Singapore and Malaysia

At the end of November I took a holiday in South East Asia. One of my best friends from Warwick, Ingrid, had invited me along to join her friends from Geneva on the trip. It coincided with the week straight after the election, which is usually pretty quiet at the Ministry, so I thought what the hey.


I flew into Singapore to meet up with the group. It was a one night visit that was a World away from the last time I was in there nearly 10 years ago at the start of my backpacking trip around SE Asia. We stayed in a stunning hotel, met up with some friends who've recently moved to Singapore and went for a drink at rooftop bar 64 stories above the city.

Our hotel is the colonial building the foreground

Rooftop drinks

Singapore at night

The next day we flew on to Langkawi, which is a collection of islands off the West Coast of Malaysia. The main attractions are beaches, resorts and the scenery. We had all agreed that we wanted a relaxing time and our trip didn't disappoint.


We stayed in a nice resort called Berjaya. Everything was set up to make life easy - the oversized golf carts that would drive you too and from your cabin in the rainforest, the private beach and the choice of restaurants all within the resort. We got so settled in that we had to make a concious effort to leave and see anything else on the islands!

Pool at the resort

The food was good!

We did manage to drag ourselves away from the comforts of the resort a few times over the week. The first trip was to take a cable car up to the highest point on our island. It was probably the hottest day of the trip and we sweltered in the queue to get on the cable car. At the top the air was fresher and the views were definitely worth it.

Cool curvy hanging bridge

We also took a couple of boat trips to other islands. One was to go snorkelling for the day. The other took in several different sights, including a freshwater lake in the middle of one island and a flock of eagles.

Snorkelling site

Reef sharks were swimming around where we were snorkelling. Up to 1.5-2m
long and really impressive in the water

 

 

 

Euphemism...literally

The Christmas edition of the Economist has an article on euphemisms that I was reading this morning.


"The British are probably the world champions of euphemism...British newspaper obituaries are a rich seam: nobody likes to speak ill of the dead, yet many enjoy a hint of the truth about the person who has "passed away". A drunkard will be described as "convivial" or "cheery". Unbearably garrulous is "sociable" or the dread "ebullient"; "lively wit" means a penchant for telling cruel and unfunny stories. "Austere" and "reserved" mean joyless and depressed. Someone with a foul temper "did not suffer fools gladly". The priapic will have "enjoyed female company"; nymphomania is "notable vivacity". Uncontrollable appetites of all sorts may earn the ultimate accolade: "he lived life to the full".


I never knew any of this.


The article makes a brief mention of the affinity that civil servants have with euphemism before ending with this interesting challenge:


"...scrub your conversation of euphemism for a day. The results will startle you."

Christmas eve on the beach

'nuf said

Seriously windy

So, Wellington has a reputation for being really windy. Since I arrived in February I hadn't experienced much that would live up to the rep...until the last few weeks. It turns out that Spring - down here in the Southern Hemisphere it's Spring - is the windy time of year.


This week has been the most extreme so far. Sitting in our office we can hear the wind whistling eerily through the buildings and today we watched as a giant poster was more or less ripped from the side of a nearby building.

As the news video here shows it can be pretty risky even trying to cross the road. 146km/h is just incredible. I'm bloody glad I wasn't on a plane trying to land here today. It's come at an appropriate time as the city has just chosen the 'Wellington - Blown Away' design for a sign on the hillside by the airport. As the clip mentions this followed some pretty fierce opposition to the original 'Wellywood' proposal.


The good news is that it should be settling down in the next few weeks and then we're in the middle of summer. I'm still getting used to the idea of a warm Christmas!

Toku whaea

At the start of November my mum flew over for a couple of weeks. It was great to spend time catching up with her and to show her a few bits of New Zealand.


We started with a weekend of sight-seeing in Wellington. We took things pretty gently as my mum got over her jetlag. Luckily we had some nice sunny weather. We wandered through town, took the cable car up to the botanic gardens, visited Te Papa (the excellent national museum) and drove up to the Mount Victoria lookout.

Parliament (next to the more famous Beehive)

The Cable Car

Mum in the botanic gardens

Wellington Harbour from Mount Victoria

For the first few days of the next week, mum took a trip over to Picton, where I went back in June. While I was doing a few days in work, she got to do some wine tasting in Marlborough and see the Queen Charlotte Sounds.


We then had a long weekend road trip up the north island to the Taranaki region. On the drive up, we stopped off to stay with some family friends who live in Wanganui. Dora was originally from England, but has lived in New Zealand for most of her life and taught in a range of schools here. Fred had been a fighter pilot instructor during WW2 and gone on to be a flight instructor. They had some really interesting stories, a lovely home and a wealth of knowledge about New Zealand.



View Larger Map


We carried on from Wanganui to Taranaki, which is dominated by two things - Mount Taranaki and the dairy industry.


Mount Taranaki (also known as Mount Egmont) is a volcano that rises up out of the otherwise pretty flat land in the Western extension of the North Island. Except that it's often shrouded in cloud, it absolutely dominates the scenery of the area. Fortunately as we were driving towards Taranaki the mountain was visible as, by the time we arrived it was cloudy and stayed that way for the next few days. It's very strange when you know the mountain is right there not to be able to see anything of it.

We were staying in a small lodge part of the way up the side of the mountain. A short drive above us was a plateau with some striking views of the region spread out below.

The best times to see the Mountain are first thing in the morning and at night. From the back of our room you could look straight out (up) to the Mountain.

Mount Taranaki at night

As I mentioned earlier, the second thing that dominates the area is the dairy industry. Most of the land is given over to herds of dairy cows. There are hundreds of milk tankers on the roads, all heading between the farms and the Fonterra processing plant, which is the largest dairy plant in New Zealand. 


The slopes of the Mountain are all national park land and so we went out on several walks. The forest and bush is apparently 'cloud forest' because of the climate, which after a couple of days of rain made a lot of sense. It was incredibly lush and almost felt like an enchanted forest.

One of our walks took us to the impressive Dawson's Falls -

We also took a drive on the road that circles Taranaki, which includes a stretch of road called Surf Highway. Unfortunately there was no surf the day we were there, so the wetsuit stayed in the car.

Black sand beach

PS - as you can see I had a good time practising with the new camera body my mum brought out for me (a Nikon D7000 for those who are interested).

Reaching 50

As some readers will know, a couple of years ago I had a target of reading 50 books over the year. I fell frustratingly short at 49 after I didn't finish reading the last book by New Year's Day. The nice old lady in Wales was part of the reason!


This year I've had more time to read, both when I've been travelling around and generally in Wellington. I just finished what I thought was my 50th book. It actually turns out to be number 51, as I failed to mark one as complete earlier in the year. There's plenty more books I'm planning to read this year, it's just nice to hit this milestone along the way.


The full list is below for those who are interested. They're roughly in the order I finished them in. First, here are a couple of things:

• I use Shelfari to keep track of what I'm reading. It's a really handy website and I've now got nearly three years of books on my bookshelf. I've just added a widget to the right hand side of my blog that shows the latest things I've added
• Political books, particularly NZ politics feature pretty heavily in the list
• I read too many really trashy thrillers, although my list isn't quite as damning as I thought it would be on this front
• Lots of the books are recommendations from friends, colleagues, etc. Please keep these coming as they're gratefully received
• The worst books were definitely Londongrad (No. 17) and The Weight (No. 31) they're the kinds of book that make me wish I could leave a book half read
• It's harder to say what I consider the best books. I particularly enjoyed One Day (No. 1), Armadillo (No. 12) and Freedom (No. 51), which I've just finished

1. One Day by David Nicholls

2. The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe by Douglas Rogers 

3. A Journey by Tony Blair 

4. The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry 

5. The Righteous Men by Sam Bourne 

6. The Bear and the Dragon by Tom Clancy 

7. Restless by William Boyd 

8. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown 

9. Hard Landing by Stephen Leather

10. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

11. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope 

12. Armadillo: A Novel by William Boyd 

13. The Sand Café by Neil MacFarquhar 

14. Redemption by Lee Jackson 

15. Bullshit, backlash & bleeding hearts : a confused person's guide to the great race row by David Slack 

16. The Dark Art of Politics by Simon Carr

17. Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson

18. Two titans : Muldoon, Lange and leadership by Jon Johansson 

19. Moral Hazard: A Novel by Kate Jennings

20. Pipeline: A Novel of Suspense by Peter Schechter 

21. Helen Clark : a political life by Denis Welch

22. Long Stay in a Distant Land: A Novel by Chieh Chieng

23. An Accidental American: A Novel by Alex Carr 

24. Our Game by John le Carré

25. Tomorrow's Schools 20 years on                                                             

26. Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

27. 61 Hours (Jack Reacher Novels) by Lee Child

28. The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King 

29. The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth 

30. The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland 

31. The Weight by Andrew H. Vachss 

32. Depths by Henning Mankell

33. The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

34. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 

35. We the Living by Ayn Rand 

36. Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward 

37. The Night Killer by Beverly Connor 

38. Hellfire by Ed Macy 

39. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult 

40. The Hollow Men by Nicky Hager 

41. The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

42. Political Animals: Confessions of a Parlimentary Zoologist by Clifton Jane

43. Final Approaches: A Memoir by G. C. Hensley 

44. After-heat : a novel by Keith Stewart 

45. Cut Out by Patrick Lennon 

46. God's Own Country by Hugh Ross 

47. Seeing Further by Bill Bryson 

48. Any Human Heart by William Boyd 

49. A film by Spencer Ludwig by D. L. Flusfeder 

50. The Larnarchs by Owen Marshall

51. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

World Champions

So, after an incredibly tense game against France the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup last night.


The last 6 weeks in New Zealand have been absolutely dominated by the Cup. The only other story that's got prolonged attention is the MV Rena container ship running aground on a reef in the Bay of Plenty. Fortunately, the Cup has been happier news here, particularly after last night.


Going back a week, the All Blacks soundly beat Australia 20-6 in the semi-final. I actually went to this game up in Auckland with my flatmate Matt and two other friends. Auckland city was even more lively than when I went up for the England v Scotland game. The atmosphere at the Eden Park Stadium itself was absolutely electric. For reasons I can't quite remember, I didn't take any photos.


France just beating Wales in the first semi-final set up a match between two teams who met in the final in the 1987 World Cup, which was the last time the All Blacks one the Cup. Although no-one wanted to risk saying it, based on form through the tournament the All Blacks were expected to easily win. It turned out much closer, with the All Blacks holding on to a single point lead for most of the second half. That made it an absolutely thrilling game to watch.


I went to a BBQ with a load of friends in the afternoon and then we headed to a bar called The Cambridge to watch the game. The place filled up as kick-off came closer and the tension was only just being held at bay by large amounts of beer.


As soon as the game finished the bar, and the whole of Wellington, erupted in cheers with everyone hugging each other and going wild. They'd obviously put together a playlist in preparation for the win, it would be interesting to know if they had an alternative one just in case, although I have no idea what they'd be able to put on it.


After a couple more drinks we left and headed into town. The central streets were closed off and full of people wandering from bar to bar and partying outside. An incredible atmosphere of celebration and relief as it sunk in for everyone that the trophy belongs to New Zealand for the next four years.


The last six weeks of the tournament have been absolutely brilliant. I was expecting to follow the proceedings, particularly England and the All Blacks. I hadn't expected to get as swept up in it all. Somehow it has seemed like the whole country has been involved in playing host, probably because of the size of the country and huge part that rugby plays in the kiwi identity. It's going to be tough for England to top the welcome that New Zealand has shown the World come 2015!


I've posted a load of pictures from last night on Facebook, here are a of them.

Rugby World Cup travels

Another long hiatus since my last post. The last month has been absolutely full of rugby. The pool stages of the Rugby World Cup have meant games almost every day, as well as pre- and post-game analysis and a myriad of other activity linked to the tournament.


It's also meant a couple of trips over the last two weekends to see England play in pool matches.


The first was to Dunedin, to see England play Romania. I travelled down there with Helen, Harry and Angela. Dunedin is towards the bottom of the South Island and it's the further south in the world I've been (45.9°S).


We arrived Saturday lunchtime and the match was on that evening. After a pretty big night out we had a gentle start on Sunday morning. We headed out of the city to visit Larnach Castle, the only 'castle' in New Zealand, built by a politician in the 19th century. Later in the afternoon, we took a tour round the Speight's Brewery, one of the major breweries in NZ. The tour guide was quite a character and strangely proud of the fact that the brewery had been bought up and was now part of a global conglomerate, it ended on a high note with a self-pouring opportunity to sample the whole range of brews.


We had taken Monday off work, giving us a nice relaxed and extended weekend. In the morning we took another tour, this time of the Cadbury's factory. Helen, Harry and I then had to hit the road as we hadn't flown directly to Dunedin, but instead to a town a few hours away called Timaru. On the way we stopped off to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are a surreal site. They are spherical boulders of different sizes dotted along the shore. I won't try and explain how they formed, wikipedia has an explanation. 


After a short 4-day week I was off again, this time to Auckland. I'd visited Auckland before back in July with Tyra and we hadn't been that excited by the place. The atmosphere was much livelier this time round due to the World Cup. In the morning I met up with an educationalist and Aucklander who I'd been put in touch with, he kindly showed me round a few hidden gems including a great coffee shop and the art gallery. 


Then in the afternoon I met up with Kris, a friend from the Department in England, who I was going to the game with. We were staying at a backpackers hostel in town and in the random way of hostels as we walked in we ran into a couple of Germans and an American who were going to the game and demanded we tell them the British national anthem so they could write it on their hands before the game. 


This time I was flying back on Sunday afternoon. In the morning we did have time to walk down to the waterfront and visit the giant rugby ball. This is a travelling exhibit that has been round the world advertising NZ and the World Cup. Inside a show is projected onto the interior of the ball along with a live presenter, it was really pretty impressive.


Rugby


I've deliberately left any description of the rugby to the end so anyone who isn't interested can skip over it.


Dunedin has a new stadium build for the World Cup. It's got a permanent roof and is really impressive. The seats are banked steeply meaning you feel close to all the action. Because it's enclosed the atmosphere was great during the match.


The Romania game was an easy 67-3 win. In fact it's the only game in the pool stages where England actually looked in control rather than under threat. It was great seeing 10 tries scored. Although they still made too many errors there were a few nice touches to the English game.


The Scotland game in contrast was torture to watch. All England needed to guarantee qualification was to lose by less than 8 points. Seemed like an easy task against a Scottish side that looked dreadful in their first three matches. But oh no, we couldn't make it that easy. Scotland took an early lead and their defence held firm against anything we could throw at them. At every opportunity we gave Johnny the chance to kick for a penalty and his kicking was dire, missing even straightforward kicks. It wasn't until the last 5 minutes, with Toby Flood on, that Chris Ashton broke free and got a try to shift England into the lead, with the final score 16-12. An incredibly close game and hardly a good omen as we go into the knock-out stages.


This weekend is the quarter-finals. England is playing France on Saturday. The other three matches are Wales v Ireland, Australia v South Africa and All Blacks v Argentina. I'm staying in Wellington this weekend. Then next weekend I'm off to Auckland again to watch the semi-final between the winners of the third and fourth quarter-finals - I'm guessing this will be Aus and the All Blacks and it should be an awesome game.


Dunedin photos

England v Romania

Angela, Helen and Harry on the tower of Larnach Castle

Inside the Speight's brewery

A Moeraki boulder

Boulders on the shore

Our flight home

Auckland photos

Red - outside Auckland Art Gallery

England v Scotland

Inside the rugby ball -

Sir Paul Callaghan on prosperity in New Zealand

I went along to a public lecture by Professor Sir Paul Callaghan on Wednesday evening. He's a scientist who focusses on nanotechnology and magentic resonance. He was voted New Zealander of the year this year.


The lecture was organised by the main Wellington university and the City Council, as part of a programme of 'during the World Cup, but not rugby' events. The audience turnout was really impressive, with around 1,200 people showing up.


The subject of his talk was how New Zealand could become more prosperous. His arguments for why this needs to happen included a personal account of his battle with cancer - he has paid for treatments himself where they aren't funded by the healthcare system here.


He made the case that greater propserity shouldn't (and can't) be achieved through exploiting natural resources or by expanding tourism and the wine industry. Instead, he advocates a focus on high-tech export businesses that aim for small niches in the global market. These would need to be developed by scientific entrepreneurs, so policies should look at how to support researchers and reduce the brain-drain overseas.


I thought the proposed silver bullet was a bit too simple. I did really enjoy his speaking style and the energy he put into making his case. I haven't been able to find footage from the lecture, but
Update - here's a link to the lecture http://vimeo.com/29126569

he gave a shorter version of the address to a public service leadership course that my colleague went to a few months back. Here's the video of that -

Red Rocks Seal Colony

Last weekend Helen, Harry and I made the most of a sunny winter Saturday. We went to look at a seal colony that someone at work had mentioned to me.


The colony is on the coastline just to the south of Wellington. It's accessible by an easy walk of about an hour from the end of the road. As it was a clear day and the trail was right on the southern tip of the North Island, we were able to see snow capped mountains on the South Island on the horizon.

Path to the seal colony, with the South Island mountains

View back along the coastline towards Wellington Airport

The route passes a collection of naturally red rocks in the shallows, inventively called the Red Rocks. There are several Māori legends about Kupe associated with the colour of the rocks. We were passing the rocks in the afternoon and so unfortunately they were mostly in the shadow of the headland and it was hard to capture the colour.

We then made it to the colony itself. A few sites I'd read online before we set off told me that the colony is made up of young males who hadn't managed to find mates. The first thing that struck me as we got close was the powerful smell of rotting fish, so maybe that's what is putting the female seals off these guys. Initially it was easy to miss the seals as they were mostly lazing motionless on rocks. After a few moments we started to spot more and more of them in the water and all around. 

Play fighting in the water

Looks like a tough lifestyle

'Watcha taking a photo of me for then?'