is to get away from a place where they are unhappy (with their jobs, the political situation, the weather, with “where the country is headed”, etc.). This is not, and was not, the case for me.

When I moved to San Francisco, I didn’t really think about Germany as much as I simply wanted to live in California, see the world, do something different. And yes, the late-1990s Germany was characterised by high unemployment, racist attacks, discontent with the realities of the reunification, and the seemingly never-ending reign of Helmut Kohl. America, on the other hand, was on the height of the dot-com-booming, pre-Lewinksy Clinton-era where anything was possible and everyone, at least in Silicon Valley, had come from somewhere else and moved there to make their luck.

I hadn’t been looking for this kind of stimulation as much as it found me. Thanks to the opportunities I found in San Francisco I truly could realise an American Dream of which I only had a vague vision when I first moved there. And while I had not left Germany in frustration, I never entertained the thought of going back there either. It simply wasn’t on my mind, not the least because it was clear that the kind of self-made career I was pursuing in San Francisco would not have been possible back home during that same time.

The America we left 8 years later of course was a very different country, and while we very much wanted to be here in New Zealand, the motivation to leave the States was strong, unlike in my first move. In parallel, my relationship to Germany has been changing over the last years, as the country itself appears to have finally shaken off stagnation and gloom of the Kohl (and admittedly, Schröder) era. The longer I live abroad, the more I’m becoming aware of where I’m from, and how that has shaped who I am now. The distance has made me appreciate the good things about my home country a lot more, and see the bad things in perspective. Or maybe I’m just getting older, wiser, and milder.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned as an expat though is that wherever you are, you make your own luck. The reverse is true as well—you can’t run away from yourself and you always take your problems, but also your strengths, ambitions, and dreams with you. A friendly, welcoming environment such as New Zealand can make it easier to reinvent yourself, but in the end you still have to do the hard work, regardless of where you are. Sounds trivial but is often forgotten in new migrants’ “grass is greener” enthusiasm, which too often is quickly followed by disillusionment. If you can shed those expectations, you’re free to be who you want to be, where you want to be.

That’s nice. But what have you been up to?

What haven’t we been up to? Another new and crazy thing happened in January. I had pretty much given up. And then, summer came. Really. All that whinging and moaning finally paid off. While I would still run the heater in the first few weeks of the year (mind you, the equivalent of early July in the northern hemisphere), all of a sudden everything changed. We have had three months of fantastic weather and so far, no end in sight, just in time for lots of events around town and our long-awaited holiday. It’s difficult to put in words how much I have missed and longed for warmth and sunshine. I’ve never appreciated them more than after the misery that was 2006. Pure bliss.

Holiday

In mid-February we went on a long-overdue trip to the South Island. Originally planned as a two-week trip around the entire island, we decided to scale back, do less (especially less driving) and stay in nicer places instead of hostels. That turned out to be a great plan, even though at the end I wouldn’t have minded spending another week simply staring at Lake Wanaka. Who would?

We first flew into Christchurch. Aside from changing planes at the airport, this was the first time in Christchurch for both of us, so we went to explore the city. This took us to the excellent Art Centre, where the former buildings of the University of Canterbury (all very British gothic revival-style buildings which seem to have been quite popular in the former colonies) now house artist studios, galleries, cafes, shops and other cultural venues. There was also an outdoor crafts market and several live music performances, all making it a good place to explore for a couple of hours.

Next was the Canterbury Museum for “New Zealand Natural and Human Heritage”. This was a bit of a jumble of dioramas, artefacts of life in New Zealand 150 years ago, and various topics ranging from Maori culture to rocks and stones to the history of Antarctica explorations. The museum’s concept was very much old school—lots of rooms full of stuff—but the exhibits were interesting and obviously well cared for and I found it very enjoyable. After that we took a walk through the Botanic Garden, a huge park in the center of the city with beautiful gardens and the Avon River meandering through.

Aside from those things, however, we found Christchurch rather underwhelming. It doesn’t stand up to small, compact Wellington with its beautiful harbour and hills that define the city and shape its character. On the other hand, it lacks the big-city vibe of Auckland (if you are into that kind of thing). The fact that we were there on a grey and drizzly day probably didn’t help, but again we were glad we chose Wellington, and happily moved on the next morning.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

The next leg of our trip was to be on the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch across the Southern Alps to Greymouth on the West Coast. Regarded as “one of the world’s great scenic railway journeys”, the four-hour trip first goes through the flat farmland of the Canterbury Plains and then climbs into the mountains, crossing at Arthur’s Pass (920 m elevation) and then descends back to sea level through the rain forests of the wild West Coast. The scenery is truly beautiful, especially as you get into the mountains, over viaducts and emerge from one of the many tunnels. There are gorges and river valleys, mountain lakes and snow capped peaks, and I imagine in winter the journey is even more spectacular.

The train itself, unfortunately, is a different story: The seats were cramped and uncomfortable, and the interior screamed 1970s at best. The open air viewing carriage was really just that – a single, completely bare small carriage without seats or windows, constantly crowded and more reminiscent of a cattle waggon than the great place to take in the stunning scenery that it was advertised as. The check-in and baggage procedures were slow and over-complicated and service non-existent. It’s a bit surprising and sad, really. The journey itself is great, but could be so much more enjoyable. Imagine the potential if there was more lounge-like seating, multiple and well designed open carriages and a decent bar/cafe service. Still, it was a stress-free way to get to the West Coast and a good introduction to the stunning natural beauty of the South Island.

West Coast road trip

Greymouth (population 13,500) is the biggest town on the West Coast, which tells you a lot about the West Coast right there. The whole region is very sparsely populated with only 31,000 people—I would assume that this number doubles or even triples when you count the tourists, at least during summer. The 600 km road along the coast simply ends at some point both in the North and the South, meaning the only connection with the rest of the country is a few passes across the mountains. This isolation along with the stark nature have shaped the culture of the West Coast, which can be summed up by self-reliance and Kiwi “can do” spirit, hospitality and friendliness. As you travel you will find several museums that tell the stories of the early settlers, and it’s simply amazing to see the spirit of these pioneers who braved the trek across the alps and made a living on the coast against all odds.

There’s a rich Maori heritage on the West Coast, long before the European settlers started coming in the mid 1800s. The regions’ industrial history is characterised by gold mining, coal mining, and arts and crafts, especially pounamu (greenstone, or New Zealand Jade) carving. Today, it’s doubtless tourism that sustains the region economically, attracting both outdoor and adventure travellers and coach tourists with its high mountains, lush rain forests, clear lakes, wild beaches and turquoise rivers.

Greymouth itself is a nice enough little town, with a couple good places to eat, a walk along the flood wall, and the original Monteith’s Brewery, where we took a tour and heard some amazing stories about local ingenuity where employees built some of the bottling and packing machines from scrap metal. However there is little to make you linger— Greymouth is more a starting point for a trip down the coast rather than a destination in and by itself, and after a night there in a friendly Bed and Breakfast we headed south in our rental car. First stop was Hokitika, a town of only 4000 with a rich history. It was settled in the 1860s as a thriving gold rush town and shipping port, with bars lining every street. Today it’s best known for greenstone jewellery, a number of excellent restaurants, and the annual Wild Foods Festival. I loved Hokitika with its dramatic backdrop of the Southern Alps and its windswept beach and wouldn’t mind going back and spending more time there. This time we continued our road trip south along the winding road, across the many one-way bridges (some of them even shared with rail tracks!) and through fantastic scenery towards the glaciers.

Ice Ice Baby

About 140 glaciers flow from the mountains of the Southern Alps, but two of them, Franz Josef (named by an Austrian geologist, who first explored the glacier in 1865, after his emperor) and Fox, are the most spectacular because they descend from 2700m almost down to sea level to the lower rain forests of the West Coast. Just a few kilometres from the terminal face of the glacier is a small town, also named Franz Josef, and mostly existing to cater to glacier tourists. The best way to explore the glacier is with a guided tour, where you are taken onto the ice by experienced guides.

The tours are very well organised and professional. You are in groups of about a dozen per guide and are outfitted with boots and “talonz” (crampons), rain jackets, hats and gloves. The trip starts with a walk through the regenerating rain forest of the glacier valley floor. As we approached the terminal face of the glacier we saw an increasing number of warning signs—Franz Josef is one of the world’s steepest and fastest moving glaciers, especially in summer, and it can be very dangerous to go near without experienced guides. The signs and safety barriers didn’t stop a couple of tourists from going into an unstable ice cave only days after our own glacier trip and almost got themselves killed by falling ice.

All glacier guides carry an axe which they use to cut steps and walking tracks into the ice. The initial ascent is used by all groups and follows a relatively well-established path, although the guides will continuously fix and improve the steps. Once you are up on the ice every trip is different, and it’s up to the guides to find—and create— an interesting path. We went on a 3/4 day trip which lasted about 6 hours and took us through narrow crevasses of blue ice, up and down steep walls of ice (sometimes with the help of a rope) and through amazing ice formations. Our guide, normally used to guiding more advanced tours, went above and beyond to literally carve out a new path for us which probably was more adventurous than it was supposed to be, but all the more exciting for us. It was a unique and fun experience that I highly recommend to anyone.

Wanaka and Siberia Experience

From Franz Josef, we continued south to Haast, where we left the West Coast for Wanaka via Haast Pass. Again the drive again was nothing short of spectacular and varied as we moved from the rugged coast into the mountains with their gargling rivers, waterfalls and blue pools. Imagine any coffee table book about New Zealand, or remember the Lord of the Rings movies, and you get an idea of what I’m talking about. The only thing that can spoil the West Coast experience are the ubiquitous sand flies, tiny blood sucking insects whose stings are extremely itchy. We learned the hard way that it’s necessary to always put on insect repellant, or better, wear long pants and sleeves, especially near water and when sitting (once you are walking they are easy to shake off as they are very slow). Thankfully, sand flies are the worst pest you’ll find in New Zealand, which otherwise blissfully lacks snakes, spiders or other poisonous and dangerous animals.

We approached Wanaka from the north, travelling along Lake Wanaka and then Lake Hawea, two massive glacial lakes, deep blue, crystal clear, mirror-like calm and surrounded by brown foothills and the Southern Alps a bit further out. The most amazing thing is how empty they are—no boats, no big hotels or even any houses on the shores, just nature. It’s hard to describe how awe-inspiring this barren landscape is and pictures don’t do it justice.

We spent three days in Wanaka at the excellent Te Wanaka Lodge. Mostly we just hung out by the lake and enjoyed the relaxing summer atmosphere, only interrupted by one more adventure, the “Siberia Experience”: It started with a half-hour scenic flight in a tiny (6-seat) Cessna into the Southern Alps. Climbing out from the valley we got quite close to glaciers and snow-capped peaks— breathtaking, not just because of the view, but also because the ride was a bit bumpy at times! Eventually we landed in a hanging valley, named “Siberia” to keep the punters out, on a grassy air strip amongst the wild flowers. From there we set off on foot, along the river and up across a ridge through forest into another valley, finally descending to the deep blue Wilkin River. There we were picked up by a jet boat for a half-hour ride back to where we started. This was heaps of fun as the guide approached rocks, fallen trees and other obstacles, including a cow standing in the water, at high speed, only to veer off at the last second, and getting us all wet with his 360 degree turns, which was very welcome on this hot day. All in all we had a perfect holiday that made me keen to return to the South Island as soon as possible.

More and bigger pictures in my South Island photo album.

Summer in the city

It’s been great to be in Wellington these past three months. The only problem really was that there was so much on, it was absolutely impossible to take advantage of everything. I missed the outdoor cinema and the XAir games that brought some of the world’s best skate and BMX athletes to Wellington’s waterfront. However I did make it one of the free outdoor concerts in the Botanical Gardens, where I went to see the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. In additional to hosting a number of local bands every night for a month, they gardens were also illuminated with various light installations, creating magical summer nights.

The annual Fringe Festival is another one of those events where there’s never nearly enough time to take it all in. This year’s festival had almost 100 different production in dance, music, outdoor events, theatre and visual arts, and we were lucky enough to see a show that subsequently won several “best of” awards: a small theatre production called Hotel. This play took place in an actual hotel room—you are one of only 12 audience members per show. As you walk in, there’s a woman relaxing in the bath tub. A couple is sleeping in the bed. Who are they? Quietly, to not disturb them, you take your place on the bench along one of the walls and observe the various occupants of the hotel room—quite literally, being a fly on the wall. Several parallel stories unfold as you watch, fading in and out. Some are funny, others heart-breaking. The same play could have been on a more traditional stage and still worked, but the fact that it was in a real hotel room, as close-up as it gets, provided an atmosphere of intensity and intimacy that went straight to the heart and at the end, as you walked out along the hallway, made you wonder what was going on in all the other rooms right now. Brilliant.

Late February also saw the return of the bi-annual Cuba Street Carnival. This year’s carnival attracted about 150,000 people and had 50 different bands playing on multiple stages in the Cuba and Courtenay quarters (I read in the paper earlier that 260 bands had applied to be part of this). Multiple streets were closed, and restaurants and retailers had special menus and decorations to go with the Cuba theme. Cuba Street, by the way, is named after one of the first ships that came to Wellington back in the day. Today it’s synonymous for quirky/eclectic/urban cool, or if you believe market researchers, “looking weird and liking looking weird”. Cuba Street Carnival at any rate was a mad affair. The crowds made getting from our house to the corner dairy, normally a matter of a couple minutes, a 20 minute round-trip. Not that that mattered, the atmosphere was fantastic and we had a blast hanging out in the sun, listening to music, and soaking in the crazy energy of it all.

Country roads

For a bit of contrast to all this city life, we spent a weekend in the Wairarapa for some country air and of course wine tasting. We hadn’t been back since our wedding a year ago, and the timing was perfect to celebrate our one-year anniversary.

One winery we always go to is Schubert. We discovered them on our first visit, fell in love with their wines, and have been returning faithfully ever since to stock up again. As the name suggests, the winery is owned by a German (and not only that…Swabian!) couple, and they are best known for their Pinot Noirs. Recently they made the news with a great story about smuggling one of their pinots into a wine tasting event in Berlin. Breaking every rule of the international blind pinot noir tasting at the luxurious Hotel Adlon Kempinski, they made the tasters think they were drinking a high-end burgundy,and the Schubert wine was ranked alongside a 1999 “Musigny Grand Cru” of Comte de Vogue, Chambolle-Musign, which retails at 457 Euro a bottle (double this figure to get NZ dollar). Although the Schubert pinot didn’t officially qualify for the competition for several reasons, including its very limited availability, the “pirate wine” was allowed to keep its ranking because the tasters were so impressed with it. And what makes this story even better is that we got to taste this very hard to find wine and even bought a bottle (for the equivalent of 25 Euro) for a special occasion that will surely come.

On Sunday we left Martinborough early for a little road trip. Less than an hour’s drive south-west through the countryside takes you to the rugged coast. We continued on the road towards Cape Palliser, which got increasingly narrower and more treacherous and for the last few kilometers turned into a gravel road which finally ended at the lighthouse; the southernmost spot of the North Island. The day was beautiful and sunny and we could clearly see the South Island in the distance, and the Rimutaka and Tararua ranges made a dramatic backdrop for the bucolic landscape.

On the way back we stopped at the famous Lake Ferry Hotel. Lake Ferry is called that because there used to be a ferry service between Wellington and the Wairarapa along the coast before the road across the Rimutakas was built. Today Lake Ferry is best known for the hotel’s excellent seafood and laid-back country pub environment. We had an amazing lunch there before heading back via small and winding back country roads.

View my Wairarapa photo album.

In the news

With all this travelling and being busy getting entertained, who has time to follow the news? Recently for me it hasn’t really gone beyond scanning the headlines. However there are quite a few hotly debated issues in New Zealand at the moment, such as

• 

  Cape Palliser lighthouse

  The housing market is again, or still, a big topic, with an increasing number of foreign investors snapping up property while more and more average kiwis are priced out of the market. Average mortgage payments now cost 75% of the average take-home page, in some regions, they even exceed that figure.

• The Corrections Department has come under fire on several fronts. In one case a convicted murderer was let out of prison on parole, only to go on a rampage in the hills near Wellington, killing one man and hurting several others. A separate story exposed corruption in the prison system, with several corrections officers having been suspended for taking bribes.
• A top policemen and two former officers and already convicted rapists are cleared for the second time of sex attacks on two teenage girls in the 1980s, leading to angry protests in Wellington and elsewhere.
• The anti-smacking about which I wrote a year ago, is being debated in parliament and across the nation and still has emotions running high on both sides of the fence.
• Daylight saving time, which is still shorter in New Zealand than in most other industrial countries, finally has a realistic chance to be extended by another three weeks. A petition for the extension has received 35,000 signatures (including mine!) and verbal support from the Prime Minister so there is a good chance that change will be implemented for next year.
• The United Future party calls for Waitangi Day to be changed to New Zealand Day as a de-politicised national holiday to celebrate the country, separate from commemorating the Treaty of Waitangi. For now however the bill has failed to gain the necessary support.
• The new government of Fiji, which took control in a coup in December 2006, protests the New Zealand government’s sanctions imposed on its country and bans the Prime Minister from travelling to Fiji because of her opposition to the coup.
• Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake overflows, breaks a dam and sends a tons of bubbling water and volcanic mud down the mountain in a massive lahar, amazingly causing no major damage.

Not exactly a barrel of laughs, those issues. But I don’t mean end this post on a low point—it’s been a great three months. And in what other country can you attend a store opening on some Tuesday night and personally meet the prime minister who only days before returned from a visit with the president of the United States? Yay New Zealand.