Final day in NZ

Oh, this is my final day in New Zealand. I catch my plane later today from Christchurch airport, and now I felt compelled to blog about this moment. I have had a fantastic time travelling through a lot of both the North and recently the South Island of New Zealand. I have done lots alone, with friends and strangers but all has been far beyond my expectations! Big kudos to Joe, Mark, Aurile and Loic who invited me to join them on a post-vineyard tour of Abel Tasman National Park (where we went on a three day kayak expedition). We did lots and had a great time across the northern coast, Nelson Lakes and West Coast. Aurile and Loic are French and it was cool learning tons of swear words, new card games and lots more from them. They had the same attitude and spirit for coming to New Zealand as I did. I think it takes particular people to choose to uproot and desire the even experienced a small earthquake

Yesterday's journey across the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass on the train was one of the top highlights of any travelling I have done. Glacial ice water rivers flowed by dairy farms, steep mountains and plains. There was so much to see I would have to travel it again to fully appreciate it. I would love to return to New Zealand one day as I have not touched the bottom half of the South Island.

For now, I leave with memories of Christchurch. I am now having breakfast metres from the 'red zone' area. This has been totally wrecked by last year's September earthquake and this year's one in February and security and Army personnel roam the checkpoints that were the busy streets. The physical damage is shocking at first - particularly to the old buildings and churches. The Crowne Plaza hotel still has curtains flapping out of empty windows, the Arts Centre has scaffolding and structural support and now only has one exhibition operating out of a shipping container on the street. There is still evidence of liquefaction where you walk. The tram lines are vacant and you can easily believe the statistics that I heard out here that half of the population has left and not (yet) returned.

Despite all that I have seen in a short amount of time, there is a sense and atmosphere that 'the city will get back on its feet' as I just heard someone say. I believe it will, and with the hardened culture of the South Island's populace there is no reason why it will not be overcome. I wish it good luck!

Onwards

Hello - this is going to be a very brief blog update.

This is my final day in my lovely house of Tamahere Drive, Windy Ridge on the amazing North Shore. The place and people have been  so great. I couldn't have asked for a better time and now I head south for two weeks of travel that will eventually land me at Christchurch. I have planned up until next week and it will mean I undertake a coach to Wellington, a boat to Picton and a campervan to the Abel Tasman National Park. Things will fall into place after that and I know that it should be fantastic by all accounts.

GOODBYE AUCKLAND.

Into November

The home straight appears and is imminently going to hit me, although I am not slowing down! My only worries will be not seeing everyone before I leave and I should really make the time and organise some goodbyes to all the great people I have befriended here. If both offices that I have mostly worked for at RH will put on a little goodbye drinks and snacks in the office, then I should get onto the various others who have made my time out here a lot of fun.
;
Otherwise, things have been very good. I went into the lovely old town hall for a concert on Thursday night. It was the entire Mahler's Ninth Symphony, performed by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. I do miss the old student prices for the time when I saw the UK Philharmonia perform the same suite but for a great price of £5, on Thursday night I paid NZ$53 (about £26). It was well worth it anyway.

I have been reading a lot, typically, and picked up the memoirs of Tony Blair and George Bush. They overlap so much but I liked the insight and feel like they were good insights into the way of the UK and US in their time. I won't bore you with it now though. On the subject of politics, New Zealand is going into a general election and referendum vote on their own voting system for future general elections and I am finding it interesting but very low-key compared to say the 2010 UK election build-up. It is more relaxed, tame if you will. On the other hand it is good that politics doesn't need to be so pertinent in the everyday agenda. Ah this is again digressing to the serious and boring. I had best stop right here.

The rugby is over

The Rugby World Cup was rather grand and now it has all packed up and concluded for another four years. The thing countering this is actually being in New Zealand: they wholly hosted the tournament, fans and the media circus and then their team went on to win the tournament so it still feels like it is an ongoing thing out here!

I spent lots of time watching games at large public screens, at home on the TV and luckily, one live in person. That England-Scotland match was fun. This weekend though, rugby eclipsed everything: even the public holiday of Labour Day, making it a long weekend. Rugby had monopolised it all. The streets of Auckland were packed on Sunday for the event itself and then it was repeated on Monday. Reports of 100,000 people joined myself in seeing the winners parade with the Web Ellis Cup. Funnily, there was no double decker bus or simple route. Between one to five players were standing on the backs of pick-up trucks or in the Kiwi lingo, "utes". Yes to make it a bit less odd they had marching bands performing songs (and also stopping randomly to perform a haka!), bagpipe bands, cheerleaders and a group of costumed Kiwi fruits. It was a bizarre cultural day as I had just been at the free 'Kiwi Day Out' carnival on the playing fields of the Domain park. There was so much going on, and now that summer has arrived it was a great showing of singers, bands, food, arts and entertainment.

Inevitably after such a weekend I was absolutely drained so rested well.

Things that were not so great was my camera's SD card almost falling apart from lots of use in and out of my camera and note book so there are no photos of note of the weekend. I am getting a new one very soon so have no fear!

In better news, I am loving the turn of summer. It's great. Also, I think that my Wellington-based cousin of some sort David is going to meet up with me on Friday -- he is coming to Auckland for work, so this will be nice.

For now, that is all to blog.

Living in a new bubble

I feel impassioned to write as now what seems like a pivotal point of my time out here. Some things have moved very quickly and there may only be less than six weeks left in Auckland!

Well to put it all simply before I begin my hypothetical blogging directly relating to the title... :--


• There is lots going on with my working time now at Random House. Each day is still different and I do feel quite at home, joining in with verbally adding to the weekly publishing meeting for the first time this week. I feel that always giving it my all and pushing myself to working hard is the best way to tackle the various tasks. I really do feel that it, unlike working hard as I was at university, suits me better and I feel more productive. Talking of uni, the term has begun again for all those lucky friends and siblings of mine back. This meant that I was reminded of my contributing 'testimonial' for how I got into publishing from my degree is going to be published on the School of English website. Keep tabs and eyes peeled on: http://www.le.ac.uk/departments/english in the near future!

• There is a two day in-house conference next week so I have some pretty good levels of optimism, with chances of furthering my knowledge of the real scene and issues inside the local trade. Specifically my aims are to digest some macro developments and changes to publishing, market forces and ripple effects, a marketing buzz and a sense of the true writer-media relationship (with Jaquie Brown joining a seminar) through the power broker of a published book. I have more to say on what I have already learnt and developed since being at Random House but I will save it for other times and would hate this blog to become too over dependent upon that business.

• I am needing to go on more runs and explore lots around this area on the weekend. My cycling has become so speedy, routine and normalised that I need to start taking more of the local area in on foot and taking some photos to show it off.

• The one Rugby World Cup match I attended last weekend was lots of fun. A real spectacle and grand day out. The attendance and passion was very evident from both English and Scottish supporters - probably more than in a local setting because of the keen cultural addiction to big rugby games over here, the majesty of such an occasional fixture of rivals, and the local cultural emphasis on rugby. It was not a place of neutral supporters which was my own preconception for this game - locals and travellers alike had taken sides; it shows how different rugby is viewed out here. You probably know of the close win at 16-12 to England. You probably don't know that I attended it with a farming lad from a farm down near New Plymouth, originally from Lutterworth in Leicestershire.

My new sense of 'living in a bubble' reverts back to my aforementioned reminders of university life. Things are not much different on the surface in that I transplanted myself from one bubble of and into this - it has new features and appearances but lacks real fun in that my community and friends are so different and interactions with the previous sets are via Skype, visually sensed intangibly behind glass and sensed via auditory means through headphones. One will burst and reform exactly similar to its opposite when I return to the UK.

Yes, you are right. All in all, after such a week I am worn out. Writing this has been the final reminder on how, now at midnight, burning the candle at both ends always results in certain darkness. 'See you in the morning...'

Rugby

Casting my mind back a few weeks to when the Rugby World Cup began here, with a lion's share of the matches, in Auckland I never thought the power of the tournament would last. It has lasted and rumbles on with aplomb judging by last night's match.

That Friday was a special day as I had rushed back to the house earlier than usual and made the bus with my housemates who had also succumbed to the showcase concert, maōri waka flotilla, fireworks and huge screenings of the opening ceremony and match. (I must add that I made it with barely any time to spare and had to throw my bicycle and bag behind the fence and stay in my shirt and trousers due to the imminent bus arriving!)



Group D's meeting of England and Scotland had been the game I had set my sights upon due to the rivalry and ease of just having to cross over town for it. This penultimate match was hyped up all week and the passion was so palpable when I arrived at Eden Park at opening in my white, red rose-embroidered replica shirt. This had to be a win for the English to safely progress into the Quarter Finals without confronting the All Blacks but the Scots too were in a tougher mathematical situation regarding their passage. On the face of it, the media were siding with an English win but I had a hunch that the Scots would upstage it. Compounding factors such as the fickle nature of Kiwis to support an exotic Celtic underdog would influence the probabilities out of England's control. Pondering all this was good but I did relax when watching the Tonga v France game -- if England do stumble through this game, even with a loss of 7 points, the French team they may well face have regressed to pure awfulness! It was good to enjoy Tonga's playmaking and France's weaknesses whilst wandering around, reading the programme and grabbing some food. Dusk turned to darkness and it was down to the actual live game. This would be the first time I had seen England play away from Twickenham and the raw, intense atmosphere of the stadium made me feel intensely alive! The first half was close and Scotland were setting the agenda in the running play and kicking penalties to gain the advantage on the scoreboard. England were not near this state of determination. On kicks, Wilkinson was playing poorly and my head was in my hands when Scotland's drop goal ended the first half with a lead of 9-3. Gradually, England did resolve their penalty kick inefficiencies and invest in playing for tries and not the posts; and this defensive role is where Scotland had finite power. Just as in Scotland's loss to Argentina previous to this game, their defensive barrier was breached at the match's end by a right winger for a try which did seal the win for England. It was pure relief -- some locals went as far as to say 'England were lucky' when the game was over and had returned to the North Shore. Although the experience was different to that opening day a few weeks back, I had an equally great time together with thousands of others who had all come from far and wide yet sharing the same sport, space and ideals together. It was worth so much more than I can write down here, or ever represent for this tournament is wild when you are in its face.

Running

I went on a good run through the two great reserves around here. It was pretty muddy but very scenic; plus I only passed two other people on the way. I will try using this RunKeeper more as I try to keep active!