12 weeks in the Garden City

The time has come for me to say my farewells to the Garden City, Christchurch, where I've spent the last 12 weeks. It is with both exultation and sorrow that I leave the city behind. I'm sorry that my work with Greenpeace has reached its end (at least for now), although I'm happy to not have to fund raise any more. Talking about the same things over and over again can become mechanical and a bit boring even though you are more committed to the cause than ever. Then there is all the rejection that sort of just keeps on piling up in your head; all the mindless morons (excuse me) that don't give a damn or don't even give you the opportunity of explaining why you are knocking on their door.

The Avon river flowing through Christchurch.

Fund raising in Christchurch has also been a lot more difficult than in Tauranga. A testament to this are the seven people who started working with me and the team leader Vivienne since I arrived, but didn't make target and thus lost their jobs. This last week, it was only the two of us working together. I guess the fact that I've been able to hang in there for the past three months shows I'm fairly decent at the job, as well as the offer of long term employment and visa sponsorship I got. :-)

So, right now it doesn't feel like I'm ever going to work as a fundraiser again, but there are other positions within an environmental organisation like Greenpeace. Never say never though; travelling through Australia needs to be funded somehow too...

For some time now I've had the intention to show you some pictures of the house I've been living in. Because of the unfortunate event of my camera making hard contact with a piece of unyielding rock, and the delay in getting a new box of highly sophisticated optics, you've had to wait until now. It may seem a bit ironic of me to not post the pictures before the eve of my departure, but I assure you this has been entirely unintentional.

It has been very satisfying to be on my own here in the second largest city in NZ. I've spent a lot of time reading lots of books borrowed from the excellent city library. I've also swam a few times a week, cooked good vegetarian food, slept long in the mornings and done no touristy things whatsoever. The downside of working every weekday evening is that it pretty much totally screws up any chance at a social life. Especially in a place where you know no one. However, it hasn't bothered me much. I've enjoyed all the me-time as it's something you don't get a lot of when travelling together with someone else. I haven't even got to know my flatmates that well (at least not compared to in Tauranga), but that's not my fault alone. The four of us all have different routines and worked different times, so our hours-at-home haven't overlapped that often.

The house JBB lived in in Christchurch, seen from the garden at the back.

Although leaving my little corner of this house fills me with a bit of nostalgia, I'm very much looking forward to what lies beyond the current horizon. When I leave early tomorrow morning I'm looking at a week of travelling on my own before meeting up with Giigan in Taupo on the North Island. There we'll go bungy jumping, skydiving and skiing (jippii!), before leaving NZ on July 20. Three weeks on Tonga is what our flight tickets say before setting foot on Australian soil. Almost a year will have passed since we left Finland by the time we breathe the warm air of Sydney for the first time on August 11.

One thing I'm certainly not going to miss about Christchurch is the cold (nights ~0 °C, daytime 7-10 °C). Sadly the house I've been living in is a typical kiwi house, meaning there is no insulation to keep the heat inside. More than once I've had my breath rise like a ghost in front of me when I've got out of bed in the morning. And can you believe that the curtains will move when there's a gale outside?! It's a pleasure to say good riddance to the chilly Christchurch conditions; warmer latitudes, here I come!

P.S. Packing was a bitch. Is my stuff multiplying on its own or what?

You can check the pics by clicking this link if you missed the embedded link in the text.

Red fish and yellow-eyed penguins

Another week has gone by, rather quickly if you ask me. Work didn't go as well for me this week as last week, but it was still decent.

Today I was volunteering for Greenpeace for about an hour and a half. We walked from the Cathedral in the city centre to the Art Centre market and handed out Greenpeace's consumer guide how to avoid the most unsustainable seafood to people we met on the street. That is, the others were doing all the talking and handing out the guides, while I was having fun being our ocean's campaign mascot: Sammy, the semi-sad Orange Roughy fish. My upper body covered by the round red fish costume, I went with the flow, approached families, let children give me a pat (or a tug on the tail!) and posed for many a walker-by's camera.

JBB as Sammy, a semi-sad Orange Roughy fish.

It felt good for once doing something not as an employer and without any performance pressure, but simply for the importance and good of doing it.

A couple of days ago I talked to an elderly guy who had some very interesting thoughts on the origin of the climate change the planet is experiencing. Is it due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution? Because of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? A consequence of deforestration and ocean pollution? No, no, no! There is a much more logical and plausible explanation.

The whole mess is the fault of the French.

You heard me right! The French have caused global warming! (At this point I should inform you that some Kiwis still hold a huge grudge against the French for bombing the Rainbow Warrior in the 80s.) It's all because of those countless nuclear tests the French did on the atolls in the South Pacific years and years ago. What happened, was that the series of nuclear explosions in the exact same spot over and over again, caused a change in the inclination of the Earth, thus changing the seasons and the climate we had up until then!

Proof of this can be found in the fact that the French eventually stopped their nuclear tests. Was this because of public outrage and environmental organisations like Greenpeace demanding the tests to cease and the Pacific to be made into a nuclear free zone? Again, no. The opinions of the little people don't matter. Governments will do as they want. The tests ended simply because someone way high up, had figured out what the nuclear explosions were doing, i.e. ultimately giving birth to the tool of our own self-destruction. (I'm still talking about climate change. And I'm serious.)

What a conspiracy theory. I was dumbstruck having heard that. What do you respond to something like that? It's not like you can convince someone that deluded of the truth. Poor humanity.

Alright, so that, I guess, pretty much sums up my week. In order for the blog to ever catch up with current events, I'm going to tell you how our journey continued from Dunedin, where I left you at the end of the last post.

The Southern Scenic Route is a coastal journey starting in Dunedin and ending in Te Anau, the heart of Fiordland (or the other way around). You can get the free map of the route at any information centre; it shows where all the attractions are located. There is lots and lots to see, but unfortunately many of the attractions are not located within easy access from the road; to some you need to walk for an hour or two to reach. Other attractions, like the Cathedral Cove, are only accessible a few hours every day due to the tide. Preferrably, you'd split the drive onto several days in order to see as much as possible. We, on the other hand, chose to drive the whole leg in one day. This made us miss some things, but ultimately I don't think it's something we'll regret.

What we did see though, was one of the many waterfalls in the Catlins region (negligible), the 160 million year old fossilised forest at Curio Bay, some yellow-eyed penguins and the Blue Rocks in Riverton. Curio Bay is absolutely worth a stop if you drive the route. The fossilised forest is viewable depending on the tide, and looks really just like imprints of tree logs in the rock cliffs of the beach. When we jumped out of the car to go down there, it was pretty stormy, so we also got to see some huge waves breaking into the cliffs.

Waves crashing into the cliffs in Curio Bay.

We were also lucky enough to spot two yellow-eyed penguins in the bay. They were standing further up the beach next to some low-branched trees and bushes. One of them frequently flapped its wings at a high speed drying the feathers.

A yellow-eyed penguin in Curio Bay.

Because the weather was less than enjoyable, we ended up driving all the way to Invercargill pretty much without further stops. Invercargill was a bit of a disappointment. The largest town in Southland and portal to Stewart Island lacks character and has the charming feel of an industrial town. It has enough promise to tickle one's tentacles of curiosity for an hour or two (at most), but to spend a day and a night in Invercargill would probably mean a day and a night that could have been better spent in a number of other places in NZ. Don't fall for it.

Leaving Invercargill not only improved the scenery, but also the weather. By the time we very briefly stopped in Riverton to switch driver and take three photographs of the curious Blue Rocks, we could almost discern Stewart Island 30 km out at sea.

The Blue Rocks in Riverton.

From there it only got better the further we drove north towards Fiordland and its main town, Te Anau. Gradually we passed into more and more mountainous terrain, eating up the miles with our green petrol-drinker. The sun didn't have much time left above the jagged peaks by the time we arrived in the cozy little town in the most iconic part of the country. Before finding our accommodation (Barnyard Backpackers, a very idyllic place we like very much) 9 km out of town, we quickly familiarised ourselves with the lakeshore and the shopping street, as this would become our base for a while. Te Anau, which lies on the shore of Lake Te Anau, the second-largest lake in NZ, is after all, the gateway to some of the best tramps in NZ, Fiordland National Park, as well as the magnificient fiords like Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.

Dusk over Fiordland as seen from the Barnyard Backpacker's hostel.

If this text was more boring than usual, hopefully the next couple of entries will be more inspiring as I cover our first trip to awesome Milford Sound and our four day tramp on the Kepler Track! 'Til then, keep it real!

Reflections

A new chapter has begun in our journey. Last Saturday we left Tauranga, where we have been working for the past months. We'd like to say thank you one more time to our extremely helpful and generous flatmate Matt in Mt Maunganui. It was lots of fun flatting with you. We're looking forward to be able to act as hosts when you get to Finland.

At the time of writing we are in the capital of NZ - Wellington. We didn't, however, drive here straight from Tauranga, but made a couple of days' detour to the volcano Mt Taranaki on the west coast on our way down. We'll write about what we experienced there in another blog post pretty soon, but now I'll just say a few words about what I've experienced in Tauranga while living there.

It is with some sadness I'm leaving the life in the Mount and the fund raising job for Greenpeace behind. The past three months have been pretty good for me. It was nice to settle down for a while after having traveled for nearly two months. It was nice to have a room of my own, and a BED of my own :) It's remarkable how important that bed is for making you feel at home when you think about it... Anyway, I also enjoyed living only minutes away from a gorgeous beach, and going to the gym regularly.

The Tauranga door team. It was fun working with u guys!

From a long term perspective, however, the most significant thing for me during the past months has been my job. Even before becoming "the Greenpeace Man" who knocks on doors and talks about saving the whales and ancient forests, I had my concerns about the environment. Especially about climate change. But, like most people out there, I wasn't aware of the breadth of the destruction, nor how bad things really are. That has changed, and I am now horrified of the prospects of the future, even though there is still hope for this planet. I could probably spend the rest of the evening and the whole night telling you of all the wickedness going on and dropping one mind blowing fact after another, but I'm just going to settle for a few:

Did you know we only have 20% of the Earth's ancient (original native) forests left? Did you know that fish stocks all around the world are collapsing due to destructive fishing methods like trawling, and that by 2048 we will have no seafood left in our oceans? Did you know the north pole might be completely without ice cover summertime in five years time due to global warming? Did you know extreme weather conditions like floods and droughts due to climate change have massive economic impacts (e.g. the drought in the Waikato area in NZ a year ago cost the farming sector 1.24 billion dollars!)? Did you know that a third of all plant and animal life on Earth faces extinction by 2050 due to climate change?

I could go on and on, and I haven't even mentioned genetically engineered food or what's wrong with today's food business and all the additives and shit we are pushed to eat by the big food producers. When it comes to food, there is an excellent book by Felicity Lawrence I think everyone should read. It's called "Eat your heart out - Why the food business is bad for the planet and your health". It will change how you look at food, I promise you!

In all this doom and gloom, there is still a sliver of hope. Climate change is the perfect opportunity for a revolution of how we humans think of the environment in this modernised and industrialised world. The old system of exploitation and abuse is obviously not working anymore. Maximising profits with no regard for the consequences on the environment is not viable in the long run. We need to change, to evolve, before it's too late. Otherwise our children and grandchildren will grow up in a world where the oceans are dead, the ancient forests are gone, fresh water is scarce, an increasing number of people face starvation and the climate is unrecognisable.

The good news though is that the solutions to climate change already exist, we just need to implement them. We need to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by, for instance, shifting to renewable energy sources and invest in novel energy efficient technologies. We have only 8-10 years to significantly reduce our emissions unless we want to risk dramatic and unpredictable changes to the climate. This is why the UN summit on climate change taking place in Copenhagen in December 2009 is so important. We need to make sure that the delegates of all nations going there take climate change seriously and are there to act and not just talk b#llshit. It's basically the last chance the leaders of the world have to tackle climate change, so you should get your voice heard NOW! It would be fantastic of you to join an environmental organisation like Greenpeace, but I'm not going to ask that of you since I know everyone can't afford it (although it often is a matter of choice). I am, however, going to ask of you to do what you can in your local community; put pressure on your local representative, sign petitions, recycle, be more energy efficient, reuse stuff, say no to plastic bags, favour locally grown and organic food, eat less meat, fish and dairy products, participate in protest marches for the environment and sign up for FREE emails from Greenpeace to keep you informed of what's going on (either through the international site or from your own national site - FI).

DEMAND ACTION! After all, it is ultimately not the planet we are fighting for, it is life - human, animal and plant - as we know it right now that is in jeopardy.

Now I know there are still you skeptics out there. In my job as a fundraiser I've talked to thousands of people. Some are deeply concerned, some ignorant, and some just have the facts mixed up. Climate change is no longer a matter of belief, it is a matter of fact. If any of you advocates-of-business-as-usual want a debate with me, bring it on! :)

Although my job for Greenpeace is currently at an end, it doesn't mean I don't care about the environment any more. The job has taught me so much it has become impossible for me to ignore what we are really facing. In the future I will most certainly be involved in environmental protection, if not professionally, then at least in my spare time. Why? If for nothing else, then because I don't want to some day have to face my grandchild's question:

"What the hell were people thinking?"

Photo credit: Roger Grace/Greenpeace

Any opinions and factual mistakes above are mine alone. I can dig the references for you if anyone wants to know where it all comes from.

Första veckan i Mt Maunganui

I feel like writing in Swedish today (unfortunately for some I'm sorry), but MORE PICTURES are available here for all to enjoy (with English captions). Giigan has been down in Taupo for a couple of days now. The family whose farm he will be working on starting Monday will pick him up today.

Jag har nu varit i staden Tauranga i Bay of Plenty sedan måndagen. På måndag kväll kollade jag på en lägenhet i stadsdelen Mount Maunganui som ligger 20 minuters bussfärd från Tauranga centrum. Hyran var inte omöjlig, läget utmärkt och det var inga problem för hyresvärden att jag bara stannar här i 3 månader, så jag bestämde mig för att ta den. På tisdag flyttade jag in.

Huset där jag bor i Mt Maunganui

Eftersom här inte finns just några höghus (det är inte kiwi-sättet att bo) så var det föga överraskande att rummet jag hyr finns i ett litet egnahemshus. Jag delar huset med en "flatmate" som äger hälften av huset. Han heter Matt, är 26 år och jobbar på en firma som gör trafikmärken. Han tycks vara frälst i idrott. Han är riktigt trevlig och vi kommer bra överens. Tillsammans delar vi på kök, vardagsrum, TV-rum, badrum och en terass där det brukar grillas om somrarna. Matt idrottar inte bara mycket själv, utan kollar också en hel del idrott på TV, så TV-rummet är utrustat med en stor flatscreen och bekväm soffa. Det som dock fattas är internet, vilket ställer till med små problem. Jag är beroende av ett nätcafé i centrum av Mt Maunganui (15 min promenad) för att komma online, vilket betyder att min nättillgång är ganska begränsad. Men jag ska se vad som kan göras åt det.

Mitt rum är inte stort, men det behöver det heller inte vara. Hittills har jag sovit i min sovsäck på en luftmadrass jag lånar av Matt, men jag håller på och försöker fixa en begagnad säng. Några möbler blir det inte frågan om att skaffa för så kort tid. Jag trivs i huset, det är hemtrevligt. Kvarteret är lugnt och det har varit skönt att för första gången på nästan 50 dagar sova utan öronproppar! Den enda andra grejen som jag har att klaga på förutom internet är att det om kvällarna, nätterna och morgnarna är lite kyligt i huset (insulering känner de inte till här). Som tur är sovsäckarna som vi köpte i Californien varma.

Mitt jobb hos Greenpeace började på tisdag. Då var det utbildningsdag. I åtta timmar proppades vi tre nya anställda fulla med information om Greenpeace och dess kampanjer. Det var överväldigande! Vi tränade också på själva fundraising delen (på varandra och utbildaren), och jag måste säga att jag var lite modfälld efter den dagen för det gick inte så värst bra. Främst berodde det på att det under dagen kommit så många nya saker att inta, allt på engelska, och fastän jag är rätt bra på engelska så var de här grejerna ändå ganska svåra. Som fundraiser måste man kunna föra en intelligent, intensiv, interaktiv diskussion (eller monolog i vissa fall) som skall väcka känslor hos åhöraren. Jag behövde tid att processera allting och lära mig repliker och argument.

Onsdagen var observationsdag. Jag hängde med teamet som går från dörr till dörr och knackar på och stod bredvid då vår utbildare gjorde jobbet. Jag lärde mig mycket. Fastän jag flera år sedan gjort street-versionen av samma jobb för UNICEF i Helsingfors, är det helt annorlunda på engelska än finska. Mot kvällen lät utbildaren mig pröva på själv. Efter några hus började det gå bättre och bättre, och från sista huset för kvällen lyckades jag "värva" en 50-årig maori! Det gav mig mycket mer självförtroende och en bekräftelse att jag kan göra det här jobbet i det här landet.

"The Greenpeace Man" som en liten flicka kallade mig häromdagen

Torsdag och fredag har jag jobbat fulla dagar. På torsdag kändes det till en början igen lite trögt, men det blev bättre och på fredag hade jag stor fiskelycka. Bäst av alla i vårt lilla team på 4 personer! Jobbet är just så tufft som jag visste att det skulle vara. Vi jobbar från kl. 14 till 21 och igår var jag helt slut då jag kom hem. Det var inte mycket annat än en matbit, lite TV-tittande och bokläsning som gällde innan tidig sängdags. Just nu tror jag nog att jobbet skall gå i 3 månader. Visst, det kommer dagar då det går sämre, men de jämnas i slutändan ut av de bättre dagarna.

I och med jobbet har jag också (oundvikligen) blivit mer varse om all skit i världen som Greenpeace bekämpar. Det mesta av det är inga nya grejer, utan sånt som jag nog har vetat om, men nu är det mera "in my face" och omöjligt att vända kinden till. Miljöbrotten som pågår är inte bara upprörande, utan till och med vämjeliga. Sanningen är den (och jag har ingalunda blivit hjärntvättad av de gröna nissarna, haha!), att den här planeten är i seriöst trubbel och vi står vid vägskälet som avgör hur det kommer att gå. Nå, jag ska inte skriva mer "propaganda" här, utan bara säga att jobbet känns betydelsefullt och att jag kan framföra Greenpeace's budskap med passion, inte för att min lön beror på det, utan för att jag tror på vad organisationen gör. "You can make a difference"!

Jag är egentligen glad att jag inte hamnade på gatan som fundraiser utan utbildaren satte mig i door to door teamet. Vi jobbar inte bara i Tauranga utan kör också ut till städer i närtrakten, så jag får se en hel del av NZ som jag annars inte skulle se. Dessutom träffar jag en massa intressanta människor. Vissa är naturligtvis idioter och bryr sig inte ett dyft om miljön eller Greenpeace och kan vara lite otrevliga, men majoriteten är ändå vänliga. Och emellanåt möter man de där guldkornen. På fredag mötte jag t.ex. en 96 årig stålfarfar som såg 20 år yngre ut och var skarp som en kökskniv i knoppen (jag frågade vad hans hemlighet var). Han bjöd in mig på te och småbröd medan jag berättade om japanernas grymma valjakt och de sista uråldriga skogarna som håller på och jämnas till marken. En av hans vänner, en 80-årig pratsam kvinna, kom på besök och det slutade med att jag övertalade dem båda att stöda "the environmental movement"! Det är såna människor som gör det här jobbet än mer belönande. Jag skulle nästan nog hellre ha ett jobb som är lite stadigare och säkrare i det långa loppet (i slutändan måste resultat produceras som fundraiser), men jag får helt enkelt se till att ge järnet. Det här jobbet är ändå mer utmanande och givande för mig själv än många av alternativen.

Vi jobbar inte på helger, så igår (lördag) hade jag en chans att bekanta mig lite närmare med stadsdelen Mount Maunganui där jag bor. Jag har bara 5 minuters promenad till stranden, och vilken strand det sen är! Den sträcker sig flera kilometer och har ypperliga vågor för surfning. Det finns en surfskola här så jag ska se om jag skulle passa på att gå en kurs under sommaren som närmar sig. I väst slutar stranden i en jättelik bergsklippa som gett stadsdelen dess namn. Till dess fot tar det 20 minuter att promenera hemifrån. Vädret var för omväxlingens skull helt okej så jag klev upp på det 232 meter höga berget. Från dess topp hade jag en underbar utsikt över hela Tauranga trakten med dess många vikar och öar.

Min hemort de följande 3 månaderna sedd från toppen av Mount Maunganui

Eftersom jag har vardagsmorgnarna och -förmiddagarna lediga, tänker jag börja gå på gym och gå på länk på stranden. Det finns också flera golfklubbar i närheten. Tid är plötsligt något jag har väldigt mycket av och att ägna den åt idrott känns som det rätta (och att kolla lite på Food Television kanalen på SKYTV, det är intressant och lärorikt).

Nästa bloginlägg blir antagligen några ord om vad vi gjorde under vår tid i staden Rotorua, men sen fortsätter jag och berättar om hur livet här i Mt Maunganui riktigt ter sig. Allt är fortfarande så nytt att det är lite svårt att säga bu eller bä.