Culture shock!

Some things in a culture you can touch and get an understanding of by reading, listening and seeing. You can watch movies, go to sports events, listen to music, read books and participate in cultural happenings. Often these experiences can remain quite shallow and only brush the surface of the culture. This is what tourists are usually fed and all that tourists usually are able to get into. It's a shame, but nevertheless the truth. We've all been subject to this "Samsonite" -rule and will undoubtedly be so quite frequently in the future too.

Sometimes, however, you will have the opportunity to experience something truly remarkable. Something the Lonely Planets and information sites won't tell you exists. Something culturally specific that you have to experience together with locals in order to fully understand and appreciate it.

Drinking a crate of beer in a day is one of these things.

Crate Day (the name this social event is known by in the land of the Kiwis) is a full day drinking party Uni guys usually put together after the last exams before the holidays. The objective of each and every one is to drink a crate of beer. Crates in NZ only hold 12 beers, BUT, they each contain a wine bottle's worth of liquid. This translates to 27 bottles of Finnish Karhu or Lapin Kulta!

Showing our appreciation of our host

Our flatmate and host Matt arranged such a party in the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and invited us so we could have a true Kiwi experience. We won't go into all the details here, but suffice it to say, that of us six participants, two reached the bottoms of all their bottles (we made sure no Finn needs to be ashamed of us). Some, in their attempts to succeed, had to use the only lifeline available: TY (tee-why = tactical yak). As Finns we were quite shocked and surprised by this behaviour solely demonstrated by our Kiwi fellows. Well, whatever floats your boat matey!

Cheers!

The next day, after this extraordinary experience, we continued our plunge into all things Kiwiana by driving to Hamilton to watch a game of cricket between the Blackcaps and the West Indies. Or rather, to sit on the lawn in scorching sunlight drinking beers and enjoying the festive atmosphere. At times it felt like watching the actual game was secondary to having a good time in the group and cheering at the right moments. Nothing wrong with that, it was fun :-)

The 20-20 cricket game

Exhausted after these intense two days, it's only natural that the sofa and the TV at home felt rather appealing. Even here we didn't escape further exposure to this wonderful culture we are living amidst. There is a side to this country we haven't seen or got in touch with much. New Zealand is, after all, not only populated by Europeans. The Maoris have had to adapt to all things, good and bad, that the pakeha brought with them. Alcohol is without a doubt one of the vile things, as all native people have suffered profusely due to its effects on their societies. Once Were Warriors directed by the kiwi Lee Tamahori is an touching movie telling a story about poverty, alcoholism and family violence. We warmly recommend it for all NZ visitors, or why not for everyone?

We spent New Year's Eve in the Mount. After dusk the beach filled up with thousands and thousands of people. Two stages provided entertainment for the masses, while hastily erected stalls sold drinks and food for the party crowd (no alcohol was allowed in public places, including the beach). At midnight thousands of voices chanted the countdown and watched the fireworks go off from nearby Moturiki Island.

Among the first in the world, we greeted the new year 2009 in.

Happy New Year's!

MORE PICTURES from this adventure available here.

Kiwifruit orchard work and volcano climbing

After a good conversation how we should save the world we have decided that we don't publish any more "propaganda" here in our blog (JBB: we'll see about that...). Its perfectly OK to be serious, but the main thing in our OE isn't that. (OE=overseas experience. It's common among Kiwis to do OE.)

Yeah, back to normal life without any concern how the world is struggling with tough economical times and how the human behavior affects the climate change.. Life with full of adventures, even the past working period with pool parties, barbecues, new mates and much more.. Difficult mathematical formula says that this equation provide us an answer: Good times.

Juliano and Pagaloa our work supervisors.

After a farm job that did not end so well (where is the irony) I started working in a kiwifruit orchard. Kiwifruits grow as vines similar to grapevine and before they are ready to sent to markets all over the world (including Finland) there is all sorts of things to do. Including canopy training (leaders training), pruning and girdling (tree barking). Quite easy to learn and very common among travelers, because the work is seasonal and doesn't provide locals work around the year.

As any work of this kind, it's not about the work but the workmates and of course the boss. I was lucky and our boss Graig was great. He invited us to spend evenings in his house, buying the beers and the barbecue food.. Just to get us to enjoy ourselves and do better work! Our work group consisted of Brazilian, German (basically you can find Germans everywhere you go) and British workers. Most of my time I spent with the Brazilians. They were quite funny and now I can speak some Portuguese - all the unnecessary words which you can't use in public. I also participated in Brazilian parties and now I know what Brazilian barbeque means - lots of fat and salt!

Marcus our Brazilian chef.

Pictures from the kiwifruit orchard and the Brazilian barbeque are available by CLICKING HERE.

But now back to the adventure part.. After we left lovely Mt Maunganui behind on Saturday 24th January we headed to the west coast to a city called New Plymouth. The city wasn't anything special, but it lies at the foot of the very impressive volcano Mt Taranaki! The summit of the volcano is 2518 m above sea level, and of course our plan was to conquer it.

Sunset from New Plymouth. Mt Taranaki on the left.

On Sunday we woke up early and went about it with gusto despite of the misfortunes of the previous night: we had forgotten that the kitchens in some hostels close for the night, so when we intended to make some pasta for supper we discovered that it wasn't possible any more... We had to settle for JBB's favorite food instead (who can guess what?)

The summit walk starts in North Egmont half an hour's drive from New Plymouth. North Egmont lies at an altitude of 940 m, so there is almost 1,6 km to climb to the peak of Mt Taranaki. The trek may only be 13 km in length (return), but real climbing is involved, not just walking along stairs (like the Tongariro Crossing in general). The summit climb turned out to be considerably harder than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, however, the views were not as spectacular in spite of the fabulous weather favouring us once again. (Not to say that there was anything to complain about the views; they were remarkable in their own ways, just not as good as in the Tongariro National Park.)

This was the easiest part of the climbing.

The feeling of achievement at the summit (and once we got down to our car again) was incredible. Never had we attempted and succeeded in anything like it. All guide books we've read say you need to be "very fit" for the climb and that it usually takes 6-8 hours in the summer. We finished in 6 hours and 15 minutes (including breaks), which we are quite satisfied with. But oh-my-god our legs and feet were killing us at the end, the rest of the day, the next day, and the day after :)

We did it!

Next time we have to aim for something even higher and more challenging... And if you want to enjoy our trip more, there is as usual MORE PICTURES available...

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.

Customer service - NOT!

Some of you might have been wondering why we haven't written any new blog posts in a while. The reason is that my laptop broke down just after Christmas. Suddenly when I tried to turn it on, the only signs of life emanating from it were the whirling sound of the fan and the power indicator turning green. Otherwise it was just about as alive and dynamic as a cold rock.

Now, after three weeks of battling with Acer Support, the laptop is up and running as normal again. No thanks to Acer's support service though; after my initial contact and their decision to have it picked up for service by a courier, I didn't hear anything from them for weeks. Last week followed by an angry enquiry by me wondering what the hell is happening, some support dude woke up and actually told me he'd look into it.

Yesterday when still no courier had contacted me I got tired of waiting and decided to do some googling. Turned out other people were having the same issue with their Aspire Ones too, and it wasn't a hardware malfunction as I had thought. Instructions on how to fix the problem were not hard to find, so after buying a USB memory stick and flashing the BIOS, the laptop worked like a charm again with all data intact!

The ironic thing is, that an hour later the courier (finally) appeared on my doorstep, ready to drive the unit to the airport to be shipped to Acer's repair facility in Sydney.

I'm glad I dodged that bullet.