NZ life – everything is possible 28/03/2011

Once not long time ago I discovered how old is word “travel”. English phrase to travel comes from French verb “travailler” – to work, toil, what in turn has roots in Latin language and means trident fork used back in time as a torture tool. Therefore traveling was a synonym of setting out something extremely unpleasant. For contemporary people, with no doubts it meant a torture.

How different then is today’s definition and idea of travel? I’ve been giving this question quite amount of thoughts lately and here are some reflections I would like to share:

The human state of mind has been brilliantly described by someone to be either concern or depression. It seems that either you have achieved what you desire and you are constantly freaked out of losing it or you haven’t got it yet and therefore you are depressed.
Here comes the great irony of human nature – we are programmed, by God/evolution (take your pick -> if u like 7-days-quick-masterpiece pick “God”, if you wonder why do we have small toe pick “evolution”) to constantly seek for new challenges and new experiences. We are quickly adapted to any situation that is, at the moment, our current situation and we always believe happiness is right around the corner. So by subconscious reason we fail on and on, to find peace of mind, security what might go along with happiness but ironically is against out adventurous nature.

Being specific makes things much easier, especially when comes to life changing decision and future plans. Here also circumstances myth should be discussed. It’s very easy to point the finger at someone’s circumstances to blame them for what we have/ who we are, and in the same breath glorify out struggles of achievements. There is no greater satisfaction then finding or creating circumstances that personally suits you.

My conclusion is simple as my writing skills and can be expressed in one trivial sentence – i trust in who i am and follow whatever i thing is right with great deal of consequence. When this philosophy will fail I’ll go to liquor store to find bottle with 40% new ideas.

Now something about real life…

It’s been long long time since my last post. New Zealand’s internet infrastructure and backpackin life style made it very difficult for me to keep my blog ut to date. Ironically my life and experiences has been really intense and exciting since October 2010. There has been some travelin random combination of jobs, devastation of valuable, personal property and earthquakes. More importantly there is some great trip to be done in near future so I’ll better refresh my blog.

On some beautiful November morning, in state that might be described as “drunkover” (still drunk but already hangover) I decided, as I used to do the same in past, to change something and booked my flight to Melbourne, Australia. My alter-ago aka airport nightmare made me go to Wellington’s airport one day before my flight and argue with stuff that my flight is today not tmw as my ticket say. Although I spent there just aprox 2 weeks, I can now tell with a lil bit more certainty – OZ is a dreamland and I’m seriously thinking to move there for a while.

Then, after coming back to South Island, NZ there has been some intense job (vineries, cherry orchards), and place changing, during which I lost my beautiful, experienced laptop (that BTW became banana shaped, Facebook photos) and my phone I lost 6 times in 4 days and then left it on roof of car to be smashed on some countryside road.

Then with beginning of February 2011 I moved to the biggest city on South Island of NZ – Christchurch. As probably most of u have heard city was devastated on 22nd of Feb by the most severe earthquake in NZ history (hundreds people dead, city literally raze to the ground Facebook photos). Luckily I survived this terrible experience without any loss. Some of my less lucky friends lost all their gear – including all documents, clothing, computers, and money living for few days in refugee camps.

And here I am living in Christchurch that is still having (over one month after) around 3 aftershocks a day, some of them of 5 magnitude. So whats next?!

On 10th of May I’ll be leaving New Zealand to travel for 2 months around Southeast Asia – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and after spend one month is Catalonia and run with some bull in San Fermin festival in Basque Country.

Hopefully next post (about Asia trip) will come soon !

 

Mr. Happy in Welly ! 30/09/2010

Hello,

How about that ride in? I guess that’s why they call it Sin City (hahaha)

You guys may not know this, but I consider myself…a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one man wolf pack.

(@ Freaky-J and Mr. Bronson – this is end of the joke )

Now seriously…

I have failed to keep my blog up to date due limited access to internet…hope to catch up next days.

For last 24 days I’ve been trying to settle down in Wellington. After aprox 20 ineffective days of job research, Wellington exploration and crazy backpackers’ parties in just 2 days found decent job and great place to live.

Today, looking backwards “stop-freaking-out-chill-and-see-what-will-happen” approach have turned out to be best thing to do at this time. Having time to meet people make friends have came to fruition. Thanks to my two great mates – mad Welsh Kyle, and crazy Chile’s Sebastian, life in Wellington has become really nice. Kyle (who BTW works with me) put some jobs under my nose; Seba has found bed for me in house he stays in.

The work turned out to be probably the easiest job ever. Due to some city center’s construction before Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand there is energy supply deficit on some Trolley Buses routes. City council decided to hire through recruitment agency laborers who would pole and de-pole Trolleys (connect to electricity line). The thing is work on its own takes around 15 seconds per bus – it means the aprox 90% of the time I’m getting paid – I do nothing! On the other hand sitting on the bench and talking to random people around becomes boring after some time. Weekly wage amount to around 550 NZD (~1300 zł ~ 300 euro), what’s a decent money for life in NZ. Into the bargain contract is valid for another 2 months (till 26 November), exactly as long as I previously planned to stay in Welly.

The apartment is 3-leavel home is middle of Wellington’s beautiful city center. I leave with 7 Latin flat mates (Chile and Argentina) – both backpackers and professionals. The biggest attraction about flat is awesome, around 60 square meters roof top perfect for weekends BBQ!

First days in NZ helped me realized many important things about which I hadn’t been aware of in recent daily life. If you don’t run with the pack after deepest yearning of your heart you will never truly discover yourself. Moment like this has emphatically reminded me there is nothing more important than family and friends, and nothing can replace their input into your life decisions. When far away from them I realized it’s people who create your environment and makes happy or not.

At the end tribute to Christopher McCandless:

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

Miss you all! 1 hug to everybody ! (Tomorrow more photos)

Wellington 06/09/2010

Hello everybody,

Since I arrived many strange and savage thing happened to this beautiful country. In only one week there have been:

1. Powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s South Island last night. It was the most serious natural disaster since a 7.8 shock at Napier in 1931 when 256 people died.
2. Heavy rain that caused slips and surface flooding in the lower North Island making many roads impassable
3. Four tourists and five locals were killed when the light aircraft burst into flames soon after taking off causing New Zealand’s worst plane accident in 17 years

I guess I’ve brought my latest bad luck to New Zealand!

Today it’s my second day in Wellington – the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand (386 000 kiwis). Wellington has the 12th best quality of living in the world in 2009, a ranking holding steady from 2007. After Christchurch earthquake locals are scared about Wellington being next in quake queue which according to locals would most probably destroy city completely (due to urbanization style – most of the buildings are on the hills).

Wellington is New Zealand’s political and cultural centre – The world-famous movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ was filmed in many locations around New Zealand, particularly in the Wellington area of New Zealand. City and the surrounding countryside was the main location for both the filming and production.

I’m planning to stay in Wellington for 2-3 month until beginning of the season as I would probably get a job here. On days off I would travel around Wellington area.

Cheers !

New Plymouth

Since i left Auckland 2 days ago, i’ve been living with Amy in New Plymouth. New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of 68,901, being fourth biggest city in NZ. Taranaki is known as ‘big wave territory’ with some of the country’s best surfing spots found off this coastline. The most beautiful part of landcape is Mount Egmont – an active but quiescent stratovolcano.

For last days i’ve been hanging out with Amy and her friends, looking for a job simultaneously, what’s not as easy as i thought. Unemployment rate has grown last months and there is not many job opportunities untill begining of fruit picking season on November. I’ll probably stay in Plymouth for a weekend, and then i’ll take off to Wellington looking for a job. Weather has been tricky for last days mixing great sunny weather on mornings with showers on afternoons.

Auckland

After 81 hours of traveling I’ve finally got to Auckland. For last 2 days I’ve stayed in hostel in the middle of downtown, 50m from the main street. Auckland is full of backpackers’ hostels like mine but there is nothing interesting to see in the city. Most of the people stay here for few days at the beginning. Majority of travelers are British, I share dorm room with 2 British girls, former marine from Newcastle, and half Italian Celtic fan from Glasgow. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving Auckland and heading south to New Plymouth to visit Amy.

“Great” beginning of the trip, power of irony and Asian handicap!

My original flight schedule looks like this:

26^th August     Warsaw – London – Seoul – Auckland 28^th August local time (evening 27^th August European time)

26^th August.

My flight from Warsaw to London Heathrow was delayed more than 2 h (First plane took off from Warsaw 50 min late then it should, then we were flying against 200 km/h wind, then pilot couldn’t approach airport cause of the clouds, at the end dock alleyway at the airport was broken – WTF?). Fuck polish airlines and British weather. Because of that I was late around 20 minutes for checkout to my flight to Seoul. LOT airport office was closed and I was force by circumstances to book a hotel for around 360 £ (I hope LOT airlines or travel insurance would cover it). Luckily I met very friendly receptionist who gave me Club membership card with room for a special guests. According to Korean Air I’m able to take the same flight on 27^th August. Now I’m off to airport to give the hell to LOT and work out flight to NZ. Hope to land in Auckland on 29th (evening 28th European time).

27^th August.

After the night in the most expensive place I’ve ever slept to I arrive to Heathrow airport to claim return of money spent for hotel. In LOT’s airport office I’ve heard they bear no responsibility of plain delay and I can make an official complain but the most probably I would fail to get my money back.

So I go to Korean Air (airlines I fly to New Zealand with) to ask if they have a place for me in plane today (27^th August). Then I hear:

“Yes Sir, we have a place for you, but we are sorry to inform you that today’s flight is delayed around 3 hours”

Could it be more I-R-O-N-I-C??? If yesterday’s flight had been delayed I would have caught the plain in spite of previous flight delay. Moreover the most probably I’m going to miss my flight from Seoul to Auckland! According to Korean Air flight manager I shouldn’t worry because “it’s Korean Air stuff, to have everything in order.”

It looks like I will arrive to New Zealand on 30^th – 2 DAYS (!!!) after I have planned.

28^th August.

After 10 h flight I’m finally in Seoul, obviously being late for today’s flight to Auckland. History repeats itself with one significant difference – I got room on 14^th floor in 5-star hotel (all inclusive) in downtown of Seoul. NICE.  I’m taking off to Auckland tmw around 5 pm local time (8 am CET).

So at long last I’m going to arrive to NZ exactly 2 days after I planned!

New Zealand’s History

New Zealand is the last country reached by modern civilization. There is no certainty why and from where Maori arrived. Their language is the most related to language of Polynesian Cook’s Islands and Thaiti. On this basis it’s assumed they come from this part of Oceania. The majority of explorers points at XIII century as a beginning of Maori colonization.

The first European who reached New Zealand is Dutch sailor Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659). He took of from Djakarta in Dutch part of Eastern India to look for unknown, great south continent, which presence was foretold by many geographers. In coast of New Zealand Tasman was greeted by sound of Maori horns. Dutchmen politely returned greeting, haven’t got a clue, that they accept invitation to battle in which 4 Dutch sailors has died. Tasman decided to continue mapping of western coast, but he did not dare go down on land. Discovered land, lately named Nieuw Zeeland (from Dutch province Zeeland – Zealand), was found by Tasman as hostile and deprived of economic value. Next Europeans came back to New Zealand island 100 after Tasman.

Early European colonization was limited to seals and whale hunters. Most of them married inhabitants and by 1830 year number of European colonist had raised to 300. After many years of racial conflicts local tribe leaders decided to sign up the most controversial document in New Zealand history. In 1840 in Waitangi under this agreement they abdicated sovereignty, and became serfs of British Queen Victoria. However Maori maintained ownership of the land and obtain rights of British citizen. The annexation of New Zealand gave new perspective to massive colonization. In time of Waitangi treaty on island lived approximately 2000 Europeans, in 50’s XIX century this number had raised to 60 000 – almost the same as Maori inhabitants. In 1881 number of colonist crossed 500 000.

In 1893 the country became the first nation in the world to grant all women the right to vote. Political stabilization lead to economic boom – in 1900 New Zealand claimed the highest income per capita.

In 60’s and 70’s XX century country “isolation” has ended. Cheap flights, satellite communication and television have revealed New Zealand values. Today’s New Zealand is very different to this from 40 years ago. The national pride includes declining British and Australian influence. Country celebrates they own heroes – sportsmen, writers and pop stars (Flight of Conchords rules!) – trying to define their identity.