Humid Northland

As the name suggests, it is the north of the North Island of New Zealand. While it is probably close to east of Central Queensland, the weather felt like closer to Malaysia or Singapore. It was hot and humid. Thankfully the hotel I was staying in had air conditioning but you can feel the heat just blowing into your face as you open the door. My walk to the office in the early morning which took 15 minutes had my clothes soaked in sweat. Quite unlike Wellington.

While I was in Northland, I got a call from my colleague up there that a Kiwi just hatched and if I wanted to see it. Why would I miss an opportunity like that? So I went along to witness the arrival of an endangered New Zealand native bird. It was still wet from the sack yolk but still an amazing little creature to watch.



A day after it hatched, it was all ready to be "processed" and sent off to the wild. A protected island off Whangarei where there are no predators. It was like a baby being delivered. I followed the ranger to pick up the chick from the bird recovery centre and he was flooded by phone calls from the press and local tribes. Had ceremonies lined up to be named. I was surprised to hear that we have records of who his parents were, where they came from and their complete history. With a microchip implanted, we can track exactly where they are in the forest as well.



And I certainly could not pass an opportunity to hold one.



I also had the opportunity to visit a bird sanctuary near Ocean Beach. It is beautiful part of Whangarei where surfers flock to catch the waves. Being so close to Auckland (2 hours drive) with its 1.5 million population, I was surprised to see how deserted the beaches were. Especially on the day I was there when the temperatures soared to 32C. Then again, that's how New Zealand beaches are, in general.













I can't name these birds except for the black one standing on a rock below is an Oyster Catcher. But I can assure you they are all native birds.

My trip to Haast

The year 2009 looks like a year of travels for me. As far as work is concerned, I have travels scheduled across the country at least once a month and in some cases, more than once a month. I will be heading off to South Africa middle of the year, then there is the trip to the Pacific Islands and Australia after that. If all goes according to plan, might even be heading back to Malaysia later in the year.

As soon as we came back from our holidays in the South Island, I was off to Tauranga for a field visit. From one end of the country, I went to the other end, Haast. Not exactly the end but it is literally almost at the end of the road as far as the West Coast of the South Island is concerned.

I was taken aback when I arrived at Haast, a township with a population of under 300 people and not so many sheep either. The town has no cell phone coverage, so if your car broke down in the middle of the road you will not be able to call AA for help. The town is not on the main power grid so electricity is at best as good as it gets. There are several backpackers and campsites but one hotel, one restaurant and bar, one minimarket, one petrol station and that’s it! No banks, no ATM machines. A stroll down the minimarket aisles, I found no fresh vegetable or meat. So I asked a local how do you get fresh produce. The answer was rather simple – either grow it, hunt it or trade it.

One evening I went down to the beach and found myself sitting all alone for hours. Not a soul for miles and miles either way. You could literally be washed out to sea or fall dead and no one would have noticed. This is the perfect place to run away to. There is no cell phone coverage, newspapers arrive after lunch, there is only one radio station and sometimes you can hardly even tune into it. If you can't wind down here, there is no where else you could do it.

Despite the isolation or perhaps due to the isolation, the environment is pristine. The landscape is stunning. Nature at its best. There is a sanctuary a few kilometres south of Haast and if you wait patiently and don’t mind the constant stinging of the sandflies, you are bound to see at least several native birds. Take a drive down to Jackson Bay, where the road suddenly comes to an abrupt end, you are more than likely to catch a glimpse of the Crested Penguins that call this part of the country home.

Here are some photos I took while in Haast.







































This is just the beginning. There are still many parts of the country I have yet to see and am looking forward to seeing.

I am off to Northland on Monday.

Fruits of my labour

Not only fruits but also vegetables of my labour. The vege garden is growing well although the birds are also having a feast out of it.

This is our black grapes. Only one just turning black and we only manage to get three vines. It is only the first season and hoping more will fruit next season.



Then there is the lemon tree which is growing all the time but the fruits taking forever.



The mandarin oranges never survived the Wellington wind. We had lots of flowers but with every wind they went flying. Now all we have are leaves and we can only hope for better luck next time.

The blueberries started flowering but a branch broke off due to the wind and now its recuperating. Hopefully it survives.

The apples had a lot of flower at the begining of spring and everytime the wind blew, some of the flowers would drop off. Thankfully some survived.



Our vege plot made up of several varieties of tomato plants. Some we planted and some just appeared, possibly brought in by the birds.







We had a least 3 bags of them already harvested and more growing.

Apart from tomatoes, we have cucumbers.



And gerkins.



Two varieties of chillies, the long large ones and the small super extra hot ones.





And finally the herb garden which is made up of rosemary (not pictured), mint.



Coriander.



Spring onions.



And finally serai or lemon grass.

Discrimination

What would life be like if you looked different? How would people treat you if your skin were another colour? What if you were a different gender? Or you had a disability? The Big Experiment is a New Zealand local series, a social experiment that radically changes people's identities and gives them the opportunity to walk a day in someone else's shoes.

We watched one episode of this series where a young white Kiwi lass was disguised as an Asian girl. She was dressed like a typical Asian girl and even taught to speak with a typical Asian accent.

This episode began by showing how she was treated at shops around Auckland when she was who she was and then again at the same shops after her transformation into an Asian girl. It was amazing how she was treated when she looked and talked like an one. At one outlet, she was completely ignored and at another one she was treated like she could not afford the items on display.

Until then I never really saw or felt discrimination in New Zealand. At least I never experienced discrimination here like I have in other Western countries I have been to. Maybe I was lucky or maybe I never paid any attention to it to notice it.

This aftertoon I went to the Harvey Norman outlet in Paraparaumu to print some photographs. While waiting for the photos to be printed, I was browsing at some cameras on sale. I asked a young white Kiwi how much they were selling a particular model. He said "I will be with you in a minute", and immediately walked to another customer who just walked in and attended to him instead. He looked at me from across the shop without feeling guilty about asking me to wait. After about 5 minutes seeing me still there, another sales person asked me if he could help. I politely told him that the other guy told me to wait but chose to attend to another customer who walked in after me and if he doesn't want my business, I will gladly take it else where.

It is interesting that we see things only after it was brought to our attention. Maybe discrimination is still being widely practiced, maybe this was a one off incident. After having lived in New Zealand for almost 4 years, I think most Kiwi's accept you for what/who you are and discrimination is not as bad as it is elsewhere in the world. I have real great Kiwi friends and none have made me feel that I am any different from them. But then, all it takes is one person to change the way you think.

Carols By The Sea

Tonight we followed 20,000 other Kapiti residents and spent an evening singing Christmas Carols by the sea.



We had the traditional Christmas songs and Christmas songs with a twist like the New Zealand version of the "12 Days of Christmas".



Along with carols, there were free sausage sizzles, drinks and bouncing castle for the kids. And obviously the Man himself. What would Christmas be without Santa!