Windy Welly

Hi. Now I'm in Christchurch. But tomorrow I'm going to Dunedin. Anyway backtracking...

I was in Wellington for like 2 weeks. Stayed with the brother of my friend in Auckland. He likes to be called GHogg. He was so cool! (well both of them are..) He's like some genius who got a Prince of Wales scholarship to do his PhD at Cambridge in the UK. On what you know, medieval regimens, the health types. So he studied what was recommended for good health then. He handed me his thesis, a big orange book. I flipped through tapi tak larat lah nak baca. I read like 20% of one of his books called 'The Civilising Process', which was interesting. He's got lots and lots of thick brainiac books, a little too much for my little brain to handle.

The first day I arrived in Wellington I was kinda blur, as usual. My hosts in Porirua dropped me off at Johnsonville train station and I got off at the Wellington station. Reminded me of Bangkoks station not that it was as busy. But trains in NZ mean like trains seriously, not like LRTs or MRTs. I guess its like Komuter back home. So I was at the station with all my bags. And I knew my host only finished work at 5pm. I think it was around 2pm when I arrived. So I needed to kill time. I saw signs saying Parliament and I thought yes! I can look around there while waiting. Rupa2 nya dekat aje. But its the Parliament right, I thought, so like in Malaysia I can only see it from the outside kan.. So imagine lah how heran I was when I saw the Parliament grounds and it was like some regular taman with people walking in and out (takde pak guard kat pagar ye). So I walked onto the grounds and dumped my 3 bags on one of the benches (macam kat taman). There was more than 1 building here. So I left my bags and walked round, took pics and then when I had more courage walked up to what looked like a more serious entrance bcos it had guards. It was the entrance to the Beehive. And a sign said they had free tours hourly. FREE! Well of course that attracted me like a honey to a bee.

I told the guards I had bags and they said no problem, they had like a coat check service. So I went in lah with all my barang. Pak guard semua gelak2 while scanning all my bags, making jokes.. "my my you're all suited up... haven't forgotten the kitchen sink have you?"... all good-natured so I didn't mind though I felt a bit malu. You know the pakcik at the coat check asked me where I was from and when I said Malaysia he said 'terima kasih' when I passed him my bags. Ha, pandai tau and tak kisah pun that all my bags needed a whole trolley to hold them ("when you come back and if I'm not here just tell them your stuffs all of them on the trolley"). Inside they had a lounge, nice toilets, and lots of pamphlets on the parliament and NZ government. There was a cool little gift shop where I bought a little pin which had Malaysia's and NZ's flag on it. Cheesy I know but I like it! I find the NZ flag (and Oz's for that matter) quite forgettable (sorry guys). David Lange said in 1994: "a stranger who saw the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag outside adjacent buildings would assume that some British hotel chain was advertising deluxe and standard rooms". Take a look at the 3 flags side to side and you'd know what he was talking about.

You could also post letters from the gift shop and it would have had the Parliament's stamp. Regret pulak not doing that; I could have wrote home. Anyway the tour started by playing a welcome video, then this woman took us on the tour. There are 3 buildings there and they are all interconnected so we walked from the Beehive, to the Parliamentary House, to the Parliamentary Library. We didn't see much of the Beehive, mostly we were inside the Parliamentary House. Parliamentary Library pun not so much (most of the book collection was underground). We got to go into whats like our Dewan Rakyat (ie the Parliamentary House). We saw one of their discussion rooms that was done up with Maori art. There was like an art gallery as well and displays of gifts from around the world. We went down down stairs and saw how they have redone the Parliamentary House so it is now earthquake-proof (Beehive was built later to a better standard so it didn't need redoing). This is what they did (and it is apparently a technology developed in NZ which they sell around the world now). They dug underground, picked up the whole building and put it on lots and lots of what looks like big thick black rubbery washers (or like polo mints).

Palmy and Porirua

Well, its been a long time since I wrote I know.

From Rotorua I moved to Palmerston Nort wic is famous for being ome to NZ’s largest uni ie Massey University (note: I am writing tis at ome on my ost’s laptop in Wellington. Te button for a particular letter is not working, as you migt ave noticed. I am not sure I will be botered to correct te resultant spelling errors later. LOL (to me granny, thats Laugh Out Loud). Good luck readers).

Tere isn’t muc else going on in Palmy (as locals call it). So it would ave been quite a boring stop if not for te fact tat I got on alrigt wit my CS osts. It was a student ome and my cief ostess was a Singaporean girl. Se was busy2 as a bee, being off at uni (I tink se’s a tutor tere) and martial arts classes and te like, I ardly saw er. Anoter Singaporean girl living tere I spent more time wit. Se was good fun too. Se is studying to get into Massey’s vet scool, wic is apparently a well regarded one worldwide. Te wannabe vet student and I got on pretty well and we’re pretty cummy now. We met up over te weekend in Wellington (officially se came over to buy a raincoat, but I tink it was to escape te dreariness of Palmy. In my Lonely Planet it says tat a visiting Jon Cleese commented, ‘If you ever do want to kill yourself, but lack te courage, I tink a visit to Palmerston Nort will do te trick’. Giggle… Te city exacted revenge by naming a rubbis dump after im).

Te tutor, wannabe vet and I went for a Saturday market (like a pasar tani). Met te tutors parents tere too and got invited to te makan2 at teir ouse te next day. Tey’ve migrated to NZ cos uncle found Singapore too muc ustle and bustle. Aunty made a very nice meal including a lontong-like dis. Rempa all made from scratc k, don’t play2, got candlenut all inside ok.. Yum.

One memorable movie I watced in Palmy was a documentary about a Frencman wo walked on tightrope between te US Twin Towers, called ‘Man On Wire’. Online on a movie review website, out of 180-odd reviews not one of tem was a bad one. I’d love to watc it again cost e one I saw adn’t any subtitles! So I couldn’t understand te Frenc bits.

After Palmy I moved to te ome of a friend of a friend in Porirua. Malaysian lady married to a Kiwi. Tey ad 4 lovely kiddos (all so polite and well-beaved) and I ad lotsa fun messing about wit te younger 2. We played on te swing and trampoline in teir garden. Tey also ad a little conservatory-like ting outside were I spent some time on my own reading and falling asleep. It was warm tere so I just loved it. In te ouse tey ad a working fireplace and some nigts te ubby would put some logs on. Tey said my room was extra cold so tere was a eater in it wic I made full use of. I am SO not made for cold weater. Wen I go ome I will park te Koolmobile in te sun and go and sit in it wen its proper ot and enjoy te sauna-like effects.

I was so spoilt in teir ouse as wifey cooked many yum tings including a cheesecake and a cocoate cake. On te weekend te ubby made roast cicken and vege. Tey ad a bread maker wic I was quite amazed wit. Almost everyday tey’d cuck in te ingredients just before going to bed. And in te morning taa-daa, te loaf was ready and warm. Tink my grandparents need one at ome. I got to meet te wifeys lady friends, anoter Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Singaporean. We went one day to te mosque in Kilbirnie wic is in Wellington (we were supposed to clear out and rearrange a big cupboard tere). Funnily tis mosque ad no sign. But I know it is te Q for te Federation of Islamic Associations New Zealand (FIANZ), cos I did see tat sign tere. I was super overjoyed went e Indo aunty made tempe! O ow I love tempe. Se told me se made it erself and its easy. Apparently se just soaks te beans, ten put on te ragi ie yeast wic se brought from Indo, you press it down wit something I tink, leave it on te windowsill for a day or two and ey presto, you get tempe. Well tat sounded easy to e. Till I tried to make it in Wellington. More on tat later toug.

Tat time I went to te Kilbirnie mosque it was a weekday and it was quiet as. Te next time I went it was a Sunday and it was packed wit people. Tere are a lot of Somalis in Kilbirnie I was told and tats because NZ ad given lots of tem asylum. So on tat day Somali rice was being sold so I got some. It was a little like briyani rice but not so berempa. Was a bit surprised at tat. And tere was fried cicken and some veg in te form of wat looked like dall/cutney to me. I sat in on one class wic was about repentance. And ten I sat in anoter wic was about Islamic parenting. Bot were pretty entertaining, mostly tanks to te facilitators. In between a lady mosque-goer wo is a doctor introduced a lady wo was wit a company providing emergency services for te elderly or infirmed. Anoter mosque-goer was a client and gave tem te tumbs-up. Wat tey do is provide te client wit a tag wic tey can press anytime in case of emergency and ten elp would be on te way. Tey also would come visit periodically to see if tey were alrigt. Nice to see te mosque being used for promoting suc practical matters.

Wifey is actually pretty brainy wen it comes to arts and crafts and se makes er own little treasures. Er camera was bust so using mine I took pics of er stuff. Now se can sow ‘em to oter people not least to our mutual friend back in Malaysia wo as been bugging er for it. I do like er stuff. Especially er bags. And er buttons! Se makes all sorts of jewelry. Se even ade me a ring wit beads, se said to tank me for taking te pics (but se didn’t ave to you know). As per my request I asked er for a green one so I can wear it wen I go for any Iris do’s. Se also makes te cains to old glasses, tudungs and anak tudungs, bookmarks… se’s real clever.

a guide to kiwi blokes

i'm leaving today for palmerston north. found so many cs-ers (thats couchsurfers) willing to host there. havent had any luck for taupo at all. anyway, i've just finished reading a book of my host's which i've been devouring over the past few days and its Marc Ellis' 'Good Fullas, A Guide To Kiwi Blokes'. when they say 'fulla' what they are saying is actually 'fellow' or how i usually see it written in slang, 'fella'. it contains over 25 stereotypes of kiwi men, is so politically incorrect and so very funny (though as my husband host says, marc is not unkind to them. thats true he almost always ends each entry by encouraging us to embrace the 'fulla' discussed). baca sikit tergelak, baca sikit tergelak... i recommend it highly! even the irish cs-er who has now come to stay with us thinks its funny and wants to have a go off it after me. the illustrations in the book are choice too (choice is a slang they use here meaning great, awesome or excellent like that).

marc ellis is apparently an ex rugby player who then went on to be a popular host on tv or something in entertainment like that. the types of kiwi men he says exist are the Bogan, Pandabear, Salty Seadog, Big Fresh, Pranker, Ginga, Cardycrat, Finkle, Kiwi Battler, Funny Whaka (say that like ur reading maori), Thrumpet, Boydog Racer, Rugbyhead (thats some of my family), Hopper, the Skinazi, Cocky, Waori, Carny, Storyteller, CAVE men, Scarfie, Nork, Adrenaline Junkie, Wodgewick and Henanigan. at the end of the book he gives a hint that he might be working on a similar type book for kiwi women...oohhhh i'd like to read that too!

the CAVE men one was so funny. see CAVE men is Citizens Against Virtually Everything and apparently they like to "protest any sort of human progress in the name of guardianship". all the 25 main stereotypes marc will break down even further so under CAVE men there are also NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), NINZs (Not In New Zealand), NOTEs (Not Over There Either), NOPEs (Not On Planet Earth) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything).

this book is so funny and i really recommend anyone needing a laugh to give it a go. check out the book's website: http://www.goodfullas.co.nz/

more friends coming

just had my breakfast. it was marinated mussels made by the father of my lady host (vinegar, sugar and onions, yum...). he lives next door with his wife and relatives. ada cucu, nephew, great grandchild, and other sepupu sepapat. he put some in a bowl and gave my lady host to bring back for me. so nice kan? there are 3 houses here and they all belong to the same family. it reminds me of my kampung in kuala selangor where my grand aunties and uncles all live next door to each other. oh my lady host is maori while her husband is pakeha (which is a maori word and our malay equivalent is a mat salleh ie of caucasian ancestry). living closely together is just one example but there are many other similarities between maoris and malays i find.

like the language. if u can speak malay u can speak maori because sebutan dia sama (and also spanish or so my sister who is fluent in the language tells me). when u baca sebutan dia sebijik sebijik. the word for a maori elder is 'kamatua'. did u say 'ka-ma-tu-wa'? then thats right. tapi bahasa maori kena baca like its bahasa melayu baku lah, kalau tak nanti jadi 'ka-ma-tu-wer', macam kita biasa baca 'dua' as 'du-wer' or 'sana' as 'sa-ner'. did i tell u maori language is funny in that when its written as a 'wh' it means an 'f'? so 'whenua' which means 'land' is 'fe-nu-wa'. lots more to learn. here the signs are always in english (big) then in maori (small). we could do that in malaysia too. maori also have weaving art like our menganyam. go google 'maori weaving' and check out the pics.

my husband host works for DOC or the department of conservation. i wonder if there exists a department or ministry dedicated solely to conservation anywhere else in the world. he said it only came to be in the 80's. most of the staff were from the forestry ministry and the rest were mainly from the land mapping and surveying dept.

2 more couchsurfers will be coming to stay today. yay! more friends for me :)

pies pies pies

pies are my best friend. cos they're cheap and yummy. they're about NZ$3.80. i like them cos i wouldnt normally find them at home. the bakery at the end of my street here has 'award-winning' pies. so ive been scoffing them. had mussel pie. then seafood. today i might try a smoked fish one and maybe later a chicken and kumara one. butter chicken pies are popular here too. but of course theres lots of the regular mince and cheese as well but i like to be adventurous.

oh have i told you about kumara? click here for a pic. its like an ubi kan? yes and inside its merah too. whats our equivalent in malaysia? ubi kayu ke? no, thats tapioca rite? here theres lots of ubi kayu too, frozen ones. cos the polynesians like samoans and fijians love them. what is sweet potato in malay then, the one thats orange inside u know? i love kumaras. they make kumara fries and wedges here, which is delicious. one couchsurfer host in auckland taught me to par-boil sliced potatoes then singe them on both sides in an oily hot pan. i'll try that with kumaras too.

that host of mine has gone off on his big tour of south america, going to the andes and visiting macchu picchu. i thought it was funny when he said him and friend were hiring a donkey to carry their load up the mountain. i can imagine their bags would be SO heavy, so much more than mine which i think are real beasts already. he has to carry his own food and fuel for cooking as well. he showed me his fairydown sleeping bag yang he's had dah bertahun2 (was given to him as a boy), and it still looks good! macpac has bought fairydown. i tell u these 2 kiwi outdoor gear brands are made tough. he also showed me his primus all fuel camping cooker which i thot was bloomin' amazing. it can work with all types of fuels and is apparently 'the bees knees'. u can burn virtually any kind of fuel including petrol, diesel, kerosene and apparently will work with tequila and vodka as well. i wonder if it'll take whale blubber?

Rotovegas

I am now back in Rotorua. Locals call it Rottenrua becos of its eggy sulphur smell. Or Rotovegas. Which is not because theres lots of casinos here but bcos its such a touristy attraction.

I was staying with my eccentric atok again in Katikati for 2 days but I pushed off when I found there wasn't any work for me in the kiwi testing lab called AgFirst, where my atok had work. he did take me in to see the managers which was nice of him and i got a little tour of the factory out of it. Here they check the kiwi for quality. So from farms all over the country samples of kiwi are sent here. They take a thin slice and weigh and dry it to check dry matter. they check that the biji are black. they check for brics which is apparently a measure of the sugar content. they check the colour and the firmness. lots of things they test. season will be in full swing soon. i wonder if anyone in malaysia will notice theres suddenly more kiwis in the market. i certainly didnt when i was at home. i thought they were just always there.

its so COLD now! yest i slept with 3 comforters on me. i know another malaysian with a working holiday visa who arrived last week and wants to go home already cos its too cold. aiyo rugi, baru seminggu. but i know how he feels. nie baru nak masuk autumn or musim luruh, belom lagi winter. i shud speed down to south island soon before it gets any colder.

off now to get some alagappa's curry powder from an asian food store in rotorua for my hosts as a present

Nuclear mayhem in Japan

Fukushima's gone off the rails and they're saying its as big and as bad as what happened in Chernobyl. I find that terrifying. But I don't think other Malaysians seem alarmed enough. Maybe its like how when I told my friend who lives in Kuantan that the world's largest rare-earth refinery was gonna be built there, she hadn't a clue. I watched a documentary on Chernobyl when I was around 15. It was the journey of one born-deformed little kid (due to Chernobyl radiation) to the UK to get surgery, a prosthetic limb that sort of thing. There were many other horrifying images of babies born sick. Its made me frightened forever now of nuclear energy. How would I feel if I was that baby's mum? It has such potential to cause so much hurt and pain in this world I don't think we should use it at all.

I know Malaysia's about 5,000 km from Japan, and they're saying wind from Japan blows to the direction of the US, but its still scary as. That radioactive material could come get us in lots of ways. Through the wind, our ocean currents, in our food..

NZ is a nuclear-free country. Found this on Wikipedia: *A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power is banned. In reality, nuclear weapons have freely traversed through, nearby, or above "nuclear-free" zones via military transport without the knowledge or attention of local authorities. Many local authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, this label is largely symbolic, since most local authorities would be powerless to stop the construction of a nuclear plant if one was planned for the area. New Zealand's status as a nuclear-free zone is not symbolic but enshrined in the nation's legislation. New Zealand was the first Western-allied nation to legislate towards a nuclear free zone, effectively renouncing the nuclear deterrent.*

A friend I made here shared with me the 1985 David Lange (say 'Long-ngeee') Oxford Union Debate that 'nuclear weapons are morally indefensible'. He won. David Lange served as the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. I think what he says here can be used to argue for not using nuclear power either. Like if a country chooses to use it, they can't guarantee it will stay within that country's borders. Video snippets of the debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeHTziiFVx0. Audio recording of the debate: http://publicaddress.net/great-new-zealand-argument/nuclear-weapons-are-morally-indefensible-1/. David Lange's speech notes March 1 1985: http://publicaddress.net/david-langes-speech-notes-march-1-1985/. His notes are 2,000 words but the transcript is 4,000 or so. The transcript is available here: http://publicaddress.net/great-new-zealand-argument/nuclear-weapons-are-morally-indefensible/?page=0.