Where were we?

Same procedure as every year: New Year's Eve weather

Right – I quit my job, we saw some monkeys, I was about to start at a new company. Something something, end of 2011. It’s all a bit of a blur. In early November, we celebrated our 7-year anniversary of coming to New Zealand. Seven years! What a ride. And this past year has been one of the most intense.

I’m writing this between the years, on a break, aiming to recharge my metaphorical and not so metaphorical batteries and get ready for what comes next. We’re not going anywhere this New Year’s, but staying right here in the mostly deserted city and enjoying the suspended time. This is what Wellington looked like on  December 27:

Retake the Net

One of my proudest accomplishments this year (if I may say so myself) is starting an initiative called Retake the Net.

Brian addressing the barcamp crowd

This past year we’ve seen how the power of the internet can bring people together, foster and instigate real change. The Arab Spring is only the most prominent example here; the Occupy movement (about which I have mixed feelings – but that’s a different topic) is probably another one. At the same time, we’re seeing increasing threats to the free and open net from both government and corporate interests, with the SOPA bill in the US being just the latest and possibly most egregious example coming from a democratic country.

Because we are passionate about the possibilities that technology provides us and we believe that it’s everyone’s responsibility to use its power for good, Brian and I, together with a few others founded Retake the Net as a way to bring together people and projects to help keep the internet free and open. Starting in June, we held a number of public meetings for people to get together with others and start a number of projects. One that is currently underway is to put a computer hub into a local soup kitchen to provide people in need with access to the internet, information, and communication tools, and I’m excited to see it come together for real very soon.

At an internet conference in Auckland

In addition to individual projects, we also organised a barcamp at the end of October. We had 70 people attend and passionately exchange ideas. We even had the mayor of Wellington stop by and give the opening speech, and just before the event, Brian was on National Radio for a long interview. It was a fantastic day, and a great experience to bring together people and make something happen, and I’m looking forward to continuing the initiative in the new year.

The other half of my life

…in the past seven months was unsurprisingly dominated by the new job. As with every new beginning, there’s a lot to learn and find your place but, the normal challenges notwithstanding, here are a few things I love about it:

• 

  Our printer at work tells us helpfully if it's beer o'clock yet

  I work with a bunch of really great people

• Instead of being spread thin between many different things, I get to focus on a single project
• Said project is with a client in Hong Kong, so I get to travel regularly to one of my favourite cities
• The company cares deeply about open source and internet freedom
• I have a stand-up desk which is absolutely fantastic – instead of getting tired from sitting a computer all day I feel full of energy at the end of the day

I spent a lot of time here in 2011: Hong Kong Airport

One benefit of travelling to Hong Kong for work is that you’re literally halfway back in Germany: Auckland -> Hong Kong is 5,697 miles (9,168 km); Hong Kong -> Frankfurt 5,686 miles (9,151 km). After last year’s month-long trip I hadn’t planned on visiting this year, but for family reasons I needed to go after all.

It worked out great to “hop on over” following the Hong Kong business trips, and it was great being able to spend time with family.

The second trip was in late November – the first time I had visited Germany in winter since 1999! Although here in NZ my felt body temperature is usually set to permafrost, I had forgotten how cold it feels in “real” winter! On the plus side, I got to visit Christmas markets and drink mulled wine; a treat I hadn’t experienced in 12 years either.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand

Hong Kong light show

There was a Rugby World Cup. We won. I could possibly write quite a bit more about this so highly anticipated event that was such a big deal to our small country and brought 85,000 visitors here. However, the tournament was not something that affected our lives in any way, even as inner-city dwellers of one of the host cities.

Those who do enjoy rugby seem to have had a great time, and for that I’m glad and thankful, because otherwise it’s been a rough year for New Zealand.

At the races at Happy Valley

Unsurprisingly, the situation in Christchurch after the earthquakes continued to dominate the news. It’s heartbreaking to follow as the city just doesn’t seem to catch a break. The cleanup after the big quake in February had just started to show some positive effects when on June 13, two 6.4 and 5.9 quakes rocked the city in the early afternoon. In fact, the bigger of the two turned out to be even larger than the so destructive February quake, and it was felt strongly even here in Wellington. Imagine the frustration of cleaning up your property from liquefaction and damage, only to have to start over again – and remember, June is the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Damage again was extensive (the June quakes alone added NZ$6 billion to the bill,), phone and power went out again – the whole circle of horror, replaying once again.

Apparently, NZ has a problem with people burning down their house while cooking drunk. This official campaign is everywhere!

Between the first major quake in September 2010 and now (end of December 2011), there were almost 9,500 earthquakes in the Canterbury region. Just last week, on 23 December, within a good hour’s time, a particularly violent triple shock measuring 5.8, 5.3 and 6.0 interrupted Christmas shoppers, caused major liquefaction yet again, led to mall and airport closures, and reminded everyone that this could – and quite possibly will – continue for a while to come yet. Heartbreaking.

Aside from those two major events, the issues in New Zealand were dominated by events around the globe – be it the continued financial crisis, worldwide protests (Occupy Dunedin – really? Ok ok, still another topic), or the usual depressing mix of consumerism and celebrity gossip.

Did this sound cynical? Have you seen Google Zeitgeist lately? My quest this year has been to stay away from this kind of stuff as much as possible (which I think I managed quite well, seeing that I don’t recognise the names of the majority of “trending” people on said Zeitgeist.) Life’s too short, and I’d rather focus on meaningful things. I even gave up Twitter. It’s liberating!

Having said that, here are a few more stories that mattered ’round here this past year:

‘snow joke!

Wellington snow on August 14 (seen from the plane to Auckland)

Extreme weather is  the rule here in New Zealand, but just when you think you’ve seen it all there’s something that takes it just a little further, as it was with our mid-August “once in a lifetime polar blast.”

I could write about the power outages, public transportation cancellations, and road closures. I could remind you how the extreme cold added more pain to the people in Christchurch in their freezing, quake-damaged houses. I could go on about how much I hate winter (because you’ve never heard that one before), but that would be a bit disingenuous, as I left Wellington on one of the last flights before they shut down the airport and spent the second half of August in the summer heat of Germany and Hong Kong. I could quote more statistics of how the blizzards were the heaviest in 50 years, etc.

Instead, I’ll simply share something beautiful: They joy of Wellingtonians at being caught in a snowstorm in the middle of Cuba Mall. Enjoy!

Lost and found (and lost again)

I'm wearing shorts! Online poll on the same day

And another creature probably enjoyed the sudden frosty temperatures: Happy Feet, the lost penguin. There are, of course, penguins which are native to New Zealand, but this one was an emperor penguin, a resident of Antarctica. How he ended up on a beach on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington sometime in June is anyone’s guess. The poor thing wasn’t in good shape when he was found: dehydrated, exhausted from heat (all is relative!) and with a stomach full of sand he had eaten in lack of more appropriate foods. When his health started declining further, he was taken to the Wellington Zoo and underwent surgery to remove the sticks he had swallowed and to flush out the sand from his stomach and throat.

At that point, it wasn’t clear if he would survive, but true to his given name, he recovered well. It was even less clear what to do with the unexpected guest. Taking him back to Antarctica in winter wasn’t an option (no one goes there during that time) and no zoo in New Zealand had facilities to keep him. Eventually, NIWA, a science research institute, took him on board one of their vessels to release him in the subantarctic ocean four days south of New Zealand. During the journey, he was kept in a custom crate designed “to keep him cold and comfortable.” Hearing that, I wondered why we didn’t  just let him spend the winter in any average Kiwi student flat? Surely that would have fit the bill.

Comfortably cold: custom pengu-crate

Fancy travels aside, from here, the story becomes less happy. Two months after he was found, on September 4, Happy Feet was released back into the wild down a “purpose-made hydro-slide”, not before he was outfitted with a GPS transmitter. A website was set up to “share his journey with the world”, there was a competition for school children, and his progress could be tracked on a map. Unfortunately, only five days into the journey, the signal was lost, and while this could certainly be due to some technical failure or simply because it fell off, many speculate that our visitor may have ended up as a Happy Meal.

Elections and other disasters

Somewhat luckier were several hundred little blue penguins from the Bay of Plenty who were caught in the oil spill from the container ship Rena.

Precarious Rena (photo from NZHistory.net.nz)

The Rena ran aground the Astrolabe Reef outside Tauranga on October 5. It’s still not completely clear why this happened, as the reef was well known and was clearly marked in all maps. Several crew members have since been arrested and are facing criminal charges.

About 350 tons of oil from the Rena spilled into the sea, making this New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster ever. Since then, the badly damaged, listing ship has been perched precariously on the reef, with new cracks appearing all the time and always in danger of breaking in half. Containers fell over board and to this day all kinds of freight, including food items and meat, is washing ashore and polluting the beaches in addition to the oil. Under extremely dangerous circumstances and repeatedly interrupted by bad weather, workers tried to remove the remaining oil from the ship. This almost succeeded but there’s some oil remaining on the ship and just yesterday we heard of a new oil film leaking from the damaged ship. The salvage of the 1,368 containers is also going slowly and is expected to take until March to complete.

For about 2,000 seabirds caught up in the oil spill, all help came too late. Hundreds more however could be rescued and nursed back to health in wildlife recovery centers. In late November, the first batch of little blue penguins was released back into the sea (video). Before they could go, they had to pass a fitness test, where they had to swim for six hours to ensure their feathers are waterproof again, and they will be monitored long-term through microchips to make sure their recovery goes well.

If you sit on the fence, the zebra will eat you: If only our politicians were as honest as this warning sign at Wellington Zoo.

The timing of the Rena disaster couldn’t have been worse for the government. The country was still crowded with tens of thousands of rugby tourists who saw headlines and pictures of the oil spill on a daily basis. New Zealand’s general election was scheduled for the end of November, and instead of an easy ride based on a glorious win of the All Blacks, the government now had to deal with “clean green New Zealand” beaches black with oil and dead birds.

And yet, neither the Rena, nor Christchurch; neither the announcement of  the controversial plan to partially sell off state-owned assets nor a mini-scandal made any difference: The conservative National Party won almost enough seats to govern alone (47%, +2.3%), Labour continued its free fall (27%, -6.5%), the Green party improved significantly (11%, +4.3%) and then there were the usual miscellaneous who tend to get a lot of attention but in my opinion don’t affect much in reality. If I had believed that there’s a real, viable opposition in this country, I’d be a lot more upset about this result.

Occupy Samoa

The last time we talked about Samoa on this blog, 7000 angry people had just marched to the capital to protest the switch to driving on the left side of the road. The outrage has continued to, well rage. There is even an action group called “People Against Switching Sides” (PASS) who -  screw safety! – advocated to simply not observe the new rule and keep driving on the right. Nevertheless, the change eventually came into effect in September 2009 although some of the finer details (location of street signs, bus doors, etc.) seem to still be worked out to this day.

Not a Samoan road sign but a LOTR filming location marker on Mt Vic

Now the Samoan government has come up with yet another scheme to bring the country more in line with its neighbours and biggest trading partners, Australia and New Zealand: a jump across the date line. Up until yesterday, Samoa was the last place on earth to see the sun set, a fact that used to be a major element of their tourism marketing campaigns. Now, in order to be the first, and thereby on the same weekday as we are here, they skipped a day and went straight from the 29th to the 31st of December. With half of Samoa’s population living in Australia and New Zealand, that seems sensible. Aside from employers who aren’t too thrilled that they have to pay their workers for a day that didn’t happen, I haven’t read of any large protests this time (they are probably a still having a go at the driving side.)

Too bad only that American Samoa which, as the name indicates, is a US Territory, is not going along with the change. But the crafty prime minister has even thought of that – he promotes island hopping between the two Samoas: ”You can have two birthdays, two weddings and two wedding anniversaries on the same date on separate days without leaving the Samoan chain.”

Having a blast

“Is the Capital really that windy?“, asked the local tabloid earlier this month, and the answer seems to be, why yes, it is. Not only is Wellington the most southern and most remote (as in, farthest away from any other capital city) capital in the world, it’s also the windiest city. Looking back at the entries in this journal, every spring seems to be one of the windiest in years and I’m starting to suspect that the less-windy years are just a story that’s told to newcomers to make them stay. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it, but I have to admit that on the rare quiet day, something seems slightly off.

The winning design, slightly less ironic

According to this map and the five degrees of windiness, our apartment is in zone 3, or high. At the airport, which isn’t all that different from the rest of the city, the average wind speed is 29 km/h – that’s average, mind you, and nothing compared to the 104 km/h gust that was measured there in November, or the fact that there are gusts exceeding gale force on 175 days a year. (Gale force is 75 km/h.)

Some city streets are downright wind tunnels. There have been efforts over the past decades to construct buildings to ameliorate the situation, with mixed success. Meanwhile, the weather we love to hate has inspired the new design of the cringeworthy former WELLYWOOD sign I mentioned briefly in my last post. After continued protests, the airport backed down and started a public competition for people to submit, and later, vote on designs. Finally, in November, a sign spelling out WELLINGTON with the last few letters blown away was announced the winner. To be honest, I find this only marginally better than the original – “green hill with  no sign at all” unfortunately wasn’t an option. What would the Samoans do? Maybe this.

Now what?

The other day, I discovered that my name is an anagram of “be silly.”

I think the universe may be trying to tell me something.

So this is my plan for the new year: Listen to the universe. Be good and bold and kind and silly.

Or, in the words of Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously.

I hope you will make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now – I hope that you will, when you need to, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself.

The end-of year post for 2010 closed with the words, “as the Chinese say, may you live in interesting times.” As it turns out, the Chinese don’t actually say that. Still, it’s a good line. And the past few months have been nothing if not interesting.

Well, Bob…

KL from Menara Tower

Let’s start at the end: Next Monday, I’m starting a new job. You didn’t see that coming, did you? Neither did I. Here was a chance to live up to my claim that I “embrace uncertainty and change.”

The trigger for this unexpected turn of events was that Brian resigned. From the company blog: “Brian and the Board have been discussing the company’s future, and in the course of those discussions decided that now was a good time to pursue different directions.” Not surprisingly, his decision caused a loyalty conflict for me, both personally and professionally. I’m sure I don’t have to explain the personal one. On the professional side, working with your spouse is always a challenging situation. We both knew this going in, and when I joined three years ago, it was despite the fact that we’re married, and because we simply work together really well and I strongly believe in Brian’s vision and leadership. With him moving on, it became obvious to me very quickly that it was time for me to move on as well.

One of the effects of my career path over the past years was that my job search experience was quite different from previous times. As soon as I knew I was out in the market, I started thinking about what I wanted to do, the types of work I’m interested in, and the companies I thought I’d like to work for. I also put out very short “I’m looking” status updates on Twitter and LinkedIn – and that was it for the time being. What I didn’t do was search or apply for jobs listed on the usual job websites. I did contact a recruiter, but sadly this avenue turned out to be useless, and I didn’t pursue it very hard.

Busy KL intersection with monorail

The lead, and eventually, job, came through my network – people I know, a company I respect and that had been on top of my “I could work here” list. Moreover, I’m not even going to fill an advertised position, but will join the team based on the mutual recognition that there’s a good fit, which could play out in a number of different ways. Initially, I’ll be doing some combination of business analysis, user experience, and project management. More importantly, I’ll be staying in the open source space – something that’s been very important to me. Needless to say, I’m thrilled (and sufficiently respectful to be slightly scared) and look forward to my first day!

Garden City of Lights

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

The last time we went on holiday spontaneously was in 19never. So, even though we’re now back in Wellington after the successful completion of such holiday, I’m still slightly stunned we managed to pull this off. Embrace uncertainty, baby!

The (very logical) thinking was that we had just been through some intense stuff, and it would only become more so. Also, there’s no better time than between jobs to take a break and unwind, as you don’t have to take leave, and you need it the most. Lastly, it’s really starting to get winter here, and being somewhere warm for a week sounded so very good.

Petronas Towers

At first, we looked into Australia, but somehow we couldn’t really get excited about it (sorry Oz – it’s not you, it’s me.) Then I started looking through some of the travel agencies’ websites for ideas, and there it was: Kuala Lumpur. The capital of Malaysia ticked all the boxes: large (population of 1.7m), dense (6,500 people/km²), tropical (just 3 degrees north of the equator), and incredibly diverse in all respects. Malaysia is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnical, multi-religious etc country, and the mix of people and cultures is one of the many things that make KL so attractive. We saw mosques, Taoist and Hindu temples, mixed with highly modern skyscrapers and the ubiquitous shopping malls. On our first night, as we were sitting outside in a restaurant, we happened to see the Wesak Day Parade pass by, celebrating Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death, with candles, ornate floats, and chants, while passing billboards for ultrafast, cheap 4g mobile internet.

Drinking problem

Royal Brunei Airline doesn't just show location and altitude, but also the distance to Mecca

We flew to KL with Royal Brunei Airlines, which meant a one-night stopover in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the tiny Sultanate. Brunei is located at the top of Borneo, split into two separate parts and surrounded by Malaysia, which itself is located in two different regions separated by the South China Sea. There are only 400,000 people in Brunei (fewer than in the Wellington Region), who enjoy a very high standard of living thanks to vast amounts of oil and gas. On the way in from the airport, our driver pointed out that a liter of premium gasoline sells for 50c (that’s US$1.50/gallon) – although that’s only for residents; foreigners pay more than double for the non-subsidised version.

Brunei is a strange place. For one, as a country based on the Sharia, you cannot buy alcohol anywhere – there are no bars, not even in the hotels, and barely any restaurants. Despite the country’s great wealth, walking around town along wide, mostly deserted streets, had a distinct East Germany in the 1970s feel to it, and the dinner (with fruit juice) in the hotel restaurant, accompanied by costumed local dancers, was one of the more depressing things I’ve experienced in a while (even though everyone was very friendly.)

Typical Brunei souvenir: a brass oil rig

We still had an interesting half-day in Bandar Seri, which allowed us to cover the main tourist attractions: The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque (very pretty with fake lagoon) and the Royal Regalia Museum (partially a re-enactment of the Sultan’s coronation day, partially a collection of gifts given to the Sultan by other governments. Tip: Avoid Korea, their presents suck!) The highlight though was a 1.5-hour ride on a water taxi on the river into the Borneo Jungle with its endemic Proboscis monkeys (unfortunately too far up in the trees to see their giant noses…) and to Kampong Ayer, a large water village on the Brunei River, housing almost 40,000 residents and complete common services such as police, fire brigade, and a mosque, all built on stilts.

Monkeys!

Batu Caves with golden giant

And then, KL. We loved it. In fact, it’s serious competition for Hong Kong as my favourite city. As I’ve said above, the diversity is what really stands out. The other thing that struck us was just how modern the city is – as an example, the options for cheap, fast broadband alone are enough to make a grown Kiwi cry. We saw construction everywhere (as a taxi driver pointed out, “we can’t stand to see any empty spaces”), and what we read about business and technology in the local newspaper was impressive (yes, the paper is probably quite pro-government, but still.)

Cheap mobile broadband everywhere

Oh, and the food. I wished I could have just eaten non-stop the entire week. We had some of the best meals of our lifetimes in KL. There’s an abundance of tropical fruits, and the best of South East Asian cuisine one can imagine. I especially loved being able to dine outside, as the temperatures never went below a balmy 25 degrees, even at night. We did encounter quite a bit of tropical rain – every evening around 6pm a thunderstorm would come over the city and drench everything for a couple of hours, and then stop again as quickly as it had started. We spent several of these rainstorms sitting under cover, enjoying the warm air and a glass of wine, looking over the city. Bliss.

Aside from a trip out to Batu Caves, a Hindu temple high up in a cave with a very Indiana-Jones quality and lots of monkeys running up and down the 272 steps leading up to the temple, we stayed in the city and explored. Some of the highlights were the view from Menara Kuala Lumpur, the 4th highest telecommunication tower in the world, having little fish nibble away at our feet at a Fish Spa, and the beautiful Bird Park, a huge aviary where you can wander amongst peacocks, storks, parakeets, and 200 other species of birds, amidst a lush tropical garden.

We can’t wait to return!

Kuala Lumpur photo album.

This is not a topic

Malaysian monkey, waiting to steal ur bananas

There’s other things I could write about, such as the very heated debate over the Wellington Airport’s rather embarrassing decision to erect a Hollywood-style “Wellywood” sign, a plan that was received by massive outrage for all the obvious reasons. There’s political stuff that’s not much better and probably going to get worse, since it’s an election year. The Rugby World Cup won’t even start until September but it’s already annoying (am I allowed to say that?) And such and such.

Instead, I’ll close this post with another Western misinterpretation of the Chinese language: that the word “crisis” is composed of the characters for danger and opportunity (or crisitunity, as Homer Simpson points out.) As with the famous curse I mentioned in the intro, this one, too, is more myth than reality. As a concept, however, it’s helpful, and it’s true.

I’m stoked about the opportunities lying ahead of me, and can’t wait to tell you all about them. Till then: Turn and face the strange!

P.S. If you’re wondering what’s been happening in Christchurch, three months after the earthquake, the answer is: not much, sadly. Read this heartbreaking account from a resident.

Canterbury earthquake, 22 February 2011

This was supposed to be a happy post. The year started so well. This was supposed to be about the wonderfully inspiring Webstock conference, the mind-expanding weekend that was Kiwifoo, the concerts we were lucky enough to attend (Sufjan Stevens, Tricky, Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley – all in the span of 3 weeks), the exciting things that are happening at work.

But then, the world started to crumble. Not for us, not directly, anyway. But in our country, and for our friends. And suddenly, everything took on a new perspective.

At 12:51 pm on February 22, during lunchtime on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch. Unlike the big 7.1 quake in September 2010, this one was shallower and closer, and it occured in the middle of the day. Because of that, it caused significant damage and loss of lives. It hit just when the people of Canterbury, who have been enduring thousands of aftershocks over the past six months, were slowly starting to get back to normal life. There are no words to describe how deeply this quake is cutting right to the heart of this nation.

As usual, Wikipedia is doing a good job of summarising the facts and providing links to further sources, so in the interest of getting this post up quickly, I won’t try and recap all the details. A week later, we’re barely grasping just how big the impact is. A national state of emergency has been declared, and search and rescue operations continue – as I’m writing this, there are still more than 200 people missing. There are still entire neighbourhoods without electricity, water, or working sewerage systems, living amongst the ruins of their homes, surrounded by liquefaction. Thousands have fled the city – will they come back? What happens after the cleanup – can we even rebuild on such unstable ground? What will be the impact on the economy? (Current cost estimates are at $16 billion – but who knows?) Not to mention the national psyche – will we ever feel safe in our own homes again? (Last night, a 4.5 quake rattled Wellington, which made everyone very jumpy – yet Christchurch had 20 aftershocks bigger than 4.5 within just 24 hours of the big one.)

As horrifying this all has been, the disaster has also brought out the best in people. Everywhere, local communities are sharing what they have and support each other. Within an hour of the quake, dedicated people in the New Zealand IT community put out eq.org.nz, an open-source based site with maps, links to services and other essential, crowd-sourced information, and they have worked tirelessly since then to keep it up to date. Words cannot describe the respect and admiration I have for everyone who has contributed to this effort.

Kia kaha, Christchurch.

How you can help

The earthquake may have disappeared from the international media already. However, the people of Christchurch will struggle with its consequences for a long time to come. Here are some ways to help:

• Donate to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal or the New Zealand Goverment’s Christchurch Earthquake Appeal – they provide much-needed support and services to those affected by the quake.
• Volunteer to help updated the open-source, community-driven Christchurch Recovery Map.
• Send a message of support through amos.org.nz – messages will be printed and put on walls for everyone to see.

More info

• Christchurch Recovery Map – a community project providing information and services.
• “There are THREE cities in Christchurch right now, not one.” – very moving blog post by Peter Hyde, a Christchurch resident about the affect of the quake of different parts of the cities, and a call for help for those forgotten by the authorities and the media.
• Pictures of Christchurch before and after the quake (link to stuff.co.nz)
• Image gallery of the aftermath of the quake (link to nzherald.co.nz)
• Press photos on The Atlantic and The Big Picture

Sturm und Drang

Happy spotty art at the City Gallery

Twentyelebenty is almost here. High time for a quick recap of the past year.

Let’s get the weather out of the way first. Unlike last year’s dreadfully cold Christmas break and a summer that never came, we’re now set to have the warmest December on record, thanks to a La Niña pattern, which is bringing a lot of warm, wet air from the north. The higher-than-usual temperatures are accompanied by gale-force winds (the kind that brings down power lines and prevents me from sleeping properly), as well as humidity. Now, I am the only person I have ever met (so to speak) who actually likes humidity, and I’m thoroughly enjoying not being cold for once, smiling smugly to myself while everyone else complains about “the muggy heat” every time the thermometer hits 20 degrees.

Semiperfect number

Not yet ready for The Unit, phew

So that’s my personal happy end to an eventful year. To be honest, it I’d been dreading 2010, since it would be the year in which I was to turn 40. 40! Surely, there had to be a mistake somewhere. (As an aside, I just finished reading a very dark dystopian novel called “The Unit“. In this book, single, childless people are put into “reserve bank units” on their 50th birthday, where they are used for all kinds of experiments and become living organ farms until their final “donation”. But I digress.)

I couldn’t even find consolation in hitting the “Schwabenalter”, the age of 40 when, so the story goes, Swabians finally become smart, because this concept only applies to men (women have always been smart anyway.) So, the whole thing sounded dreadfully middle-aged and frumpy. Thankfully, my birthday is relatively early in the year, so I had to face reality quickly.

Winning The NZ Open Source Award for Best Open Source Project

As it turns out, it didn’t hurt a bit. I don’t feel different. Actually, not true. I feel better, because it’s done, and I’m still here, and now can move on and focus on the good stuff. And maybe I am a little bit smarter after all.

And with all that betterment and evolution and wisdom, the year really was all about growth.

At work, I’m now heading up a team of five. Our company sponsored New Zealand’s best web conference, Webstock, won the New Zealand Open Source Award for Best Open Source Project (again!); we got slashdotted when Microsoft (!) certified our open source (!) software (a first), and we did a lot of groundbreaking work with our clients, especially in the GIS/open data/geospatial area. It’s exciting to be part this journey and help drive open source and innovation.

To Germany with love

Heimat, still

It’s almost become tradition for me to try and escape the worst of the New Zealand winter by visiting Germany during July or August. After last year’s whirlwind-1-week trip, I decided to make this one long enough so that I could actually be there without having to immediately think about the return.

The timing was stellar—not only did I manage to catch the second half of the soccer World Cup and my home town’s annual Heimatfest, but also a beautiful, scorching heatwave, with daily swims in the lake and lots of fresh fruit and BBQs and not being cold, ever. Thanks to the longer duration of my visit, I also managed to go one a couple extended weekend trips within Europe, one to Istanbul (first time ever), the other one to Berlin (first time in eight years), which were both stellar and a great way to get my big-city-fix.

Photo albums: Istanbul 2010, Berlin 2010

If you can’t change the world, change yourself

Portrait for my photo class, clearly with LOLs

The most important thing that happened this year, however, was something very personal. I have finally made a serious effort to no longer let my natural introversion and shyness be an excuse for slowly turning into a recluse. Instead, I would go out and be social and connect with people for real. And so I did.

It was the most terrifying and rewarding thing I’ve ever done.  I have met more amazing people and made more friends in the past year than quite possibly ever in my life; certainly since high school days. A very humbling experience and the source of more joy than I can express.

And in other news…

Another portrait, this one a professional one

Joy, on the other hand, isn’t exactly the word I’d choose when it comes to recounting what happened in New Zealand in 2010.

For some reason, it seems that all the big stuff took place in the last few months of the year. For a long time, the news seemed to be dominated by events blissfully far away, be it Eyjafjallajökull’s ash all over Europe, BP’s oil all over the Gulf of Mexico, or other assorted, mostly horrible things all over the world. As much as New Zealand’s geographical isolation makes me feel disconnected and cut off sometimes, it can also be quite a relief to be a long distance away from much of the crap happening elsewhere.

Canterybury earthquake

Now the pictures become random: Working the booth at Webstock

And then bad things started to happen here after all. It began with a bang, quite literally, at 4:35 am on September 4, when a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the South Island near its biggest city, Christchurch. (We didn’t feel it, by the way, though many people in Wellington did.) Almost miraculously, no one was killed, even though magnitude, shallow depth, and proximity to an urban centre were very similar to the devastating earthquake in Haiti earlier in the year. This was attributed to the fact that the quake happened while most people were asleep in timber-framed houses, and, who would have thought?, New Zealands’ building practices, which have been factoring in the risk of earthquake damage since the 1930s.

Nevertheless, damage to buildings and infrastructure was major—current estimates are as high as NZ$4billion. Water and power supplies were interrupted, many roads and rail tracks are still damaged, and quite a few buildings were deemed too damaged to fix and torn down, including heritage buildings such as the beautiful 100-year old Manchester Courts. This crowd-sourced Google Map or a simple picture search give a good idea of the extent of the damage. Even worse, since the quake, the Canterbury region has been hit by a seemingly never-ending series of over 4000 aftershocks measuring 2.0 magnitude or more, causing further damage and preventing people from sleeping through the night. The most recent one just happened a couple days ago, on Boxing Day. At 4.9 magnitude, it was serious enough to have parts of Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) cordoned off again—not ideal on the year’s biggest shopping day in a city that’s already feeling the economic impact of the quakes pretty hard.

Biking in Germany

Just when the aftershocks from the Canterbury earthquake started to slow down, another disaster hit the South Island. This one was an accident in the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast. On November 19, an explosion occurred in the mine, while 31 men were inside. Two of them managed to get out; the rest remained 1,500 meters underground. For five days, hopes of rescue remained, until a second explosion shattered those hopes. We’ve been to the West Coast a few years ago and I can only imagine how a disaster like this would affect such a small, tight-knit community.

Hairy

Awesome Pixies show in Auckland

Meanwhile, back on the North Island, we had our own shake-up, and it involved our favourite national alter ego, Middle Earth. More specifically, this story is about Peter Jackson’s planned 2-part movie adaption of Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit.” The project had already gone through turmoil for a number of years, with lawsuits over rights and lengthy delays, and Guillermo del Toro, originally slated to direct, had pulled out during pre-production. But then, Peter Jackson got the nod, and the films were set to be shot in New Zealand from early 2011.

Or they would have, had not the International Federation of Actors in late September issued a “Do Not Work order” to their members, because the producers weren’t willing “to engage performers on union-negotiated agreements.” What this means is that the many actors which are hired as independent contractors (rather than anyone’s employees – a common practice in the industry) cannot enter collective bargaining under New Zealand’s competition law. So the union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (which, to complicate things, is based in Australia out of all places) discouraged the actors to work on the film, even threatening expulsion to those who wouldn’t comply.

If the plan was to garner support for the union, it sure as hell backfired. “Unionise all you want,” responded the big American movie studio, “we’ll just film elsewhere then. It’s a big planet.”

I'll have a coffee as big as my head, please!

Middle Earth in Eastern Europe? This thought caused nothing short of a national crisis. For several weeks, thousands of protesters took to the streets around the country to protest against a move of the production overseas. When Hollywood executives came to Wellington in late October to negotiate, no one other than the Prime Minister himself led the discussions. Eventually, an agreement was reached: The production would stay here, in exchange for a government commitment to change the labour laws and a $25m tax break for Warner Bros. You read that right, and if this reminds you of Mayor Quimby and the production of Radioactive Man in Springfield, well, yes. It does. And also yes, it is very good for the New Zealand economy, not to mention the New Zealand soul, that the films are made here. It’s just the very messy way it all came about that leaves a sour taste.

Some of my best friends are broadcasters

Wellington at dusk (another picture from my photo class)

And speaking of sour taste (why, aren’t I on a roll for segues today):

Another drama that unfolded at the time was a lot less Hollywood, and a lot more Idiocracy. This one involved Television New Zealand (TVNZ) broadcaster and general creep Paul Henry. In the US, this lovely fellow would probably be called a “TV personality”, and personality he does have, although not the attractive kind.

Henry had already caused a number of controversies previously, when he insulted a female activist with facial hair, homosexuals, the Indian politician Sheila Dikshit (you can guess the “joke”), and when he called singer Susan Boyle “retarded”, all on public television. What finally led to his suspension and resignation from TVNZ though was a remark about New Zealand’s Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, who is of Indian and Fijian descent. Remember, the Governor-General of New Zealand is the representative of the British monarch and therefore can be seen as the de facto head of state, and while his role doesn’t have direct power, it’s an important political and symbolic one. Anyway, Henry had the Prime Minister on his TV show and asked him if the current Governor-General was “even a New Zealander”, and if for the next appointment he was “going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time.”

Makara beach lagoon

Ouch. Clearly, this is not a nice man. And while some racism exists in this country, just like in any other one, most Kiwis don’t appreciate this kind of trash talk. It’s pathetic enough that TVNZ initially defended the man, saying he is prepared to “say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud.” No, we’re not. Freedom of speech applies, but bigot drivel shouldn’t be taxpayer funded, so it’s right he’s gone.

However, and now we’re coming to the reason why I’m even mentioning this sad little story on this blog. The issue I have with the whole thing isn’t really about Paul Henry at all. Did you catch that point a couple paragraphs earlier? This happened in conversation with the Prime Minister. Henry said those words to the Prime Minister! And what did John Key say in response? Did he stand up and walk out in protest? Did he politely, but firmly, put Henry in his place? Did he talk about our fledgling but growing desire to develop an identity as a changing, diverse and multi-cultural nation?

He did no such thing. Instead, he did what he does best. He sat there, and grinned. And said nothing meaningful whatsoever. Later on, he stated that he was “taken off guard”, but didn’t voice any further opinion, nor did he cancel future appearances on Henry’s show. At no point, anyone in the mainstream media questioned the Prime Minister’s behaviour or lack of leadership. In my mind, that’s the real scandal.

Surprise?

Auckland from the Sky Tower

Just before the end of the year, New Zealand, like many other countries around the world, found out how American diplomats really view our country, thanks to Wikileaks. While I believe that Wikileaks is the driver for one of the most influential and powerful changes to how societies govern themselves in the history of mankind, I don’t want to go into a political or philosophical discussion here (although I’m happy to do so – come visit!) Instead, let’s have a look at the cables themselves.

• News flash: Helen Clark was “more interested in substance over style.”
• News flash: Before the 2008 election, the US thought that a National-led (= conservative) New Zealand Government would be better for relations between the two countries than the incumbent Labour government.
• News flash: Prime Minister John Key’s practical agenda is “fuzzy.”
• News flash: Relations between the US and NZ had been fully restored by August 2009 but the two countries decided to keep this information secret. (Huh?)
• News flash: New Zealand’s strong reaction to two suspected Israeli spies in 2004 was seen by the US as an attempt to increase the export of lamb meat to Arab states, and the deployment of NZ troops to Iraq in 2003 was to protect dairy exports by Fonterra, the country’s largest company, as part of the UN Oil for Food Program  (Srsly??? And, if that’s true, what more proof do we need to move away from our dependency on agriculture?)

You’d have to be be living under a rock for the last few years to find any of these “revelations” surprising. Still, more transparency is a good thing in my book, and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of this story.

So there you have it. I hope 2010 has been a good one for you. As the Chinese say, may you live in interesting times, and may 2011 be your year, whatever that means for you. Peace!

Keep calm and carry on

Look, I never said I was stopping this blog. All I needed was a fresh start in the new year.

And here it is. Let’s go on an adventure. We already paddled down a river and hiked a glacier, so this time, let’s walk on a volcano.

Born to love volcanoes

It's fun to stay at the YMCA

Continuing our now well-established tradition of going somewhere new between Christmas and New Year’s, we decided to return to the Bay of Plenty, an area we haven’t revisited since our container ship anchored in Tauranga on that November day five years ago. We stayed in Rotorua (at the surprisingly stylish Regent of Rotorua), but the real destination of our trip was White Island.

White Island is a young (~150,000 years) and small (2 km in diameter) active marine volcano, situated 48 km off the coast. Its peak is 321 m high but that’s deceptive, as 70% of the volcano is actually under the sea. White Island belongs to the Taupo Volcanic Zone, a 250 km-long area of “intense volcanic activity” on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific plates, reaching from Mt Ruapehu across all the way into the Pacific Ocean. And when I say “active volcano” I mean it: The most recent eruption was just a decade ago, between March and September 2000.

Crater lake

Because of its relative accessibility and strong activity, scientists love White Island. They started monitoring it in the 1940s through regular visits to the island, and in the 1970s installed round-the-clock surveillance equipment. Today, two volcano cams and a seismograph are located on the island. The webcam became internet-famous in 2004 when someone glued a figurine of the pink pet dinosaur (view screenshot) from the Flintstones in front of it. There must have been a lull in LOLs back then because this prank proved so popular around the world that the admins of the Geonet website had to reduce the size of the webcam images to deal with the high traffic to the site. And dino is not yet extinct: When the camera had to be relocated five years later, they moved him along with it to its new spot.

White Island was named by the same person who seemingly named everything else in the South Pacific, Captain Cook. His Endeavour passed the island in 1769 and he thought it looked white – not his most imaginative work, really. Originally in Maori hands, White Island was sold in the 1830s to a Danish sea captain for two barrels of rum, and it kept changing hands several times until it became a private scenic reserve in 1953.

Venting

The interestingness of White Island comes from its barren moonscape, hydrothermal activity and the massive steam vents, as well as occasional eruptions. Often, gas and ash can rise high enough for people on the coast to see on a clear day. There are craters and fumaroles which hiss and bubble and emit hundreds if not thousands of tons of gas every day (steam, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, chlorine, fluorine, and such and such.) It’s quite a spectacle, and yes, it smells.

It’s not surprising that there is virtually no vegetation on the inside of the crater walls. In fact I find it rather fascintating that anything grows there at all, but on the outer side grow shrubs and even a pohutukawa forest. There is also quite rich bird life, including a gannet colony.

More venting

More fascinating yet is the fact that people used to live on the island. Even for hearty Kiwis, that’s quite a feat. In 1885, the then-owners established a sulphur mine on White Island to produce fertiliser and sulphur ore. Their venture was rudely interrupted just a year later by an eruption of the volcano, but undeterred, they picked it up again in 1898. Work stopped again when in 1914 part of the crater wall collapsed and caused a landslide which killed 12 miners and destroyed the mine. Still convinced that mining here was a good idea, they picked it up once more in 1923. This time, it wasn’t nature who brought on the end, but a man-made disaster, namely, the Great Depression, leading to the factory’s bankruptcy. Mining was finally abandoned for good in 1933. Today, the ruins of the old factory make some interesting photo props.

Would you, could you, on a boat?

As I’ve mentioned above, White Island is owned privately, and the only way to get there is with one of the few accredited tour operators. Despite this limitation, over 10,000 people visit the island every year via boat or helicopter.

We decided to take a boat tour, and given my recent near-death experiences on small boats in rough seas I thought that was a rather brave move on my part. Unlike last time, however, I was well-medicated on antihistamines and enjoyed the experience. We got very close up to pods of dolphins several times during the trip and I have a whole series of very blurry pictures to prove it.

Sulphur crystals

On the island itself, there’s always a possibility of an eruption or the collapse of a crater wall due to an earthquake. In New Zealand, volcanic activity is quantified by by an alert level scale from 0 to 5. White Island is currently on Alert Level 1 (“signs of volcano unrest”), although our guide assured us cheerfully that it should really be at least on Level 2 or even 3. They do give you a hard hat that you need to wear while on the island, and a gas mask which is thankfully optional. Not sure how much those hard hats would really do in case of an eruption. In the meantime, their bright yellow and orange adds happy colour splashes to photos.

Being on the island is an attack on your senses: the hissing and puffing of the steam vents, the amazing technicolour yellows of the sulphur crystals and the poison-green hue of the crater lake, the strong smell of rotten eggs which can get biting at times, and the other-worldly experience of being in such a barren, stark environment which is not only strangely beautiful but could also kill you at any moment. In other words, it’s a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Midsummer night’s nightmare

View from our window, January 16

Because I just can’t shut up about the weather.

To all of you reading this in the northern hemisphere: At least it’s supposed to be winter there.

3 Jan 2010
Strong gales continued to hammer the capital and parts of the lower North Island this evening, and rain was forecast to be added to the mix overnight.

16 Jan 2010
Unusually wintry weather has hit Wellington today, with wild wind gusts causing problems around the city. A MetService spokesman says gusts of up to 60 kilometres per hour have been recorded and there has been rain throughout the day. The misery continued yesterday as southerlies buffeted the south coast, temperatures plunged to 14 degrees, and rain squalls whipped the capital.

18 Jan 2010
Bad weather almost stymied Prince William’s plans to fly into Wellington from Auckland, the Air Force jet almost diverted to Ohakea.

24 Jan 2010
Wellington has a cold southerly and rain and that southerly is gale force on the hills. Yesterday the weather saw Wellington airport stop all flights as fog set in. As of 10:30 Saturday morning it was just 14 degrees in the Capital.

(If we were to baptise our big storms as they do in Germany, we would have run out of names by now.)